Q&A: Do you need boots if you're coming to Europe this winter?

I have to thank my reader Cesario for this question: he is coming to the UK and Germany in December and has been told by many to get boots for this trip to keep his feet warm. If I may quote him, "Lots of people kept asking me to get boots for the trip. I'm not a boots person (because we had enough of combat boots during our national service) and I find it really expensive. Therefore I would like to seek your opinion of other alternatives for this upcoming trip. " Well thank you for your question Cesario. Allow me to start off by sharing with you a photo I took at about 8 am this morning. It was -3 degrees and there was plenty of ice/frost around: I noticed the way the frost made this unusual swirling pattern on the roof of a blue car. Do double click on the picture to see the full details of the ice formation.

Winter never fails to amaze me.

So yes, it can get quite cold here in winter but do you need boots? The simple answer is, no you don't, not unless you intend to go mountain climbing, hiking or camping. You see, unless you intend to spend a lot of time outdoors, it is quite unnecessary to invest in a pair of boots. The socks and trainers I wore this morning are exactly the same as what I wore to Tunisia and Greece when it was +40 degrees. My feet do not get cold easily because I am never standing still when I am out and about - I am always walking around and cycling. As long as you are not standing completely still, your legs and feet are unlikely to feel cold. Do not underestimate the effect of physical activity on the way you perceive temperature - the simple act of walking can make you feel much warmer than say, if you were simply standing still on a platform at a train station, waiting for the train.

Now it is important to note the difference between -1 degree, -15 degrees and -30 degrees. Just imagine if we were talking about +1 degree, +15 degrees and +30 degrees. At +1 degree, it is decidedly cold and I would be wrapping myself up in layers of winter clothing. At 15 degrees, that's like a rather pleasant autumn or spring day here in London and whilst +30 degrees would be typical Singaporean hot and sweaty weather. Likewise, there is a huge difference between how you dress for -1, -15 and -30 degrees. Many Singaporeans who are completely unused to winter weather would assume that you dress the same for -1 as you do for -30; which is completely wrong. And what irks me is the way people who clearly don't know what they are talking about giving the wrong advice. I have already blogged about this topic, so please click here for details about how you should dress for different kinds of cold weather.

Limpeh in Warsaw, Poland where in snowed heavily

So here's my credentials for giving out my advice on winter wear: I moved to Europe in 1997 and this is my 18th winter in Europe. I enjoy winter sports and have experienced temperatures as low as -40 (-60 if you factor in windchill) in my pursuit of winter sports. I do travel around Europe a lot during the winter months (I am headed to Köln in Germany very soon for work) so I know what it is like to have to pack for a winter destination: you want to pack just the right amount of winter clothing and you don't want to make the mistake of bringing the wrong kind of winter clothing. Dragging around heavy luggage is such a bitch when traveling and you don't want to bring more than what you need. So please do yourself a favour and be careful whose advice you take!

Let's turn our attention back to the issue of getting boots: I don't even own a pair of boots despite having survived so many bitterly cold winters. The reason is because I do not partake in the following activities in winter: hiking, camping, mountain climbing etc. I enjoy skiing but for that I have ski gear. Otherwise when I am in London, I do normal stuff: I go to work, I cycle to the gym, I walk to the local supermarket, etc - all of these activities have two things in common:

1. I am always on the move, I am not standing still in the cold.
2. I do not spend more than 30 minutes at a time out in the cold.

Unlike many people, I am not afraid of the cold at all. I love snow. 

By that token, my feet (and the rest of my body) do not really get cold. Let's compare this to say a sheep farmer who spends his days out in the field, taking care of his flock. He is out in the open, exposed to the elements for 8, even 10 hours a day. He is spending many hours standing in muddy fields so naturally, his feet will get a lot colder than someone like me who lives and works in the city. So a sheep farmer will need a very different kind of footwear compared to a city dweller like me in the winter because the temperature of the ground he is standing on is much colder than for the city dweller (who spends far more time in warmer indoor environments).

So if you are doing the kind of normal activities like sightseeing, going to museums, going shopping, going to restaurants, going to offices etc - then you really don't need any special kind of shoes as long as the temperature is above -15 degrees. At -15, that is when you need to consider perhaps wearing two layers of thick, high socks, but I still wouldn't bother getting any special kind of boots. Now it is only when the temperature approaches -25 or -30 that I would say, okay, this is when you should consider getting boots with some kind of padding. I have seen these on sale in places like Sweden where temperatures can fall to -53 degrees, but these are quite rare in the UK where temperatures rarely ever fall below -5 degrees in cities and even in rural areas, anything less than -10 is rare. British people only invest in such padded boots only if they are traveling to somewhere like Sweden, Russia or Norway during winter otherwise it is totally unnecessary in the British winter. Heck, even I don't have padded boots like that!

Limpeh is totally at home in a sub-zero winter environment.

