Travel Clothes for Men: What Matt Packs

I used to buy all of Matt’s travel clothes. Every piece, for years.

He does it himself now. Close to a decade of living out of a carry-on has taught him what works on him and what doesn’t, so he’ll spend twenty minutes on Amazon, or walk into an H&M or a Zara and come out with the right thing.

The hard part was never finding travel clothes for men. There’s far more choice than there is for women and the fits are more forgiving. The hard part is choosing.

I wrote our first list down here in 2019 and I was pretty pleased with it. Almost none of it survived.

Two things are still in his bag: the ExOfficio underwear and the Saucony no-show socks. Everything else has been replaced, most of it more than once.

That’s not a knock on the old list. Clothes wear out, and these get worn four days a week in weather they weren’t bought for. But it does tell you which parts are worth getting right at the start and which parts you’ll figure out as you go.

So here’s the current version. This is what’s in Matt’s bag now, and all of it fits in one 22-inch carry-on.

The rules everything has to pass

Ask Matt what he wants and he’ll tell you it has to fit and it has to look nice. That was the whole list for a long time.

The rest of it he worked out the expensive way, one bad purchase at a time.

It has to dry overnight on a drying rack. It has to come out of a packing cube without needing an iron, because there won’t be one. It has to be navy, black or khaki, so every piece goes with every other piece. And it has to handle a walking day and a dinner, because we’re not going back to the room to change.

That last rule is the whole thing. When you’re carry-on only, nothing gets to have just one job.

If you want help picking your own two or three colors, our packing app walks you through it and it’s free to use.

Shirts

Three t-shirts

Matt travels in t-shirts more than anything else. His are H2H soft crewnecks in black and navy, three of them, and they cover a week.

They’re soft, they’re thin, and they’re cheap enough to replace without thinking about it. He’s left one behind in Chiang Mai and replaced it at H&M.

The limit: cheap tees lose their shape faster than good ones do. That’s the trade, and it’s the right one when a replacement is available in every city on earth.

The polo

The MAGCOMSEN quick dry polo is for the day that starts with a walking tour and ends at dinner with no stop at the hotel in between. It’s dry by morning on a drying rack, and the collar gets him into restaurants that would look twice at a t-shirt.

The limit: performance fabric can read a little athletic up close. Stick to a plain dark color and nobody notices.

The warm-weather dress shirt

The J.VER stretch stain shield shirt is short sleeved, has some give in it, and has a finish that shrugs off a spill, which on a travel day is not a hypothetical. It comes out of a packing cube looking pressed.

The limit: short sleeves are short sleeves, and some rooms want more than that. Which is what the next one is for.

The one real dress shirt

He carries exactly one, and it’s the Alex Vando wrinkle free stretch shirt. Stretchy, wrinkle free, and cut well enough to look tailored without being fussy. It’s the one he wears when a polo isn’t enough.

The limit: one shirt means it has to stay clean, and it won’t stay clean by luck. It gets washed the night he wears it, every time.

Layers

The hoodie

A plain fleece zip hoodie. No logo, no fabric technology, no story attached to it. It’s the plane layer, the evening layer and, on a bad overnight, the pillow. On any trip that isn’t tropical it’s the most-worn thing he owns.

The limit: on its own it’s a spring jacket. In real cold it’s a mid layer and you need something over it.

The heavy fleece

The Pioneer Camp polar fleece is for trips where cold is the plan rather than a surprise. It goes over the hoodie and under a shell, and it handles a fjord in October.

The limit: it’s bulky, and in a carry-on bulk is the currency. It only goes in when the forecast earns it.

The packable puffer

The Amazon Essentials packable puffer stuffs into its own pocket and disappears into a corner of the bag, and it’s a real warm layer rather than a token one. This is the answer for a trip that starts warm and ends on a windy overlook.

The limit: water resistant is not waterproof. In steady rain you want a shell over the top of it.

Pants and shorts

One pair of jeans

Levi Strauss Signature relaxed fit flex jeans. Matt’s whole review is that they’re stylish enough for a bistro, rugged enough for travel and stretchy enough for a long-haul seat, and that’s the argument. One pair, not two.

The limit: they’re the heaviest thing in the bag and they take forever to dry. He wears them on travel days so they aren’t taking up space, and he doesn’t wash them on the road unless something happens to them.

The travel slacks

Matt calls the Lee Extreme Motion pants his travel slacks, and that’s exactly the job. Wrinkle free, dressy enough for dinner, stretchy enough for a long train ride. They come out of the bag looking pressed, which is more than the jeans can say.

The limit: relaxed fit is comfortable rather than sharp. If you want a slim silhouette, these aren’t it.

