Pam, yours is the only situation where I really like my Kindle e-book. It just saves so much packing--and keeps me from having to open my suitcase to show the airport TAs that the "black box" inside was only a stack of books.

I took two books on a week's holiday and re read one due to an unintended early wake up call. I bought one for the flight home and never read it, chatted to my seat companion, the tour guide instead.

I envy you the tub. I no longer have one but I also was given some verbena toiletries made by L'Occitane which I liked so much that I bought the big bottle of shower gel at home to remind me of the trip!

We traveled a lot this summer, and I finally broke down and started taking just my iPad (last trip I had 4 unread kindle books plus a host of potential re-reads) and only one real book in case my battery died. I also have several different crossword/anagram/find-a-word games on the iPad and a couple of online magazine subscriptions. It was more than I needed and worked out very nicely.

I just take my iPad as well. Though on cruises I often borrow books from the ship's library, as the iPad is very hard to read outside in bright light.

Donna

iPad here as well, though I sometimes buy a magazine or two along the way. I bring the charger so I can keep the battery topped off. At home I prefer books printed on paper, but traveling, using an e-reader just makes sense.

Although I generally take my Kindle (with about 800 books on it) along when I go travelling, I always bring at least one paper book as well, just in case the Kindle runs out of juice and I can't recharge it. I also have a bunch of books on my phone.

As for other assorted paper products and writing implements, I take my journal and at least one sketchbook, drawing pens and markers in various colours, at least one biro, a sketching pencil, eraser and sharpener, plus a pair of compasses and a ruler. Sometimes also a sketching block.

When going to a conference or seminar, although notepaper is usually supplied at such events, I will also bring a composition book for taking notes, just in case. I like the kind that is only lined on side of the page, so I can doodle on the blank side, but they are hard to find.

For the kind of travelling that entails sightseeing and museum visits I also generally bring a guidebook, more in order to get my facts right when I journal about it than as an actual guide.

I usually return with more paper than I set out with, because I like to pick up tourist brochures and maps. I guess I inherited that hoarding tendency from my father, who has two large boxes full of maps and brochures from various countries - one of them exclusively for North-America. I asked to borrow a map of Germany from him the other day and he produced three road maps and two road atlases.

I never take my daily diary in case I lose it. I just make a note each day of my travels on a piece of paper, often a brochure to remind me and then I write it up later.

I have been told that the newsagent who stocks my favourite diary isn't buying them anymore. After 20 years! I found them about 5 years ago and get one each year. I hope another shop will have them.

They are usually on sale from November and have a choice of covers. Last year I bought the Roses and Angels, sweet. The year before was Butterflies and Ban the Bomb symbols!

I will take my daily journal and felt tip pens. I'll also bring some stationary and stamps so I can write to my friends if the urge strikes. I might take the new issue of Victoria magazine as well as a newspaper. In addition, I will pack my favorite smaller size novels to re-read, e.g. "The Wanderer" by Alain-Fournier, as well as a French dictionary to peruse.

As for the bath, I, too, love the Occitane products. A long bubble bath might be in order, with some scented candles.

Like Netla, I adore maps and guidebooks, so those will be in my bag, as well.

I take my travel diary (well, its latest incarnation- the rule is that if it isn't a gift, I have to buy the next one in a place where we're travelling so it's a very odd assortment of books from all over the world) and several pens; and my Kindle loaded up with books. Back when we got the paper I used to save the puzzle pages and take a heap with me when travelling so I could do the puzzles and just toss the pages when I was finished. Now I take a couple of puzzle magazines and toss them when I've done all the puzzles.

