Packing for an all-inclusive with kids: the list we actually use

Two weeks at an all-inclusive with a 4-year-old and a 12-year-old teaches you what matters in a suitcase — and what was dead weight. This is the list our family actually packs now, after learning it the hard way.

Start with documents, not clothes

Passports, travel insurance documents, and booking confirmations go in hand luggage, never in checked bags — and as photos on your phone as backup. If you sort mobile data before departure (we wrote about eSIM and insurance here), the backup copies are reachable the moment you land. For kids, pack a small comfort item in the same bag: a long travel day is much easier when the favourite toy or blanket is not in the hold.

Sun and water first

At a beach resort, this is the category that decides your days. Reef-safe sunscreen (buy enough — resort shops charge resort prices), two swimsuits per child so one can dry while the other is worn, swim shoes for rocky entries and water parks, and a rash guard for the youngest. Sunglasses with a strap for the 4-year-old, because a pair without one lasts about a day.

Clothes: fewer than you think

For a week, each child needs roughly five daytime outfits, two evening outfits, and one warm layer for air-conditioned restaurants and the flight home. Resorts have laundry service, and most families overpack clothes by a third. The space you save is better used for the pharmacy bag.

The pharmacy bag

Children's pain and fever medicine, plasters, antihistamine, insect bite cream, and any regular medication — in hand luggage, with the prescription if there is one. Pharmacies exist at every resort town, but at midnight, in another language, with a feverish child, you want your own kit. Add rehydration sachets: heat, pools, and new food upset small stomachs more often than parents expect.

Entertainment for the flight and the room

A tablet loaded with shows before departure (resort Wi-Fi is fine for messages, not for streaming), headphones that fit a small head, colouring books for the younger one, and a card game the whole family can play. One shared toy bag beats four individual ones — and it fits in a backpack.

What we stopped bringing

• Beach towels. Every all-inclusive provides them, usually with a towel card system.
• Too many toys. The pool, the beach, and the kids' club do the entertaining.
• Full-size toiletries. Refillable travel bottles, and buy sunscreen and shampoo locally if you run out.
• "Just in case" outfits. If it does not match at least two other items, it stays home.

The checklist, short version

• Documents + insurance in hand luggage, photos on your phone
• Two swimsuits per child, sunscreen, swim shoes, rash guard
• Five day outfits, two evening outfits, one warm layer each
• Pharmacy bag in hand luggage
• Tablet charged and loaded, headphones, one toy bag
• Nothing from the "stopped bringing" list

Pack this and the suitcases close without sitting on them. What is the one thing you always overpack — or always forget?