Family holidays: Top ten essentials to pack

Bliss Camping, who offer relaxing family holidays in sixty holiday villages in Italy, Spain, France, Austria, Croatia and Hungary, has come up with its top 10 essential items to pack to ensure a relaxing family holiday this summer. 

Duct Tape – don’t leave home without a roll, for instant repairs, re-sealing bags of crisps, removing lint on clothes, hanging a strip as a handy fly catcher, a quick bandage (with a wad of tissue), an instant hem repair, reinforcing a torn map…

A head torch – you may look like a displaced miner, but you’ll be grateful when returning to base after a night out, while older kids can read at night without disturbing younger ones

Baby wipes – too many uses to mention and not just for babies either. 

Wind-up Radio - eventually even Apple's most recent gadget will run out of batteries.

Playing cards – a family holiday essential, second only to a bottle of wine and a corkscrew.

Travel Pillow - An inflatable travel pillow allows you to nod off without getting neck ache, transforms into a flotation aid or a booster seat for smaller diners and packs down to nothing.

Cable ties – light to pack, cheap to buy and fun to use, they’ll come in handy as an impromptu game, for keeping keys together or attaching toys to pushchairs.

Resealable bags – ziplock bags are great for wet clothes, will keep kids’ games and packs of cards together, and can be sealed securely for marinating meat and fish for the BBQ.

Raincoats – sadly even Mediterranean climates have rain from time to time it would be tempting fate to leave home without them

Sunscreen – even more important than raincoats, keep the family protected from the harmful rays of the sun and bring some after sun too.

Bliss Camping offers holidays in some of Europe’s most sought after campsites and destinations with prices from £23 per luxury tent / night (four sharing) and from £32 per chalet-style mobile home / night (four sharing).

For details of relaxing family holidays in some of Europe’s top holiday villages blisscamping.co.uk.