Are you heading somewhere warm this winter/ spring break, lucky you! Well then, I want to share a few of my tips and suggestions to help make your packing more comfortable and your stay less consumed by unneeded purchases!

We travelled to Kona, Hawaii (The Big Island) as a family of 4, but a lot of these can apply to couples as well!

Check out my list below and make your upcoming trip more enjoyable (look for blue links for some buying suggestions btw).

NO.1

Your fourth luggage is the life saver…

If you’re travelling as a family of four and checking 4 pieces of luggage (like we do) make your kids use one suitcase for sharing. The other suitcase will hold all those (must have/needed) items. Which brings me to no.2...

NO.2

Packing cubes…

Purchase travel bags from ebags to organize your clothing! I have a bunch from them and found a bunch in Value village as well. THESE ARE AMAZING. Not just for big trips but weekend getaways, sleepovers, camping trips…I LOVE THESE THINGS.

You can organize by outfit or however the fuck you want to organize it! I pack by “category” (think shorts and pants together) What I love is that I don’t unpack when I get to the hotel, you just slide the whole unit into a hotel dresser drawer and tuck the top zipper flap around the bottom of the bag. Whalaa! Easy in and easy out!

I give my girls 4 each, in multiple sizes and tell them that this is all the room they get (kinda like a grab bag. It works perfectly, no fighting for space in the suitcase! If they want anything else, pop that shit in your carry-on girls, your on your own.

No.3

Foldable travel cooler…

Collapsible cooler bag (think slinky looking) this has upped our beach game day on vaca by 1000%! We can pack a lunch and have multiple drinks. The places we stay usually have a fridge/freezer, so we freeze a few bottles of water every night and we're good to go for everything stying cold for hours. Even if you don’t have a freezer, most hotels have ice…which leads me to No.4 ZIPLOCK BAGS! Grab ice in a large ziplock bag, its water proof and keeps things cool for a few hours.

No.4

Ziplocks are king…

As mentioned above, bring a large amount of various size Ziplock bags. THESE ARE SOOOO F'N HANDY, their travel gold in my opinion. Yes, yes of course you can buy them in Hawaii, but WHY? If have them at home take them, they weigh like NOTHING in your suitcase! I use them for packing snacks and lunches, wet clothing, ice, finding treasures, and for carrying your water safe item…the list goes on!

No.5

More then one beach bag…

Beach bags-we pack two, one water proof and one typical cloth/ straw beach bag (one is used for my camera gear and clothing (so dry stuff etc.). So you could probably get away with one but if your like us with 2 kids, you will need two. I recommend going to VV (value village) and purchasing one that you don’t care to leave behind if you don’t really use beach bags at home.

No.6

Water shoes…

You will need water shoes if your snorkelling, we used ours three times on this trip! Again another VV purchase, these guys should sponsor me! If you’ve planned your trip in advance, you can hunt them down there (usually about $4).

Trace your children or teens feet on a piece of paper and keep it in your wallet to measure accurately. Now, if “used shoes” creep you out (we may not be able to be friends, lol, joking, I get it), you can find VERY reasonably priced ones from Canadian Tire! We kept our shoes after our last trip to Mexico (kids swapped out, my youngest took my oldest and my oldest took mine, and I could fit into the their previous pair…lol that’s a tongue twister for reading). Kids feet grow fast, that’s why cheap used ones work for us and you can sell them or pass them to others after the trips over.

No.7

Wear your runners…

Bring your runners if you plan on hiking or just site seeing! I would recommend you wear them on the plan, that way they don’t need to get packed! Annnd if the plane crashes you have solid footwear to get out safely, yep I just said that!

No.8

Beach towels…

Pack thin towels! I know you're making a scrunched face at me but think about how much you're going to be in the ocean, or the pool! Towels in a hotel room after a long day don’t dry fast (Well, we had a dryer, but we used both sets on the regular!) Also, I don’t feel like losing the hotel towels at the beach, I have those kids! This is a personal preference, but for Hawaii, I was delighted we brought them. Even for the car rental seats, remember sunscreen leaves MARKS.

No.9

That sounds swell…

Swell bottles (or any other thermal beverage container). My god, how I love these bottles. Honestly, it keeps your mamma juice cold for hours! Then once you’re done, you pull one out of your cold cooler bag and pop it in for another few hours of tasty cold goodness! You can pack them in checked luggage or, carry them empty in your carry on! We checked ours in the spare 3 luggage, see how that extra luggage is making sense now! All of us had one for the trip, all of us were hydrated and either lightly buzzed (me) or just happy (kids). Beer cosies are also not a bad call for when your back at the hotel room and using the pool, just saying!

No.10

RENT WHAT?

If you own snorkel gear, pack it! This way you can use your own “personal germed”one whenever you want. I didn’t want to use the rentals on the daily. Yes, this is the Portuguese germaphobe speaking, lol! I also packed wipes to clean the handles and the remotes…I didn’t want anyone getting sick, judge me…I do not care!

BUT I will say this, rent your umbrella, boogie board and chairs for the week (if you need them)! We rented a boogie board and an umbrella (the heat was almost unmanageable without one). You can get bundle deals for the week and their so chill in Kona. We returned ours after dark and tossed it over the gate gently as per there instructions…no stress living over there clearly! lol.

