Your own prescriptions
The one thing here you genuinely cannot replace abroad
Everything else on this page is a convenience. This module is the trip: nobody at the destination is going to hand over your repeat prescription because you asked politely, and a bag that goes to the wrong airport takes it with it. It is also the only module that regularly needs paperwork.
What belongs in this module
The medication, and the four pieces of paper that keep it uncontroversial.
- 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
How to pack it
Split it. This is the only module on the page where the packing instruction is genuinely load-bearing.
- Carry it in the cabin — always, and never only in the hold.
- Put a few days' worth in a second bag, or with a travelling companion. Cabin bags get gate-checked at short notice.
- Keep the paperwork with the medication rather than in a folder at the bottom of the case.
- Work out the timing across time zones before you fly, and take the question to your doctor or pharmacist rather than working it out at the gate.
At the airport
Medication is exempt from the usual cabin liquid limit: liquids, gels and cooling elements may exceed it when they are for medical use. Expect to declare them, present them separately, and carry documentation — the exemption is for the item, not from the check. Needles and injection devices are permitted with supporting documentation, which is exactly what the doctor's letter is for.
Buying it there instead
Assume you cannot. A foreign pharmacy is not going to dispense against a prescription from another country, the same product may be sold under a different name, and in some countries it may not be approved at all. If a trip is long enough that you would run out, that is a conversation to have before booking.
Worth knowing
- Legal at home does not mean legal there. A few widely prescribed medications are controlled or prohibited in popular destinations, and the destination's own authority is the only source that settles it.
- Time zones shift a daily schedule by hours, not minutes — a question for your doctor before you go, and a genuine one on a long-haul flight east.
- Cool-chain medication and a hot transfer are the combination worth planning around; airlines will usually help if asked in advance, and never if asked at the gate.
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.
Questions about this module
For ordinary medication in original packaging, usually not. For anything controlled, for injection devices, for cooled medication and for large quantities, carry one — it costs an appointment and settles every question that could otherwise be asked at a counter. List everything by its generic name, since that is the name that travels.
The document that lets you carry controlled medication across a Schengen border for your own use. Your national issuing body certifies it — in Germany that is the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices — and it is valid for a limited period per trip. Outside Schengen it does not apply, and the destination's rules do.
Split it instead. The hold is where luggage gets delayed, and this is the module where a delay is not an inconvenience. If space is genuinely the problem, the medication is the thing that stays in the cabin and something else goes below.
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.
Our planner puts the health pack next to everything else you are carrying, with a weight for the whole bag rather than a list you have to add up yourself.