What to Pack for Winter in Germany
I just arrived back from a three week winter holiday around Germany and I think I packed pretty well. Don’t be my Mum and pack half the house, you need to think of the journey between each hotel; there will be stairs, and probably cobblestone streets, trains, trams, and busses. Will you be able to lift 25kg up and down sets of stairs? I had to twice each time because Mum decided she needed to pack 3 different coats, 3 pairs of shoes, ski pants, and everything else she owns. Because of my excellent packing skills, I would like to share what to pack for winter in Germany.
Basic list of things I packed and how they worked for me:
- Beanies and hats.I bought this one online from Dune London two years ago. I packed a few extra to mix up my outfit. To be honest I wore only one beanie once, I didn’t see that many people wear hats.
- Scarf. This one is Trent Nathan from David Jones, but I also brought along a few others to mix it up. I wore this one the most, and in cooler areas I took out the bigger fluffier ones.
- Winter boots.Dr Martens, Serena Boot. A lot of people in Germany were wearing them. They have faux fur lining throughout. I bought size US 8, my Australian shoe size is 8.5. These boots were really warm and didn’t need any breaking in. I have a rather thin foot and they are snug around the edges and top so they may be too tight if you have a chunkier foot. I sometimes put feet warmers in for the colder areas that were around 1 degree Celsius. If you can’t find any warm boots online, there are so many shoe shops over there selling fleece lined, fluffy lined boots.
- Earmuffs. I bought these Burberry ones years ago and they kept my head so warm. I only wore them in Rothenburg ob der tauber where it was snowing.
- Winter coat.Tommy Hilfiger (Technical Down Jacket). I thought my Fjallraven one for Iceland would be too warm so I got a slightly thinner coat for Germany. It’s not available on the Australian website so you have to go to the American site, and find a company to ship it to Australia at a stupid expensive price. I bought a size Small, and I am a size small in most clothes. This jacket was perfect. Underneath I was wearing a long sleeve shirt, and a jumper
- Camera. Canon G7X MK II is the camera I brought on this trip. I didn’t want to be lugging around my DSLR. I see it on sale at JB Hi-Fi every now and then.
- The only pants you’ll need! Decathlon Kipwarm Jodhpurs. These are waterproof and breathable warm horse riding jodhpurs. I lived in these in Germany. They don’t look funny like ski pants, they won’t get wet like jeans, and they block out wind. These are just the perfect winter pants. I bought a size EU38 US XS.. In normal clothes I am usually a small.. The length is probably more suited to shorter people (I’m 171cm and these come to just above my ankles)
- Gloves. I packed a few pairs. You need gloves.
Other essentials you will definitely need to pack:
- Umbrella. You need! Every day I had my umbrella in my hand. It rained a lot.
- Thermals. I only packed thermal tops.
- Underwear/socks. Make sure you bring enough. It was harder than I thought to find a Laundromat and towards the end of my trip I was not a clean person. All the hotels I stayed at charged around 5 euro to wash one shirt.
- Toiletries. (I wouldn’t bother with body wash/soap as all hotels have this)
- International power plug. (the one with two thin prongs)
- Phone/laptop/camera chargers.
- Hand warmers/feet warmers. (those air activated ones ‘HotHands‘ that heat up when you open them). You can usually find them from chemists.
- Jumper/sweatshirt.
I hope this helps with what to buy and pack for your holiday in Germany. The only mistake I made with packing was not enough underwear (or maybe i’ll put that down as poor hotel choice not close to a laundromat), and too many beanies.
