My name is Isla Ferreira. I’m 29, I work in digital marketing in Edinburgh, and I take two or three holidays a year — usually somewhere warm, usually with a carry-on only. I’ve been refining my packing list for years. I have opinions about packing cubes. I once spent forty minutes deciding whether to bring a second pair of sandals (I didn’t; I was right).
The sarong has been on my packing list for three years. The PANASIAM Palm Blue has been on it for the last eighteen months, and it’s the reason I stopped looking for anything better.
Why I Started Travelling With a Sarong
The logic is simple once you’ve done it once. A good sarong is a beach cover-up, a wrap dress, a skirt, a scarf for cool evenings, a lightweight layer for over-air-conditioned restaurants, and — in a pinch — a beach towel. That’s five items in one piece of fabric that weighs almost nothing and takes up a fraction of the space. For carry-on travel, it’s close to essential.
The problem I’d had was finding one that was actually good. Most of the sarongs I’d tried were either too thin and see-through, too stiff to drape properly, or printed with designs that looked cheap up close. I’d been making do rather than genuinely happy with what I had.
Finding the PANASIAM
I was planning a ten-day trip to Portugal last spring and doing my usual pre-holiday kit review when I came across the PANASIAM Sarong B020 Palm Blue. A few things stopped me scrolling immediately.
The first was the size: 190x116cm. That’s a genuinely generous sarong — large enough to wrap properly as a dress, large enough to use as a beach layer, large enough to actually cover you rather than just gesture at coverage. A lot of sarongs are smaller than they claim and you end up with something that works as a skirt but nothing else.
The second was the fabric: high-quality viscose with German textile dyes. Viscose drapes beautifully, feels cool against the skin in heat, and takes colour well — which is why the Palm Blue print looked as vivid and detailed in the product images as it did. The colorfast dyes meant it wouldn’t fade or bleed in the wash.
The third was the story behind it: 100% handmade in small Indonesian family farms using traditional wax batik techniques, with a Fair Trade commitment built into the supply chain. I’d been trying to be more intentional about where my holiday purchases came from, and this felt like a piece I could feel genuinely good about buying.
Why This One Over the Alternatives
- Handmade wax batik design — each piece is unique, made by hand using a technique that’s been practised in Indonesia for centuries. The Palm Blue pattern is intricate and beautiful in a way that mass-produced prints simply aren’t.
- Premium viscose with German dyes — opaque, luxuriously draped, and colorfast. It doesn’t go see-through when wet, which matters enormously for a beach wrap.
- 190x116cm — large enough to style in multiple ways without running out of fabric. The reinforced hem means it holds its shape and won’t fray with regular use.
- Machine washable — for something that goes to the beach, this is essential. It washes beautifully and comes out looking exactly as it went in.
- Fair Trade, small family farms — knowing the piece was made ethically, by skilled artisans who are fairly compensated, made it feel worth every penny.
The Portugal Trip
I wore it every single day of the ten days. Not always the same way — that’s the point. Over my swimsuit as a cover-up walking to the beach. Tied as a wrap dress for lunch at a seafront restaurant. Draped over my shoulders in the evenings when the temperature dropped and I hadn’t brought a jacket (I never bring a jacket to Portugal in May; I’m always slightly cold in the evenings; the sarong solved this). Worn as a loose skirt over shorts for exploring the old town in the afternoon heat.
The viscose was everything the description promised — cool against the skin, beautifully fluid in movement, and genuinely opaque even in bright sunlight. The Palm Blue print attracted compliments on three separate occasions, including from a woman at a beach bar who asked where I’d bought it and seemed genuinely impressed when I told her it was handmade batik.
It also survived being stuffed into a beach bag, sat on, and washed twice during the trip without losing a single thread of its quality. The reinforced hem held perfectly.
Eighteen Months and Four Trips Later
The PANASIAM has been to Portugal, Greece, the Canary Islands, and a long weekend in Lisbon. It has been washed more times than I can count. It looks, genuinely, as good as the day it arrived. The colour hasn’t faded. The hem hasn’t frayed. The fabric hasn’t thinned or gone limp in the way that cheaper viscose does after repeated washing.
It now lives permanently in my travel bag, ready to go. I don’t think about it when I’m packing — it’s just there, the way a passport is just there. That’s the mark of a genuinely good travel piece.
The Difference It Made
I pack lighter now. Not because I’ve become more disciplined — I was already pretty disciplined — but because the sarong genuinely replaces items I used to feel I needed to bring. No separate beach cover-up. No lightweight evening layer. No wrap for cold restaurants. One piece, multiple problems solved, zero extra weight in the bag.
It also made me feel better dressed on holiday than I usually do, which sounds vain but matters. There’s a difference between looking like you’ve made an effort and looking like you’ve thrown something on. The PANASIAM always looks like the former, even when it’s the latter.
Who I’d Recommend This To
Anyone who travels to warm destinations and wants to pack smarter. Anyone who’s been making do with a mediocre sarong and wondering why it never quite works. Anyone who cares about where their clothes come from and wants a holiday piece they can feel genuinely good about. And anyone who, like me, has spent years looking for the one travel item that does everything — because this is it.
Where to Get It
The PANASIAM Sarong B020 Palm Blue is available from ALTOE. If you’re building out your travel wardrobe or exploring similar pieces, these collections are worth a browse:
- Scarves & Shawls — lightweight layers and wraps for every occasion
- Clothing Accessories — the finishing touches that make an outfit
- Apparel & Accessories — a curated wardrobe edit for every season and destination
Isla Ferreira is a digital marketer and carry-on-only traveller from Edinburgh. She has strong opinions about packing lists and considers the PANASIAM sarong the single best addition she’s made to hers. She is already eyeing a second colourway for next summer.
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