A royal author has revealed the very strange things King Charles packs with him for his holidays, bringing new meaning to the phrase “everything but the kitchen sink”
When it comes to packing for holiday, many of us have been known to overpack, whether it’s taking double the amount of socks you need or that coat you know you won’t wear but you take “just in case”.
It turns out royalty doesn’t exempt you from this urge to overpack, as a royal author has revealed the excessive items King Charles always travels with, giving new meaning to the phrase “everything but the kitchen sink”.
Writing in his bestseller Rebel King, author Tom Bower revealed the array of eclectic belongings Charles brought with him during a visit to the North East of England, including his own bed and his own luxury toilet rolls.
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Bower wrote: “[The King] sent his staff ahead a day early with a truck carrying furniture to replace the perfectly appropriate fittings in the guest rooms.
“And not just the odd chest of drawers: the truck contained nothing less than Charles and Camilla ’s complete bedrooms, including the Prince’s orthopaedic bed, along with his own linen.
“His staff had also made sure to pack a small radio, Charles’s own lavatory seat, rolls of Kleenex Premium Comfort lavatory paper, Laphroaig whisky and bottled water (for both bedrooms), plus two landscapes of the Scottish Highlands.”
On top of all his home comforts, Bower claims Charles also travels with his own organic food which arrived shortly after his furniture. “His hosts decided, despite their enjoyment of his company, not to invite him again,” Bower wrote.
The King’s decision to travel with his own food has been documented by other royal experts, as royal insider Tina Brown wrote in her biography The Palace Papers, that Charles travelled with a premixed martini on hand when he was attending dinner parties.
“Unlike the Queen, who always ate what she was served, the Prince stipulated his menu preferences up-front, and sometimes arrived at dinner with his protection officer bearing a martini premixed and ready to be handed to the butler and served in his own glass,” Brown wrote.
Charles has been known to pack not only his select home comforts for a holiday, but to adhere to one strict royal protocol, he also travels with one more nauseating item: a bag of his blood.
As is standard practice when the monarch travels, Charles is required to take a supply of his own blood on overseas engagements to make sure there is an exact match in case a blood transfusion is necessary.
The late Queen’s former press secretary Dickie Arbiter told Hello!: “You’ve got to make sure that you’re covering every eventuality and the aircraft would carry blood in case there was a blood transfusion. There’s never any guarantee you are going to get the right type of blood at your destination.”
Another necessity royals pack when heading abroad to cover all eventualities is a black outfit in the unfortunate event that someone passes away when they’re abroad.
