Buy them before you go items!

[Holiday-mum]

I've heard a lot of people saying how expensive some things are etc so what are your tips on things to buy before you go instead of when your there?
We are staying at Vista Cay so no dining plans.

[ally1966]

I don't know if any of your party drink squash but if so I'd definitely take that with you. We've found that it's not only expensive but quite difficult to find in the US. The little bottles of Robinsons Squashed are great and take up next to no luggage space.

[Jaspercat10]

I take loads of cereal, snacks, all toiletetries, ground coffee, tea bags, jam, marmalade, neat squash, plastic water bottles, ponchos, and loads of glow in the dark (Chinese landfill ! ) for the kids to wear / use for the firework shows and the parks in the dark. Bonus is when it is all used up you have an empty suitcase to bring home shopping purchases 😀

[Gryff]

Tea bags and Robinsons Squash concentrates as both if you want British versions are expensive Use Dollar tree for things like washing up liquid dishwasher tablets trash bags etc

[Dorathexplorer]

Nescafé 2 in 1 sachets for morning cup of coffee, saves buying milk, which we never seem to use as they are in huge bottles. Couple of cleaning cloths for wiping around the villa. Really thin paper toilets rolls. All the usual toiletries. Last year we took paper plates, plastic cups and plastic cutlery so we didn't have to use the dishwasher (although these are cheap at Walmart).

[Floridatilly]

If you are fussy about brands then I would take your preferred items. I do love Walmart & target etc but I don't want to spend my time searching for certain brands. My children have very sensitive skin so I take:
Washing tablets & softner
Nescafé coffee
Sun cream (the brand I use doesn't flare up my children's skin)
Detol wipes (I am funny about smells, so if I bought a cleaning product over there that smelled strong it would give me a migraine lol)
We don't take any snacks or cereal because we are usually very healthy but we treat our selves to all thier weird and wonderful cereals & treats lol

[Guest]

Corsydil mouthwash prescription only in US
Generic eye lotion, always get sore eyes after flying and find it quite expensive there

[Holiday-mum]

Thanks for those quick replies!
So far I've got lots of snacks for the kids, toiletries, detol wipes. I was going to pack some toilet rolls as I know it will annoy me having to buy them over there (although I hate saying it out loud I'm packing toilet rolls!)
I'm going to make sure I take some squash for the kids as it will make getting them to drink easier, cleaning cloths are a great idea too.
I love being able to get ideas from others!

[Gryff]

Please be careful about toilet rolls some of ours are way too thick for Florida plumbing to cope with

[jacqui]

We take all our own toiletries and sun cream as we all have sensitive skin, and a pot of marmite but no other food stuff.