30A Summer Coastal Travel Capsule Wardrobe: 5 Days, 11 Pieces (What I Wore, Where We Stayed & Where We Dined)

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This past week my hubby and I took a beach vacation to 30A in Florida! Our vacation was 5 days. It was about 5 1/2 hours from our house to our destination, so we had 3 full days to enjoy our vacation. In this post, I’m sharing the clothes, shoes and and accessories I wore everyday, where we stayed, the places we visited and the delicious food we ate!

Florida’s 30A is a scenic highway in Walton County that runs along the Gulf of Mexico, connecting a series of charming beach towns like Rosemary Beach, Seaside, and Grayton Beach.  It is 24 miles long and is known for its sugar-white sand beaches, rare coastal dune lakes, and a relaxed, upscale atmosphere. The beach towns are small and quaint and the architecture is beautiful. It was a great time to visit the area since there were no crowds being after the Labor Day weekend rush and it was quiet. The busiest area was Seaside and was difficult to find a park at lunchtime. 30A has quickly become the Hamptons of the South and is a quiet beach community for all ages. This makes our third vacation to 30A and this time we ventured further east to Rosemary Beach to see more of the beautiful beach towns.

Last year I posted “6-Days Spring Coastal Travel Capsule Wardrobe: 16 Pieces, 12 Outfits” here on the blog. My 30A summer coastal travel capsule wardrobe is similar to that one, but I changed the pieces.

Where We Stayed

We stayed at the Journey’s End Condo Unit #203 in Santa Rosa Beach, which on the west end of 30A. We stayed there a few years ago and loved it so much we stayed there again, but in a different unit. As you go further down 30A, the rental prices are more expensive. You can go wrong with any area along 30A as the scenery is gorgeous and some of the towns are quaint and lovely.

Dining In 30A

There are all types of dining along 30A, from the Airstream Food Trucks in Seaside to Casual restaurants in all the towns to Fine Dining in the evenings. You can dress casual at mostly all the restaurants at lunchtime and if you are dining in the evenings at the casual restaurants, you may consider wearing a casual dress. Of course if you will be dining at a fine dining restaurant, you will need to wear an elegant dress and shoes. We dined casually during our vacation. I wore shorts and pants with my tops during the lunch hours and wore my casual dress with sandals in the evening at Stinky’s Fish Camp.

When we arrived, we stopped at the local Publix grocery store and bought sandwich fixings and breakfast foods. We ate out for lunch everyday, except supper when we first arrived there on the first day. The restaurants we dined at were Stinky’s Fish Camp in Santa Rosa Beach, across the road from the condo we stayed at (Day 1 – we have there whenever we visit and there food is always delicious), Great Southern Cafe in Seaside (Day 2 – new fashioned southern cuisine), Red Fish Taco in Blue Mountain Beach (Day 3 – hip taco restaurant where they bake their own tortillas) and Local Catch in Santa Rosa Beach (Day 4 – delicious fresh seafood).

The secret to having many different outfits to wear is packing clothes with mostly neutral, solid colors, with maybe 1 or 2 patterned tops/bottoms.  Colors like black (or navy), white (or ivory) and gray coordinate well together, so if you pack clothes with mostly those colors, you’ll be able to create many outfits.  Because of the neutral colors, the color tones coordinate well together, giving you many outfit possibilities! If you will be traveling for more than a few days, you can wash several of the items to freshen them up while you are traveling.  They can be washed, hang to dry in your hotel room, and will be dry and ready to wear the next day!

Here is my travel capsule wardrobe I wore during our vacation. Be sure to set aside an outfit to wear on your travel day before you pack the rest of the pieces in your suitcase!

To know what type of clothes and how many to pack, I find out these things first…

1. Number of Days of Your Vacation – Start on the day you are traveling and count how many days you will be gone, including the day you will be returning. For a 5-day trip, the minimum you will need to pack is 3 tops and 3 bottoms, a pair of shoes and/or dress. Feel free to add an extra top, bottom and shoes if needed. For our 5-days summer coastal vacation, I packed 4 tops, 4 bottoms, 1 dress 2 pairs of shoes.
2. Your Itinerary – The type of vacation will determine what kind of clothes you will need to pack. More than likely, if you will be on a relaxing vacation, you will pack mostly casual clothes. If you will be going to dinner in the evenings, you will want to pack a dress or two also. Since our vacation was mostly casual and was relaxing, sightseeing and included a beach day, I packed casual clothes and included a casual dress and comfortable walking sandals. I also be packed a swimsuit, cover-up, beach hat and beach sandals, but did not include them in my capsule wardrobe since they were not in my everyday clothes I wore.
3. The Type of Weather – Find out the season and the average temperatures where you will be traveling too and if it will be raining. That way, you will know what type of clothes to pack. The average temps for the days we were on vacation was around 90 degrees during the day and mid 70’s at night. It was still hot and somewhat humid and sunny, so I packed clothes that breathed in hot weather like cotton and linen.

