General instructions
After we arranged our leave from work, had a family council and decided that we will go on vacation, we decided the country we will go to, the city we will visit and after many days of searching on the internet, we found a very nice place to stay.
We booked our plane tickets, arranged the days, the times, to coincide with our hotel reservation, or did it the other way around, we booked the plane or ship tickets, and searched the accommodations to find what meets our requirements us and our needs. That goes too, we closed it!! The holiday days are approaching, and we are getting a relative anxiety about what we need and what we should have with us.
Have you ever gone on vacation and didn’t have essential items with you?
Maybe you took so many things on your vacation that you didn’t use half of them?
All this and more has happened to all of us, and each time we become more organized on the next trip, only sometimes we get lost in the organization and either take more than we need, or forget to take essential things.
A practical guide would help to put in groups and order both our thoughts and the things of our suitcase.
This article will help us to have a general idea of what we should take with us, but it can be adapted according to our needs because it differs a little e.g. if we have children, if we are a group, if we are a couple, if we are alone, etc.
First of all, we will create general categories, for example what will go in hand luggage, what will go in the suitcase, what will go in the bag with personal care items, and what will be kept as a pharmacy.
Another category is whether the trip is business or vacation and relaxation, and this is very important because many things change depending on the purpose of the trip we are making.
When we book a space as guests we will make an initial contact with the accommodation we have chosen to make sure that the owner has been informed about our reservation, that the reservation is OK, and to ask a few basic things.
If it is not obvious in the photos and in the description, let’s find out if it has stairs, an elevator, or if the space is on the ground floor and if there are internal stairs (e.g. in a villa with 2-3 floors there are internal stairs).
Look at the accommodation facilities or ask the host if there is shampoo, shower gel, toilet paper, beach towels, hair dryer, pharmacy items such as painkillers, antipyretics, antihistamines for allergies, trauma plasters in various sizes, anti-allergy cream for insect bites, mosquito repellent,
If provides board games, magazines, crosswords, books for children and adults, maps of the area.
All these are very important to know before our trip, because we will secure a lot of space in our suitcase if they are already in the accommodation we have rented.
In our list we will assume that the hotel provides absolutely none of these.

List of what we need to have in holidays trip
In our bag or purse or in an inside pocket:
Watch (it is better to wear it on our hand).
Money
Credit and or debit cards
Identity card or passport if traveling abroad (or both)
Tickets
Driving License
Telephone numbers of the hotel, banks, port authorities, airports, municipality, and embassies if we are going abroad, and in general any service we will need on our trip.
Even though there is internet, many times the phones are not up to date and while calling a service it seems as if they are not working.
To know the Social Insurance Number (AMKA) in Greece and the corresponding number if we are residents outside of Greece for our medical treatment in case of need.
If we are traveling in Europe, to have obtained the European Health Insurance Card.
If we are traveling outside of Europe, we should be informed about the way the specific country deals with the health issue and what agreements the two countries have made with each other. It is very important to know where to turn in the event of an accident or illness while in third countries.
Vaccines as recommended by the World Health Organization for some countries
And we continue our list:
Mobile
Tissues
Disinfecting wipes for hands
In hand luggage:
We put photocopies of the travel documents in a case so that in case of loss of the originals we have to show the copies to the services
mobile charger
Photo and/or video camera
Sunglasses
1 set of underwear (to be used in case the main suitcase is lost)
1 set of clothes (to wear in case the main suitcase is lost)
1 face towel
Slippers if our trip is long enough to rest our feet
1 small book or magazine or newspaper or crossword puzzle or shodoku to read during our trip and also on our vacation.
MP3
Our glasses if we have a vision problem, and sun glasses
Our pills if we take pills
Mirror, lipstick, lip gloss
We remember that the tablet and the laptop have to go through airport control separately, so we put them in hand luggage.

