We had 15kg last year for our late deal hol to Turkey. Luckily as its AI we can leave some things like beach towels and toiletries out. We were with Thomas Cook. We were slightly over, well my mum and dad were and the check in woman just said no problem as our hand luggage was way under. Maybe we got a nice check in lady!

Twinkletoes - we're also a faily of 5 (2 adults & 3 children) and usually use 3 cases - 1 large and 2 medium size and that usually does us just fine. This year we'll have to put the beach towels in the cases tho' - we've always stuck them in the buggy holdall under the pretext of 'protecting the buggy' but with the twins now being 6 years we can't get away with buggy's and buggy holdalls anymore

Every airline seems to have a different baggage allowance! Monarch give you 20kg plus 10kg hand luggage and so do EasyJet. Ryanair however, give you 15kgs plus 8kgs hand luggage - its all so confusing! I dont like hand luggage, I just want to get rid of the cases and relax. Ive stopped taking so many shoes, theyre really heavy so I usually wear the heaviest pair and only take two or three pairs that I can wear with several outfits. Its certainly easier to mix and match shoes and outfits. Also, I would advise putting some of the whole family's clothes in all cases. My friends luggage disappeared a couple of years ago for the duration of her holiday but her OH and children's cases were on the plane. If she had mixed the clothes about a bit she would of at least had a few things to wear!

I am going away on Thursday for a few days and want to just take hand luggage.Its only 5 kgs so I am putting some toiletries in my hand bag in the plastic bag ready for inspection at security and other heavier objects in my husbands coat pockets!Anything to keep the weight down!

Karen, I thought Ryanair was 10kg hand luggage - I was counting on it

booked with thomas cook ,didnt see that only 15 kg baggage allowance , telephoned cust services ,wont upgrade to 2okg ,as my flight is 94 hours away, limit for changing booking is 96 hours...do you think 15 kg is sufficient

Thongs will be the order of the day

Depends where you are off to. We always pack way too much for a hot resort holiday.

96 hrs and 94 hrs is a bit mean but i supose they need a cut off point.

Dont let it dampen your spirits. Wear the heavier items you need to take on the flight. ie like the heaviest shoes and jeans etc

good luck and let us know how you manage if you've got time before you go.

flipflopper

I had 15kg allowance and weighed in at Manchester at only 10kg, such was my eagerness not to go over!

My tips are:

Decant hair products into small bottles or use trial sizes. Styling stuff you never need much of.
Don't take full bottles of shampoo and conditioner. You can even get shampoo bars from Lush.
Don't take a full cosmetics kit. I bought a small compact from YSL with bronzer, 2 eyeshadows, 2 lippies plus applicators so therefore the only other thing I needed was mascara.
Wear heavy clothes and shoes to travel in.
Put books into hand luggage.
Take a travel hairdrier or none at all if your room will have one. Try to go without any other heated hair applicances for the holiday. Seriously, relax and let the hair do its thing. You can do lots with hair bands and scrunchies.
Don't take more pairs of shoes than you need.
Mix and match!
Don't take loads of clothes hangers. If your room ends up not having adequate supplies fold things neatly and when you are wanting to wear something, use one of the few hangers and hang it in the bathroom while showering (out of shower blast) so the steam gets rid of any creases. Reduce creasing from word go by rolling all items of clothing up into a sausage shape instead of folding when you pack.
Take one bag for evening, one bag for day.

If you are someone who has to have different shoes, jewellry, bags etc. for each night then you are always going to struggle. But once you've travelled light once you will never go back. Anything can always be rinsed in the shower.

Sand C- Does rolling clothes rather than folding them really work. I've heard of it before, but have always been wary about trying it. Too late for this year -all packed now, but I might try it next year.

I managed to pack 13kgs, for a winter holiday and that included packing jeans, spare trainers, jumpers, books, toiletries, all in my hold luggage, to be fair I was only going for 6 days but 15kg is definitely do-able for summer when everything is much smaller and lighter....

As per previous posts, don't take huge full toiletries, either buy trial size, treat yourself to some travel containers, or buy your toiletries at the airport (although check the facilities will be open at the time you will be there). Local ones are often as good, and sometimes better.
Make sure everything mixes and matches, you can then take less.
Don't take too many white things, as these always look dirty quicker (especially if you are as messy as me !).
Cut back on the jewellery and take a few simple bits that will go with most of your outfits (ultra-trendy unique jewellery may be noticed more, but you will feel you can't wear it every day).
Don't take half a book shop if you are going to a hotel as most have a swap facility or people leave their books behind once they've been read.
Don't take any items mentioned in the "strange things you take on holiday" topic!!!!!

If you get there and miss something drastically, you will probably be able to buy it anyway.
Louise

I really can't do 15kg so have paid extra for another 5kg. But I'm going to have to try and take less as I need wedding stuff packed. I'm not taking any toiletries as I will buy them at the airport and suntan cream too so hopefully that will be less. I'm also going to try with three pairs of footwer, two for the evening and a pair of flip flops for the day. I'll take a couple of dresses, two skirts and two long shorts with 5 tops I can mix and match, 2 bikinis and that should do it. Hopefully.

