Packing Checklist

We recommend that you pack light; due to the fact that you will need to be able to lift and carry your luggage yourself as generally there are no porters.

Documents

• In date and valid passport
• For tours that travel by air or train: your ticket or reservation numbers where e-tickets are issued are sent 8 - 10 days in advance with the final tour details.
• For tours that travel by coach: tickets are not issued.
• Your travel insurance documents. It is your responsibility to supply us with the full details if you have not done so already, (this is in order for us to assist you in an emergency). Please keep your policy documents with you on tour.
• An European Health Insurance Card obtainable by telephone to 0845-606-2030 or via post on a form that can be obtained from the Post Office. However, the quickest means to get one is via www.dh.gov.uk/travellers

Clothing

Generally, clients tend to wear smart-casual clothes during the day, taking a smarter outfit for going out to dinner in the evenings or to the opera.

• Comfortable flat shoes for walking around cellars or on cobbled streets.
• A shooting stick if you do not like standing around too much.
• A sweater/jacket for the cellars (generally 10 degrees). Layers are always a good idea due to the unpredictability of the weather these days.
• A jacket and tie are not obligatory on most tours, however on our Reserve Collection tours, and when visiting any Bordeaux châteaux, a jacket/blazer would be appropriate and a tie would not be out of place. When dining at any châteaux, Champagne House or Port lodge, jackets and ties are essential. For opera performances long dresses and black tie are not required - in the summer audiences are very casual and in the winter there is a cross section, so a jacket and tie, and ladies equivalent is probably the advice.
• For spring/summer and long haul tours sun cream, sun hat and shorts. (NB. Shorts are perfectly acceptable during the day on most of our tours except on the Reserve Collection and in the Bordeaux region.)
• Swimming costume, if applicable (see hotel description in your itinerary).

Baggage Restrictions

• For tours that include flights there will be a restricted amount of luggage that you will be allowed to carry on to the plane and another restriction on the amount you can check in. These will vary for different airlines.
• The four main airlines that we use are British Airways, Air New Zealand and TAP Portugal. Please click to log instantly through to their web sites for baggage restrictions.

To minimise the inconvenience caused by lost luggage, we recommend that you pack a change of essential clothing, wash kit and any medication in your hand luggage and that you clearly mark each individual piece of luggage as well as your personal belongings such as your camera, with your name and destination address.

Medical

• Essential medication including personal supplies of headache/travel sickness pills.
• A copy of your prescription if on medication. Asthma, diabetes and heart sufferers in particular should keep medicines with them at all times.
  Those with severe allergic reactions to wasp and bee stings, nuts etc should bring their epipen and consult their GP to see whether further medication is available, as on some tours we will be a long way from the nearest hospital and unable to get to it quickly therefore.

Foreign Wine Purchases

• Currently no airlines allow liquids as hand luggage unless they have been purchased at the airport in duty free. This means you will need to pack your wines bought on location in your main luggage - so you might want to be prepared with a supply of bubble wrap or polystyrene tubes. As to how safe this is, we can quote our experience. In over 20 years of carrying wine we have never had a single bottle break that was properly packed and secured inside a hard suitcase. You carry wine at your own risk and you put loose bottles into soft holdalls at your peril.

Miscellaneous

• Toiletries. (Any liquids in your hand luggage must be under 100ml)
• International plug adapter - 2 pin plugs in Europe and the voltage is 220v.
• Camera, films, battery charger and batteries.
• Relevant local currency.
• Credit or debit card plus PIN.
• Corkscrew! (Not in your hand luggage)
• There is often a lot of standing around at wineries, you might want to bring a shooting stick as chairs are not always available.

For Walking Tours

• Good quality, walked in walking boots or shoes.
• Walking socks.
• Lightweight walking clothes and waterproofs are essential.
• A small back-pack and water bottle
• A collapsible telescopic walking stick(s).

Hand Luggage

For flight tours - do not put any sharp objects such as nail scissors, nail files, corkscrews or penknives.

For coach tours - you can bring back up to three cases of wine per person. Some people bring a trolley bag to help transportation.

