5 Smart Packing Tips for Your Next Family Holiday
The night before a family holiday always looks the same. Four people, four sets of needs, and a pile of clothes that keeps growing no matter how many times you sort it. By the time everyone’s swimwear, chargers and “just in case” jumpers are accounted for, you’re left wondering whether you need one suitcase or genuinely need to split everyone across five.
There’s no single right answer. But there is a smarter way to think about it, and it starts with deciding your strategy before you start throwing things in a bag.
Tip 1: Decide Your Suitcase Strategy Before You Pack
This is the first decision worth making. For a week or less, one large shared suitcase genuinely works. It’s one bag to check in, one bag to keep track of and significantly less to carry through an airport with two kids in tow. The trade-off is that if it goes missing, everyone’s belongings go missing with it.
If you’re going the one-bag route, you need something with genuine capacity. The Air Glide XL Suitcase in Teal is built for exactly this. At 32 inches it’s the largest in the Air Glide range, with a fully lined interior, compression straps to stop everything shifting around and a zippered divider so you’re not hunting through one giant pile for a single pair of socks. Polycarbonate hard shell, TSA lock, double spinner wheels. The kind of bag that can genuinely hold four people’s worth of holiday.
One more thing worth deciding before you start packing: check your destination's socket type and pack a plug adaptor if you need one. It is one of the most forgotten items on a family holiday and significantly harder to sort once you have arrived.
For longer trips, or if you're someone who likes a plan B, splitting clothes across more than one bag is worth it. Not sure which size is right for your trip length? Our guide covers what size suitcase you need for seven and ten day trips.
Tip 2: Give Each Child Their Own Bag
Try finding a specific pair of pants in a suitcase packed by several people and you’ll understand why so many people recommend giving each child their own small bag. It’s not just about space. Kids get a sense of ownership over their own things, and you stop being the only person responsible for remembering where everything went. Our collection of small cabin bags is perfect for this.
If you’re buying one per child and want them to actually tell their bags apart at baggage claim or in an airport queue, the Vacay Cabin Bag in Sky Blue and the one in Vacay Cabin Bag in Clay give you an easy way to colour-code whose bag is whose. No more “that one’s mine” disputes at the carousel.
For babies and toddlers the strategy is different. Nappies, formula, baby food and a compact travel changing mat all need their own accessible pocket, ideally in the cabin bag rather than checked luggage. Airlines including TUI include a separate 10 kg allowance for infants under two, which takes some pressure off the main suitcase.
Tip 3: Not Everything Needs Wheels
Not every kid wants to drag a suitcase through a departure lounge, and not every parent wants one more thing with wheels to keep track of. The Lugg Travel Backpack works well as an alternative for kids’ belongings. Cabin-approved, with a dedicated laptop compartment that doubles nicely as a tablet or colouring book pocket, plus a wet bag and shoe compartment that’ll come in handy the moment anyone comes back from the beach.
It also makes a good “plane bag” - the one with snacks, headphones and whatever toy is currently non-negotiable. The Lugg Travel Backpack fits easyJet and Ryanair restrictions perfectly.
Tip 4: Weigh Everything Before You Leave the House
An overweight suitcase at check-in turns a calm departure into a stressful one and fast. Nobody wants to be the family repacking at the desk while the queue behind you audibly sighs.
Our Digital Luggage Scale takes about ten seconds to use and removes the guesswork entirely. Weighs up to 50kg, switches between kg and lbs, and has an overweight alert so you find out before you’ve left the house rather than after you’ve queued for forty minutes. A small thing that makes a big difference on the morning of departure.
For a full list of things that catch families out at the airport, read our guide to common airport packing mistakes.
Tip 5: Plan the Beach Bag Separately
If there’s a pool or a beach involved, and with family holidays there usually is, a couple of Waterproof Phone Pouches (2-Pack) earn their place in any kid’s bag or the family suitcase. They’re touchscreen compatible, so you can still take the photos, and you’re not the parent frantically drying off a phone that went in the pool because you wanted “one more video” for nan.
Beach days bring their own packing list on top of everything else. Goggles, a beach towel each (a second one if anyone's prone to sandy feet syndrome), reef shoes if you're heading somewhere with rocks and a dry bag for anything that shouldn't end up wet or sandy. None of it takes up much room individually, but it adds up fast if you haven't planned for it. Packing it together in one suitcase, rather than scattered across everyone's case, means you're not unpacking half the suitcase just to find someone's flip-flops on day one.
High SPF sunscreen. More than you think you will need. Resort shops charge significantly more than supermarket prices at home and you will go through it faster than expected with children.
Whether you’re packing one suitcase or five, the same principles hold. Decide your strategy before you start. Give kids ownership of their own bag if you can. Weigh everything before you leave rather than finding out at the desk. And leave room for the things that make the actual holiday better, not just the getting there. For a full trip-type breakdown covering beach, city break, ski and long-haul, see our full holiday packing list.
