Must take items for self catering villa holiday?

[BlancmanegeBunny]

Going on holiday on Saturday to a villa in Spain, I usually have packing down to a tee but haven't been for a few years and I'm sure I must have forgotten something!!
What are your essential item bits and bobs?

😉🥞 bit of a holiday tradition. American pancakes in the sun

Pocketknife for eating picnic food or cutting fruit for a small child
Tupperware container
Tea bags

Generally - small first aid kit with plaster, painkillers, thermometer and similar

If you have a child in nappies - nappy bags and wipes

Yes, nappy bags! The number of hours I have spent in foreign supermarkets trying to find them.

Also swimsuits, I always forget. I have loads of emergency purchase badly fitting bikinis

Goggles and dive sticks if you have children (and a pool)

Goggles have been located and packed along with the pool toys, kids are older teens so no nappy bags are required. (they just need wifi and feeding)
We always take earplugs and sleep masks but I had missed them off my list, so thanks for the reminder.
I won't be packing pancake mix as I can make my own but it did prompt me to think about taking my little omelet pan that never sticks as I can use it for pancakes too. If there is room I will take it!

I always always take a couple of my own chopping knives and my vegetable peeler.

And an eye mask & ear plugs for sleeping as I found rentals never have decent blinds, and in hot countries often you need the windows open which can be noisy either down to wildlife or nightlife!

As they are older teens and probably use earphones/earpods a lot, take a spare set of decent quality ones. They take up virtually no space but are so worth it if needed.

After we had a set break when away and got ripped off buying some quite pricey but awful quality replacements we always take some spares and, more often than not, they are needed. This year one of DD's earpods decided to have a blip and not charge for a few days so they came in handy again.

Along with the tea bags you’ll need big mugs.

No other countries seem to drink tea in the quantities we do, and their cups are the size of thimbles.

I find myself making 2 cups at the same time when they don't have mugs so as not to waste a teabag on a tiny cup.

A big mug of tea from my favourite mug is one of the things I look forward to when I get home

Chargers and spare chargers that you keep secret until crisis point , if they know you have them they will all disappear immediately. Likewise adapters
Anti mosquito stuff/plug ins
we’ve never had mug problems , just come back , plenty of mugs
dishwasher cubes . In Greece you can get packets of 10 but I have never seen this in Spain and with Covid everything is removed.

my absolute top tip after travelling to France and Greece in the last two months Is travel as lightly as possible. Make sure everyone has a set of spare clothes plus swim stuff in their hand luggage and mix up any checked luggage so a little of everyone’s luggage is in each case. That way if one suitcase is lost everyone will still have something.

Honestly can’t believe people take pancake pans and colour catcher . It’s a holiday , I only ever wash the odd tee shirt or underwear . Re cooking we manage with what we’ve been given that’s the fun. I have never cook much on holiday anyway , it’s always barbecue, salads , the odd pasta dish when the children were younger .

@cyclamenqueen I love cooking and it's an enjoyable part of the holiday for me! I will happily make pizza dough and love using local seasonal ingredients.

The villa we are going to is one we have stayed in before, it has a well-stocked kitchen and two fridge freezers! Lots of crockery and decent-sized mugs, the owner is Canadian.

Thinking of the Royle family going on a very wet caravan holiday... don't forget the chip pan!

We did several washes as we only took 1 weeks worth of clothes for 2 weeks. And as it was Lanzarote we had great weather for getting things dried outside.

Dish washer tablets and washing machine pods. Saves on buying a big box when you get there

Knives and chopping board, as mentioned before
Rubbish bags
Rubber gloves for cleaning and washing dishes
Corkscrew/bottle opener

Charger for your Fitbit.
We forgot that one.

Take things like paracetamol, aspirin, ibuprofen etc if you will use them, they are a lot cheaper here than in Spain and you have to go to a pharmacy for them.

Avon Original Skin So Soft oil as an effective mosquito repellent. (You can get it on ebay).

An insulated bag for shopping, picnics etc. Sticking plasters. A few plastic sandwich bags.