Shoes in Uk?

[Neodymium]

we are coming to the Uk in December (from Australia) and just wondering what are the best shoes to bring? I know it’s quite cold and rainy. We have got boots which are waterproof but we need to bring some joggers or something too. Dh said he’s just going to bring Dunlop volleys (which are made from canvas) but I think they aren’t suitable for there in winter. The kids and I have got converse (leather ones).

@BarbaraofSeville we have one bathroom bag. Soap, shampoo and conditioner are all bars (solid). Only liquid is toothpaste, moisturiser and deodorant which are already in a small clear plastic bag. Will replace toothpaste as needed over there. We don’t need 5 cakes of soap at home we use the same one. I don’t wear makeup or anything anyway. 1 brush for dd and me.

we kind of do this when we travel the outback in our camper. It has limited storage so we limit what we take, and I wash on the road. Has always worked out fine.

Five weeks? with hand luggage (even tho that does sound like a bigger bag than you can take on Ryanair

I am in awe and beyond impressed @Neodymium . Tho I have to say I agree. we used to go to the seaside for two weeks when the kids were young, and I would pack clothes for me and three smalls in one biggish holdall. I got to the point where I literally took walking boots and flipflops and if where we were going wouldn't work with one of those, we didn't go there!

I’ve ordered dh some leather shoes. I don’t know if they will be ok but he can make do. I found leather version of his favourite (only) canvas shoes and ordered those. Just got one ds left now, need to take him shoe shopping this weekend. He likes nike air forces but I think they are too heavy and no grip.

@clary i don’t think we are taking Ryanair.

the backpacks I got are carryon size and I’ve been weighing them carefully. Me and dh are just over 7kg but the kids are well under. So will transfer some to theirs if needed. Worst case we will just check them in if they are overweight.

i have got us each a button up long sleeve which we could wear if going somewhere nice. But we aren’t really that kind of people that need to get dressed up. I don’t care what I wear as long as it’s comfortable.

Hi, QLDer who has lived in uk for a while.

You probably want to plan options for where to eat, stay, visit, so that you can look at a map and understand your local options in the vague area you're looking at going next.
Price points and quality of everything vary wildly and it took us a few years to get to grips with knowing where you're heading rather than just stumbling upon things. Otherwise you might end up in that local town full of warehouse based shopping parks instead of a beautiful quirky village with a delightful pub.
There are some good online tips to help you do this like using icons on google maps. What are you interested in? Beaches? Look up top beaches. Old houses? Get National Trust membership and a map of places (you can then guarantee a scone and cup of tea with your old house and garden tour). Like art? Look up Hauser and Wirth for a stop on your way to Cornwall. Like food? Look up Michelin guide for not starred but recommended restaurants for high quality relaxed food options. Hate spending hours in the rain? Look up indoor entertainment options... eg large country hotels are lovely to go and hang out in as they have big communal spaces and great gardens. You might need to book a table for lunch or something.
Leaving it not 100% to chance is guaranteed to make some of the days better than they would have otherwise been.
Hope that helps

I love reading your reduced packing list and it sounds fab and something I’ve done pre-kids but not recently. My only advice would be the days are getting very short now as we head towards shortest day so limits more what you can do in dark evenings if you like being outdoors 4.30pm it’s dark now. If you’re in Cornwall from 16-31Dec definitely book accommodation as it’s school holidays and things do double in price and book up. Hope you have a fab trip my cousin lived in QLD for years but now lives here and is always cold we’ve still swimming in the sea here it’s not reached it’s coldest point (April the sea is coldest) if you fancy a surf or swim pack your bathers 😆

But you don't have to all bring massive suitcases. Even just one to chuck all the winter coats and boots in would be easier than wearing them round the airports?

I'd be doing London, Winchester, bath and then Cornwall.

And plan your way back to some beautiful areas, like the new forest and Surrey.

The shoes sound great

Nah our flight is overnight so they will be used as pillows. I’ve got pillow cases for them to go in and they make quite a nice mini pillow

I’m finding this thread fascinating; I hope you will come back and tell us how it all went. I’m a light packer, but only for short European trips in summer - feel I have a lot to learn from you in terms of longer winter trips.

A lot depends on how much you will be standing around all day outdoors. Yesterday the weather was horrible, but I just had one long sleeved top plus a thin waterproof jacket and Merrels. Got a bit cold but I was walking from place to place and then when I got inside it was boiling with the heating on. Feet were dry and warm despite all the puddles. Today looks lovely - clear skies.

You used to be able to get Vegemite in bigger branches of Tesco. Probably try London rather than Cornwall.

If I hadn't been to Italy and Spain in the autumn and winter and seen how they dress when it's still really quite warm I'd be laughing at all the talk of thermals for London and Cornwall. As long as you have sensible leather shoes and a warm jumper and coat you'll be fine. You'll find the following are roasting because of the central heating: hotels, restaurants, shops, the Tube. Particularly in December all shops blast you with hot air as you enter. And while London is not as dry as the Australian desert it is in the south east and so very dry for the UK. It wouldn't be a surprise if it rains but you're likely get more dry days than wet. Cornwall will be damper but in December you should get up early, have a cooked breakfast then keep going until 3pm when it's starting to get dark then hunker down for the evening. I think for all the talk of the cold it'll be the dark that will surprise you.

