What to Take



 

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If you are going to hike please see the advice in the hiking section. Otherwise the following may come in handy and are less expensive if you acquire them before entering the park.

–          Comfortable, flat footwear. NB. Teva type sandals can be very handy, especially if you want to go rafting. Rafting companies normally require you to wear shoes that fasten to your feet so flip flops are out. Trainers and walking boots take forever to dry out if you get water in them which you will do rafting, but fastening sandals are brilliant.

This type of thing

This type of thing

–          Camera

–          Binoculars

–          First aid kit

–          Sun screen

–          Sunglasses

–          Insect repellent

–          Zip able plastic bags, very handy for keeping your phone dry &                       delicate items clean

–          Wet wipes

–          Waterproof jacket

–          Cool bag*

Squishes down to this

Squishes down to this

*Soft sided small foldable cool boxes can easily squash into a suitcase. These are a more substantial beast than the freezer bags you get from the supermarket to bring home your frozen stuff in the summer but a similar idea.

They are a really handy thing to have if visiting somewhere hot as picnic lunches and drinks can turn unpleasant very quickly, especially if left in the car! I have never bothered take the freezable blue blocks as unless self catering it is difficult to get access to a freezer. However, the majority of hotels and motels in the US have ice machines free of charge for guests. I pack my picnic, ideally including some nice cold drinks, and fill the top of the cool box with ice (put sandwiches in zip lock bags so they stay dry as the ice melts). This keeps things really cool.

For those not used to cool boxes, the fuller the box the colder it keeps and try and open and close them as little as possible.