Travel Tips for the Shoe Fanatic

Never travel with more than 3 pairs of shoes, advice per the travel experts –Hahhahahhah!
I travel a lot.
I’m not up in the super elite miles clubs (yet), but I’m on a plane way more than the average person. Packing sucks! Always has. Always will. And I might get flack for this, but it’s even harder for a girl. Don’t argue– just agree. We need more stuff; makeup alone is a packing nightmare. The biggest problem for me is the shoes. I know, what a shock ;o)
Men really can travel with two pairs for most everything, one causal, one dressy and maybe a pair of sneakers. For many women, myself included the shoes are part of the outfit, and every outfit has its own pair of shoes, hence the problem.
I want to take all my beauties with me, but that is impossible unless I have a moving van.
I’m embarrassed to say I once traveled with 11 pairs of shoes for one week in NYC. It was long before I streamlined the packing process. The biggest deterrent now that keeps me from over packing is that I am often required to change locations/ hotels, take multiple flights and/or trains mid trip. When you have to haul your stuff around from place to place every other day, a dozen or so times in two weeks, you quickly decide less is way easier.
Travel packing experts will tell you to travel with no more than 3 pairs of shoes. I try –I really try to follow this, except I travel with 5 most of the time. Two or three pairs of show shoes, one walking/ travel shoes or tennis shoes and a pair of flip-flops.
The bigger problem is deciding which lovelies get to go on the road. I always wear fancy shoes on stage, in case you don’t like the jokes you can always look at the pretty shoes. And I have a vast collection of fancy shoes. Sadly they don’t all get to travel.
Here are Laura’s travel tips for the shoe fanatic:
1.It’s boring I know but fancy black shoes really can be versatile. Pick one pair only and make it work.
2. Decide on the outfits ahead of time, and select outfits and shoes that can be intermixed. What I plan to wear depends a lot on where I’m going. I often will pick one color to work around. So usually one bright color depending on location and attire needed or selected.
3. Lastly, long ago I decided that animal prints are a neutral color. A pair of leopard print pumps looks great with jeans or a dress, win-win!
Add a pair of cute sneakers, which I wear on the plane and toss some flip- flops in your bag for good measure, and really they hardly even count as shoes. Five pairs total, they all fit in my carry-on and I’m good to go for 3+ weeks. I’m headed to the Middle East this week with only 5 pairs of shoes, but no telling how many I will come back with ;o)
Laura