I got rid of my heavy suitcases that weighed 5kg when empty and bought a large wheeled holdall.
I put shoes and books in my hand luggage and have toiletries in small 100ml bottles,which I put in my hand luggage after security.
I have always took to much on holiday and even though we had 20 kg with Thomson earlier this month,out luggage was still only 13kg and 14kgs.

Helen T, yes rolling clothes works a treat, the space is used so much more effectively and it does minimise creases (especially as it sounds like you have packed way before you travel!). I've done it for years now.

I too have a wheeled holdall.

Sand C Will definitely be doing it next year. A lot of my clothes looked like they had been through the wringer when I arrived - especially the linen stuff.

I always roll our clothes now when packing, never had many creases in and got more stuff in the cases, just worried this year with them clamping down on excess baggage, just have to be extra careful

A lot of my clothes looked like they had been through the wringer when I arrived - especially the linen stuff.

Believe me - your linen stuff will look even worse if you roll it! If you fill the case/bag you'll end up with lots of horizontal creases on that part of the garment which is on the inside of the roll and if you only partly fill the case/bag it will all move around and end up with loads of crush marks. In my experience the best way to keep linen looking good is to fold it so that it will lie absolutely flat in the the bottom of the case and with only just enough folds to ensure that once folded it is as big as the bottome of the case. Admittedly I am only 5ft 2ins but doing that I find that I get one really sharp crease in trousers at crotch level - where there will be a lot more creasing the moment I sit down for the first time in them - but the rest remains crease free.

I always take a lot of full-length line shift dresses with me to Cuba and do the same with them. Lay the dress out on the bed, fold each side over just enough towards the middle to make sure that it fits the case, then fold it in half on itself, or if really long, fold it into three trying to make sure that one of the folds is at lap level ie where you'll get creases from sitting anyway. Yes, you end up with two lengthwise and one or two horizontal creases but you don't look rumpled and if hung up as soon as you get there on hangers whilst taking a shower, these do fall out quite a bit even in linen clothes. If you really want to minimise the creases even further then put a few plastic bags on the insideof the folds - works in the same way that the tissue paper they use in posh shops before putting anew dress etc into their carriers does! I've found that the rolling method works well with cotton jersey knits eg T-shirts but I've never managed to get it to work with woven cottons and linens.

My mother is the worlds' Number One champion packer and and I've found that her method, which is based on folding stuff straight into the case, works well with linens too:

1) Spread a large towel over the open case leaving the extra hanging loose around all the edges of the cases

2) Place the most crushable garment centrally over the case and its towel 'lining' and fold it outside to middle as above but leave the top and bottom hanging over the edge of the case.

3) Do the same with your next most crushable garment and so on ending up with the least crushable layers on the top. This can be things like underwear spread out evenly.

4) Fold the top and bottom of the topmost garment towards the middle so that it's then not quite the same size as the case.

5) Then fold the top and bottom of the next garment over that and so on until you've worked your way right down the pile.

6) Then finally fold the edges of towel over it like an envelope or parcel so that everything is held in place.

The net effect is that each layer is wrapped around the previous one so that you end up with the most crushable garment folded around the least crushable stuff and/or the stuff that it doesn't matter whether it creases or not with the whole lot held in place by the bath/beach towel. I've found that this means that whilst wider garments thus have two sharp folds down the length of either side of the dress etc the rest of it stays crease free because it is padded out by the inner layers. All the rest of the clutter then goes on top or round the sides of this neat 'parcel' of clothes.

SM

My solution regarding creases in clothes is, if it creases it gets left at home

When I first found out that we'd only have 15kg allowance each for next year, I thought OMG, how am I going to manage? Fortunately, we're going AI and towels, iron and hairdryer are included, which helps. Also, the tip about buying toiletries in the airport is a great one. This year I cut down on the amount of clothes I normally take and still came home with unworn items - so I'm quite looking forward to the challenge next year

OH and I went to Turkey in June...our luggage weighed 10.5kg him and mine was 11.5kg.

Tips....
1) check weight of suitcase when empty! Simple but mine was small and yet still weighed 5kg! Mother in law gave me one of those holdalls on wheels and that wieghed 2.5kg

2) we didn't take towels..bought and left beach ones there

3) sun cream..didn't take any in case. Meant to buy at duty free in Gatwick but too long a queue. Ended up buying it in resort..not the best or cheapest option and in hindsight now I know I can pack light I will take it next itme.

4)cosmetics/hair etc......why bother with much? You are on holiday!

5) mix and match your wardrobe and take a small tube of travle wash to wash through your things. DO NOT WRING your clothes when youwash them...hang them out to drip dry and they don't even need an iron. This worked for me with linen, skirts, OH's jeans the lot.