The travel first-aid kit checklist

Essential for this profile

• Plasters in three or four sizes, including a couple big enough for a knee
• Blister pads — the gel kind, which are worth their weight on a walking trip
• A few sterile gauze pads and a roll of tape
• Tweezers, and small scissors if your airline allows them
• Disposable gloves, which take no space and change how willing you are to help someone else
• Antiseptic wipes in individual sachets

Essential for this profile

• Whatever you would reach for at home, in its original box with the leaflet
• A digital thermometer — small, cheap, and the difference between guessing and knowing
• Children's forms if children are coming, which are a separate conversation with the pharmacist

Optional

• Oral rehydration salts — the sachets you dissolve in clean water. This is the part that matters most and the part most often left out
• Whatever your pharmacist suggests for a settled stomach on a long bus day
• Hand sanitiser, which is the only liquid in the module
• A way to be sure of the water: a bottle with a filter, or purification tablets, depending on where you are going

Optional

• Insect repellent — look for DEET or picaridin on the label, and long sleeves for dusk, which is when the ones that matter are out
• Something for the bites you get anyway, which a pharmacist will pick for the people travelling
• A bed net if you are going somewhere that calls for one, which is a question for your doctor rather than for us
• Permethrin-treated clothing, if you are the kind of traveller who plans that far ahead

Optional

• High-factor sunscreen, in a size that matches the trip rather than the shelf
• A hat with a brim and sunglasses, which do more than any bottle and weigh less
• Something for after a day of it, which any pharmacy at the destination sells
• A refillable bottle — heat needs far more water than people expect

Optional

• Whatever the pharmacist suggests for the kind of journey you are taking
• Something to look at the horizon through, which sounds glib and is the cheapest thing that works
• A plastic bag, which weighs nothing and saves an upholstery bill
• Ginger sweets or chews, if they work for you — they are a food, not a remedy, and they travel well

Optional

• Lozenges or pastilles, which are a sweet as far as security is concerned
• A saline nasal spray, which is a liquid and unremarkable at any border
• Whatever the pharmacist suggests for a blocked nose — and the module where you should ask about the destination too
• A fitted FFP2 or N95 if you are heading somewhere with smoke or poor air, since a cloth mask does nothing against particles

Essential for this profile

• Enough for the whole trip, plus several days of buffer for a cancelled flight
• The original labelled packaging, leaflet included
• A copy of the prescription, and a letter from your doctor listing what you take by its generic name
• For anything that needs to stay cool: a cool bag and the means to keep it that way
• For controlled medication crossing a Schengen border: the certificate issued under Article 75 of the Schengen Convention