Every season someone arrives with a suitcase for a month and wears a third of it. Every season someone else arrives with a daypack and borrows a sweater. After nine years of retreats we have a decent sense of the sweet spot, so here it is, destination by destination.
The universal list
Start with clothes that dry fast and fold small: leggings, shorts, tanks, and two things you would not mind wearing to a nice dinner. Bring a light layer for evenings even in the tropics, a shawl or scarf for sitting and temple visits, and swimwear. Always more swimwear than you think. Ocean, pool, waterfall and hot spring days stack up quickly.
Then the small kit: reef safe sunscreen, a refillable water bottle, natural insect repellent, earplugs if roosters are not your meditation, and any medications in original packaging. A journal is optional but the people who bring one never regret it.
Destination quirks
For Bali and Costa Rica, think tropical: quick dry fabrics, sandals with grip for wet stone, and a packable rain shell. For Morocco, add warm layers because desert nights drop hard, plus a scarf for wind and visits. For India, modest coverage matters at the ghats, so shoulders and knees get a lightweight second layer.
Greece and Portugal in shoulder season are kinder than people expect. Bring trail shoes for cliff paths and a windproof layer for the Atlantic breeze, and you are covered.
What you can skip
Yoga mats, blocks, straps and bolsters are at every venue, clean and plentiful. Hair dryers exist at all our houses. Leave the white clothes at home, turmeric stains are a rite of passage nobody needs. And skip the third pair of shoes, truly.
One last thing: leave ten percent of the bag empty. Retreat souvenirs are real, whether it is a carved bowl, a spice blend or a scarf you bargained for happily. Future you will thank present you.
Tomas Rivera writes from the road for Zenora Retreats. Questions or replies always welcome at our contact page.