Travel clothing for women, or men should have one necessity at its heart – comfort.

Travel can be the most unpredictable of beasts – perfectly laid plans can be thrown into disarray because one connection’s delayed. Planes, trains and automobiles can have dodgy heating conditions, badly behaved passengers and all manner of minor problems that can be magnified into major stress.

Your choice of travel clothing, then, is a critical part of whether your journey feels as stress-free as possible, or whether it merely adds to a problematic situation.

Women’s clothing often favours style over comfort, and as a result, it can be difficult to find suitable travel clothing for women for a long journey. However, it’s still an area well-served to make comfort a priority, but only if you know what to look for.

Here are five tips on the essential things to look for when choosing travel clothing for women.

1) Ditch the high heels. In the list of travel clothing for women faux pas, surely wearing high heels for a long journey is the worst offender. Apart from being uncomfortable to wear for long periods of times, high heel shoes are far more difficult to walk on than they need to be.

Remember, this isn’t a fashion shoot or a first date you’re attending, it’s the business of getting from one place to another in the least stressful way possible and your choice of travel clothing for women must reflect this.

Put simply, the path of least resistance is the best one to take, and it’s a hell of a lot easier walking in flat shoes.

2) Light travel fabric is your friend. Look for items made of silk, cotton, thin knit wear, merino wool or micro fiber. Each of these is soft, durable and itch-free.

If you’re taking a long-haul journey, the chances are at some point the wonder of what you see out of the window is going to give way to mild irritation being cooped up in one place for hours on end, followed by weary, withering resentment at your necessary means to an end.

For your sake, make light fabric your garments of choice, be they for a top or trousers. Its the best kind of travel clothing for women simply because it’s durable and comfortable.

3) Wear loose-fitting clothes. Similarly to the first point, unless you’re meeting the love of your life at your journey’s end, the last thing you should be worried about is dressing to impress. Loose travel clothing can mean anything from a simple T-shirt to some baggy, cotton trousers. If it’s loose rather than tight against your skin, it’ll allow the air to move more freely around your body, thus giving less irritation and more respite from the stale air you’re likely to find (particularly on an aeroplane).

4) Opt for crease-free travel clothing if you can. Whatever points we might make here about not dressing to impress, the fact is you are still likely to want to look as presentable as possible as you take your travel-weary self to your final destination. It’s human nature, and you shouldn’t be ashamed to try and keep up appearances. Crease-free clothing is about as technologically advanced as we’ve got in presenting this image, so it’s never a bad idea to opt for that where possible.

5) Take at least one warmer piece of clothing in your carry-on luggage. Because you never know when the idea of carefully selected, light, airy, crease free, flat-healed travel clothing for women is not going to be enough. Just as heating can sometimes be set too high in transit, so it can sometimes fail completely. Prepare for any eventuality.

Always remember, it’s easy to warm yourself up than cool yourself down. Start by wearing the light clothes, take a couple of warmer items with you just in case, and – hey presto – you’ll have mastered the travel clothing for women conundrum at a stroke.

I know how tricky it can be to plan for a trip and often it’s the little things that can contribute to a stressful situation.

If finding the best travel clothing for you is only one of your concerns, and you need advice on the luggage you need for your trip too, you c