Parent Life: Keeping Holidays Stylish

I love packing for holidays. The joy of thinking about outfits, trawling sites online to find the perfect top to go with the skirt I’d picked up six months earlier. It was a huge part of the holiday prep for me and gave me (almost) as much joy as the trip itself. I’d spend hours putting things on the spare room bed before carefully packing them into the case the night before. I sound smug don’t I?

It’s changed. It’s all changed. It turns out, holidaying with a little one in tow not only changes your holiday plans, it also affects your packing. Cute sundresses are replaced with tub loads of sunblock, nappies to last at least a year and every single one of your child’s toys. Not to mention a bag of new ones to keep them entertained on the way out.

But I don’t want to just give up all hope of fashion and style, purely to make way for yet another Duplo truck. So, in the hopes of retaining some small element of holidays past, Amara offered to help me make my trip ‘trendy’ with a few bits from their travel essentials selection. Here’s what we went for…

ps. Is trendy still a cool word? 

The Beach Bag

Everyone knows that a key ingredient of holiday ‘kit’ is the beach bag. It’s got to be big enough to fit the essentials, the baby bits and the indulgences… god forbid you get a moment to actually read your book. The challenge is finding something that fits all of that without turning each beach trip into a backpacking holiday.

I’m absolutely head over heels in love with this Missoni Home Beach Bag. Made from a towelling material, it’s soft, packs up wonderfully and still feels comfortable hanging over my shoulder. Major, major bonus points for the fab Missoni design which instantly perk up any tired mum outfit.

Headphones

Holidays are one of the few times I use headphones, whether that’s during travel itself, on the plane or sat by the pool. If you’re sharing a room with your child, you’ll also find yourself wearing them whilst lying in the dark watching shows on your laptop whilst the baby sleeps… just me?!

These aHead Heaphones from KREAFUNK aren’t as chunky as the majority of headphones I’ve seen on the market and fit comfortably, even when leant on! I love the small rose gold detailing on the ear pieces; these headphones are seriously stylish. They’re wireless with a storage bag included; finally a pair of headphones I don’t have to spend twenty minutes finding, de-tangling and de-crumbing first. Even better, they fit my son’s head quite comfortably as well… a fact which made those 4am wake ups far better. Just set him up on the iPad and back to snoozing we go.

Toiletries

Let’s face it. They’re not a ‘sexy’ part of holidays but is there any greater joy than sorting the toiletries out? I didn’t think so. Aside from the urge to buy everything in miniature and stock up on enough medicines to treat the plague, the toiletry sort is always accompanied by a small fear of explosion. I struggle to believe I’ve lasted 31 years without hearing about these travel pouches from Seletti.

We tried the ‘medicines’ bag which fitted all the essentials plus a lifetime supply of suncream. Not only did we know exactly where the medicines were at any time, the fear of explosion was taken away nicely. The pouch seals with a zip across the top and then a velcro flap. On arrival we opened it up to find the mosquito repellant had kindly exploded inside the pouch – a quick wipe down of the washable nylon fabric and we were back to normal. I’m a convert! I just need to convince everyone that I need all of the other pouches now; toiletries, electricals, shoes, liquids, the list goes on.

Now to book another holiday to use them all again…