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What unusual / eccentric item to you take on holiday with you?

Ian Sutton

1000+ Posts
Much effort over the years goes into travelling as light as possible when on holiday. However is there anything you don't really need, but that you take with you out of habit/tradition?

For us, my partner used to get frustrated with apartments having basic Bialetti mokapots that never got dried / aired properly so suffer from blackspot in the water chamber... so we used to take one of our own mokapots to Italy. "Coals to Newcastle" is a phrase some might recognise. :D
 
I travel with a plastic Melisa filter thing for coffee, as recommended by @Shannon . We have a collection of moka pots bought over the years in Italy. Some of the ones in vacation rentals really are horrible!

The unusual thing we travel with is a set of sheets and pillow cases. We both dislike synthetic fragrances and any place where they do their own washing, instead of sending out to a laundry, uses regular laundry soap which is heavily scented.
 
I know someone who takes a cabbage patch doll around the world with them :wideyed:
 
My wife always keeps a very small multi-tool in her bag. It includes a small knife(!), scissors, nail file, etc. (pics attached). She insists on taking it in her carry-on when we travel abroad - I have despaired from trying to persuade her that we don't need it (we always have the real tools in real size anyway) - and I am always afraid that the tool will cause problems at security inspections in the airports. The strange thing is : it's NEVER detected.
So after we've distanced ourselves far enough from the security personnel, I get the "see?" smile...

IMG_6383.JPG IMG_6384.JPG
 
We had a walking pole confiscated at an Italian airport, having taken it out there on the outward flight o_O

Conversely, I recall vividly, a couple of years before security asking the brains of the operation to take off her boots. She said "No" and the security guard just shrugged it off and let her through! :eek:
 
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I take my own laundry powder detergent because I am sensitive to perfumes/dyes. I just load up a zip lock with the amount I think I'll need and throw it into an outside pocket of my suitcase. It makes it much easier than searching for a local product that won't trigger my sensitivities.
 
Hi Jan
Although not suffering from any great allergies, we've certainly taken laundry detergent with us. Not that we can't find it in Italy, but it allows us to take enough for ~ 2 loads per week we're there, rather than ending up with detergent we don't need to bring back.
regards
Ian
 
Not sure it is unusual...

In my profile, I say that travel, wine, and photography are my passions, but there is one thing that I never leave home without. That would be my iPod. I have about 50 gbytes music (and the album cover picture for every downloaded album) on my little magic box. The music genres cover from Pink Floyd to Pavarotti – Joni Mitchell to Johnny Cash and everything in between.

I will never forget falling asleep on a train in the Netherlands traveling between Hengelo and Amsterdam with my ear buds in and my head on the window… Somewhere in the distance of my subconscious I could hear Van Morrison wailing Into the Mystic, and as I opened my eyes a fog had rolled in hovering about 10 feet above the snow covered farm fields. It was truly surrealistic a moment.

Music, I never leave home without it.
 
As we always self cater, the first thing that goes on to the spare bed when we begin preparing for our trip is an apron, a knife and, because we like crushed garlic in our vinaigrette, a small garlic press. We also take a spare cork screw after once having the one in the gite break on Sunday night. And a light weight cooler bag which we use every day for our picnic lunch.
 
Aha, yes cooler bag here too occasionally, picnics, food shopping on a hot day, or to keep stuff cool on the return journey.

We do often take a corkscrew, one I don't particularly like, with the expectation we'll leave it in Italy if there isn't one in the apartment, but there always is!
 
I travel with a plastic Melisa filter thing for coffee, as recommended by @Shannon . We have a collection of moka pots bought over the years in Italy. Some of the ones in vacation rentals really are horrible!

I also travel with a Melitta plastic filter and #2 filters. I need my coffee quickly once I wake up :D
 
I take small gift items for any "travel angels" I may meet along the way. Maybe a few Boston Trader Joe bags, Boston keychains, magnets, postcards. It's fun to hand them out to an unsuspecting waiter or waitress who has been especially fun...or the shop owner who went out of his/her way to help out, offer advice...whatever! I love to see the smiles when I hand them "a little something". It's fun to go back to places and see the Boston magnet still stuck on the cash register :)

I don't take a corkscrew but I do take wine stoppers; I like the silicone ones by Rabbit.

Great thread, thank you Ian for starting it :)

RabbitWineStopper.jpg
 
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As we always self cater, the first thing that goes on to the spare bed when we begin preparing for our trip is an apron, a knife and, because we like crushed garlic in our vinaigrette, a small garlic press...

I too bring kitchen things. I have a long, narrow packing cube for them - my good knife, vegetable peeler, small knife, wooden spoon in case ones provided are yucky, sea salt. I should add in an apron!
 
As I/we are usually renting apartments; I bring a pair of washing up gloves, an old tea towel, a dish sponge, and laundry soap pods. Rarely do rentals have decent dish towels and sponges in my experience; and I only bring enough laundry pods for the time we'll be there, to avoid buying the over scented and big sized containers in Europe.
Just back from renting the same apartment in Paris I had last year, so this year I brought along a big mug for tea, as they only had tiny cups last year. I just left it there.
 
We've brought both Melita filter and Moka espresso. This trip I refused to bring the espresso as too heavy to lug around for 3 months. We've lived to regret that as addicted to the coffee it produces.
Laundry soap. Now why haven't I thought of that as also hate the scented kind and have had to use it for several washes. Luckily it's just a preference not an allergy.
 
I too bring kitchen things. I have a long, narrow packing cube for them - my good knife, vegetable peeler, small knife, wooden spoon in case ones provided are yucky, sea salt. I should add in an apron!


I usually bring kitchen things as well, especially a good sharp kitchen knife. But I have some issues for our next trip. We will be starting in London, then Eurostar to Brussels/Bruges and a side trip to Haarlem by Thalys. I believe the kitchen knife will not be allowed on the Eurostar.

Question: Will a screw type wine puller be a problem as well on the Eurostar?
 

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