General Holiday Enquiries, Hints and Tips

General Holiday Enquiries? Got General Hints & Tips? Post Them Here.
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Packets of Savoury Rice and Pasta & Sauce are good - you can always buy some nice chicken or sausage from the supermarket and cook it with the rice or pasta, then serve with a fresh salad and bread. Packet soups are good too.
I have bought some toastabags from the pound shop to take with us at Easter - I know there's a toaster in the apartment so we can have lovely hot toasties whenever we want them.
Last Easter I packed two 6-packs of Creme Eggs in the suitcase because I couldn't do without my "fix" for 2 weeks and British chocolate is so expensive over there! :roll:
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I know the pound is weak at the moment but there are 2 Lidl in Benalmadena and 2 other similar supermarkets (used to be called Plus) which should be ok.
It will the Menu del Dia restaurants that will work out expensive (for what you get) but the good old Chinese will still be affordable. :cheers
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Packets of batter mix for sweet or savoury pancakes or a toad in the hole if you have an oven, with those spicy continental sausages it tastes yummy. Packet soup great with some fresh bread for lunch. Rice cakes or crackers, but you'd have to pack them well or you'll end up with crumbs :really a nice light lunch with cheese and tomato or pate. Some marmalade or jam in a sealed plastic container to go with the morning toast. Its made me kind of peckish thinking about food. :lol:
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a couple of packets of store own brand pitta breads a tube of tomato puree
when in resort buy some local cheese and chorizo or pepperami and make your own pizza .
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Pot Noodles are always good and very light too! I think about 11 pot noodles is equal to the weight of a bag of sugar! Obviously they take up more space though! Maybe not something to have for dinner but a snack at night is ace!
Super noodles same sort of thing!
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Thanks for all your suggestions. I just thought about some wraps too as they should be easy to pack.
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Packet soup, as silverpixie1uk says. Just taste so much nicer sitting out in the sun and served with fresh crunchy bread, than they do in UK!! I also pack packet casserole mixes, even if you don't have an oven they work fine on a hob. Yes, the wraps are a good idea! Get a packet fajitas mix too, and make your own when you get there!!! Have you got room for a packet of muesli? I find it goes much further than "normal" breakfast cereals, and a small bowl of that followed with yet more crusty bread would set me up for the morning!
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Isn't one of the pleasures of going self-catering being able to try the local produce from the markets and shops? Surely you wouldn't really want to take things like packet soups and pot noodles with you? If you really wanted them, they'd have them in the supermarket anyway.
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We love to try all the local stuff, but according to views on here the supermarkets are very expensive in Beni. We thought we'd just take a few staples with us.
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We were in Benalmadena last summer it wasn't to badly priced for meat and vegetables. We didn't take anything with us but wished we had.

We're going SC this year and for lunches will be taking packet soups, noodles, pasta & sauce. I usually take my own packet sauces to then I just by meat, vegetables, bread & milk.

Helen
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We took loads of food with us for our holiday in January to Tenerife. We just ate out for dinner.

We took a packet of pasta, a few of the packet sauces where you just add milk or water, instant mash (not the nicest thing in the world but does for a quick meal with chicken or something like that).

We also bought some of the toastie pouches were you make up your sandwich put it in the pouch then put them in the toaster. JML do something but they're quite pricey, try pound shop ;)

We were lucky that we had a mircrowave, we took some poached egg maker things that you just put in the microwave for a couple of minutes.

Also took a packet of the mini-cerials you can buy, that are made for kids :rofl

We found the main thing was to have things that make quick meals, if you're going to spend a long time making things you may as well be at home.
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I would take cereal so breakfast was covered, but surely something like fresh bread and meats/cheeses from the local market is better than having dried pasta crrrap for lunches?
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Agree with you SandC. Our breakfast usually consisted of cereal or toast and eggs. For our lunches last year we made up a cooler bag consisting of sandwiches made with lovely fresh bread and cooked meats/cheese with their lovely fresh tomatoes and a bit of onion...lovely. Also bought fruit...and with the size of the apples in Menorca 1 was big enough for all 4 of us, melon, grapes or banana. A big pack of crisps between us aswell saw us through the day. These things aren't expensive to buy if you can use the supermarkets out of resort. Then ate out every evening. To be honest I think where we saved most money was on drinks. As we were out most days we just took a couple of bottles of water with us and the children had their sports bottles which we put squash in for them. I really think the drinks (especially the kids ones) are where there's a big saving to be made without really impacting on your holiday.We also had a 'couple' of drinks before we went out in the evening, paid 1.40eu for a very nice bottle of Spanish wine from the supermarket, and then just had the 1, maybe 2, with the meal. A lot of people complain about the cost of drinks but if you can stick to local brands this makes a massive difference.

We did take some pasta and stir in sauces with us, but they came back unused so won't be bothering this year.
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I think that instead of taking the food take a cooler bag and the blocks. Really you have no need to take pasta and stuff to Benalmadena because you wont want to come in at lunch time to cook it - Lidl is cheap enough anyway. NicJW is right - drinks are expensive so a big bottle from the supermarket goes a long way. Also you could put a bottle of wine in your cooler bag - once again Lidl do some nice wine, just a case of try it and see if you like it.
Put a bottle of ready made drink or water in the ice box of your fridge (the biggest one which will go in) don't quite fill it to the top and when it is frozen put that in your cooler bag to keep other food cool then you can drink that later in the day when it has melted.
Carrefour also do some nice wraps - different flavours.
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I do tend to take a litre bottle of squash - even better now that both sainsburys and tesco do the super-concentrate variety - lasts just about a week and saves a FORTUNE on drinks for the kids.

Can see the point in using spare "free" baggage weight on basic stock items if you will be doing a lot of self catering but make sure you stay within your allowance otherwise lidl in spain will prove to be a much cheaper option!!
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