The one thing King Charles never packs when he travels - but Queen Camilla and Prince William do

Packing for holiday is stressful enough at the best of times, but I can only imagine how great the fear of forgetting something is if you work in one of the royal households. King Charles tends to enjoy his private breaks in the UK, though he’s undertaken plenty of overseas trips, including twelve since he became monarch.

In April he and Queen Camilla celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary during State Visits to Italy and Vatican City. It’s thought a visit to North America could be on the cards for 2026 and although His Majesty is unlikely to ever publicly share his travel must-haves, we do know the one thing he never brings with him.

Unlike almost everyone else, including his wife Queen Camilla and son Prince William, who is first in the royal line of succession, King Charles doesn’t pack a passport when he travels aboard. This is for a very good reason - he doesn’t actually have one.

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British passports are issued in the name of His Majesty and so, as per the Royal Family’s website, there’s no need for King Charles to possess one himself. The first page of a British passport has the wording, "His Britannic Majesty's Secretary of State requests and requires in the name of His Majesty all those whom it may concern to allow the bearer to pass freely without let or hindrance and to afford the bearer such assistance and protection as may be necessary."

King Charles therefore doesn’t need to be allowed to "pass freely" in his own name. The same was true of the late Queen Elizabeth and she famously reminded artist Chris Levine about this when he captured her iconic portrait, Lightness of Being.

Speaking recently to Hello!, Chris recalled that when his assistant tried to put the Queen at ease by saying the process was just like when you have your passport photo taken, she apparently responded, "One doesn’t need a passport".

This isn’t true for the rest of the Royal Family, regardless of rank, as this exception only applies to the monarch themselves. Because of this, His Majesty will have had to pack a passport with him for overseas trips up until he became King in September 2022.

Now this is one thing he can safely forget about when he goes abroad. However, the royals do all apparently have a non-negotiable essential for overseas trips that won’t be on everyone’s packing list. It’s understood that they each bring a black outfit with them.

This is reportedly so that they’re prepared if someone in the Royal Family should pass away whilst they’re away from home. When they return to the county, they will be suitably dressed as a mark of respect and ready if they are required to attend a funeral.

When Queen Elizabeth’s father, King George VI, passed away at Sandringham in 1952 she was visiting Kenya with Prince Philip and supposedly didn’t have a black outfit with her. As reported by Metro, the Queen’s Lady-in-Waiting Lady Pamela Hicks alleged that one had to be "smuggled" aboard her plane when they landed.

"A black dress was quickly smuggled on board, because we didn’t have a black dress. So she quickly had to change," she claimed on her daughter India Hicks’s podcast.

This quick thinking meant that Queen Elizabeth looked respectfully sombre as she disembarked the plane in mourning for her father and the nation’s new Sovereign.