After much trial and error, I feel that I’ve mastered the footwear portion of my travel capsule. This is especially important for our walking-intensive holidays. If I hurt my feet due to poor footwear choices, I’ll put an awful damper on our holiday. 

Here are six tips that I swear by. 

Take Broken-In Footwear

Resist the urge to take unworn footwear on a trip. Footwear can be new — you may have bought the shoes especially for the trip — but they must be road tested and broken-in first, thereby ensuring that they pass the comfort test. 

Pack Multiple Pairs of Footwear

Don’t rely on one pair of shoes to get you through a trip no matter how short it is. Shoes can break, get wet, become uncomfortable or unwearable in some way and then you’re stuck. Pack plenty of backup. Don’t rely on purchasing spare shoes at your destination because then you’ll be wearing brand new shoes. 

Travel in the Bulkiest Pair of Shoes

If you’re travelling by plane, travel in the heaviest pair of shoes you’re taking on the trip to save suitcase space. It doesn’t really matter if it takes a little longer to take them off and put them back on at airport security. It’s a couple of extra minutes of your life and SO worth taking those shoes. 

All that said, if you do have some extra space, wear the shoes that are most comfortable for travel and the most convenient in the security line.

Build Your Travel Capsule from the Footwear Up

I’ve learned to create my travel outfits from the footwear up so that I don’t compromise on comfort and outfit styling. I’ve found that if I build my travel outfits from the top down, I end up wearing footwear that doesn’t go the distance, or work all that well with my outfits. 

Take the Dressy Shoes for the Dressy Outfit

Don’t compromise the footwear for important outfits. If you’re packing a dressy outfit, pack the exact dressy footwear that works with the look. Whenever I have left the perfect footwear for a dressy outfit at home to save space in the suitcase, I have regretted that decision. Feeling fab in the right footwear is totally worth the extra space.

Use Body Glide

I can’t stress this one enough: USE BODY GLIDE. The anti-chafing balm works wonders on your feet. I rub it quite liberally on the areas of my feet that are blister prone and pop on my shoes as usual. It doesn’t feel sticky at all. In fact, I can barely feel the balm on my skin.

Feel free to add to my list in the comments section.