The words on the counter and the form
Last checked: August 7, 2026
Twenty-odd terms that turn up at a pharmacy abroad, on a customs form, or in the leaflet inside the box. Definitions only — what any of it is right for is a conversation with a pharmacist.
In the kit
What the things themselves are called.
- Sold without a prescription. What counts as over the counter is national, not universal: the same box sits on a supermarket shelf in one country, behind a pharmacy counter in the next, and needs a prescription in a third.
- The international non-proprietary name — the substance's own name, printed on every box under the brand. It is the same in every country, which makes it the one to write down and the one to say at a counter abroad.
- The foil-and-plastic strip tablets come sealed in. It keeps humidity out, which is why it travels better than a tub, and it usually carries the batch and expiry printed on the foil.
- A measured mix of salts and sugar, dissolved in clean water, defined by the World Health Organization and sold in single-dose sachets. Dry, flat and light, which is why it belongs in the cabin rather than the suitcase.
- A preparation for cleaning skin and wounds. In a travel kit it is worth carrying as individually sealed wipes rather than a bottle: nothing to leak, and it does not count towards the cabin liquid allowance.
- Sealed free of micro-organisms until the packet is opened. It is a property of the packaging as much as the contents, which is why a gauze pad in a torn wrapper is no longer sterile even though it looks fine.
- Two different dates. The expiry is on the unopened package; the small open-jar symbol with a number and an M says how many months it lasts once opened. Heat shortens both, which is what a car boot in August does to a kit.
- Keeping something within a temperature range for the whole journey — airport, transfer, room — rather than only at the ends. The links that break are the ones nobody planned: a two-hour taxi, a delayed connection.
- A system of preparations, widely sold in Europe including as travel kits, that is regulated separately from conventional medicines. We do not rate or recommend any remedy on this site, homeopathic or otherwise — what belongs in your kit is a question for your pharmacist or doctor, who can also tell you how it interacts with anything else you carry.
- A pressurised spray can. Restricted for air travel well beyond the ordinary liquid rule, with limits that differ between airlines as well as countries — which is why a pump bottle or a lotion is the version worth buying for a trip.
Paperwork and borders
The documents, and the words that appear on them.
- A copy of the prescription that authorised what you are carrying. It does not let a foreign pharmacy dispense against it, but it does explain at a border why you have what you have.
- A signed note listing what you take by generic name, naming you, and describing the reason in general terms. The single most useful document in this section: it covers liquids, devices and cooling in one page and settles almost every question that could be asked.
- The document under Article 75 of the Schengen Implementing Convention that lets a traveller carry controlled medication for personal use across a Schengen border. Issued by your own country's authority, completed by your doctor, valid for a limited period per trip. It has no effect outside Schengen.
- A substance whose possession and movement are regulated by law rather than only by prescription rules. The list is national, so something unremarkable at home can be controlled at the destination — the reason the flying-and-borders page exists.
- Advance permission to bring medication into a country, required by several destinations above certain quantities or for certain classes. Applied for before travel, never on arrival.
- The European and UK Global Health Insurance Cards, which give access to state-provided healthcare in participating countries on the same terms as a resident. Not travel insurance, and not a substitute for it — it covers neither repatriation nor private treatment.
- Cover for treatment, evacuation and repatriation during a trip. A Schengen visa application requires a minimum level of it; our insurance pages set out what that minimum is.
On the road
Words that come up once you are there.
- Not the same shop. A pharmacy (Apotheke, farmacia, pharmacie) has a pharmacist and dispenses medication; a drugstore sells toiletries and a limited range of everyday products. Looking for the wrong one is the classic first-evening mistake abroad.
- The sign to look for across most of Europe and much of Latin America. Elsewhere the symbol differs — a red cross, a snake and bowl, a crescent — which is worth knowing before you need one in a hurry.
- The one open outside normal hours, on a rota. The list is normally posted in the window of every closed pharmacy in the area, which is the fastest way to find it at 11pm.
- Losing more fluid than you take in — the mechanism behind why rehydration salts are in the kit at all. It arrives faster in heat, at altitude and on a long flight than most people expect.
- What sustained heat and insufficient fluid do over the course of a day. Worth knowing the name because it shapes the packing: shade, a hat, a bottle you will actually refill, and a plan that does not put the walking tour at two in the afternoon.
- Height above sea level, which changes how quickly you dehydrate and how strong the sun is — a factor at ski resorts and Andean cities alike. Whether it calls for anything beyond that is a question for a doctor before you go.
- Drinkable in far more places than travellers assume and not in others, and the country's own health service is the source that settles it. Where it is not, the same water is in the ice and on the salad.
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.