As you begin to pile things into your luggage for that long overdue holiday, the brain attempts a frantic “yes or no” decision on countless items that may be useful on holiday.
Packing for a holiday can often be as tiring and stressful as travelling itself, but it doesn’t need to be this way.
It’s time to simplify things and whittle down that crazily long packing list to find what is important and, above all, useful while on holiday.
1. A colour copy of your passport and insurance documents
Make a colour copy of your passport and keep it in your luggage for two reasons: one, if you lose your passport you will need this to help get you home and two, if you lose your luggage it will help whoever finds it get it back to you.
Keeping a paper copy of your insurance documents is also an absolute must. Yes, everything is stored on the smartphone these days, but with phones one of the leading losses while on holiday, having something you can refer back to if it all goes wrong can help save the day.
2. Safety pins
Safety pins are the sort of things you see everywhere - that is until the moment you really need one, then all of the safety pins in the world seem to vanish en masse. Small, lightweight and incredibly useful for a wide variety of purposes, from temporarily mending clothes to first aid, safety pins are the unfashionable heroes you should never go on holiday without.
3. Reusable water bottle
In Ireland alone, we use an unbelievable 3 billion plastic bottles every year and going on holiday often means an endless number of plastic water bottles bought at various shops along the way.
With the world creaking alarmingly due to the effects of climate change, single-use plastics have quite rightly become a major issue. You can do your part by taking reusable water bottles on holiday which you can fill up at public fountains or simply in your hotel at the start of the day. Not only will you save yourself some money, but you’ll also help to drive down this nasty addiction to plastics we’re struggling to escape from.
4. Corkscrew
Hands up who’s bought a nice bottle of wine while on holiday only to get to your picnic spot to find it’s not actually a screw top?
While screw-top bottles have become the norm in Ireland, in other countries that’s far from the case, especially for the more expensive wines. You don’t need to bring the bulky one you use in the house, a small travel-size corkscrew is really all you need. Just remember not to pack it in your carry-on, otherwise, you’ll do well to even get past security!
5. Power strip / portable charger
The never-ending battle to keep all of those electronic devices charged can take on a whole new meaning while on holiday. At home, we can relax in the knowledge that we have countless working plugs at our disposal, but when you’re in a hotel in southern Spain, things are never quite as straightforward.
A power strip is an excellent item to take on holiday as it allows multiple devices to charge from one plug socket, while a portable power charger is an absolute must for anybody who always seems to run out of battery by lunchtime and then bugs everybody about finding a plug for the remainder of the day.
6. Laundry Bag
Unless you’re a teenage boy, you’ll be keenly aware that dirty laundry not only stinks, its polluting fumes can easily envelop even clean clothes.
A laundry bag is a simple and yet highly effective way of keeping what is dirty and what is clean apart. You don’t necessarily need a high-quality laundry bag and a decent plastic bag will do the job just as well.
7. Plasters
While on holiday, children - and let's be honest, often adults too - are bound to get into a few scrapes. Plasters are so small and weightless they can be carried anywhere without you even realising and can be an absolute god-send when somebody cuts themselves, saving you that annoying walk around a foreign town trying to find an open pharmacy.
8. Flip Flops
Flip flops often divide opinion. Some swear blindly to them and would live out their entire lives wearing them if they could, while others see them as either uncomfortable, unfashionable, unhygienic or impractical.
We’re not about to tell you to start climbing mountains in flip flops and there are certainly many instances when wearing them would be completely impractical, but as a form of footwear that can be worn at the end of a long hot days’ worth of travelling, they’re unparalleled.
9. A paper map
Many of us have probably not held a proper paper map in years, and why would we? With the wondrous invention of Google Maps and other apps, we suddenly have every map in the world at our fingertips.
However, there are a few problems with solely relying on your phone for directions. Firstly, it drains your battery and if you’re out all day constantly navigating, you’ll see those bars quickly plummet. In some places, it’s also not exactly ideal to walk around the streets brandishing the very latest iPhone in your hands. Smartphone theft has been on the rise for years now in many places around the world and it’s always a good idea to keep your phone out of sight unless you really need it.
This brings us back to something we haven’t seen since the early 2000s - a paper map. Walking around a foreign city with a giant fold-out map is plainly ridiculous and more than a little “touristy” but a small discreet map that you can pull out quickly to help find your way is always an excellent idea.
10. Insurance for your holiday
Making sure that you have the right kind of travel insurance while on holiday is the best way of covering all your bases as best as you can. A lot can happen while you’re away, but travel insurance with 123.ie provides coverage for all manner of eventualities. We hope that you never need to use us, but that safety net always allows you to breathe that little bit easier.
