MEN take more luggage on holiday than women. Research has shattered the myth that blokes pack only a couple of shirts and a toothbrush. Now, apparently, they spend ages stuffing vanity cases with toiletries and even buy new clothes to take away.

Although my husband is still a T-shirt and toothbrush man, I am not at all surprised by this. Men are a vain lot nowadays, forever preening.

They spend hours in the bathroom at home, so to carry on this hour-long daily cleansing routine on holiday they will obviously need the same lotions and potions.

What we have to bear in mind is that men pack only for themselves. And let's also consider that when you are going on holiday, packing clothing and toiletries is one small task among a mountain of others - and in relationships the world over, that mountain is left for the female to scale.

Why is it that single men planning backpacking trips make all sorts of checklists - insect repellent, torch, Swiss Army knife...

Yet once they settle down with a woman they would never ponder the likes of "Might we need toilet roll?", "Will we need a European socket adapter?" or "Who is going to feed the cat?"

Even less would they make any decisions relating to children.

There are a million and one things that need doing before you set off on holiday, especially if you have children, and very few people remember everything. In a month, my friend and I are taking our children (two a-piece) for a weekend in a caravan. Already we have begun discussing what we will need.

Will we do the food shopping before we go, or pop to the supermarket when we arrive? How much money shall we take? What sort of contingency plans will we need to put in place should it pour down?

We plan the trip like a military operation, sitting down and drawing up lists of what one or the other should do or take. To us, this level of organisation is vital in the smooth running of this short break.

The same can be said of the holiday my family takes each year to the Yorkshire coast. I rush around like a headless chicken. If my husband involves himself at all it will be to ask "Have you packed my razor?" or "I can't find my shorts." Never: "Have you got the children's sun tan lotion?" or "Did you pack the oars for the dingy?"

At the risk of sounding sexist - and I really am no feminist (I firmly believe that my husband is not a real man because he cannot fix my car) - where holidays are concerned it is women who bear the brunt of the organising.

That men now pack their own cases is but small consolation. And to be honest if they're taking as much as the research by a TV travel channel claims, there will be precious little room left in boot for anything else.

Personally, I would rather my husband left his packing to me. At least then I can make sure he's not going to need to spend half our holiday money on a new jeans after only packing one pair and managing to fall into a four-foot-deep rock pool an hour after arriving.

I can make sure he doesn't forget his razor or toothbrush.

And most importantly, I can select items from his wardrobe that make him look semi-presentable and not like a vagrant that the residents of Whitby should have serious concerns about.

Updated: 10:52 Monday, July 14, 2003