Men’s Packing Lists for Asia

Traveling to a foreign country is challenging, for so many reasons. You’ve got to deal with the culture shock, the inevitable food poisoning, and figuring your way around a new foreign land. This all sounds bad, but it’s really part of the charm of traveling to different countries. One of the hardest things when preparing for a trip overseas is trying to decide what to wear and what to take with you. You want to be cool or warm enough, comfortable enough to not be limited by what you’re wearing and you don’t want to stand out too much. It can be hard figuring this out when you’ve not visited a place yet. My partner and I are planning our own trip to Asia and he’s been asking what kind of things are necessary for men’s packing lists. I figured there might be others out there wondering the same, so here are my key travel essentials if you’re a man:

1) A Polo Shirt
Polo shirts are a great choice when traveling anywhere as they’re comfortable, lightweight and tidy enough to wear out to dinner. When you go backpacking, you really don’t have that much room in your suitcase spare, so finding clothes items of clothing that you can wear for a variety of occasions can be a life (and space) saver. I suggest buying at least one men’s polo shirt to take with you. 

2) A Pair of Shorts
Asia gets hot in the summer, and if you’re visiting then you’ll want to be as cool as possible. Shorts are an obvious choice because you can wear them anywhere and they will take up hardly any space in your backpack. I suggest taking another pair of beach shorts/board shorts to wear as well, that way you’ll have a backup pair in case your standard pair of shorts is lost. 

3) Lots of Pairs of Underwear and Socks
You wont always have access to laundry services everywhere you go and sometimes you want have enough time in one place to be able to get things cleaned in time. That’s why you need to take lots of pairs of socks and underwear. I’d suggest AT LEAST seven of each. The truth is, you’ll lose a few pairs of each during your travels. Maybe the laundry lady will accidentally forget to give you one back, you might unpack your bag and lose a pair of socks. However it happens, you will lose some and unless you are the same size as an Asian man you will find it challenging to find good replacements on the road. 

4) A Pair of Long Pants
Some people refuse to go anywhere in the world without a pair of jeans. While jeans are versatile and are great for dressing up at night if you want to go somewhere nice, they’re quire heavy and take up a lot of space. I would suggest taking jeans if you are traveling to colder places as they do a good job of keeping yourself warm, otherwise I would suggest some kind of tidy capri style pants. It’s important to take at least one pair of pants with you, for those nights that are cold or when you’re in areas where you don’t want your legs to be super exposed.

5) A Warm Jersey
Whenever I go to Asia, I almost always forget to take a warm enough jersey. While most of the days during the summer months are super hot, places like northern Vietnam can get really cold, especially if you’re visiting Ha Long Bay and Sapa. Do yourself a favour and bring a comfortable, warm and lightweight jersey. It will be a lifesaver on long bus trips or cold nights. 

Aside from these key clothing essentials, I suggested taking two pairs of shoes. One sandal/flip flop style shoes and another pair of shoes for trekking or any adventures like that you intend to do. If you fancy a few good nights out in high class bars, then you should also pack a pair of dress shoes, but this is only worthwhile if you think you’ll use them more than a couple of times. 

Those are my key clothing packing tips for men traveling to Asia. Guys, what do you think? Have I missed out anything important?