First flight /foreign holiday

[Lucyannieamy]

Going to need help here - we are booked 10 days into a lovely Italian s/c apartment (with restaurant Thurs - Mon), with pool. Not near beach. We've never taken the kids abroad, we have always camped in the UK. What should I pack - how many swimming costumes, kids games /books etc?

Passports - need 6 months on them
Information about where you are staying
Travel insurance
E111 cards
Cash & credit card
I'm a fan of micro towels (not big fluffy ones)
Sun cream, after sun
Small amount of medicine, anadin, immodium, piriton
Sun hat

All of the above +

Plug converters - get cheap off Amazon rather than at the airport
2 swimming costumes per kid + an old t-shirt or two to use in the pool if they get burnt and need a cover up
Insect repellant, plug ins and cones to burn on the balcony (if you have got one). You don’t say where in Italy you are going but some areas you’ll get bothered more than others!
A good travel guide -I usually buy Lonely Planet or Rough Guides
Printed off train tickets (trains are cheap and easy to use in Italy - if you book them in advance it’s cheaper - Trenitalia is the national rail site)
Finally - something my family find really funny but we do a lot of SC and I pack small freezer bags of coffee, salt, pepper & herbs. So far, no investigations for suspected drug trafficking!

PS - one final essential - hairdryer! Yes these are usually supplied but half the time they are rubbish & very slow. If your hair has any tendency to frizz, take your own!

Currently you dont need 6 months validity for Italy but that may change depending on Brexit

2/3 sets of swimwear
Take adaptors and an extension cable as often there arent enough sockets
Suncream
Repellent
Antihistamines
Pain killers

imho, If you take > 1swimming costume then it's for fashion not needs. Only you know your fashion preferences.

I've just had a travel insurance mini-nightmare... the short lesson from that is don't buy from Opodo at point of buying plane tickets a reseller, get it from somewhere reliable like a big brand, a supermarket or Post Office. EU insurance assumes you have an EHIC card so bring one.

Imho putting on yesterday’s still wet swimming costume feels yucky but each to their own :-). They need a quick wash after each use to remove any potential water born nasties

I also take more than one so I'm not putting on a wet costume the next day. It is not a fashion thing, what a strange way to think.

They get rinsed/ washed to get rid of chlorine

Which is it... nasty chlorine or nasty germs? Can't have both (!)

Shouldn't swim in the water at all if clothing needs washing to remove nasties that could get you next day, too.

Rinse, wring, Hang & dry overnight, no? Oh well. Works for us everywhere I've been that's warm enough to swim outside.

I wear a bikini top that has padded cups so isn't always dry the next day. I like having an alternative

Mine have long T-shirt’s to cover up
Buy sun cream here - look at the spray ones so it takes 30 seconds to do a child and no need to rub in Boots do a small stick one for faces

Medications - easier than looking for a chemist

If the site has a washing machine - make use of it

Read all the small print for flying!! Check exactly what baggage you can take, how and when you need to check in (e.g. in advance of arriving to airport, do you need to print boarding passes in advance?) make sure your liquids are correctly packed, and electronic device easily accessible in case you need to get them out to be scanned. These sort of things tend to catch people out and I imagine hard to deal with with kids in tow! I usually also take some essentials like oil, salt, pepper, washing up liquid, washing tablets for clothes etc as I hate buying it all new from supermarket and leaving behind. Depends on whether it's worth your suitcase space or not!

I would say take at least 2 sets of swimming stuff, one to wear whilst the other is drying. Realistically you only need to rinse out at the end of each day.

Take lots of suncream!!! And insect spray.

Make sure you have a little first aid kit packed, savlon, plasters, tablets for adults and kids, etc

Depending on when you arrive take something easy to cook for the first night (bag of pasta and jar of pesto) and a small carton of uht milk and cereals to pop in your suitcase for first thing. This has saved us many times when we've got to unpack and sort kids and work out the new place... when going to a restaurant or the supermarket is just not going to work!

Games for the pool e.g. a blow up ball, table tennis set?

Whoops got my paragraphs mixed up when editing !

Really?! You’re making an assumption that every chlorinated pool is germ free - not every pool is properly chlorinated nor is chlorine 100% effective against all bacteria. And if we all didn’t go swimming because of potential nasties that may or not be there, isn’t that a bit ridiculous? The reality though is that there is a small chance they are there. 30 seconds to quick wash out a costume is hardly a big deal.
And no, not always bone dry in the morning if no outside area to dry them.

Surely it's more hygienic to take multiple swimwear as it's just like underwear, you wouldn't put on the same pair without them having been through the laundry, not just a rinse.

Make sure you bring enough underwear to either wear fresh daily or plan to wash it all thru "proper laundry" then, OP, coz obviously this is essential, too (some say....)

Friend talks about letting his kids swim in hotel chlorinated swimming pools in many poor countries over the years. The kids kept getting sick bugs. He finally learnt the solution was to keep kids the hell out of the pools. Wearing freshly laundered cozzies was not a solution.

which1 - last year I read a Tripadvisor report on a hotel we were about to stay at where the latest Reviewer claimed to have caught Trich (an STD) from the pool & they’d attached the medical report. My first thoughts were that it sounded like a load of pony to me and my DH would have to do more than a little convincing to prove to me he’d caught an STD from a pool! I did research this though and though the evidence is contradictory, there is (obviously very very small) potentially a chance it’s catchable from a badly cleaned pool. The advice is to shower after swimming & properly wash out costumes. Obviously far bigger (and I imagine more likely!) risk is getting some gastric infection from fecal matter and for that reason alone worth giving costumes a more thorough wash.

Personally I take loads of pants with me on holiday - who wants the faff of having to have to wash them out or double dip?!

If your kids burn easily and/or are likely to want to spend hours in the pool, it's useful to have those swimming costumes where the top is shaped like a T-shirt so covers the back and shoulders. I would pack two swimming costumes per person as you'll probably find you want to swim more than once a day, but it's not a nice feeling changing back into a wet costume.

You'll probably find you get through loads more sun cream than you do in the UK, particularly if you have to keep re-applying because your kids are in and out of the pool the whole time. Pack plenty of the high factor stuff because from experience that can be difficult to find abroad, or if you do find it, it can be very expensive.

If anyone in the family wears glasses, I would bring a spare pair if you have one, just in case the main ones get broken.

Get an EHIC for each member of the family (assuming you are going before 31 October this year therefore pre-Brexit). Get travel insurance too. Check the policy's definition of "pre-existing medical conditions" and make sure you declare any that apply, otherwise your insurance won't cover you for anything connected to a pre-existing medical condition.

Depending on site rules you might need swimming caps so take them if you have them.

If you are planning to drive while in Italy, pack your driving licence! If you are going post-Brexit, check whether your UK licence will still be valid for driving in Italy or whether you'll need to get an international one.