Breaking40 days left under the current rulesMontenegro ends visa-free travel. Three months left.
Travel health

The part of staying well that is a packing problem

Most travel-health advice is medical, and we are not the people to give it. This section covers the rest: what shape your kit has to be in to clear a scanner, what survives a hot car, what you can replace at the destination and what a border wants to see before it lets your own medication through.

Start here

Six pages, each answering a question that comes up before you have left home.

What goes in a travel first-aid kitEight modules, compared by form, weight and which bag they belong in.See the kitPrintable checklistOne page you can tick off at the kitchen table, in four trip profiles.Open the checklistTravelling with childrenWhat changes with a baby, a toddler or a school-age child on board.Read the pageHot and tropical tripsHeat, water, insects and sun — and what the climate does to the kit itself.Read the pageFlying and crossing bordersThe liquid rule, security, and the countries where an everyday remedy is restricted.Read the pageGlossaryTwenty-odd words that turn up on a pharmacy counter or a customs form.Open the glossary

Four things worth doing before you pack anything

  1. Write down what you take, by its generic nameA brand is a local invention; the generic name on the box is the one a pharmacist anywhere will recognise. A photo of the packaging on your phone does the same job in a queue.
  2. Count the days, then add a fewStrikes, cancellations and a missed connection all end the same way: an extra night. Carrying a small buffer of anything you take daily is the cheapest insurance on this page.
  3. Check the destination, not the regionRules are national. Two neighbouring countries can take opposite views of the same box, which is why every source we link is a government one.
  4. Decide what you are not carryingHalf of what people pack is available in any pharmacy at the destination and weighs nothing there. The table on the kit page is mostly about telling those two halves apart.
Related on packset.travel
Travel medical insuranceWhat it covers, and the €30,000 minimum a Schengen visa asks for.Seasons by countryWhen the rain, the heat and the insects actually arrive at your destination.Entry requirementsVaccination certificates and the rest of the paperwork, per corridor.

packset.travel is an independent trip-planning tool, not a pharmacy or a medical service. This page is about packing — what form things travel in, which bag they belong in and what paperwork crosses a border. What actually goes in each slot is a question for your pharmacist or doctor, and the official sources linked here have the last word.

Pack for the trip
Now pack the rest of the bag

Tell the planner where you are going and how long for, and it works out the packs — health kit included — with a weight you can check against your airline.

Open the planner