How to Take Your Kids to Ireland--Luggage and Logistics

Planning a trip to the Republic of Ireland with your family? Let our experiences traveling with two tween-agers help you see the country, meet locals, connect with history, and keep to a modest budget!

Previous: Steps 6-7: Itinerary and Housing

 

Step 8: Luggage 

You're taking the family to Ireland, and you're almost ready! Time to plan your luggage.

I don't know about your family, but no one in mine particularly likes hauling bags around. So we packed as lightly and conveniently as we could. For a two-and-a-half week trip, we took:

1. One carry-on "rolly" suitcase each
2. One carry-on backpack each
3. One checked duffel bag with booster seat

Luggage for four, including a booster seat!

That's all, folks! The rolly suitcases fit standard airline carry-on size guidelines and weren't too big for the kids to handle. Their backpacks were a little smaller than ours, so they could handle those, too. (Full disclosure: If your kid has ADHD and/or you've been in an airport for five hours, you might end up pulling his suitcase for him.) And if you're taking my advice and renting AS SMALL A CAR AS POSSIBLE, having less luggage is a definite win.

Sometimes, it's harder to know what to leave out than what to include. Here are some things we did not take:

• umbrellas (we had lightweight Frogg Togg jackets)
• dressy clothes (no black-tie dinners for us)
• laptops (the kids took their tablets and we took our smart phones)
• 100 stuffed animals (although Z managed to fit in three and then bought two more on the trip)
• hiking boots (we each had 1 pair of sandals or flip-flops and one pair of walking shoes)
• a set of clothing for every day (we stayed at two places that came with washing machines, and were able to re-wear jeans after non-muddy, non-sweaty days)

Nothing like sunshine and an Atlantic breeze to dry the laundry!

In each of our rolly suitcases, we had...
A coat and the Frogg Togg jackets, although we probably could have skipped the coats in the June weather. One pair of shorts, about three pairs of long pants, and a similar ratio of shirts. Socks and undies don't take much space, so we had a week's-worth of those. Swimsuits, pjs, and the extra pair of shoes basically completed this bag.

In each of our backpacks, we had...
A sweatshirt, entertainment such as books and tablets, chargers and adapters, snacks, water bottles, cameras/phones/headphones. The kids' backpacks also contained their special blankies or animals; the adult backpacks carried money, medications, itineraries, tickets, and passports.

If you're carrying on all your luggage, it doesn't particularly matter which bag has what, but we found this arrangement to work well for us.

Checklists--very important.

As I mentioned in Step 5 (and discuss further in "Transportation"), since we had to bring a booster seat for Z, we checked it for free in an otherwise-empty duffel bag. At the end of our trip, we ditched the booster and stuffed the duffel bag with dirty laundry and other squishable stuff, having paid ahead of time to check it on the flights home. This left us more space in our other bags for the souvenirs we collected during the trip.

Step 9: Last Logistics

Before you actually leave on your trip, you'll need to take care of logistics like putting travel flags on your banking cards, holding mail, refilling prescriptions, and figuring out international phone data plans. Here's a great checklist from Rick Steves. And with that, you've completed basic planning for your trip!

So...are you taking your family to Ireland? Do you have planning tips you'd like to share? I'd love to hear your stories!

For more specifics on planning a trip to Ireland with your kids, check out these other posts:

Costs

Sights and Sites

Transportation

Food

Preparing Your Kids