TRAVEL NOTEPAD

A page of helpful travel hints and tips.  Things that have helped or hindered our travels and hope they will be of benefit to you.

LIST OF THINGS TO TAKE
  • Passport
  • (Currently) EU Health Insurance Card (make sure yours is up to date). Be sure to use the official EUHC website
  • mobile phone
  • iPad
  • chargers
  • Plug adapter
  • Kindle/books
  • wash bag 
  • insect repellent (if relevant)
  • suncream (apply 15-30minutes before exposure without skimping! 25g apparently will cover your body
  • hairbrush/comb
  • medication/pills
  • tongs/hotbrush
  • sunglasses
  • I'm a bit of a scarf addict!  I usually take one or two with me. They have a multitude of uses.  ie: for putting round shoulders in churches, keeping sun off sunburnt bits and adding a little warmth in cool evenings.

Helpful stuff!

  • £1 shops have a range of essentials for in flight ie neck pillows, travel adapters

  • Travel insurance, shop around for deals ie: Money Supermarket is a good place to start

  • Travel Sickness?  Ginger essential oil on a handkerchief to inhale is great or Stugeron a couple of hours prior to travel (I suffer with vertigo and find this helps with that too)

  • Tripadvisor, great information not only good for hotels but for places to eat and walking tours.

  • Car hire - sites recommended by Sunday Times Travel are holiday Holiday Autos and enjoy Car Hire  Over 65?  Not all hire car companies will accommodate.  But you could try Hertz or Europcar
  • Child's Car Seat required.  Check with airline whether you can take yours with you.  Some airlines allow you take a child car seat for free.
  • When hiring a car give yourself plenty of time when collecting and dropping off.  It is quite a complicated and sometimes expensive procedure, so allow enough time to ask questions!

  • Cheap Flights - sign up to Skyscanner just type in where you want to travel and be alerted when cheapest flight comes up.

If travelling light and taking all baggage on the plane all your liquids will need to be 100ml each and enclosed in one of the correct size bags.

You can search online and come up with all sorts of bags that say they are within the guidelines but we found they were still too big.

At Gatwick airport they are very precise in their requirements but you can pick up the correct size bag there if yours is too big.  These bags are also available from other airports.  Our last trip was from Bournemouth and they were giving them out there.
Bear in mind if you really don't have room to take your chosen shampoo etc, once you get into Duty Free you can buy it there and its perfectly ok to take on board with you.

Great video on how to pack like a pro for a short get away.

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