Boots, however, are not just for winter weather! People can wear boots in summer, people can wear boots in hot countries - boots are a useful kind of footwear to protect you from the elements. Do you know why soldiers in Singapore wear boots instead of trainers? When you are in the jungle, there are loads of horrible insects and snakes that can attack your feet/lower leg and they will find a way to bite you through your socks. If you happen to stumble upon a pond or river, there may be blood-sucking leeches and if you are wearing boots, then at least you know that you are safe even if you accidentally step into some shallow leech-infested waters. Likewise, even in hot deserts where temperatures can reach 50 degrees, people prefer to wear boots because they protect your feet from nasty predators like scorpions. Tightly done up boots can also prevent sand from getting inside your boots - you wouldn't want to be wearing trainers when walking through a sandy desert as the sand would get into everything. Thus if you are going hiking or mountain climbing in Europe, then sure boots can come in very useful in terms of protecting your feet. But if you're spending more of the time as a city dweller, then I really don't see the point of them.

Now here's a very practical consideration you must bear in mind when choosing your winter footwear: here is the worst case scenario which will lead to you have very cold feet. Imagine the weather is about 5 degrees and you encounter heavy rain. If your shoes or boots are not sufficiently water resistant, then the water could soak through the material of your shoes or boots and you could be stuck with wet shoes and socks. This is not only extremely uncomfortable, but with wet feet, your feet will feel so horribly cold. Imagine if that happened when you were traveling and you were far away from your hotel room - that's pretty disastrous. The moral of the story? Your worst enemy is in fact rain and not snow. Snow is surprisingly dry when it is very cold but water soaks through everything. It is vital that your shoes or boots must be as water resistant as possible to withstand heavy downpours. And by that token, make sure you are ready to cope with rain: raincoats and umbrellas are a must, unfortunately our winters can be grey and very wet.

Most shoes are not 100% waterproof - you will need something made of plastic or rubber if you really wanted it to be 100% waterproof but ideally you also need a fabric that breathes and it has to feel comfortable. Some shoes and boots cope much better with the wet weather than others. So if you are trying to find out if you have a pair of shoes that are suitable for your winter travel, simply do a test in the bathroom: wear the shoes into your shower and see how long before the water soaks through. If you have nothing suitable, then you will need to go shopping but you need to find something that is highly water resistant and there are even some trainers which are designed specifically to be water resistant, such as the Nike AirMax Lunar90 water resistant shoe which will be more water resistant than some makes of boots (which could be designed for style or comfort, rather than for water resistance.)

So even if you want to invest in a pair of boots, you have to know what kind of boots you should get because there are so many different kinds of boots! Some boots are made for the tropics, others are made for deserts and then there are those made for cold climates - they are all very different in nature and you have to know what features matter the most to you. Whether you ultimately choose a pair of winter boots or go for something like the Nike AirMax Lunar90 is ultimately up to you, but your feet are not going to feel cold if you do go for the Nike AirMax Lunar90 option as long as it doesn't drop below -15 degrees and really, thick socks would probably do the trick down to -20 degrees. Remember: it is paramount that you keep your shoes and socks completely dry in cold weather: wet socks = very cold feet.

Limpeh in Croatia where it was -30 degrees. 

I need to remind you to plan for average conditions, not extreme conditions. So if you're coming to London, the average temperature in December and January is about +5 degrees Celsius with rain, so you need to plan for cool and wet conditions (water resistant shoes are VITAL). Once it a while, you can get a cold snap and the temperature can fall below zero but otherwise, that is rare and in the winter of 2013-14, we had no snow at all in London. It was the first winter I've had in London without any snow at all and it was one of the warmest winters on record. So the lowest recorded temperature in the greater London area is -16.1 degrees in West London in 1962, the chances of you experiencing that during your visit is statistically insignificant and so you should be packing for +5 and not -16. And in the highly unlikely situation where you do experience colder than average conditions when you arrive here, then just go out and buy some more clothes.

Do not make any stupid mistakes when it comes to winter clothing - the most common mistakes that Singaporeans make are the following:

• taking bad advice from bloody stupid people who don't know shit about winter but somehow insist on passing on the wrong information - be very careful whose advice you take
• packing the wrong kinds of clothes which are of no help whatsoever 
• spending too much money on stuff that you will never use in Singapore (and it just collects dust in your cupboard for the next 10 years until you throw it away)
• focusing too much on protecting your torso whilst totally neglecting your extremities (head, ears, neck, fingers)
• wearing the itchiest, nastiest thermal underwear and then getting the worst heat rash
• not dressing in a toilet friendly manner (ladies take note: this is far worse for women)
• wearing the wrong kind of boots that are not water resistant and then suffering when caught in the heavy rain

Limpeh in an ice bar in Austria

Lastly, if you rarely travel to cold countries, then just try to borrow whatever you need from friends and family. Why spend so much money on clothes that you will only use for a couple of days? That just doesn't make sense. Just swallow your pride and ask to borrow what you need from a buddy who is about the same size. Getting a good pair of shoes or boots that are very water resistant is probably a good investment anyway, given how wet Singapore is. At the end of the day, a figure like -10 may sound rather cold to you, but really, once you get used to it, it's really incredibly refreshing! I certainly prefer -30 to +30 degrees. I love winter so much, it is my favourite season of the year. So there you go, any further questions, please feel free to leave me a comment below. Many thanks for reading.