Jim Eagles: Secrets of suitcase chic

Travelling in style takes a bit of thinking about. Readers offer tips on travelling light while still looking good.

How is it that some people take very little luggage when they travel yet always look clean, smart and sophisticated? Meanwhile, others take bags full of clothes and end up sweaty, smelly and dishevelled.

It could be, of course, that some of us are naturally scruffy and others are naturally dapper, and that doesn't change just because you're overseas. But experienced travellers have lots of clever tips about how to do a lot with very little.

Travel readers have offered plenty of suggestions on ways to stay fresh and clean even when it's hot and dirty and there isn't a shower in sight.

Noeline Holt, who, as manager of the Public Health Association, ought to know, recommends taking wet wipes. "From washing hands, to full body washes on the Trans-Siberian, to wiping toilet seats before using (we have travelled to some obscure places) wet wipes have been a godsend."

Peter Tibbitts, who says his wife always takes antiseptic wet wipes, agrees. "Useful for washing hands in dubious surroundings and good protection for insect bites that are inflamed."

Jane Norton suggests if you are going to India or Southeast Asia or any other country that might not have soap in its bathrooms you buy liquid travel soap from the Traveller's Health Centre in Newmarket.

"This soap does not require water or a towel. It is a liquid that dries immediately on your hands but still disinfects and moisturises them. Brilliant!"

Ryan Duguid reckons every traveller should buy a Speedo towel. "This is not a pack towel or any derivative of it, as they are more or less useless, but a synthetic chamois. They take a bit of getting used to at first but they are very small, come in a compact plastic container and squeeze completely dry.

"They remove all the water from your body. I'd probably take some other small thin towel as well so that you can wrap it around you when using shared bathrooms."

So there you are. With your wet wipes, liquid travel soap and Speedo towel you can emerge from the night train between Harare and Bulawayo - I'll tell you about it another time - fresh as a daisy.

But what about clothes? The key advice from almost everyone is to pack carefully and take only what you really, really need.

"Nobody underpacks," says Alastair Calder, of Calder and Lawson House of Travel in Hamilton. "Almost everybody overpacks. Pack light.

That applies particularly when it comes to clothes. "Take as few as possible," says Calder. "Plan on doing the washing."

Of course not everywhere you'll be staying will have a washing machine, and laundry charges can be costly, so be sure to pack some washing gear.

But before popping in a small bag of washing powder - as suggested in a previous column on travel tips - harken to the note of warning from Geoff Harland, who reckons, "That's all very well, but I would have thought that having any white powder in your luggage while passing through Customs could result in unwanted attention, given that washing powder is far from the only type of white powder that travellers have tried to take past national borders."

You could try one of the blue washing powders in the hope that it looks less suspicious.

If you're staying at the sort of hotels that provide shampoo you could use that. Or you could pick up on one of a number of tips passed on by Denise de Groot on behalf of a newspaper discussion group at North Shore Hospital: "Take a cake of Sunlight soap for personal and laundry washing instead of washing powder and toilet soap."

Lots of people advise taking a clothes line, and you may recall that an earlier column suggested taking a packet of dental floss to do that job (and several other jobs as well).

Others recommend adding a couple of hooks with suction cups so you've always got somewhere to fasten your clothes line. Alternatively you could forget the clothesline and just take a bunch of spare wire hangers.

Chris Mercer, of Christchurch's House of Travel on Oxford, advises: "Take only a few clothes but take swivel-headed hangers that can hang anywhere in the hotel room, and a small travel iron. That way you can wash and iron as you go."

De Groot's group at the hospital also suggested taking a travel-sized iron, but her personal tip for saving the bother is to "sit on your clothes - neatly folded of course - to iron them".

Of course if you plan to wash and wear you can make life much easier if you take the right clothes. Peter Gibbs, of House of Travel Parnell, offers a whole list of tips on what clothes to take on a trip. Among them:

* The special water-expellent fabric from places like Kathmandu are fantastic for travel. They are easy to wash and dry and come in a good selection of shirts and trousers.

* Pack cheap plastic raincoats for rainy days (anywhere in the world). A light nylon all-weather jacket with a hood and lots of pockets is useful.

* Keep clothes colour co-ordinated. Tops (T-shirts and long-sleeved blouses) and bottoms (trousers or skirts) co-ordinated around two colours will give you variety but cut down on the number of shoes and accessories you need.

* Knit fabrics are easy to wash and dry, lightweight and wrinkle-free.

* Washable silk clothing is very versatile. It can keep you warm, especially when used in layers, but also can keep you cool. It dries overnight and takes up hardly any space. Even when creased it still manages to look stylish.

* Sandals can double for slippers and a long T-shirt can double for a nightgown (or a nightshirt).

* For temperature comfort, the layered look is best. Then you can peel as the weather changes. For example: a nylon rain jacket can fold into a pocket; a cardigan can be tied around the hips; a shirt can be unbuttoned or taken off to reveal a tank top.

* If both the time and money for laundering are concerns, don't take jeans as they take too long to dry.

And, finally, when you've done your washing and find yourself slavering for a cold beer, but there's no fridge in the room here's a tip from veteran traveller Bruce Morris - "which I think I invented," he says. "But then I've always been a dreamer".

"Grab an old T-shirt, soak it in water, ring it reasonably dry and then wrap around two or three beers (or diet cokes).

"Place the package over the air-conditioning vent, or if it's a ceiling vent grab that length of string from your bag and tie it in place, and step on the throttle.

"Give it an hour and you'll have cold beer.

"All based on the old trick of throwing a few bottles of beer in a wet sack and sticking it under the car bonnet as you hurtle along, which used to be the old way of chilling beer before fridges really made their mark."

Cheers.