@camelfinger well it’s our first time travelling overseas for an extended period so will see how we go. I think we will be fine. We would need to wash anyway and I can just wash in the hotel bathroom. I have a peg less clothesline too.

I have done a similar light packing on our outback trips in our camper. Each kid only have one large packing cube and I washed daily in a bucket. Only really bottom layers need washing regularly.

I will update how it’s going. We are going to be in the Uk at the start of December. We then go on to Germany and Austria for Xmas. Excited but nervous!

The problem I see is going to be drying clothes if you are staying in hotels. You can wash stuff by hand but how are you going to dry it?

@mugofstew i have a peg less clothesline. Plus you wring things out wrapped it a towel. I also bought quickdrying undies bras and singlets.

Ooh enjoy the Christmas markets in Germany / Austria I hope you all have a fab time it sounds like an amazing adventure and if you run out of clothes there’s plenty of charity shops or supermarkets selling great cheap top up options. I miss those days of travelling that light pre-kids! Now a days my teenagers feel the need to pack EVERYTHING 🤣 my DH & I pre-kids actually went away with such small packs we cut the handles off our cutterly and cut the foam camping mat in half so that we had half each to minimise load Arrh happy days.

The alps have had a big dump of early snow if skiing is your thing and you have some fat socks and waterproof trousers you could enjoy a day in the snow.

Thicker items may still take a couple of days to dry if only hung on a line, particularly if they haven't had the benefit of a spin in a washing machine. If the hotel room has radiators which you can turn right up, you may get stuff dry in 24hrs but it isn't unusual for hotels to heat the rooms from an AC unit. The rooms will feel horribly damp too from all the constant drying. I think 2 jumpers and 2 pairs of trousers per person is a mistake: 1 set is washed but still wet and will take a couple of days to fully dry, then something happens to set #2 (spill a drink down yourself/car drives through a puddle and soaks you etc) and you're knackered.

FWIW, we manage the equivalent volume of clothes packing per person for 2 weeks in southern France (towels, self catering gubbins, and sports equipment extra but we take the ferry and drive, so it isn't an issue). It is manageable as it is all tiny & lightweight summer clothes with just a couple of jumpers each for cooler nights and a light rain jacket, however we still need to wash the clothes halfway through the holiday. The trip to the onsite launderette takes one adult 2 hours to both wash and dry as ideally you sit and wait for it. You could just wash in an hour and hang it out in the 25-35 degree heat, but we didn't have enough space to hang out that much at once. I wouldn't even contemplate not drying it in the machine in Winter though unless at home with the convenience of a full wardrobe and proper airing facilities. A once a week wash feels like a good balance. I certainly wouldn't want to be washing by hand every 2 days for multiple people, when I could get round the issue using 1 piece of hold luggage.

@SkankingWombat not planning to wash jumpers and trousers every day anyway. We will have tracksuit pants too which we are going to wear on the plane over. One of the jumpers is the macpac fleece ones. They dry really quick. Can wring them in a towel and they are almost dry (I have tested)

It's a bit different drying stuff in a line when the temperature outside is over 20 and it hasn't rained for weeks. Drying stuff indoors in the UK when it is cold and the atmosphere is wet can take days.
And whilst you are not planning on washing thicker stuff, it is very easy to get soaked very quickly when it is raining and you are outdoors.
I am surprised at people saying that it doesn't rain often in London. I've lived here all my life and I can assure you it rains frequently and hard. The last couple of months it has rained virtually every day.
I also spent 3years at uni in the far south west and it rained a lot there too.

Lots of hotel rooms are cramped and poorly ventilated.

It's a completely different undertaking trying to dry hand-washed laundry in the UK in winter than outside in Australia.

Doing all this washing sounds really miserable compared with just bringing a few more clothes.

Doing all this washing sounds really miserable compared with just bringing a few more clothes.

I agree. A couple of extra suitcases wouldn’t be that much trouble and give you some options. I’d also have more accommodation booked.

It’s really not that cold here.

I'd get some sort of Chelsea boot or other 'fashion' boot rather than a hiking/walking boot. Would work for London and a lot of the Cornwall stuff. It's cold and often wet in December and last year was very very icy so trainers/converse etc won't really be suitable. I wear converse in the spring/summer and autumn but not winter.

I don't think you are going to need thermals in London or Cornwall but I can see definite issues with trying to dry clothes in UK hotel rooms even with a drying line. There just isn't the necessary heat sources to actually dry things except maybe a hairdryer?
There are some laundromats left in London but not many but at least using those you aren't going to have damp laundry sitting around small rooms for days.
You also might do better hiring an apartment/cottage with a washer dryer.

There’s usually a heated towel rail which might do the trick.

Just thinking about booking rooms , I’m not sure how old you children are but if you want a family room or adjoining rooms I would book in advance as they can be scarce. Bear in mind that U.K. double rooms usually only have one bed in them unlike US rooms for example which would routinely have two double beds in them. Twin rooms often have two singles .

I’m sure we will manage, we have booked some places with washing machines, or we will go to the laundromat. If we find we need
more we will just buy more. I’m not going to change at this point and start taking extra suitcases. We want to travel light not be worried about keeping track of stuff. Also we have backpacks that are easy to carry. We didn’t want to be carrying suitcases.

also the cars we have hired won’t fit big suitcases in them anyway.