10 things to take on holiday
- Passport, tickets, money
Anyone who has seen the movie Shirley Valentine can hardly fail to remember her muttered aide memoir as she rushed around the house panicking and dusting.
After many years of booking our own ‘pick n mix’ holidays we have devised a very handy little system for ensuring our paperwork is secure and to hand. We buy an A5 book with plastic pouch pages (available at most stationery outlets) and put each ticket in order for both the outward and return journeys with the passports either at the very front or back. This means that at each stage of the journey the relevant ticket is to hand
- First Aid Kit
First aid kits are readily available from Boots and other pharmacies in a range of sizes. Have a chat with your pharmacist to find the correct one for your travel arrangements and destination. No point taking a vast kit that covers every eventuality and is the size of an attaché case if you are just going backpacking to the south of England!
- Book
A book is such a good idea to take with you – it slips easily into most bags and is always there as a companion to you. I usually try to take a book that I would not normally read so that I sample new genres or authors. Being an avid bookaholic I often take something quite heavy going to last me the duration, unless we are travelling by car and then I usually manage to sneak a carrier bag of books in!
- Things for kids/hubby/partner/parents to do
Kids of all ages get bored fairly easily on journeys or when they are tired. When my son was young I never went anywhere without a small bag of crayons and a pad of paper. Depending on the age of any children a variation of crayons and paper is invaluable. On childhood holidays my sister and I were encouraged to create a scrapbook of our vacation. We loved doing this and now have many books filled with notes, sketches, and postcards, sugar wrappers and tickets
I still carry this habit on today – although my writing has (I hope) matured somewhat I still stick souvenirs into my journal and have built up a lovely collection of mementoes. No matter what your age give it go – or perhaps create a family scrapbook
A pack of cards is also a great thing to pop into your luggage. After dinner in the evening it can be fun to sit around playing card games that get louder and more competitive as the level in the bottle of goes down! We always take Lexicon (a spelling card game), as I am not overly fond of ‘normal’ card games
- Emergency/Contact Details
It is a good idea to copy to a small notebook all your contact details; where you will be staying, telephone and reference numbers and then keep this book safe and separate from your travel documents. Then if your tickets etc are stolen or lost you should still have your notebook and be able to verify and claims
- Notebook/Diary
Now that I am allegedly a grown up I don’t actually use a scrapbook for my holiday journal. Each trip away I treat myself to a very pretty notebook and new pen. This summer I used a funky embroidered and beaded denim covered notebook with violet and lilac gel pens
- Camera
I can never decide on which is the most sensible option for a camera. Should I take the best one I can get my hands on for better quality pictures or should I take a disposable one so that if it gets stolen all I lose is the memories? That is your decision, but I would heartily recommend taking some form of camera as photos are great t look back on in years to come, if only to laugh at your dreadful youthful dress sense and appalling hairdo!
- Sun protection
Wherever we go now we need sun protection. If you are travelling somewhere very sunny or going skiing it is definitely worth getting very high protection sun cream, nothing spoils a holiday quicker than burnt peeling bits!
- Plastic bags
Ok, this sounds a bit odd! But placcy bags are so handy and if you go on holiday without packing two or three you are more than likely to kick yourself! Think about coming back from the beach/pool with soggy cossies slapping at your legs or leaking onto your book in your fancy beach bag. You can use bags to dump rubbish, to protect china souvenirs on the homeward journey, so many different uses… including suffocating your annoying partner who thinks it is funny to drop ice cubes on you while sunbathe!
- Sense of adventure
Never, ever go on holiday without a sense of adventure. Wear clothes you wouldn’t want your neighbours to see, get a henna tattoo, have a few drinks, kick up your heels and most important of all… smile at strangers and meet the locals!
Who knows you could end up with new friends to visit next year…