Camping first aid kit
What belongs in a camping first aid kit
Most camping injuries are small and dull: blisters, cuts, burns from a stove, a headache and something bitten you. A kit that handles those beats a bigger one you never check.
Safety and first aid
Safety and first aid
- Plasters, antiseptic, painkillers, tweezers, tape. Check the dates before every trip, not after.The planner packs this
- In its labelled box, plus a photo of the prescription. Two days more than the trip.The planner packs this
- Check what bites where you are going: midges, mosquitoes and ticks want different things.The planner packs this
- You are outdoors all day, including the overcast ones. Reapply after swimming and after sweating.The planner packs this
- Apply at the first hot spot, not the first blister. That is the whole trick.The planner packs this
- Carries far further than a shout and costs nothing to carry. Six blasts is the distress signal.
- 200 g that turns a bad night from dangerous into merely miserable.
- Paper, and know how to use it. A phone is a torch, a camera and a map until the battery goes.
- A van or cabin fire moves in seconds, and the exit is behind the hob.
- A sealed van with any burner in it needs one. There is no way to notice CO without it.
Before every trip
- Check the dates. Painkillers and antiseptic expire, and the trip is the wrong time to find out.
- Replace what you used last time. A first aid kit that has been on four trips is usually missing the plasters.
- Blister plasters go at the first hot spot, not the first blister — carry them somewhere you can reach without unpacking.
- Keep prescription medication in its labelled box, with a photo of the prescription on your phone.
- Know where the nearest hospital is before you need it, especially somewhere with no signal.
This is a packing checklist, not medical advice. If an injury looks serious, treat it as serious and get help.
Pack for the trip
Build the rest of the list
Tell the planner where you are going and for how long, and it will size the clothes, toiletries and tech around the gear on this page.