Valuables

If you wish to bring valuables on tour, do check your insurance polices for limits and advice. Where the hotel has a room safe we do advise you use it, and where there is not a room safe we recommend thats you ask the hotel for the use of their safe.

Weather

The BBC weather forecast offers a five day overview for your selected town, city or country.

www.bbc.co.uk/weather

Foreign Office Travel Advice & Visa Requirements

The FCO's travel advice site is very useful and now carries detailed proportionate recommendations covering individual cities and situations. FCO advice has improved over the past few years since the mid 1990s when they overreacted in Chile, damaging both British Companies and Chile's economy and fatally under-reacted in various parts of the middle & far east. This improvement is largely down to the fact that they have started talking to Tour Operators.

www.fco.gov.uk

Department of Health Travel & Health Advice

The official website of UK Department of Health, the government department responsible for public health issues. Including official recommendations for vaccinations and other health precautions you should take throughout the world.

www.dh.gov.uk

The State Department Travel Advice

Our contingent of American travellers find this website an invaluable source of detailed travel tips, health precautions, warnings related to the particular country they are visiting (if there are any), regional summaries and other useful information.

www.travel.state.gov

ATOL - CAA Air Travel Organisers Licence

The Civil Aviation Authority issues Air Travel Organiser's Licences (ATOL). On this site you can learn more about the CAA, ATOLs and check if the company that you have chosen to travel with has a valid in-date Atol Licence. All British companies offering holidays that include flights are required to have an ATOL. Some don't bother or can't get one; use these companies at your peril. Also many European holiday suppliers are not properly bonded, even though this is a legal requirement throughout the E.U.

For the moment Airlines and on-line budget shops selling flights with a click through to other suppliers, are not required to be bonded. You should be aware that they fall outside the "package travel" laws and regulations, which is very much to your disadvantage. Furthermore, although the 'elements' of a holiday may depend on each other absolutely, they are in fact individual contracts, not in any way related to each other, as I am sure they will tell you when one vital element fails, does not connect with another, is substandard or is withdrawn.

www.caa.co.uk

AITO

Arblaster & Clarke are members of AITO, the association for independent and specialist holiday companies. Our member companies, usually owner-managed, strive to create overseas holidays with high levels of professionalism and a shared concern for quality and personal service. The Association encourages the highest standards in all aspects of tour operating.

www.aito.co.uk

Brighter Futures

Dick Sisman advises AITO on responsible tourism and maximising the benefits of tourism to local communities. Dick is Chairman of Brighter Futures, which is an ambitous new programme, the first international tourism trading programme for fairly traded goods. Brighter Futures is based on trade not aid. It works with local producers in economically disadvantaged tourism dependent communities to gain fair prices for their goods. Brighter Futures sells these goods in new ways to the tourism market.

www.brighterfutures.biz

TICOS

The outbound tourism industry recognises that it has to play a key role in the development of programmes to reduce and offset the effects of carbon produced as a part of the holidays it sells. Although the primary responsibility for the global impacts of aviation rest with the airlines, tour operators and travel agents also need to take action as a part of the holiday supply chain.

TICOS is being developed as an industry wide programme to stimulate collective action by all operators and travel agents selling holidays which include air travel. It is supported by a number of international and national agencies including UNESCO, IUCN World Commission for Protected Areas and the Association of Independent Tour Operators (AITO).

www.ticos.co.uk

Carbon Offsets

Carbon Offsets Ltd enables individuals or businesses to offset their carbon emissions. These offsets help slow the pace and degree of global warming.
To see how Carbon Offsets Ltd are helping us all towards a better climate, take a look at our projects.
To move yourself, or your organisation, towards a better climate, go to our offsets section now on our website.

www.carbon-offsets.com

Travel Information by ANTOR

Providing a useful, comprehensive guide for visitors and travelers who wish to know details such as International dialling codes, time differences, electricity voltages and currencies.

www.antor.org

Tourist Offices

A listing of links through to most countries' Tourist Offices, for all the information you should need before you travel, direct from the country.

www.tourist-offices.org.uk