We are back from our amazing vacay in the South Pacific! It’s so beautiful down there. If you haven’t been, I would definitely recommend putting it on your bucket list! Bora Bora was my favorite out of the three islands we visited; the others were Tahiti and Moorea. They are all so different and it was great to spend time on all three.
We successfully packed two adults and two kids in three roller carry-ons. And one carry-on was just my huge contour neck pillow, laptop and two large stuffed animals! We each had a backpack as well. The boys each brought six stuffed animals, their life jackets and some books in their backpacks. I had all the 3 oz. liquids in my backpack and my husband carried his camera and lenses in his. So I packed clothes and shoes for all four of us in two rollers. It was a puzzle to solve to get everything in there, but I did it! We packed light and did laundry in the hotel sinks. We had warm breezes most days on our deck or balcony, so things dried fast. On a couple occasions it did rain, but it was brief and the clothes dried out again once the sun came back out.
Overall, the list I posted in What to Pack for a Tropical Vacation Using Only Your Carry-on was good, but I did learn a couple things. The mosquitoes on Tahiti and Bora Bora were pretty bad, so even with bug spray I wanted to cover up with clothes if I wasn’t in the water. This meant I didn’t wear the two dresses much at all. I made up for it on Moorea (where I had zero mosquito bites!) by wearing my dresses several times over the two weeks we were there, but in hindsight, I would have only packed one dress. It probably wouldn’t have been the strapless dress, because then I could have skipped packing the strapless bra as well. Because I didn’t wear the dresses much, I didn’t use the wrap much either. I did use it as a pillow and scarf on the plane, but I couldn’t have left that at home and saved more space as well. I only h ad one linen tee, one linen tank top, and two long sleeved linen tees for tops, and it would have been nice to have one more short sleeved tee or tank top to add to the mix.
It’s good to be home and doing laundry in my washing machine and having a whole closet of clothes to choose from now, but we sure do miss that clear blue water and incredible sea life!