What do you bring on holidays that makes you look cheap but in your mind is entirely practical

[AnotherTroyforHertoBurn]

I will start.

I bring a food container with detergent only for emergencies, refuse to wash clothes on holidays.

I also bring dishwasher tablets in case there aren't enough in the villa.

Ditto a starter roll of toilet paper as the last time it was like sandpaper.

This is not done out of meanness, this is because to my mind foreign supermarkets are for oohing and aaahing over the different foodstuffs and drooling at the fish counter.

A holiday is not for turning down the aisle of mundanity in the supermarket and buying the above. They come with us every year and they come home again, they are well travelled.

DH has stopped arguing. Only took 34 years.

I love buying all that mundane stuff on holiday, especially brands that we don't use or have at home. It makes it feel more like being away iykwim.

Taking IKEA blue bags to the beach makes me look cheap but they’re the best thing ever.
A while back they did rainbow ikea bags (I guess for pride?) So I bought a few of those. Exactly the same but don't scream "IKEA!" Quite so obviously!

Nothing. I'd never stay in any sort of self catering establishment. I go on holiday to be waited on so stay in usually lovely hotels.

Pegs, sandwich bags, a bar of hand soap, a washing up sponge and an extra towel.

The Nescafe sachet that contains Coffee, Whitener and sweetener all in one, for a cup of coffee 1st thing on a morning.

I prefer self catered so that we get more than one room, a fridge and the means to make a cup of tea whenever I like. I don't cook on holidays abroad. We eat out.

We have a whole bag we take to holiday cottages with all the household stuff.

We are longtime campers and self caterers so it's more a question of what don't we take?
Aeropress and coffee, Yorkshire tea, lunch box/sandwich bags. Sharp knife. Good non stick frying pan. We don't mind cooking some of the time, it's more relaxed than at home.
I quite like the memory jogging kitchen items, especially if hard to find in UK, that's where I got my Mouli (French thing for making puree).

Packed lunches to take to the airport/on plane. V satisfying to tuck in to lots of lovely granary blts when the trolleys coming round trying to get you to spiv up a fiver for a wilty ham. On return journeys it'll be baguette and soft cheese and olives or whatever is left over from SC. As someone else said SC doesn't mean cooking in, it means having snack stuff like bread cheese meze bits and just eating out somewhere different at our own pace. In fact you're more likely to have to serve yourself at an AI buffet!

Not sure if the poster who provides her own arcade prizes is genius or mad! Half the fun is that it IS complete shite! It reminds me of Ann in Motherland taking her own chocolate for Darius when trick or treating. I will admit I am giving the idea serious thought though

A caravan.

i don’t think any of the things mentioned so far make you look “cheap.”

I take loads!!

I'm fairly minimalist with clothes but we're a vegetarian & vegan household & DS11 who really struggles to eat unknown food.

We always go self catering but eat out if we find something suitable (found 2 amazing vegan restaurants in Menorca that even DS enjoyed)

Anyway we take:
Cereal
Crumpets
Soya milk
Crackers
Marmite
Peanut butter
Dairy free butter (pack it frozen)
Block of cheese (pack it frozen)
Pasta
Stir in sauce
Microwave rice
Instant mash
Sosmix (dried vegan sausage mix)
Baked beans
Tinned sweetcorn
Tea bags
Coffee (instant & ground)
Small cafetiere
Sugar
Squash
Icepoles (unfrozen)
Dishwasher tablets
Washing tablets
Tea towels
Pegs
Cheese grater
Ice cube bags
Small amount of oil
All toiletries
First aid kit & basic medications
Travel games/paper & pencils
Torch each for DC
Battery lamp for youngest DS

I split this lot over everyone's suitcases & dread having our cases searched 😁

My chiilis insulated water bottle. I hate buying bottled water on holiday unless it’s needed for safety.

On a UK holiday I always take my own iron, irons in hotels or rentals tend to be £9.99 from Argos ones which produce no heat at all, are bunged up with brown sludge in the water tank or have someone's shirt stuck on the bottom.

We go on AI holidays abroad and we always take a 600ml reusable bottle each, so we don't have to go up and get those little cups of fizzy drink every five minutes. Was tempted to buy a souvenir mug last year and use it at breakfast instead of the hotels tea cups.

Handwash because I hate those little bars of soap that don't last five minutes.

Yes! I love that too - I enjoy the little reminders of our holiday once I’m back home, using the dishwasher tabs (no point taking them with us as there often isn’t a dishwasher) or emergency shampoo. I just drink Earl Grey on holiday to avoid worrying about plant milk etc, and love my French or Italian Earl grey at home.

However, I do take some laundry tabs - always need to do a couple of washes. Everything else is picked up at the hyper market and left overs donated to campsite neighbours 😊

Nice if you can afford it.
I think self catering is much easier with a family. If we went to a hotel, we would all have to stay in the room from 7pm onwards when the kids were in bed!

Doesn't sound like much of a holiday for you.

Most of those items are SO cheap abroad

My first thought on reading the thread title was:
Taking IKEA blue bags to the beach makes me look cheap but they’re the best thing ever.

Same. But they're everywhere on the beach. I take a few dishwasher and washing machine tabs now after being caught out. It was only when i got home, I realised I'd used the wrong ones for each machine. Still worked. Only take stuff when in a car though.

I never understand refusing to do laundry on holiday though - it dries in no time and means you don't need to take as many clothes.

Taking a few essentials is not odd.

However keeping the same ones to take back each time is most odd. Surely you just use them when you get back home?

But there's no point buying things like torches, cheese graters or tea towels if you already have them.

Some things are very expensive or unavailable, which is no good if on a budget and/or ASD so certain brands required.

Self catering isn't a hardship to many people and it doesn't necessarily mean loads of cooking. I prefer it rather than hotels where you have to fit in with their timetable and put up with intrusive room service.

Absolutely agree

Did not think I needed to highlight the items on the list that would be very cheap to pick up n supermarket. But heavy in suitcase
pasta, squash, tinned sweetcorn… for starters.

they will be waiting for you at home to eat so not like wasted like buying a grater!

Oh trust me… I bring stuff! But definitely not pasta, squash etc. false economy in my opinion

I do both self catering (love!) and AI hotels (adore) and no timetable at all and sure as heck no intrusive room service!

I go in hotels, not villas, but I always take my own tea bags and mug.
I once saw a lady at breakfast with a small silver teapot, I asked where she had got it, and she said she brought it from home !