An army of eBags?

One of the things that we have learnt very quickly in planning this trip is that somebody somewhere has been there and done whatever it is that you are going to do and has usually written about it somewhere. There are so many amazing blogs and websites written by families out there travelling in different ways. These have been incredible sources of information for us in the planning stages. I will write in time about some of them in more detail. We are lucky enough to have friends that have travelled extensively with kids too and one such family are our lovely friends Becs and Pete Ryell and their boys. They have done 2 extended periods of travel (3-5 month trips) with very young kids and countless other trips and what they don't know about travel hacks and how to do it isn't worth knowing.

I have to confess at this point that we are one of those 'explosion' families normally. 5 minutes in a hotel room or rental home and the place looks like a bomb as gone off. My idea of packing is stuffing everything in and sitting on the case until the zip just about makes it round... Davey, on the other hand, prefers a little more order to his packing.

So, a coffee with Becs the other day lead to the 'What is your top tip for travelling with kids?' question.. The answer was easy, she said.

eBags. What? eBags.

Packing cubes? eBags?

I looked confused. She ran up to the attic and produced an array of different sized, canvas material bags. Each person has a different colour and a few different sizes. ie small for pants and socks, medium for shorts and trousers and a big one for jumpers and tops... You get the idea.

Genius. Each person knows exactly where everything is and just takes their eBags out of the main bag and shoves them in the drawer available.

So, today we packed our eBags for the first time. They all then got packed in the 2 Osprey Bags that we have bought (130 litre and 80 litre) and we were done. We are taking a third hold all bag containing a travel cot, clip on high chair, small micro fibre towels, rashies and boardies and that is it.

So, the packing is an ordered Anaesthetists dream and the kids were actually excited about helping to unpack when we arrived this evening. Happy days.

We haven't got far, West Wales to be precise but this is the first stop. A family holiday in one of our favourite places on earth. With our many eBags. Our army of eBags.