What to Pack for a 7-Day Holiday: A Complete Checklist for Irish Travellers

For a 7-day holiday, pack five to seven tops, two to three bottoms, one smart outfit, two pairs of shoes, seven days of underwear, a toiletry bag, and your documents, medication and chargers in hand luggage. Everything else is optional.

The harder part is matching what you bring to two rules that changed in Ireland this year: your airline’s cabin bag dimensions and your departure airport’s security limits. Get those right and packing looks after itself. Get them wrong, and you are paying a gate fee at the desk, or losing your sunscreen at security.

Start With Your Departure Airport, Not Your Suitcase

Dublin and Shannon have scrapped the 100ml liquid limit. You can now carry liquids and gels in containers up to two litres each, with no clear plastic bag needed. Cork still applies the 100ml limit, though a new screening area due around the end of 2026 should bring the same allowance.

Departure airport	Liquid limit per container	Clear plastic bag?	Electronics out of bag?
Dublin (T1 & T2)	Up to 2 litres	No	No
Shannon	Up to 2 litres (since September 2026)	No	No
Cork	100ml	Yes	Yes

That covers your outbound flight only. Your return leg follows a foreign airport’s own rules, and many still enforce 100ml, so a full-size shampoo may be confiscated in Faro or Alicante on the way home. Use full-size bottles up during the week, or check a bag. If you are booking one of our all-inclusive holiday packages, then a hold bag is usually already included.

Know Your Cabin Bag Limits Before You Fold Anything

Airline / fare	Free under-seat bag	Overhead locker bag
Ryanair (standard fare)	40 x 30 x 20 cm	Not included — Priority & 2 Cabin Bags adds a 10kg bag at 55 x 40 x 20 cm
Aer Lingus mainline	40 x 30 x 20 cm	10kg bag at 55 x 40 x 24 cm
Aer Lingus Regional (Emerald Airlines)	40 x 30 x 20 cm	7kg bag at 48 x 33 x 20 cm

Ryanair’s standard fare includes one free under-seat bag measuring 40 x 30 x 20cm. Passengers who choose Priority & 2 Cabin Bags can also bring a 10kg locker bag measuring 55 x 40 x 20cm. 

On Aer Lingus mainline flights, the fare includes a 10kg locker bag measuring 55 x 40 x 24cm, while Aer Lingus Regional allows a 7kg cabin bag measuring 48 x 33 x 20cm.

In 2026, Ryanair increased its free under-seat bag allowance to 40 x 30 x 20cm, compared with the previous 40 x 20 x 25cm limit. This means some older bags may no longer fit the updated dimensions, while oversized bags can cost up to €70. With Aer Lingus Saver fares, passengers get a free checked bag but can only bring a personal item into the cabin, so it is worth checking the baggage allowance before travelling.

The 7-Day Clothing Formula That Actually Works

Seven days suit a capsule wardrobe. A two- or three-colour palette across a dozen items produces fifteen-plus outfits: five to seven tops, two to three shorts or trousers, one smart outfit, a jumper, two swimsuits, seven days of underwear, and a packable rain jacket. Two pairs of shoes are plenty.

You are often leaving Dublin at 6 am in ten degrees and landing in the high twenties, so wear your bulkiest jacket rather than pack it. Prague, Budapest or Lisbon are walking holidays regardless of plans, so swap a swimsuit for a jumper; while Tenerife, Majorca or Crete need the opposite.

Toiletries, Medication and Health Cover

Build one small toiletry bag having shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, deodorant, toothbrush, toothpaste, hairbrush, razor and a high-factor sun cream, cheaper bought at home than at the resort. Keep makeup to multi-use items like a tinted moisturiser or a lip colour that doubles as a blusher.

Add plasters, painkillers, antihistamines, rehydration sachets and motion-sickness tablets. Prescription medication should be packed in your hand luggage, kept in its original packaging and carried with the prescription.

Apply for or renew your European Health Insurance Card before you go. It is free from the HSE, and covers public healthcare across the EU, EEA and Switzerland on local-resident terms. It is not valid in the UK since Brexit and does not cover repatriation, so treat it as a safety net alongside travel insurance.

Documents, Money and Tech

Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Malta, France, Cyprus and Croatia are euro countries, so there is no currency to arrange. Only Turkey, Egypt, Morocco or the UK need cash sorted before travel, worth factoring in. Ireland uses the three-pin Type G plug while most of Europe uses Type C or F, so pack an adaptor for Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece and France; skip it for Malta, Cyprus or the UK.

Your travel wallet should hold a passport valid for your stay (Turkey and Egypt require six months beyond return), boarding passes and confirmations saved offline and printed, insurance details, your EHIC, and a charger, adaptor and power bank, which must stay in the cabin. Photograph or email yourself copies of everything.

Packing Techniques That Save Space

Roll soft items like T-shirts, fold structured pieces like shirts, and pack cubes by category rather than by day. Load heavy items at the wheel end, and stuff socks inside shoes for free space. Pack a change of clothes in hand luggage in case a bag is delayed, and weigh the case at home.

Many generic guides still cite rules replaced in 2026 and overlook that your return airport may have different security limits, which can lead to unexpected confiscations. Getting a week into one bag comes down to matching your packing to the rules for your route. 

Sort your departure airport’s liquid allowance, your airline’s bag dimensions and your EHIC before you fold anything, and the rest is a capsule wardrobe and a bit of discipline. It is the same detail-first approach Travelodeal brings to planning the trip itself.

Frequently asked questions