No.11

Environmental bags…

Small pouched, material grocery bags! I would bring at least two of these. You will need them at the grocery store, you will need them for your In between times from your check out at the hotel till your late-night flight. We spent an entire day out and about after check out, left the large luggage at the hotel and packed some quick bags with food & clothing switches along with toiletries for the day. You'll need them for wet stuff that doesn’t fit in a ziplock. My preferred brand is the IKEA ones they fold up into a small pouch, and they're washable.

No.12

Portable foldable backpacks…

If you're planning to do any kind of hiking in Kona this is a must. I'm talking about those teeny tiny pouch backpacks. I bought both of mine from VV for 4 dollars each. One of those backpacks carried all of our snorkel gear, and the other carries all of our towels when we hit up Captain Cook for a hike and snorkel. Greg used his carry-on backpack for a large amount of water (that you need) and I used Amara carry-on backpack for my camera gear and some extra things. So 4 in total, we all had a backpack to lighten the load for all of us!

No.13

Always use protection…

An underwater case for your iPhone. I bought mine from Amazon for about 12.99. The brand is Mpow, and it works really well for the price. On sale for 9.99 with free shipping!! DEAL MUCH.

No.14

Be a walking Pharmasave…

Pack a Ziploc bag (shocker), with snack-size ziplock bags full of anything you, may require that you don't want to buy for $12 there (for use I had Advil, cold and flu, diarrhoea pills anti-nausea pills etc.). This is super handy if you get sunstroke, a bad burn or you happen to get sick. Also, I would recommend a few caffeine pills if you're addicted to coffee like I am, and you don't drink cows milk (which I don’t). Just in case you can't get your coffee in right away and don't want to have a headache the first day of your vacation.

Also bring some Band-Aids and ointment because it can be rough AF in the water some times.

No.15

Rent a kitchen…

Rent a place that has a full kitchen! When you were having those long days in the sun, the last thing we wanted to do was to shower, get ourselves ready and go out. It was awesome to pop a pizza in the oven, make a salad and just chill! Not to mention it’s way cheaper to do it this way. Ok, let's be honest, you know how I like to eat...I really wanted to make my own food for most of our trip! keep them bowels regular I say, lol!

No.16

Have a travel kitchen…

So let me be clear, yes you can and will buy food in Kona but it’s convenient to have granola bars, power bars, goldfish, Mr. noodle and crispers on hand for when you arrive and in those "need something fast moments".

Also, I love natural peanut butter, I have a TON of in on hand all the time at home. So I transferred some into a small jar for the trip, ate it and left the jar for recycling! I would recommend doing this with a few items that A) you don’t want to pay for a FULL JAR of it and B), you might not find it there!

I also brought drink size boxs soya milk that didn’t need to be refrigerated till you opened it. I brought just the right amount, and I got my first cup of coffee the next morning! WINNING. Well, everyones winning when mom gets her coffee, right!? This is not my first rodeo. My family likes me better after one cup of coffee.

Not to mention, once you’ve eaten your food you will have room in the forth suitcase for all those chocolate macadamia nuts that are coming home with you.

No.17

Save those takeout packets…

I almost forgot, collect those small condiment packs before your trip! We had ketchup. Mayo, hot sauce, relish, mustard, salt, pepper and a few other misc ones that totally come in handy! There’s nothing worse than buying a bottle of ketchup and using 4 tablespoons! There great with those packed lunches too!

No.18

Protect the coral…

If you're going to buy the reef-friendly sunscreen (which I recommend), do not buy the spray on wet stuff! You know what I'm talking about, it literally comes out wet, and you have to rub it in to dry before going in? It’s the shits.

The aerosol ones are great, and the cream ones work well too. You can buy both the aerosol and cream reef-friendly sunscreen at Costco in a two-pack, at a very sensible price of $15.99 US. Which is totally reasonable because back home it’s the same price, if not more for the reef safe sunscreen.

No.19

Sun/water shirts…

Yes, it’s a must bring. These came in really handy when we all got a little burned from the shitty wet sunscreen we brought! Let’s be honest, if you're a honky white Canadian, you're going to burn a little. #FACT

It’s also nice not to have to apply sunscreen every hour when your boogie boarding or crashing around in the waves! Again VV is where I bought mine! I also bought the girls ones from there too. When you have time to hunt, you can find all of this stuff there! Not to mention, if you plan on surfing you're going to need a rash guard.

No.20

Sunglasses…

Bring shitty sunglasses. They get so worked over from the saltwater & sunscreen etc. Why trash your Ray-Bans, or Maui Jims, just saying!

No.21

Shopping…

So if you're going to go to Costco, which I recommend, you can buy literally EVERYTHING and more there. Now there is a Walmart you can visit for all of those smaller items, except it's not a SUPER Walmart! So they don't have a lot of produce, like the ones at home have! The Safeway tho right beside Walmart has all of the small stuff Walmarts missing.

BTW Walmart is cheaper and still has lots of fantastic options for assorted drinks (boozy and non-boozy), small snacks and other things.

We loved Kona, it was a perfect family Vaca for us…just enough exploring, with just the right amount of chill time!