When we flew long haul to London in pre-Kindle days, I took probably 8-10 books as did DH. We bought more in London. By the time we were in Berlin we had accumulated a largish pile of books which we had both read, which we didn't want to discard but also didn't want to keep carting around Europe. So we dashed into the main Post Office and each addressed a medium sized box to our home address, packed in the books, handed them in at the counter and zoomed off for our walking tour. Halfway through the tour I asked DH, was any of those books the one you were hiding the cash in? It turned out it was :-(. When we arrived home in Oz, after a couple of weeks one box arrived on the doorstep. No book with money :-(. A few more weeks went by and I sent an email to the Post Office in Berlin using Google Translate, but had a reply to the effect that without a tracking number it was impossible to check for it. That said, a week later the second box arrived- and there was a book with $600 in it! :-D I guess the email caused them to look in the corners and under the desks and shunt to parcel on its way :-)

Hmmmm.... back when I had to travel for work (I don't do that any more!) .... I would take:

a Kindle ebook reader (with about 200-300 books on it),

a tablet (an Asus Nexus) with another 50+ books plus about 100+ comics,

a notebook (with about 20-30 movies and TV show episodes)

As long as I have an Internet connection, I can write since I use Evernote. I can even write to Evernote on my phone if the fancy ever struck me!

Oh, and the other thing that I make sure I pack: chargers for everything. :D (And a battery/power pack. Just in case)

When I was "in transit" all the time for work, generally I would be away for months. How many books I would take with me would depend on where I was going. If a city was my destination, I would take 3 books, and I would buy more as needed on location. If I was going to a rural area, I would take 5-6 longish books. This was in the days before e-readers (not that long ago, the firs Kindle was released November 19, 2007).

When I travel now I take only one book, since usually I'm busy going here and there, with not much time to read.

Astrokath --

Really? You post your adventures in Facebook? I used to do that but nowadays I just post interesting news tidbits. Oh, and videos of music that I find interesting. (If you like swing music, by the way, look for something called electo-swing. Catchy!)

I sometimes write small posts about my dog on Facebook... oh and I post dog pictures on Facebook, of course. :D

I post bits and pieces about my travels, but not until after I get home unless the house is being lived in while I am gone.

When I go travelling for three weeks or more, I use a blog to inform friends and family of my adventures, and for shorter trips I use Facebook updates. FB has a newish feature called Check-in that seems like a good way to notify people of your whereabouts. I need to learn how to use that.

I love Facebook! It is so much fun, and one can be quite creative on it.

Oh, and one more tip -- look into Dropbox especially if you have a lot of ebooks and you read on your tablet. I store a few hundred books on Dropbox and, as long as I have an Internet connection, all those books are available to my tablet (or my phone). So, depending on my mood, I can access part of my ebook library.

For Facebook, just be careful about who you share your pages and posts with. If you check-in that you're not at home and some people are monitoring your house ....

Thanks, dyno. I am careful on Facebook. I live in a building with a reception desk and a guard at night now, so I doubt anyone is monitoring my activities. ;-)

Mary/woodnymph I don't think it is just the front and back doors to your property you have to worry about. It is rather the huge amount of information that can be gleaned from Facebook/twitter and all the other 'services' floating around the ether. The ease with which hackers can get through the most sophisticated security systems is very scary . . . and think of the unsolicited phone calls pretending to come from the police/banks/computer companies who can defraud even the least gullible of us out of thousands of ££$$$.

I can go to your Facebook page and see photos, city, interests . . . and I don't even have an account with them!

My son runs his own computer 'compliance' company (checking, among other things, that firms' security systems are safe from their own workforce) and he advises us to keep well away from all these fun means of 'interaction'.

Sad, isn't it?

For reading, I am a kindle girl all the way, loaded with library books and ARCS. Once I download the books, I can disable the internet connection and it stays charged for a month or so. I always have my iphone, for which I have an unhealthy love, and if I think my online needs will exceed my phone, I'll bring my Samsung tablet (for which I do not have an unhealthy love, but its screen is bigger.) For writing/scheduling/planning, I prefer analog; I use my icalendar for my basic work schedule and unique appointments, but use a paper monthly calendar to plot my daily work schedule and have a hardback journal with my own made-up system for note-taking and journaling. A decent pen and washi tape make using my calendar and journal, both necessities, very satisfying.

