How to start planning your travel packing?

Yes, that’s right! I said plan your travel packing. I always have to plan what I am packing when we are going on holiday. Otherwise, it gets to the day we leave and I am frantically running around the house finding things that I had forgotten. So, I start to plan ahead and hopefully avoid that mad rush. I am quite an anxious holiday maker anyway so this takes one more thing off my mind.

Brain dump

First off I get a sheet of plain paper, A4 or A3, I write down all the things that just fall into my head. For example, I can think of numerous things about our upcoming trip to Dubai instantly: things to keep us occupied on the flight, things to keep us entertained at the airport, swim wear, underwear, clothes for each day and flip flops. We have never flown a long haul flight with the kiddies so we are excited, the kids are going to burst with excitement, but we also know we need to ensure they are entertained. Isla has already investigated what we get on the flight and is so excited about the food and drinks.

The Family Travel Handbook

I love this book from Lonely Planet, The Family Travel Handbook, it is a great survival guide that is family-friendly. It is filled with tips for short and long haul holidays and offers suggestions and advice. It focusses on air and car travel, unfamiliar meals and some fab tips on getting the children involved. There is a list of family friendly destinations for children of all ages and it’s aimed at guiding parents to step out of their comfort zone when booking holidays. There is a fun quiz on page 100 of The Family Travel Handbook that helps to inspire you on where to go if you haven’t decided on a location yet.

Categorise your list

Once I have written the above and got everything off of my brain, I put it into a little bit of order. This helps me do the ticking off the checklist when we get nearer to the holiday. I categorise into the following areas: kids clothes, adult clothes, shoes and accessories, beauty items and activities. Obviously my camera is an essential item too, so making sure we have chargers and everything we need to keep toothbrushes operating is going to be packed too. There is a great travel checklist on page 21 of The Family Travel Handbook which has reminded me that I need to think about health – medicines and health cards. Thanks Lonely Planet!

Start researching

There are some things I am just not sure if I will need. When we went to Crete out of season we researched the weather as when it gets cooler the pools are freezing. We then make sure we take the kiddies wet suits. These are quite a heavy and bulky thing to pack, so if we do not need them thats better. Thankfully in Dubai I do not think we will have a problem with the heat! We will hardly be out of the pool. Isla was trying to be brave in the photo below. It made me giggle.

Below are a few of the pages out of the book:

Once it gets to a couple of weeks before the holiday, I start to pile things up in a space that is out of the way. Clothes need to be washed and ironed ready for packing for example. The underwear count and swimwear count begins, making sure the kids have enough of each for the trip. We are going to Dubai for 2 weeks and so Isla will need 28 pairs of knickers, it’s a good job we have a suitcase each. Do you plan the travel packing or just get stuck in?