Planning ahead is the key to creating great vacation looks with the perfect jewelry pairings. It’s also essential if you want to make sure your jewelry stays safe and protected during your travels. 

Discover how to plan your perfect vacation jewelry in this expert guide, featuring tips on how to choose what to bring, how to travel with jewelry safely, and how to keep your jewelry shining bright during your trip. 

Plan Your Jewelry Pairings

Travel comes with an increased risk of losing or damaging your belongings, including your jewelry. One of the best ways to reduce this risk is to only bring pieces you know you’ll wear. Essentially, you want to avoid overpacking, which you can do by planning your vacation outfits in advance. 

To further reduce the amount of jewelry you bring with you, prioritize choosing versatile pieces that can be worn with multiple outfits. Consider taking photos of your vacation outfits (complete with jewelry) before your trip so you can see how everything works together. 

Consider Leaving Irreplaceable Jewelry At Home

If a piece of jewelry would be challenging or impossible to replace, having it with you on your vacation may not be worth the increased risk of losing it. Consider whether you’re comfortable with this risk before bringing valuable jewelry on vacation. Remember to consider not only the cost of jewelry, but also sentimental value. 

If you want to wear valuable jewelry while on vacation, consider protecting expensive jewelry against loss by purchasing speciality travel insurance. Another option is to wear a replica or inexpensive dupe of your treasured pieces. For example, many people choose to wear a replica of their engagement ring when traveling. 

Pack With Care 

Once you’ve decided which jewelry you’re bringing, it’s time to pack with care. Ideally, you want to pack in a way that will minimize the risk of damage, keep your jewelry organized, and prevent annoying tangling. 

You can pack your pieces in a jewelry organizer that’s designed for travel, like a jewelry roll, or take a DIY approach and use containers you have on hand. It’s best to choose containers that will not only keep jewelry organized, but also keep fragile jewelry materials away from bumps and scrapes. It’s especially important to keep diamond jewelry separate from other pieces, as diamonds can easily scratch precious metals and all other gemstones. 

Pill cases are a great storage option for many kinds of jewelry. These inexpensive containers can keep delicate items neatly tucked away in their own compartment. Contact lens cases are another creative storage solution that can keep precious pieces organized. 

For larger jewelry pieces, like statement earrings and chunky bracelets, cloth pouches are ideal. Another option is to roll larger pieces in a shirt or small towel, then secure the roll with hair ties or rubber bands. 

To prevent necklaces from tangling, consider threading your necklaces through straws. Use caution before trying this hack with reusable straws made of metal, which may be hard enough to damage precious metals and softer gemstones. Silicone and plastic straws are safer options to try when packing jewelry. 

Carry On 

To reduce the risk of losing your jewelry while traveling to your vacation destination, pack it in luggage you’ll keep with you–don’t put it in a bag you’ll be checking at the airport. Checked bags are much more likely to get lost than carry on bags. Keep jewelry pieces with you in your carry on luggage, purse, or backpack. 

Vacation Jewelry Care 

Vacations can end up exposing your jewelry to hazardous elements–especially if you’re going to be spending time in the water. Salt water and chlorinated water can both damage jewelry, including solid gold jewelry. Then, all bodies of water increase your risk of losing treasured pieces. It’s especially easy to lose rings when swimming in cold water, which shrinks fingers. And in many cases, pieces of jewelry that fall off in the water cannot be recovered. 

Traveling with jewelry also makes it much more likely for you to lose pieces or have something stolen. To minimize the risk of losing your jewelry, keep it in a secure place in your room where you’re staying. If you have access to a hotel safe, consider keeping valuable pieces in there while you’re not in the room. 

Vacation Jewelry Cleaning 

Keeping your jewelry clean and looking its best while traveling is mostly about prevention. Things like lotion, sunscreen, perfume, makeup, and sweat can create build up on jewelry, making it look dull and dim. Try to put your jewelry on after using cosmetics to reduce opportunities for build up. Then, as needed, polish your jewelry with a soft cloth to remove build up and restore shine. 

If you’ll be traveling with valuable pieces, consider having them professionally cleaned before going on your trip. A jeweler will not only clean your pieces, but also check them to ensure you don’t have any loose settings, which would put you at a higher risk of losing a stone on your trip. 

If your jewelry is from DiamondStuds, remember that our lifetime warranty includes a free yearly cleaning and inspection. Our jewelry experts can check your settings to ensure they’re still secure, then deep clean your pieces so they’ll sparkle like new in your vacation photos. 

Final Thoughts 

We hope this guide has helped you feel more confident about planning your jewelry for your next vacation. If you’re looking for new jewelry to complete your vacation wardrobe, browse our full collection of stylish, customizable jewelry in our online store. 

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