Yes, it is sad. But I think that's simply a function of how fast all this came about. We haven't had a chance to REALLY understand all the unintended consequences of all this technology. By the time we figure stuff out, the next "big thing" is here and we don't know what the consequences of THAT big thing is. And yes, I'm VERY careful about what I share online .... a little bit of paranoia helps once in a while. :-)

Hi bookmom! I also love my Kindle ... when I can find the darned thing. For planning, I also tend to go analog (pen and paper to figure out what should happen when and where) but for scheduling I have to go digital -- I stick most of my appointments in the cloud so I can get to my schedule from anywhere. The cloud is great but, again, it does have its drawbacks .... technology is a double-edged sword and, if you're not careful, it can cut you.

"...a function of how fast this all came about." Isn't that the truth! Like most people, I love tech when it makes my life/job easier, but am annoyed when it doesn't. For between work and home, I've got info saved to a laptop, on portable (thereby losable) storage, a WAN which is not accessible remotely, the great and powerful cloud and my security blanket paper calendar and journal. I did read recently that what isn't being adapted as readily is the "internet of things" which I find heartening since it seems that makes inroads into privacy more difficult to control.

And who doesn't collect and bring home the mini L'Occitane toiletries (if you haven't already used them up in the room!)

Hi all,

My trip went well but I came home exhausted and then got to work to find my
desk had disappeared under a pile of crap called
paperwork/projects/busywork. I am finally out from underneath that
mountain and able to find time to actually be awake after work. I read
and wrote most of each evening and found it relaxed me greatly.

THANK YOU all for such lovely and thoughtful comments. It was great to
log in and see all of the comments waiting. To read them all at once was
like sitting around a dinner table with all of you, a few bottles of wine, and
the whole evening to relax and chat.

L'Occitane does have lovely products and the scents last for a while without
being over-powering. Love their bath stuff but not a fan of their lip
balms. They seem very gooey to me. But yes, while gone I did
utilize that tub... and filled it to the tippy top.

One night, I got back to my room utterly exhausted to find that the
house-keeping staff had forgotten to leave soap (it was L'Occitane, lemon
verbena, by the way.). I had ZERO soap. I was too tired to worry
about it and just washed with shampoo... hey, bubbles are bubbles, right?
Anyway, the next morning, as I was heading to the conference, I asked if
someone could please remember to place a bar of soap in my room. Just
one. And I said please. APPARENTLY, the kindness of my request was
not exactly passed on to the person tidying my room. I came back to: 3
bars on the table next to the door, 1 bar in the bath, 1 bar in the shower, 2
bars on the sink, 2 bars next to the TV and 2 on the nightstand. It was
like a horror movie... everywhere I looked... I saw... soap.

I do like the idea of having all of those reading choices on a kindle or
I-pad. I just don't like reading on the screens. I spend all day with
computers. And while maybe a kindle/I-pad would be nice on a vacation
when there aren't too many screens involved in my day, I guess I am more of a
book person. I will throw out the underwear before I leave the books
behind. ColleenOz, I felt your pain when DH packed up the book with the
money in it. But yea, pay the extra and send the books home if you have
too!

Bookmom, I am a washi tape failure. You sound like you are very
creative with it. I see others using it with such panache. I cannot
"think outside the box" when it comes to washi tape. Do you
have any tips for someone as creative as a rock?

dynomutt (WELCOME BACK, OLD FRIEND!!), I am with you in considering the
availability of additional books when packing. These last few trips I was
in major cities but was told not to wander about at night. Sad, but true.

I shut down my FB account and walked away. Why? I figured that if
people really wanted to share something with ME, they could call or stop
over. And I studied up on it a bit... everything you post, every word,
every photo, everything, becomes the sole property of fb. When I finally
hit the "delete acct" button, I felt apprehensive at first because
checking fb had become such a routine. But it has been about a year now
and I don't miss it at all. Not at all. And I read and write a
whole lot more without fb in my life. For some folks, it has its uses...
large family that is scattered about and many other reasons. None of
those reasons applied to me. So fb is gone.

PAM

Pam, I had to laugh at all that soap popping up! I prefer the verbena as it washes off easily. I tried the rose shower gel and had to rinse and rinse to get clear of it. Luckily I can get rid of my expensive mistakes on the family who don't have the same type of skin.

