Got the Packing Blues?

4 March 2003

Packing for a holiday is one of the most under-rated skills of the modern age. Having two children under four, Robert and I have still got much to learn about reducing the amount of must have rubbish that seems to accompany us on all our family holidays: somebody?s favourite teddy bear or tricycle, and of course there are always the dreaded nappy changing paraphernalia. Luckily travelling with seniors on our tours, we relish the chance not to have to pack quite as much gear.

One of the hardest questions we get however, is the dreaded: ?What will the weather be like? What should I wear?? On most tours, it is the same. We program our tours around the milder temperatures, so if we are travelling to a destination at a certain time, it would be fair to say that at that time of year, the temperature should be fairly mild as a general rule, and most days you should be able to get by with light to medium clothing, with say one wet weather jacket (which the really canny packers will have double as their cold weather jacket too), and perhaps a jumper. Of course, now I have written that, we will have extreme weather in all our destinations across Australia for the next six months!

It is very hard to adjust for personal preferences, which is why air conditioning can be such a boon. You can adjust it to suit yourself in most motels these days. On the coach, we try to adjust the temperature to suit the majority and you can adjust it so it blows away from you or is turned off if your body temperature is not in tune with everyone else?s. The air conditioning unit on most modern coaches would be efficient enough to heat and cool an average sized house, so it adjusts very quickly to the demands of a coach (lots of windows, with a small area that needs to be heated or cooled very quickly).

Laundry is another bug bear. Most motels have laundry facilities, and if you are desperate you can always wash your clothes with you. I was somewhat bemused on our honeymoon to see Robert having a bath with our clothes. This would have been fine if it were not for the fact that his new red hanky was staining my whites (and him in the process!).

Some people still bring travel irons on tour with them. I say ? have a holiday from ironing! If you really can?t bring yourself to wrinkle up on tour, there are usually irons at any motel even if they are not in your room. Alternatively, one lady used to place her husband?s trousers between the mattresses to ensure a knife-edge crease the next morning. Unfortunately Robert has worked out what I mean when I say I am hard at work doing the ironing these days!

The other biggest problem with packing is those well-meaning sons and daughters who give you lovely big suitcases with wheels for your birthday. They are usually very bulky and weighty (the suitcases, not the sons and daughters!), and the wheels often don?t work on cobble stones. These heavy suitcases can be really difficult to negotiate around by yourself in your room and on some boats, the cabins are not very roomy, so these suitcases are not practical for these purposes at all.

Remember that worksafe regulations and airline maximum luggage allowances are about 20kg per person, so if they are not going to pay someone to lift more than 20kg, why should you risk your back in your room? Some of those newer suitcases are nearly half your allowed weight before you even drop in a handkerchief.

Try and organise your gear into what you will need on the coach in a small carry on bag, and what you need at night in your suitcase. And make sure those traveller?s aids your children bought you are really space saving (for example, that travelling sink takes up significantly less room than your normal kitchen sink, but do you really need a sink on holidays?).

Another tip for cutting down your luggage is to get rid of things like dressing gowns and slippers (unless you are staying somewhere like at Undara Lava Tubes and you think you might want to make a quick dash for the WC during the night). And don?t worry about having a new outfit for dinner every night. Some people do dress for dinner, but some don?t and it is never very formal unless otherwise advised in your final itinerary. Often having mix and match outfits makes you feel as if you are wearing something new, even though you may have given most of the pieces an airing already.

Remember, being on tour is about what you see, not what you are seen in. As long as your clothes don?t smell, and any stains are camoflauged by the pattern on your clothing, people will want to sit next to you and enjoy your company! As my sister-in-law says: ?one of the most freeing experiences of any holiday is to realise that you really can survive with what?s in your back pack?.

Anyone want to pack Joshua and Jessica in their back pack?