I always keep tumble drier sheets in my empty suitcases, they smell gorgeous when you do your packing. Then I put a fesh one when I've packed, and my clothes smell great when I get there.

Linda x

Linda,
What a great idea, think I'll try that this year.
I hate the smell of your stuff after it's been in the hold.

a packing tip!

Rather than having one suitcase each full of your holiday clothes etc,
Divide you and your partner's hoiday things in two piles= (half your swimwear per pile, half your undies per pile, half your evening wear per pile etc)
then, should one suitcase get lost on arrival, youll both have at least half your holiday items!
(no borrowing your partners underwear!!!)

Suitcase locks are useless and can be broken very easily. Use a split ring - as used on keyrings - instead. Can't be broken off and are a bit of a faff to remove.

Great tip Davey
And Jem: we do that every year it's fab... although we've never been that unlucky, my auntie was (she was going self catering, and had sausages and a wock in her case!!!, this was a while ago. She wore my uncles undies for the 2 weeks, and her case arrived a few days before they were due home... 2 week old sausages and all!)

Worst thing was... they had to pay excess baggage

Great post
If traveling with children take a box of ice pops and freeze when you get there.
Instead of clothes line take one of those round hangers with lots of pegs on ( get them at £ store and leave there )

Same with lilos etc the £ store always has them in and if you have a few children all of the small savings soon add up.

Keep the tips comming im taking notes lol

When taking the car abroad. Alweays allow the other half to take everything but the kitchen sink especially stuff that gets used up such as food. Go round the second hand shops and buy your holiday reading materials. Leave these behind as you finish them. Then by the time the hol is over you will have made a huge space in the car which you can fill with cheap booze!

Alcohol GEL!!! really can you post without mentioning the damned stuff....

My tips... make sure you always carry a packet of wet wipes or tissues as a lot of toilets do not have paper or anything to wash and dry your hands on.

I always travel with a change of underwear and a spare t shirt etc in my hand luggage if going for a weeks holiday. If you travel as a couple, put half of each others clothes in each case. Make sure you do at least 1 daytime and 1 nightime outfit, just in case your luggage goes astray.
Make sure you keep glasses and contact lenses and medication in your hand luggage.

sorry, you're right! I won't mention Gel again!

Sorry what is alcohol gel? My tips are to make a list of everything you have put in your suitcase and take a picture too of any expensive items, that way if they get lost you have proof of your stuff for an insurance claim and won't forget anything either.

We always book a taxi to pick us up from next door neighbour too so noone knows our place is empty. We unplug the telephone too. For long journeys we take panty liners instead of spare knickers and an eyemask for some kip.

Alcohol Gel is a liquid gel that you use to sterelise your hands if they are dirty! It kills all the germs! You can get it for about 99p from Superdrug!

It's great that Alcohol gel, = I make sure we have one each when away, !

We always book a taxi to pick us up from next door neighbour too so noone knows our place is empty. We unplug the telephone too

If we're on a daytime flight we get our taxi from my mum's house, 5 minutes away. She pops round in the car to pick up our suitcases the day before (I tell any nosey neighbours she's borrowing them for a car boot sale, or she's taking the kids away for a few days...) and then we casually set off to her house on the big day, usually passing the chippy on the way if it's around lunchtime and have our chips at her house before our taxi arrives (no smelly chippy wrappers sitting in our bin for two weeks). Of course if we're on an early morning flight we don't expect mum to get out of bed, and I don't think anyone is paying attention to us leaving at 5-6am anyway.
I switch off the cordless phone handsets so they don't ring out, but I leave the base unit plugged in to take messages. I use timer switches on my downstairs lamps and I put those light sensor thingies in a couple of the ceiling fittings. The one in the kitchen is set to come on from dusk till around 11pm (when I'd normally be going to bed) and the bathroom one is set to randomly switch on and off all night. My hi-fi has a clock on it which I set to turn on the radio around 9.30am until 10pm. I use Royal Mail's Keepsafe service to hold my mail until the morning after I get home.
The things you have to do, eh?!?!

Keep the ideas coming. Love them. The one about split rings is excellent - thanks and I will definitely be taking ice pops this year !!!

As for nosey neighbours, we traveled once and had to leave our house at 3.00am. Thought it was a good time to go, no one around. Wrong. We heard a shout from a neighbour asking where we were going and could bring her some cigarettes back? Husband muttered something and carried on loading the car. Having said that, she did keep an eye on our house for us. Husband's brother was popping in and out and she collared him one day wanting to know who he was, what he was doing trying to get into our house etc. Not all bad really.

We will be traveling at around lunch time this year so the idea of taking luggage the day before to my mum's house sounds like a good idea. It will also save me from unpacking and repacking about 3 times before we go !

Keep them tips coming. Im taking notes. Thanks.

When on holiday I use Ambre Solaire After Sun Tan Maintainer, which has a tiny amount of colour in it. After my holiday I use it all year as a moisturiser, and as I am very pale skinned I find it gives my skin a wee glow until holiday time comes round again.

We haven't used padlocks on the cases for years as they can break the zips on the cases. We use cable ties and they are much easier to put under the case strap too. We still take padlocks to keep the cases locked in the room.

We also super-glue the clasps on the luggage straps (rainbow things) and use the slider to loosen them to get them off the cases. We haven't lost one for years and if the zip does break you know the strap will do it's job.

We pack travel-size toilettries in the hand-luggage so we can dive under the shower when we first get there and buy everything else locally. We also take mozzie stuff to use when we first land as they love us.

We've got a couple of small pillows that we take (they are actually feather cushions that followed me home from a UK hotel) as the pillows in India are like house-bricks.

I put business cards in the suitcases so if they are lost I can prove they're mine, and we've got CPP cover so the stickers go inside too.

I have printed off the Keepsafe details and will keep this with my passport - so I remember.

Whats CCP cover?

CPP are a card protection company which also cover items like driving licence etc. Rather than drivel on see the website as it should tell you everything you want to know http://www.cpp.co.uk
They're very good and I've been a member for years at minimal cost, I know if anything was stolen/went missing or I lost my handbag/purse I phone just one number and everything gets cancelled