silk underwear

We got our's from Campmor, campmor.com. Its small, medium, large and extra large. Just loke any other underwear. That was befor the ultrafine merino wool underwear became popular. Some people prefer it, but the silk works well and packs smaller than wool. If you've never seen the ultrafine merino wool you will be surprised.

We got ours on sierratradingpost.com. They have great deals! Before you order anything though, go to their website and sign up for their DealFlyer (you just have to give them your email address) and you will get tons of coupons and special offers.

LL Bean has silk underwear as well.

I got mine from Eddie Bauer.

I am assuming you are talking about long-johns and not just regular underwear? I can recommend Cuddle-Duds, as someone else recommended them to me. Wore them last winter on almost a daily basis and found them to be absolutely wonderful. Price is good too.

We Europeans must be missing out on something or am I the last to know... Never heard of anyone buying silk underwear before now?....

Another option is Wintersilks. I'm sure you may be concerned about being too cold on your trip. Having grown up in Texas and now living in AZ, having traveled in Europe in the winter, late fall and early spring and having lived in Germany for 3 years, not to mention living in the Seattle area for 20+ years, I've never worn any kind of extra layer to keep warm. But then I've always hated wearing layers and have always overheated to the point of sweating easily. My husband has taken long johns on our late fall and early spring trips and never taken them out of his backpack. What he has needed is earmuffs or a scarf and maybe a warmer hat. Even with a hooded coat, I had to buy a warm hat this past April in Holland. The advantage of outer layers, hats and scarves is that if you get too hot, you can easily pull them off and put them in your messenger bag or whatever you are carrying. With long underwear, that becomes a little more complicated process involving a bathroom somewhere.

I agree with Lo. I bought a silk 3/4 sleeve silk undershirt from Wintersilks for a winter trip to Europe. I also wore tights under my pants. I didn't have a problem with the tights, but found my upper body would easily overheat under all the layers. If I do a future winter trip I will wear a warmer outer layer that I can easily remove indoors, as opposed to having to remove several layers.

I pack a lightweight pair bought at LLBean years ago. For
Spring trips, especially tours in April & May where I'm standing for longer time periods, they are used often. I find they are easy to delayer off or layer on using a WC and tuck into my day shoulder bag.

Ditto Sierra Trading Post for the best prices- tho sometimes the colors are odd or the sizing a little off- much less expensive than others, even if you have to return one piece. The silk is super thin and dries quickly, unlike some others.

Sportsmansguide.com is also a good source. Jim silk is a really comfortable base layer with the added advantage that it packs down to alsomost no size or weight-----great for travel Paul

I've had very good experience with a lightweight polypro wicking underwear. Not quite as compact as silk but handles transitions well if you move indoors or start to overheat. Campmor and Sierra both sell this stuff. You want the lightest weight, designed for active cold-weather sports.

I use the Wintersilks 3/4 sleeve scoop neck top. I always pack it winter or summer, because I get cold easily. Another option is a silk tank. If I get too hot I simply slip into the toilet and take it off. One reason I like the silk underwear is that it allows me to wear summer weight fabrics in the winter. Summer weight is thinner, may be easily layered, and dries quickly when laundered. I would rather wear a bunch of thin layers than one thick one bulky one that takes forever to dry. The fine gauge silk is very light and compact - much more than the synthetics. My shirt rolls up around the same size as a soda can. This means I can stuff it into a quart sized ziplock for storage. Too hot? Put it in my purse. Too cold? Pull it out. It's available because it is compact and light enough to take along for the day.
In the end it is personal preference. If you get cold easily then the silk underwear can add an additional 10-15 degrees thermal protection.

One option I like is Uniqlo's Heattech base layers. Unless you can get to San Francisco, they have to be ordered online though. I don't know if this technology is quite as warm as they claim, but I have found it to help when visiting my in laws, who live a colder place than I do and keep their house much cooler than what I am used to.