I'm obsessed with the £3.99 Lidl middle aisle holiday buy that is taking over hotel pools this summer
At my TUI Village hotel in Turkey last week, I spotted more than a hundred 'water hammocks' that were identical to the one I bought from the Lidl middle aisle in June.
The pool accessory works like a lilo, with inflatable tubes at each end and a mesh in the middle where your body lies.
On a trip to Spain last month, the story was the same - the water hammock reigned supreme at the hotel pool.
A straw poll of parents lounging by the pool in Turkey showed that the majority of them also picked theirs up for £3.99 from Lidl - the Blue Crivit Water Hammock.
However, a decent proportion also bought theirs from Amazon, where a two-pack in pink and blue will set you back £15.99, or alternatively, John Lewis is selling a chic palm print version for £9.60.
I only bought one in the Lidl flash sale, but I'll be stocking up on more next year because they make the perfect foreign holiday lilo.
Why? Because the fact that most of it's mesh - not bulky plastic - means that it's super lightweight and packs into a tiny space in the suitcase.
Gone are the days when I reluctantly shell out a fortune abroad, because I didn't have the space or kg allowance to take an inflatable on the plane with me.
I could easily take three in a suitcase and barely notice them in the bag.
The minimal inflatable space also means a: far less time to blow up, b: it takes up a lot less space in the hotel room and is easy to transport to and from the pool or beach, and c: there is less surface space for punctures.
Speaking of travel hacks, 2025 was also the year that I finally tried out packing cubes, and I can't believe it took me so long.
On a 14-day multi-stop trip to South Africa in April, there was no way I could do my usual unpack-the-moment-I-check-in routine, given that we were staying in eight different places.
So I bought a few sets of 12 for £9 from Amazon, and everything was painstakingly divided up into different cubes - one for my son's T-shirts, one for shorts, one for my sweaters... and so on.
2
It made the experience so much simpler, because everything was easy to find within 3 seconds of opening up the suitcase - with no rifling around.
Since then, I've reverted to emptying the bag as soon as I arrive if it's a one-stop holiday, but anything with more than two locations or less than three nights will have me reaching for the packing cubes from now on.
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