I have never had fb, a pity in a way because I could find out what is happening in the lives of the younger generation but my D lets me know the important stuff...if she remembers!

I have had another reminder of my trip last year. The oceanfront hotel I stayed in featured some very upmarket sunhats which cost over $A200, so way out of my holiday budget.

Yesterday I was browsing in a charity shop and spotted a shapeless but quality raffia sunhat going for $A3. Yes, it was one of those designer models, brand new, that some careless person had packed flat and creased.

I bought it and checked the designer's website for advice on reshaping, took a steam iron to it as suggested and it is restored to its former glory.

What a find! Mine normally costs $A220 on the Helen Kaminski website!

Coming late to this thread but as we seldom take vacations (or holidays are they are called over here) and have never had to travel for 'work' . . . and I maintain that so-called housework is equal to if not more demanding than 'paid' work . . . worrying about what to pack etc is not a problem. On our infrequent trips away from home I always take a couple of paperbacks and rely on finding something to read at the other end. If we rent a 'holiday let'/cottage usually there's a selection of reading material to borrow and if not I hunt around the local charity shops to find something. On out last trip, the reading choice being rubbishy I picked up a 1000 piece jigsaw and attempted to do it, then had to bring it home where it is now on the dining room table waiting for me to pop in now and again to hunt for a few segments. Very restful and only slightly demanding.

I do take a couple of pens/pencils but am not fussy about what I write on (an old bus ticket will do), nor do I keep a journal/diary, neither do I own any electronic reading devices, not even a mobile/cell phone; we make and receive very few phone calls here. Our lives might seem boring but we get by just fine. ;-)

Vee, I met a couple in Wales who told me, rather defensively, that they went to the same caravan park every year and were very happy to do that. I think that they expected me to ask why they didn't vary their holidays but I come from a family that rarely went anywhere. They were happy living near the sea in Sussex and my sister took her holiday so that she could watch the Wimbledon tennis matches on TV!

I am the only one who liked to travel. I still would but paying for a single rate makes a trip quite expensive so I can't go away too often now.

Ann, we have never had the lemming-like urge to join the millions of our countrymen and take to the skies for the annual jaunt to Spain, the Canaries or the Balearics. A week or two burning next to the pool, eating all day fried breakfasts and swigging cheap booze 'til daybreak do not a relaxing holiday make; to say nothing of the sheer Hell of getting through airport security. There is so much that can be discovered almost on our own doorsteps even though the weather may return us pale and shivering.

My Mother had a terrible 'wander lust' and found the imposition of three children a difficult cross to bear. She always wanted to travel/escape from home and was, for two weeks each year forced to take us with her . .. my Father's business required him to work during the summer . . . at odd times she used to jump on her bike with a change of clothes and cycle around the country putting up at Youth Hostels and B&B's. My youngest brother has inherited this same 'habit' but with plenty of money and no family he is off on a whim to all parts of the world for several weeks at a time.

It would be interesting to know where/how other RP'ers, or US folk in general, spend their vacations. I understand that you don't get so much time off work/annual leave as we do in the UK.

Vee, airports with the upgraded security are a pain! I remember once being able to arrive five minutes before an Aussie domestic flight boarded!

As I registered to travel as a disabled senior because of a dodgy right shoulder when I flew to Australia on my own, thus getting a wheelchair and porter, I had to arrive at Heathrow four hours before the flight to allow for security checks. I was glad to have a couple of days stopover in Asia to have the kinks in my back massaged out before I continued my journey!

When I last flew interstate I attracted the attention of the smart dog who noticed the smell from an apple and sat next to me as an indicator. If I hadn't binned it as I got off the plane, I could have been in trouble. You have to be very careful what you take off a plane even across the States because of bio-security.

Vee, I can remember a popular song from my teens that I didn't much care for but my dad loved was Faraway Places. Now I wonder if he would have loved travel the way I do. I can't say why, but I really enjoy new places and experiences--as long as I can come back home, of course.

