Well it's that time of year when everyone is dreaming of warm sunny days and palm trees. If you are lucky enough to be heading off sometime soon here are some tips that we have learned over the years.
Embrace the two minute noodle.
While they maybe a little nutritionally questionable, for holidays away these are the perfect easy, cheap meal. We take over a glass container with a plastic lid which is the perfect cooking vessel. Just pop in the noodles with the hot water, pop the lid on for a few minutes and there's lunch. Our children love noodles but are only allowed them on special holidays so there is a huge novelty factor as well. Don't forget to take lots of other snacks too - just don't forget to declare them on arrival.
Thank goodness for travel clothes lines
There is never enough places to hang towels, togs and wet clothes so take a couple of those travel clothes lines and it makes life so much easier. If you can get the ones with built in pegs even better but if not just take a zip lock bag of pegs with you. It will save having wet togs and towels lying all around the place. You can grab them relatively cheaply from places like Kathmandu and even the supermarket. We often take a zip lock bag of washing powder too which can come in handy.
Blow up pool toys are the bomb
While you can buy them over there it is very easy (and much cheaper) just to take over a couple of flat blow up toys for the kids to play with - like this one from our local stockist Monkey Kids. Even those simple blow up balls are a hit (it was one of the best freebies we received from our travel agent!!) - the kids have a blast with them and can be a handy ice breaker for meeting other children. We often take a couple of tennis balls as well.
Make some room for the kids hooded towels
Before we even started Troupe I used to always pack a hooded towel or towelling poncho each for the children. Especially when they were little I would find that they would always trip over the large resort towels when walking around the facilities. Hence I would throw a poncho or hooded towel on them at the end of the pool session. It kept them warm and snug and meant they could run until their little hearts were content without tripping over their towels. Our Troupe kids hooded towels are perfect for these situations. Just pop here if you would like to pick one up.
Take your S'well with you.
If you haven't discovered these already then I would definitely investigate. While they can be a little pricey you can find them on special on different sites. These are the business when it comes to drink bottles. They keep liquids cool for 24 hours (and hot for 12 hours for school lunches or ski trips) so are ideal by the pool or at the beach. They are made from stainless steel so can take the standard kid level of abuse. Unfortunately they are not so good for little ones who need sippers or straws but once they have mastered drinking straight from the bottle these are ideal. Check out some of the S'well range at our stockist White Gold.
So if you are jet setting your way to some gorgeous warm Pacific Island have a blast. We are very jealous. Safe travels and enjoy the sun.
Mel x