The convertible pants

Wespornow zip-off hiking pants turn into shorts, which sounds like a dad joke and works like a cheat code when the weather can’t decide. Cold morning on a trail, warm afternoon in town, one pair of pants. Quick dry, and the zip pockets hold a phone and a card where a pickpocket can’t get at them.

The limit: zip-off pants look like zip-off pants. They’re for trail days and travel days, not for dinner.

The shorts

BASUDAM stretch cargo shorts. Slim enough to look current, stretchy enough for a full day of walking, and the pockets take a phone, a map and a water bottle.

The limit: shorts will get you turned away at the door of a church, a temple or a mosque, and in a lot of countries they mark you as a tourist from fifty yards. If the day includes any of that, the convertible pants go on instead and the legs get zipped back on before he walks in.

The swim trunks

SILKWORLD quick dry trunks, with a mesh liner and real pockets. They dry fast enough to wear to lunch after a morning swim, which saves an item in the bag.

Pack them even when it seems ridiculous. In 2018 we went to Iceland and I asked Matt whether he’d packed a swimsuit. He said, “Lisa, we are in ICE-land. Why would I bring a swimsuit?” Then I told him about the Blue Lagoon and we went shopping.

The limit: they’re still swim trunks. They’re not the answer for a day that ends anywhere nice.

The parts nobody photographs

Underwear

ExOfficio Give-N-Go boxer briefs, one of the two things that made it through seven years.

Matt found these through Erin and Simon at Never Ending Voyage when we were starting out, and our friends Stephanie and Chris recommended them too. I ordered him one pair to try and that was that. They’re dry by morning on a rack, and they stay cool in genuine heat.

The limit: they’re expensive for underwear. You need three pairs and not seven, which is most of the way to justifying the price.

Socks

Saucony performance no-show socks, the other survivor. They stay up, they dry overnight on a shower rail, and they come in a pack big enough that losing one to a hotel room floor doesn’t matter. I borrow them more than I should.

The limit: no-show socks do nothing for warmth. For a cold trip or a wet walking day, merino socks are the answer, because wool still insulates when it’s damp.

Shoes

Two pairs, doing two different jobs.

The Rothy’s Oxford walks all day and then sits down to dinner without apologizing. Comfortable, smart enough for anywhere, and it washes, which is Matt’s entire checklist for a shoe.

For real distance he wears the HOKA Clifton 9 GTX. His podiatrist recommended them, they’re Gore-Tex, and he walked the Camino de Santiago in them. He doesn’t wear anything else on a walking day now.

The limit: the Rothy’s aren’t waterproof and they aren’t a trail shoe. Hills, gravel or rain, and that’s what the Hokas are for. Matt’s three pairs of travel shoes is the whole rotation, flip flops included.

What it adds up to

Four shirts, three layers, five pieces on the bottom half, underwear, socks and two pairs of shoes.

Everything is navy, black or khaki, so it all goes together and there’s nothing to decide at seven in the morning. Everything except the jeans dries overnight on a rack. Nothing needs an iron.

It’s a week of clothes that behaves like a month of clothes, and it all goes in one 22-inch carry-on. We each have our own. How the rest of it fits is in my free guide Lisa’s Carry-On Only System.

The bottom line

Almost everyone packs too many shirts. That’s the failure, and it’s a cheap one to fix.

A men’s travel wardrobe that works is a small number of pieces in two or three colors, where everything dries overnight on a rack and everything goes with everything else. Once that’s true, packing stops being a decision.

It took seven years and a lot of replacing to get Matt’s down to this. Yours doesn’t have to look like his. It just has to follow the same rules.

Frequently asked questions

How many clothes does a man need for two weeks of carry-on travel?

The same as for one week. Four or five tops, a few bottoms, one layer, and about five days of underwear and socks. Past five days you’re not packing for a longer trip, you’re packing to avoid doing laundry, and laundry is one evening and a drying rack.

Does he really bring only one pair of jeans?

One pair, worn on travel days so it isn’t taking up room in the bag. Jeans are heavy and slow to dry. On a hot trip they don’t come at all.

What about a suit or a sport coat?

Neither. The dress shirt and the Lee slacks have covered every dinner we’ve needed them for. If something genuinely calls for a jacket, it’s easier to deal with that where you are than to carry one all year on the chance.

Does he ever check a bag?

Once, for about half a year, and we used porters that whole time. The system flexed and then we went back to it. The longer version is in my carry-on only system.

Where can I see all of it in one place?

Matt’s Travel Wardrobe for Men has every piece with a photo and a direct link. Those are affiliate links, so if you buy through one it costs you nothing and it helps pay for this site.