Weekly Lists #97: Travelling Must Haves

Last week, I went on a holiday with my family. It was the kind of thing that could turn either into a dream, or a nightmare. Six people with slightly varying interests, weather that was unpredictable at best, and so much to do. But guess what? We all survived. How? Well, at least partially thanks to these 5 travelling must haves!

1. Snacks

Before anything else. Before the correct currency for the place you’re going to even, you need snacks. The best way to make any holiday or trip go to waste, is by people being grumpy. And the number one people get grumpy? Because they haven’t eaten. A basic snack-package for us consists of the following things

• Healthy: apples, bananas, cherry tomatoes
• Easy: raisins, nuts, trail mix
• Breakfast-substitutes: breakfast bars! Sure, most hotels offer a decent variety of breakfast foods, but there’s always the chance that you don’t like any of what they’re offering
• Lunch-substitutes: crackers, individually packed cheese, … This might just be us, but we tend to sort of forget about lunch when we’re travelling. Or maybe we’re just visiting a place where we can’t eat, or there’s no stores nearby. Basically: these are handy
• Sweet: cookies, chocolates, even candy – something to give you a quick boost or some comfort
• Hearty: crisps, salty crackers, … Because something you want something, but you don’t want it to be sweet

2. Drinks

We went with two cars, 6 people, for 8 days. Each car brought about 20 liters of water. In total, there was also 16 liters of cola and 16 packages of juice. Most of that was finished at the end of the holiday.

Basically: water tends to taste different when you’re not at home. And / Or it’s more expensive. So be prepared – and keep hydrated!

3. Music

I mean, if you’re road tripping? You need good music. And you need all kinds of it. The upbeat kind for the beginning of the journey, the calm of busy traffic. Oldies for when you want everybody to sing along. And in our case: the Harry Potter soundtrack, for the Welsh mountains. You gotta stay in theme, you know?

4. Shoes

Now this may be more specific to the northern half of Europe. Or just to any rainy place. But bring shoes. You want shoes for when you’re visiting a village (sneakers will do just fine). You want some for when you’re doing a hike, or visiting mines (mountain shoes, thank you very much). Maybe you’re going to go out for dinner to a slightly more fancy place, and you want to bring shoes for that? Probably your feet are going to hurt by the end of the day, so some loafers or slippers might be nice.

Now, I’m not saying you need two pairs of shoes for every day that you’ll be away from home. But apart from that? You’re better off taking a pair too many than a pair too little. Especially if you’re going to the UK and might get completely rained under at any point!

5. Alternative entertainment

If you’re not driving, you’re going to need this. Whether it be books, some movies, your laptop, Gameboy, a magnetic chess board (which, naturally, we did bring ? ), a couple of magazines, or anything else…

As a general rule, we tend to spend a fair bit of our holiday travelling from one castle to the next abbey. At that point, you need something to do. No matter how beautiful the hills you’re driving through are? Take some alternative entertainment – worst case scenario: you don’t need it. (This is the point where I tell you e-readers are handy, because then you don’t have to take an entire bag of books, as I tend to do :p )

And there you have it, that’s 5 of my absolute travelling essentials! What’s the one thing (or 5 things ? ) you absolutely have to take if you’re going on a holiday? Be sure to let me know below!

-Saar