IF YOU haven't already taken your summer holidays you're probably thinking about packing.
If that's the case - see what I did there - have you remembered your tea bags?
Would you be packing your marmite? What about your crisps?
According to a survey by the Post Office, revealed this week, British holidaymakers are more likely to make room for tea bags in their suitcase than they are for a pair of shoes.
In fact the top ten items 'British travellers always make room for in their suitcase' lists tea bags, coffee, chocolate, biscuits and marmite before hair straighteners and even holiday essential the Kindle.
With that seemingly very British list in mind, we asked The Irish Post editorial team to list the top five items they can't live without when they head abroad for their summer holidays.
The results range from the bizarre - 'a tennis ball' - no rackets?, to the more understandable 'Barry's tea', with some interesting entries in between.
Katy always packs some Barry's tea whenever she heads abroadKaty Harrington
Journalist
1. Barry's tea bags (always, it's a Cork thing) and holidays make me very thirsty.
2. Six times more suncream than I need, in every factor (SPF15 for legs, SPF50 for face...etc). The only way to make sure you come home with a perfectly patchy tan
3. A backless dress I wouldn't set foot out the house in at home
4. Speakers - essential for hosting upmarket 'cocktail parties' in the apartment before going out (drinking wine out of the two mugs in the cupboard and eating weird foreign snacks out of the fruit bowl).
5. Hairdryer, straighteners, tongs and a ridiculous holiday hat. Irish hair does not make for sexy tousled waves when you come out of the sea; mine goes Bonnie Tyler circa 1983.
Robert Mulhern
Journalist
1. Phone charger
2. Laptop
3. Runners
4. Book
I really can't think of anything else.
Ronan Early
Sports Editor
I honestly barley bring five things, let alone five unusual things but...
1. Shorts, about four pairs (Slazenger, Sports direct. Cost about £3 each).
2. T-shirts, about 10. Mainly merchandise of the various sports team I follow. There will be at least one day spent in an Irish/English bar that has the curtains drawn against the sun, the game on, the volume up and the San Miguel on sale for €1.50 a pint before 6pm.
3. Hoodie, one, in case it gets cold.
4. Book, one.
And that's it. Anything else that may be needed (flip-flops, towels, passports, kids, tickets, toiletries) I leave to the superior organisation of the better half. Her revenge is seeing me struggle less than manfully under this weight at carousals and shuttle buses.
Nemesha lists a tennis ball as one of her essential items...but no tennis racket?Nemesha Balasundaram
Online Reporter
My top five items... here goes...
1. Deck of cards
2. Tennis ball
3. Scissors
4. Cereal
5. Three pairs of sunglasses... I seem to lose them one by one through the holiday!
Fiona Audley
Regional Editor
1. Too many clothes. Most will return unworn, but still need washing so it's simply a chore-inducing exercise.
2. Books - lots of these too. A Kindle would save me a ton of weight but I need real books, with binds that melt in the sun and pages that fly everywhere, regularly sending me on a mad dash to save those unread pages.
3. Shampoo, I have to bring my own. I'm weird about buying it in other countries.
4. Nail varnish. Holidays are the time for regular experimentation with colours, where normal life only allows for a weekly application and rushed touch ups.
5. An array of medicines, pills and potions I will never use. They're all thrown in the bag every year, in case of emergency, and they all make their way back home again too. Totally unnecessary.
Top Ten Items British Travellers always make room for in their suitcase...
1.Tea bags
2. Coffee
3. Books
4. Shoes
5. Chocolate
6. Biscuits
7. Marmite
8. Straightners
9. Kindle
10. Crisps
Source : Post Office.
