bringing an inflatable kayak or paddleboard to europe

[PopGoesTheWeaz]

Can anyone recommend one small enough to bring on a flight? We're heading to somewhere with a lake and would love to be able to kayak or paddleboard but nowhere local to hire them. Flying a mixture of EasyJet and BA

Don't know anything about kayaks and paddleboards, but just checking that you are aware that you can book quite large sporting equipment on flights.

On Easyjet kayaks etc can weigh up to 32 kg, and it doesn't mention any size limits - plus they can take a vaulting pole up to 450 cm long

www.easyjet.com/en/help/baggage/sports-equipment

I assume that BA is similar - I think the weight restriction is for the baggage handlers anyway.

BA have much lower limits on sporting items than EasyJet (they don’t fly surfboards any more) so just check with them before you order.

Oh that's a shame, and a surprise. BA don't fly anywhere useful for us, but we went on a group mountain biking holiday and there were people who'd flown on BA on one of the London airports who'd got so much free luggage allowance they could bring their bikes, helmets, clothes and everything else they needed without having to pay extra for a mountain bike as sporting goods, like we had on Ryanair.

It depends on what quality you're after. A cheap kayak is more possible than a cheap paddle board, like £50 versus £300. I'm prepared to be corrected but I don't think you can get a decent paddle board for less than that because of the rigidity, whereas you can be a cheap and cheerful kayak. You're probably looking at 15kg - 20kg either way if you can fit that in/get sports allowance.

We’ve taken our inflatable paddle board on several holidays to Europe included as usual luggage on the flight, rather than as sports equipment. All inflatable paddle boards pack down into their own bag (dimensions should be shown on the website you buy from) and we’ve never had any trouble with this. You could even put it in a case.

My DH and kids have had many hours of fun on the board on holidays & I’ve lost count of how many times people have asked to buy / borrow it from us.

I can't pack my kayak down, to be honest, to fit back in the original box. Maybe possible with a vacuum packer or something. The amount of labour required would do my head in. I'd be too likely to puncture it when trying to pack it down so small.
But if I had it new in box it would be easy to get on an airplane. Just couldn't bring it back, but they are cheap, so not a worry. About 15kg each single kayak box.

If you’re taking tuff to Europe, Make sure you have the right paperwork..all the signs on the motorway are very adamant!

Stuff.

Honestly.. IPhone and fat fingers!

All moot now as we ended up finding a place to hire that delivered but wondering @BillywilliamV what paperwork you need for kayaks/SUPs --

But also, thanks for the recs as will probably get something for the camper for next summer.

The signs on the motorway were there for Brexit on Thursday and have now been turned off.