What’s In My Bag – Festive Travel Edition!
What with Christmas fast approaching, I thought I would do a little festive travel essentials blog post! This Christmas I shall be staying at my auntie’s house and my mum has a small car so I am only able to take a backpack of items which will last me for the festive season (well, two days). However, never fear – I am known for being able to pack really lightly so I’m going to go through what I consider to be my essentials for travelling.
The first thing that I always think of when I’m about to go on my travels is my phone and my phone charger. Interestingly, they’re always the last thing to get packed. But seriously, without my phone and my phone charger, I think I would malfunction. As Christmas is a time for family and festivities, it would be a crime not to take pictures of the day’s events – everything from the food (my auntie is such an amazing cook) to the prizes that my older brother will inevitably get for winning charades, every moment is unique in its own way. Also, big family get-togethers don’t come around very often so it’s nice to capture those rare moments.
Next, I don’t go anywhere without my purse. I got my purse in the Cath Kidston sale after Christmas and I love it! It’s a polka dot, teal purse/wallet and it’s massive (but not too massive that it will only fit in a massive bag). It fits loads of cards in and has a sizeable coin purse part too. It’s coming up to our year anniversary and it’s still maintained really good condition so I fully recommend it! I know I’m going to be hanging out with my family and not going anywhere near a shop, but I always take my purse wherever I go otherwise I feel naked… Does anyone else feel the same or is that just me?
This Christmas I will be packing my new, shiny iPad! I only recently got this but I’m thinking that it will come in handy if I need to play music when I’m getting ready in the morning. Also, I tend to wake up quite early in the mornings and my family appreciate a good lay-in. So if I awake from my slumber a bit early then I can pop something up on Netflix and wait for the family to rise for the festivities to continue!
Of course I shall be taking some makeup with me on my travels – I rarely bother wearing makeup to work as I prioritise sleep over make-up (please don’t shun me), so when I go out with my friends or do something that’s a bit more exciting with my day, I like to put some makeup on – so obviously I’ll be going all-out at Christmas! I’ll be using the golden/brown eye shadows from my Urban Decay Naked Palette and probably put Tanya Burr’s lip gloss ‘Vampire Kiss’ on my lips if I’m in the mood for a bit of red! Let’s face it – red lips are perfect for Christmas and selfies by the Christmas tree.
Next of course are the outfits – you can’t go travelling without any clobber! I haven’t actually thought about what I’m going to be wearing on Christmas and Boxing Day. However, as it’s Christmas, I think I’m going to go with festive and comfy – maybe black leggings, a black vest and a casual cardigan. The great thing about wearing casual things is you can fold them up and pack them away in your bag and they hardly take up any space (also it doesn’t matter if they get a bit screwed up!). As for clothes when you’re doing the travelling itself, I think comfort is key – especially if you’re faced with a long journey. For the last three years I have been living in North Wales as that’s where I went to university. I loved every minute of it as its so beautiful and it’s a far cry from my home town back in Essex. Emphasis on the ‘far’ as travelling would take, on average, about 6 hours. It was on these journeys that I realised a cosy and comfortable outfit was important for travelling so make sure you get your leggings, Uggs and oversized jumpers out! Not only does comfortable attire help with the travelling process, but having an easy journey also helps. I have noticed that some of you readers are from the states. I am from the UK which is incredibly small compared to the U.S. and I don’t think I can quite comprehend how big the states actually is, but this must make travelling home for the holidays a right pain! I have heard about company called RelayRides and they’re great if you’re looking for an airport car rental. After all, we can’t expect friends/family to do all the driving – they will want to enjoy the mulled wine too… But getting taxis from the airport can be really expensive however, RelayRides offer a really great, affordable alternative to get you from the airport to your loved ones. Which is great news all around – you won’t have to get your family out into the cold and with the money you save you might as well go out and buy yourself a little Christmas treat. I’ll put a link to their website at the bottom of this post if you want to check them out!
So, what are your must haves for when you visit your family over Christmas? Have any of you got a long way to travel? Let me know in the comments below!
Link to Relay Rides: http://www.relayrides.com