What we put in our suitcase
Clothes rolled up
Underwear rolled up
Pajamas rolled up
Socks
Shoes in a well-tied bag for walking, for beach, for mountains, for evenings
Slippers or flip-flops in a well-tied bag
Cardigan depending on the season
Accessorys
Jewelry and Fo bijou
Power bank and Bluetooth speaker
Reso candles for romantic evenings, lighter and/ or scented sticks
Travel guide and very detailed map of the area
A few empty bags (for rubbish, to put something we will need to carry). We roll them very well like a triangle so that they take up little space.
Various specialized personal aids like blood sugar meter, blood pressure meter, flippers etc.
Belt – belts
Sun hat
Swimsuit
Pareo
Sea towels
Beach bag
Inside the large suitcase we put the cosmetic case that contains:
Face and body sunsprotection, but if there is limited space in the suitcases we can buy it at our destination.
Corona test
Toothbrush, toothpaste up to 100 ml and dental floss
Shower gel, shampoo, small sponge
Cotton swabs
Small nail scissors
Tweezers
Shaving razor or shaver for men
Shaving foam for men
Aftershave for men
Hair care products such as hairspray, foam, gel, etc.
Razor or wax or epilator for women
Perfume and/ or deodorant
Makeup items
Face cream, eye cream, emulsion and lotion, or soap.
Baby wipes for small stains
5-10 Disposable plastic covers for the toilet bowl
Elastic bandages, simple and hemostatic gauze, painkillers.
General information before the hoidays trip
To have been informed about the itineraries of public transport and to have organized where we will go and how and the times needed for each route. Also to know the approximate prices, I remember being surprised in Germany when they asked me for the train ticket 90 euros. If I had researched the routes before the trip, I would have been informed and more organized.
I have found it very effective to have a collection of jokes and share them with our friends at times when we want to laugh and have fun.
We prepare the bags 2 days in advance, and we have procured in the previous days what we need to take with us.
We charge all our devices before the trip
What we do before the trip for the house
We make sure the house is safe by locking all the doors and securing the windows. It would be good, during our absence, to have a light with a timer in the room, or a wife light to turn it on and off sometimes in the evenings.
We inform loved ones who live nearby or neighbors about our absence so that they can have their attention at home while we are away, while it is very functional to have someone with the keys to our house in case of water leakage, electricity, accident, etc.
It is quite useful to pour a few drops of washing-up liquid down each drain, e.g. in the sink, in the toilet bowl, in the wash basin, in the hydromassage, in the bathtub and in the floor drains, so that they do not close in our absence.
We turn our landline phone down to silent.
We put our valuables in a safe, or in a safe deposit box at the bank, or hide them somewhere safe.
Useful information – tips for relax trip and holidays
For the suitcase we choose clothes that do not need ironing, while we put the cosmetics in plastic bags, tie them well and place them in the various spaces of the suitcase.
We roll the clothes to save space.
When we go on vacation, we leave room in our suitcase for the gifts we will buy to give to our friends.
We organize very well the route from the airport or from the port to the accommodation where we will stay, we calculate the times we will need, and we inform the owner of the accommodation about our arrival time.
We organize what we will wear each day so that we get clothes that match each other and the amount we need.
We remember that liquids up to 100 ml and up to 10 packages in total are allowed in the cabin bag, while we are not allowed to take water in our hand luggage or bag.

What we leave behind – we don’t take with us:
The hair dryer is always available in the hotel and if there isn’t, it’s time to let our hair rest on vacation too.
Hair straightener
Iron for clothes. There is always an iron at our disposal either in our room or at the reception.
Jewelry and especially the expensive ones. We take with us colorful fo bijou of small value
Towels, sheets and linen are provided by our accommodation.
Lots of similar clothes, e.g. there is no point in taking 3 checkered skirts, or 4 striped shirts with us. We’ll get one of each kind.
Shampoos and shower gels
Many foods we take only as much as we will consume during the trip.
Many books is an exaggeration. One 6 book is enough to keep us company on our vacation.
We will be very happy if you write us your impressions of this article and also add things that you take on your vacation that are not in this list, so that we can create a complete guide for our travels.



