more about our packing list

Yesterday's post on our packing list showed you all the things that we took last holiday. So what did we find useless and what do we wish we had been able to take?

What we didn't need
As it turned out, we didn't go swimming anywhere, so the swimming costumes, the flotation device and the goggles were not needed. However, they're things that I would still take with us "just in case" next time, on a summer holiday. There would be nothing worse than wanting to have a swim and not being able to for lack of the right things! Next time though, we won't need the flotation device as their swimming lessons have brought their skills on quite a bit.

Travel Cluedo and Uno - we just didn't have time for these! Because we were out most of the time, if we were in our room, any spare time was taken up with writing in our diaries. Maybe if we'd been stuck in transit anywhere for a long time they would have been worthwhile, but they didn't even get opened!

Next time we may not need the booster seats - for us these are about our kids being short and not being able to see out of the car windows. We'll have to see how much they have grown by the time we next head off on a trip!

We didn't use the packaging tape, but I'd rather have it just in case. Because we're travelling light, you never know when it might be useful to be able to post something home. Packaging tape would be really useful for that. Of course, if push came to shove and something had to go, packaging tape would be top of the list!

What I would have liked to take
I've mentioned before that I'd love to have some small enough (less than 100ml to comply with Liquids-Aerosols-Gels restrictions) ice bricks to keep things cool when we are travelling. I still haven't been able to find any, but this morning on the Kathmandu website, I found a product that is worth searching out: ice mat coolers. It says that they are not available at all stores - yes, well I've certainly never seen them at our local store. They may not end up being the right size, but from the picture it looks like you could cut them down if you needed to. They'd have to be well labelled too, or the airport security people might not know what they are, and therefore prohibit them.

Next time we may take a Birko food and drink heater. We would use this for "cooking" in our room. Before going, I will need to work on and try out some Birko "recipes" to make sure that it will be useful enough to justify. Its not really heavy, but its not really light either, so I will need to weigh up (ha ha!) whether the weight is worth it for its usefulness. However, my aunt and uncle took theirs on several overseas trips and found it incredibly useful.