Essential Tips for Traveling with a Suit | Click Travel Tips
Travel Tips
How To Travel With A Suit
Nov 29, 2023
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Whether you’re heading to a friend’s wedding or travelling for an official function, travelling with a suit is often a necessity, but it can be frustrating to do so.
Almost more than any other garment or outfit, a suit is prone to damage, whether that be from excessive folding and creasing or from accidental spillages.
As such, when you’re travelling with a suit, you want to protect it as much as possible, and that’s why you should consider how to travel with a suit properly.
You might be thinking “why would I need to know how to travel with a suit? Surely it can’t be that hard”, but you’d be wrong to think so. There are good and bad techniques when it comes to travelling with a suit, and observing the right practices can ensure that your suit will serve you for many years to come.
Here’s how to travel with a suit effectively!
Use a garment bag
Perhaps the most obvious and effective tip when it comes to travelling with a suit is to use a garment bag.
Many of the most prominent and prestigious tailors and suit companies in the world will recommend using a garment bag whenever you take your suit anywhere, and it’s pretty much a must-have item.
A garment bag will protect your suit from the elements, ensuring that wind, rain, or even food and drink spillages won’t damage or blemish it.
Ensconcing your suit in a garment bag also means that if you have to check the suit in at customs - in luggage, for instance, or as a separate carry-on item - it won’t get damaged by customs staff (accidentally, of course - everyone’s just trying to do their job, after all).
In short, if you’re travelling with a suit, you should always make sure to use a garment bag.
Travel with a hanging bag
If you’re not aware what a hanging back is, it’s a sort of garment bag specifically designed for garments that usually need some space to hang, like a suit.
Hanging bags differ from regular garment bags in that they often have hooks at their top for ease of hanging, and they’re usually longer as well.
A suit goes hand-in-hand with a hanging bag, especially if you know there will be somewhere to hang it while you’re travelling, because then, you can preserve the suit in its “original form”, so to speak.
Consider a hanging bag for your suit if you have access to one. This will allow you to travel with your suit without worrying about it getting crumpled or creased.
Wear parts of the suit
If you know you’re travelling somewhere with clement weather and you don’t mind a few extra layers, then you might want to wear parts of the suit while you’re travelling, or even the whole suit itself.
In this way, you’ll ensure that the suit isn’t creased or folded up when it’s placed into luggage or a bag, and you’ll also look stylish and snazzy while you’re on the move.
Of course, you should take extra care while you’re wearing the suit, because the last thing you want to do is damage it accidentally while wearing it.
However, if a garment bag isn’t an option for whatever reason, then wearing your suit could be a good way to carry it with you wherever you’re going without taking up much space in your bag.
Put your suit in luggage, but be careful
Of course, the most typical option for people who need to transport a suit anywhere is to place it in their luggage, but you should be very careful if you’re doing this.
Make sure to fold your suit properly, because if you fold it too much or in the wrong places, you could crease it, which might look unsightly and could lead to an ill-fitting garment.
Take extra care in folding up your suit when you’re packing it into your luggage or your bag, and don’t just stuff it into a rucksack, thinking that it’ll hold up fine.
Treat your suit as you would any other treasured item. Don’t be afraid to recruit help if you don’t think you can fold it up by yourself - it’s not an easy task, and extra hands will make light work of it, assuming that they’re skilled!
Grab a garment steamer
If you think your suit is going to get wrinkled no matter what you do, then you may wish to invest in a garment steamer, which can take out the wrinkles from your suit - and the worries from your mind.
The best garment steamers are highly portable, powerful, and efficient, and they often don’t need mains power to use, unlike an iron.
Bear in mind that since garment steamers constitute electronics, you will almost certainly need to remove them from your bag if you’re going through customs at an airport.
If you’re travelling on a train or by car, however, then you can safely pack your garment steamer into your bag and use it whenever you need to in order to make your suit look snazzy.
A garment steamer is a safe and effective way to travel with a suit, and it’ll keep you looking fresh as well!
Look up dry cleaning facilities at your destination
If you’re lucky enough to have some time before you need to go to your function, then you can look up dry cleaning facilities wherever you happen to be.
There may well be a place that can clean and press your suit for you, ready for whatever it is you need to do. This will take a massive weight off your mind.
Of course, this option won’t always be available, so make sure to plan ahead and look for somewhere that may offer this service before you travel.
Try to find somewhere that’s close to the place you’re staying, too, so that you don’t have too far to travel with your suit and can keep it clean and neat on the way back.
