This is my essentials packing list as a minimalist heading to Turkey for 10 days in September.

For so many years Turkey, especially Istanbul, was my dream trip. I never thought I was going to go to it so soon in my life, but when our family was picking out a place to go vacation on, my sister made a decision. My sister originally pitched the idea that my father should pick our vacation, as he never really actually got to pick where we went throughout our lifetime. He just kind of joins our trips and never offers any input, and she wanted to give him the chance to pick.

Originally he chose Sweden. His reasoning was that he had a friend there—dear reader, he did not have a friend there. He apparently thought his friend lived there, but to this day no one is entirely sure whether he actually lives in Denmark or Norway. My father is an unreliable narrator most of the time.

I was kind of the one who suggested Turkey. Part of it was because I was interested in going there, but the other reason was that I knew my father would like it better. He always talks about how things are like his home country, Iran, so going to Turkey seemed like the logical conclusion if we couldn’t go to Iran.

He was really into that idea, and so we began planning for ten days in Istanbul. We live close enough to Washington DC that if we wanted to fly out of Dulles, we could, so we picked IAD airport to fly out because they had nonstop flights to Istanbul. Going was only about 8.5 hours and at night, so it was an easy flight, and coming home was just short of ten hours. That, too, was an easy flight.

I knew I wanted to pack very light for this trip, especially considering our AirBnB had a washing machine. I was more than happy to hang dry my clothes. I ended up bringing an empty suitcase (that was regular sized) with the intent of going shopping for fragile items, and packed all of my actual items inside of a carry-on suitcase.

I ended up fitting everything I needed in the carry-on, then used the empty room I mentioned before to put my souvenirs. I didn’t shop as much as I thought I did—I guess I’m too much of a minimalist at the end of the day. So in the end I had: one carry on, which carried most of my actual stuff, an empty suitcase that my father ended up mainly filling with his souvenirs, and a backpack for the flight.

Here’s everything I brought for this trip!

Four pairs of light, linen based trousers and five loose and modest tops were all I needed.

When I was packing with Istanbul in mind, I knew that I wanted to dress more modestly. We were there in September 2025 (this blog post is coming out much later than when I am typing it!), the temperatures ranged from the mid-70s to low 80s Fahrenheit. At night it would get cold, especially if you were on the water.

I have a lot of loose trousers I’ve collected throughout my travels, and these came in handy. Mine I mainly bought in South Korea, while studying abroad there, and they dry quickly, so it helped to have them when we used the washing machine. It also helps to bring trousers if you’re a woman because if you want to go in any local mosques, you’re going to have to dress modestly.

I paired these loose trousers with loose t-shirts and blouses. These, too, were fairly modest and could dry fairly quickly. I try to bring clothes that roll up and condense very well, especially when traveling as minimal as possible. You only have so much room, so when they take up such a small amount of space it enables you to have a tiny bit more space for something small like a book or Kindle.

My Teva hiking sandals are the best travel item I’ve ever bought.

I bought my Teva hiking sandals a year before this in preparation for my two month study abroad in Busan, South Korea, and when I was in Korea I literally wore them every single day. They’re so comfortable and perfect for the beach or light hikes, which meant I was definitely bringing them to Istanbul because I knew about all of the hills and walking we were about to do.

My Tevas are a core part of my minimalist packing because I don’t have to bring socks when I plan on mainly wearing them. I did end up bringing a backup pair of sneakers and shoving them into my carry-on, but I wore those only on the days when we were going to the mosques because I was afraid of putting my bare feet on public carpets.

After this trip I had to retire them though, as after wearing them nonstop for an entire summer in Korea, hiking in them, and taking them on every beach trip I had eventually wore the shoes down to the point of no return.

My only complaint about bringing them is that the streets of Istanbul are a bit dirtier than what I am used to, and some days my feet would be covered in dirt or a black substance.

A Baggu has eliminated my need for tote bags and purses on my trips.

I have the medium sized Baggu crescent bag, and whenever I travel anywhere I tend to bring it with me nowadays. I originally bought the smaller UNIQLO bags when I was visiting my cousin in Malaysia, but then I realized that A) I was in love with being hands-free and B) I needed something a little bigger that could fit my little water bottle and a book or two.

In the past I used to use tote bags or a purse, but this Baggu bag really has been a game changer. I especially love the inner pockets because when I go abroad to places where I’m afraid of being pickpocketed, I tether my wallet to the inner zipper. I’ve never been targeted before, but it gave me a piece of mind in Turkey (especially when we witnessed a guy getting robbed in front of us) and an earlier trip to Europe.

During this trip my Baggu was especially useful when paired with a small compact reusable bag. There’s a lot of plastic usage in Istanbul and it was nice for me to cut down on that a tiny bit with my reusable bag. I could also fit some souvenirs in my Baggu if they were small enough.

I love my universal travel adaptor, mini Hydroflask, and Kindle.

When I first started traveling a bit more intensely I picked up a universal travel charger. I ended up forgetting it during my trip to Europe in May 2025, which turned out to be quite the costly mistake, and it didn’t work out when the new adaptor I bought also didn’t fit into the wall socket in Switzerland.

During this trip my adaptor came in handy because not only did it have multiple USB plugs, but a regular US outlet as well. My sister and I were sharing a room with only one outlet, which was kind of a weird design in hindsight, but when I pulled out the adaptor we were able to fit all of our electronics onto it.

My mini Hydroflask ended up being a champion too. I bought it with the hopes of using it for travel, and our apartment had a refillable water jug of filtered water that I ended up using for my water bottle. The bottle itself fits in my pocket and/or Baggu and barely weighs anything, and I had no problems finding ways to refill it throughout the day (even without access to clean tap water).

Another minimal gem for me is my Kindle. I’ve had mine for over ten years and it’s still going strong somehow. It saves me from carrying a lot of heavy books on my travels, and a lot of the books I get from the library or because I run a book blog (I get sent advance copies a lot).

I was in the middle of a book called The Lack of Light, which was about a group of women in Georgia, and it was 700 pages. Imagine if I were carrying that by hand!

A light rain jacket and a scarf that doubles as both a hijab and shawl can come in handy.

The final section of this blog post is fairly simply. I wore a light rain jacket from Nautica onto the plane because I suspected that I was going to be cold on the ferries, and I was right. Bring something light if you’re coming around this time of the year because even if you think you’ll be fine on land, the breeze on the water, especially at night, cuts straight to your bones.

If I were to repack, I would have brought a hoodie because of how chilly it got at nights. The rain jacket was a great addition for ferry rides, but when I was cold at night and in bed I kept thinking about how badly I wanted one of my old college hoodies. I’d pack that next time if I came at the cusp of fall.

I also brought an old Iranian scarf my mother gave me. It doubled as both a hijab when in the mosques, although in the Hagia Sophia it slipped a little bit and I got yelled at. I felt so bad for that. I also used the scarf as a shawl when I was cold, so it had multiple purposes throughout this trip.

Other small items included my toiletries and undergarments. Again: I had a washing machine, so I was able to pack minimally here, and if you aren’t particular about your shampoo or conditioner, the local brands worked just as well for me. Our AirBnB provided some, but I ended up using my own travel sized items just because I’d brought them.

And that’s the core fo what I brought! I hope this helps someone out there.

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