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My 5-Days 30A Summer Coastal Travel Capsule

Here are the 11 pieces I took with me on my summer coastal vacation to the 30A area.

TOPS:

Navy Pima Cotton Bateau Tank Top – This is one of my most favorite tanks. It’s an elevated style of tank that you can wear casually with shorts or jeans and dressy with pants or skirts. I have this tank in both the navy and black colors.

Navy Stripe Elbow Sleeve Boatneck Tee – I purchased this tee back in spring and have worn it so many times. It’s one that I reach for often when I want to wear stripes. I highly recommend it!

Sleeveless Linen Top in the “Flax” color – Quince is my most favorite brand for linen. Their linen fabric is soft and is not scratchy, plus their linen washes well and is easy to care for. I have this top in the flax, driftwood and navy colors and love them!

Cotton Gauze Flutter Sleeve Top in “white lilies” – I had this top in my summer capsule and have thoroughly enjoyed wearing it! It is so good and is very affordable, but is almost sold out at Old Navy. I found similar tops HERE and HERE.

BOTTOMS:

Linen Pants in “Navy” – These pants in navy are a recent addition to my closet. These are the 28″ inseam. I have had these pants in the “driftwood” color for a couple of years and love them (the “driftwood” color are the 30″ inseam). Like the linen top I mentioned above, these pants wash well and still look new.

Chambray Shorts – I have worn these shorts so many times and are one of my most favorites. They have a 7″ inseam, are so soft and the back waistband is elastic so they stretch to fit your waist, while being tailored in the front.

Linen Shorts in “Oat” – I love the color and style of these shorts and they coordinate with my Quince Linen Top I mentioned above. They are almost sold out, but HERE is a similar pair from Quince.

White Utility Shorts – These shorts were in a collaboration with Talbots earlier this summer and I have loved wearing them! Here is the post: What I Ordered Vs. What I Got From Talbots For My Summer Wardrobe + [VIDEO]. These shorts are almost sold out, but I linked a similar pair HERE in both 5″ and 7″ inseams.

DRESS:

Amazon Tiered Sleeveless Maxi Dress in “Navy Blue” – This is one of my most worn dresses in my closet! I love the softness of the fabric and also looks great with layers, such as a cardigan or denim jacket.

SHOES:

Dansko Roslyn Supportive Sandal in “Tan Waxy Burnished” color – As I’m getting older, I noticed my feet are more sensitive when I do a lot of walking. I purchased these shoes last month and I have worn them so many times they are THAT comfortable! I highly recommend them!

Sam Edelman Bay Slide Sandals in “Saddle” – I have had these sandals for many years and they are still comfortable and look great. I have definately gotten my money’s worth out of these sandals!

ACCESSORIES I WORE:

Italian Leather Woven Convertible Crossbody bag – I highly recommend this bag! Many of you have purchased it and have let me know you love it too. I have this bag in both the Taupe and Cognac colors. It is lightweight and has 2 removable straps: a shoulder strap and an adjustable crossbody strap. It is very affordable and the quality is impeccable!

Straw Bucket Hat – This is a lovely little hat to wear sightseeing or at the beach. It is lightweight and can pack easily in your luggage.

Kendra Scott Necklace – I custom made this one from their Colorbar with 5 Ivory Mother of Pearl stones, but this necklace is very similar but with just one Ivory Mother of Pearl stone.

Amazon 14K Gold Plated Hoop Earrings – Even though these earrings are a budget buy, they still look new and are tarnish free.

Amazon 14K Gold Plated Bracelet Set – This are my most favorite bracelets and wear them often! They are a budget buy and you can wear them all or mix and match them.

What I’m Wearing:

5 Outfit Ideas:

This travel capsule wardrobe will make 18 outfits if you mix and match the tops and bottoms and wear both shoes with the dress, but I only wore outfits for 5 days. Here are the outfits I wore while on vacation:

My hubby took a photo of me wearing one of my outfits…

I hope you enjoyed this post! Thank you for visiting the blog!