On excursions, dress for the highest or lowest temp?

[cruisegal415]

We are going on a Spain-Portugal cruise next week.  I've looked at the projected weather for all our ports and it seems like for most of the ports, it's going to be moderate most of the time during the day, but cooler in the morning and at night.  Can you help this Florida girl figure out what to pack? (Here in south Florida, there's little variation in the temperatures.  If it's going to be hot in the afternoon, it's hot in the morning and hot at night).  For most of the ports, it seems that there is a high ranging from low to upper 70's in the day, but the mornings, when we leave for our excursions, can be what I would call "chilly" being in the upper 50's or lower 60's. Does one dress for what the high temperature is, and bring along a jacket? I usually would wear capris and a short sleeve shirt, would I be cold in that for the mornings? If I wore pants, would I be too hot in the afternoons? Sometimes when the temperature is in the mid-to-upper 70's, it's actually much warmer in the sun.  

 

Then there's the evenings on the ship.  Since we are going to be indoors either at the restaurant or maybe seeing a show or in a lounge, I don't think we have to dress for the cool weather outside at night (we usually don't go on deck at night), but do we dress for the weather outside? (I have been on lots of cruises, mostly Caribbean, where we wear summer clothes; on our British Isles cruise, even though it was in August/September, it was pretty cold so I wore winter type clothes, and when we did a Mediterranean cruise, it was summer so it was hot everywhere).

 

Ladies please help this Florida girl figure out what to pack! TIA

 

[shipgeeks]

I've experienced what you describe on just about all of our Med cruises. 

I am a person who only wears long pants ashore, regardless of temperature.  If it's chilly, I wear nice stretch pants with a long sleeve jersey, and a jacket that I can take off later.  If it's warm becoming hot, linen pants with a lighter jersey and a lighter jacket.  If I were a cardigan person, I could substitute that for a jacket, and perhaps tie it around my waist or shoulders once the temperature goes up.

On ships, I almost always wear garments with sleeves, as we do not have AC at home, and I freeze when I'm in a place that has it.  But that's probably different for you!  It seemed that onboard, women were less likely to wear "Carib" style dresses, even though perhaps sleeveless or otherwise summery.

Have a wonderful cruise!

 

 

[jsn55]

Layers are your friend, as always.  Along with the temp, you need to deal with wind.  I'm always too warm, so I start with a tank top, put a S/S shirt over it like a jacket, bring a windbreaker in my bag.  Long lightweight pants always.  Outside of the tropics, I pack a cotton cardigan and a raincoat, maybe a warmish scarf.  There are times when I've worn them all on one excursion.  The tour bus may be too warm or cold but your  layers will deal with that.

 

Edited May 10, 2023 by jsn55

[cruisemom42]

I would rather be slightly cold than hot, so I generally dress for what will be the highs not the lows but I bring along a jacket or cardigan or fleece (depending on the starting temps and the predicted weather).

 

 

[Wayfairers]

I agree with layers.  Then you can easily be comfortable with various temperatures. Helps too if the vehicle you are in for the excursion is chilly or warm. 

[ExpatBride]

Layers! I live in Denmark and even now our weather can go between needing a winter coat to barely needing a sweater depending on the position of the sun and which way the wind is blowing. To be comfortable, it's not a good idea to dress for absolutes in one direction or the other. 

 

In these weather conditions, I usually wear a dress with tights, a cardigan, coat, and shoes that will look ok with or without tights.

[neeuqdrazil]

I tend to run hot, so I will dress for the warmest temperatures and deal with being slightly chilly (but I'm a Canadian who will just wear a hoodie well into December, although I'm not one of the brave souls who wear shorts & sandals year round.)

 

If you tend to feel the cold, I'd dress for the coolest temperatures, but in layers, so that you can remove them as necessary. Cardigans will be your friend. 

[cruisemom42]

All the talk of layers reminds me of a funny story about a bus tour I once took in Turkey. There was an older lady (70+) who dressed in a myriad of layers every day. To be fair, the weather at the time was very changeable: cool mornings followed by quite warm weather at the peak of the day. But she made such a production of changing her layers around every single time we would get on and off the bus!  It would be: cardigan off, button shirt off, merino tee over head, button shirt back on, jacket on before getting out. Then shoes off, heavy socks peeled off, shoes on followed by jacket off, button shirt off, merino tee back on, shirt back on, cardigan back on, jacket tossed above. Oh and also she would adjust her pants cuffs up and down.

 

And so on all day. At one point she was stripping down to an almost transparent tank undershirt!  It was a bit much. Yes, the temperature varied somewhat, but not by so much and not with such frequency. She seemed to have an outfit change for every 2 degrees +/- in temperature. 😂

 

 

 

 

[mrgabriel]

I’m a Canadian girl who lived in Florida for a decade so understand your thinking.
 

I would rather be too cold than too hot - especially on a tour bus. So I normally dress for the warmest part of the day and add a light jacket or sweater. But something that will fit in a bag so I don’t have to haul it around all day on the excursion. Maybe I’ll be shivering in the morning, but I’ll be comfortable all day. 

[2BACRUISER]

Being a Brit we're used 4 seasons in one day lol so we tend to dress for worst case scenario, in the med in May we had awful showery weather in September it was hot!

On trips i usually start with linen capris or culottes, a vest then hoodie. I also pack a foldaway mac if it looks unsettled . HTH

 

[tw0sugar5]

Your base layer should be for the highest temp and then you carry a jacket or vest.  A jacket should be included on every non-tropical packing list.  I personally love jackets and own too many, so I pack light ones on tropical vacations.