The brutal truth about holiday packing

The general flying advice this year, with airports resembling cattle markets and when you can’t be sure if you’re ever going to take off, is: only travel with hand luggage.

Packing a fortnight’s holiday into the tiniest of bags has become an art form. Social media is awash with tips on minimalist packing and dedicated websites on travelling light have sprung up, with experts advising what you should, and shouldn’t, pack.

It’s depressing. Yes, the lighter the plane the less fuel it uses, which is no bad thing for the environment. But a holiday is meant to be an indulgence, a chance to experiment with new outfits. Instead, the less-is-more principle is being abused to such an extreme that we’re having to do clothes-washing while away on holiday.

In fact, in a subtle way you’re made to feel guilty about taking a jumbo suitcase on holiday – unless you’re Coleen Rooney, who normally arrives in Barbados with not just Wayne and her four boys in tow but an army of posh, powder-blue Samsonite Spinner cases (mini ones for the children, maxi ones for mum and dad). Good for her. Coleen can, of course, afford the excess baggage – and the van to take the stuff to Sandy Lane – but, even so, what a joy it must be to hang all your holiday frocks in cupboards and then quietly sift through them each evening before deciding what might be suitable.

Still, rules are rules. And they are becoming complicated. For example, buy a British Airways economy ticket and you’re allowed one piece of hand luggage to put in the overhead locker and one other small item such as a handbag or briefcase to go under the seat. Both can weigh up to 23kg, which is the same weight as a checked-in case when paying for an Economy Plus ticket. Book a British Airways Holidays package (hotel as well as flight) and you are automatically allowed to check in a 23kg bag.

Jet2 operates in the same way: flight only and you pay for hold luggage, whereas a package includes 22kg in the hold. Ryanair is currently charging around £50 per 20kg bag in the hold, while easyJet charges as much as £110. With such high prices, it’s not surprising that luggage has become the latest polarising force between the rich and those whom, as Theresa May put it, are ‘just about managing’.

It also means that Amazon and others are keen to push books such as the Lonely Planet’s How to Pack for Any Trip, co-authored by Sarah Barrell. ‘The first thing to do is lay everything you want to take out on the bed – and then reduce it by a quarter,’ says Barrell, a senior editor at National Geographic. ‘Then remind yourself that one outfit per day is plenty. Be brutal.’

But where’s the fun in that? It’s brutal commuting to work each day. It’s brutal trying to book an appointment to see your GP. It’s brutal (and energy-sapping) making contact with your energy supplier. There are quite enough brutal options out there without adding holiday-packing into the mix.