I have been to most of the 50 U.S. states and many European countries. If it's out there, I want to see it. As you may know, London is my favorite city; and I can't say why that is, either. Hawaii is my favorite U.S. place to visit. Coincidentally, my new car license number ends in VZT. I call it my trip visit car.

Carolyn . . . Far Away Places

I haven't heard that for years. Of course plane travel has made the Earth a much smaller place but there isn't the old fashioned 'romance' of ocean liners or even tramp steamers and the time these journeys took, plus most so-called 'civilised' societies are now much of a muchness.

My late Mother, who had travelled around the world (though always just above the equator) had always mocked my poor old grandfather for never going anywhere and spending his holidays on a farm less than 10 miles from his country town, forgetting that to a small boy a 'journey' in a horse and cart/carriage was probably adventure enough in the 1880's . . . and I'm sure he sometimes went somewhere by train . . . though I seldom remember him leaving our house for the 10 years I knew him.

Now my brother takes the p... out of us as our trips are so modest. ;-)

Vee, I am not a fan of sea travel. I have been on voyages three times where I encountered the most dreadful weather. My bunk broke under me in the Bay of Biscay. I was pregnant with a small teething baby and very sea sick husband in the Great Australian Bight and confined to our bunks in a Force 11 gale coming from Sweden back to England.

I pretty much missed out on the romantic side!

A friend loves cruising and wants me to go too but I have set my face against it. Do you blame me?

Oh, Vee, thanks for the you tube song. I liked it much better this time than when I was 14, and my poor dad never got further from home than the Great Lakes Naval Training Station in Michigan in the winter and then the base in Gulfport, Mississippi, in the summer in 1944 before being given a medical discharge from the Navy. He and my mother did go to Florida once in the late 50s with friends. He had a bad heart and died at age 49. My sister and I took our mother and one of her sisters on road trips around the southeast after they retired. Mary, one of our favorite trips was to Charleston. I think it is the prettiest city in the U.S. (that I've seen, at least).

Ann, I brought my two-month-old baby home from Hawaii on a troop ship. Thank Heaven I wasn't seasick.

PAM, I wish I were creative..I'm more like a crow attracted to shiny things. I see the crafty stuff and I get it, but don't really do much with it. I put some stripes on the front of my plain jane journal, and use the tape to make tabs or tape relevant information in; I use the tape to cover preprinted useless headings in my paper planner, stuff like that. Google bullet journals and washi tape--I can't decide if I'm jealous or those people are crazy.

Reading about these travel stories is fascinating. My m-i-l talks about when she was girl and traveling with her mother and sister from South Carolina to the NW corner of the US to visit her father stationed there during WWII. To get help with the cross-country drive, they picked up male hitchhikers and let them do the driving! Definitely a story from a different era.

When I moved to a small fishing village where there was no public transport available I had to hitchhike to the nearby town to catch a bus to my afternoon library job as I don't drive. It was very safe back then as only residents and fisher folk taking the catch to a market drove past where I stood on the main road out.

I met some lovely interesting people.

In case you were wondering, my husband came and collected me to get home again when he finished his work!

Ann, the small fishing village brings up a wonderful picture of old pipe-smoking sea-salts, mending their nets and telling gullible lads about mermaids and hurricanes. Virtually all those quaint places have become moribund for about 40 weeks of the year, with cottages sold to wealthy 'second homers', shops turned into knickknack outlets, fancy art galleries and expensive eateries. Often fishing boats are left to rot/rust and that old way of life has almost gone. We have to thank a combination of over fishing and the plethora of regulations from the EU for this sorry state of affairs.

I don't think hitch-hiking is recommended these days; just too many weirdo's about.

Vee, bang on! That quaint fishing village with odd homes built among the dunes (I got lost leaving the Census forms one year) is no more. When I went to live there it was being developed so I had a modern house which has since burned down!

Now it has the freeway extension promised very many years ago and recently completed (my daughter drove in the first convoy marking the occasion) and is a suburb with a bus service!

We were pioneers of the new development and established the library and Lion's Club with the aid of other volunteers. Once our beach loving children left home we decided to go back to the city and the convenience of public transport for me!