Upset stomach and rehydration
Sachets, not bottles — the most useful packing fact on this page
The single most common reason a trip goes sideways, and the module where the packing decision genuinely matters. Almost everything here is sold as a powder or a tablet, which means it is dry, weightless and exempt from the argument at security. Buying the liquid version is how people end up throwing it away at the airport.
What belongs in this module
Two different things, and people routinely pack only the second one.
- 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
How to pack it
Dry, flat and in the cabin. This module is the strongest argument for keeping a small kit on your person rather than in the hold.
- Rehydration sachets lie flat in a passport wallet and weigh a few grams each. There is no reason for them to be in the suitcase.
- Keep sanitiser under the cabin liquid limit, or expect to hand it over.
- Anything you might need on a night bus goes in the day bag, not the one in the luggage compartment.
- Sachets are sealed against humidity; a part-used tub is not, and a tropical climate finds that out.
At the airport
Powders and tablets pass without comment. Hand sanitiser is a liquid and counts towards the cabin allowance like any other — a small bottle inside the transparent bag, or a pack of wipes instead.
Buying it there instead
Genuinely varies. Rehydration salts are on every corner across South and Southeast Asia, where they are an everyday product, and surprisingly hard to find in small-town Europe. If you are going somewhere they are common, carrying two sachets and buying more there is the sensible split.
Worth knowing
- Rehydration salts need clean water to be mixed into — which is a real constraint in exactly the places you would want them.
- A sports drink is not the same thing and is not a substitute; the ratio is the entire point of the sachet.
- This module is the reason to know where the nearest pharmacy is on your first evening, not your third.
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
A measured mix of salts and sugar that you dissolve in clean water, defined by the World Health Organization and sold in single-dose sachets almost everywhere. They are the reason this module is dry and weightless, and they are the item most often missing from a home-assembled kit.
That is a conversation with a pharmacist, not a decision to make from a packing page — it depends on the situation and on who is travelling. What we can say is the packing part: whatever they suggest, ask for the dry form.
It depends entirely on the destination, and the country's own health service is the place to check. As a packing matter they are light and take no space, and a filter bottle is the alternative that also saves you buying plastic every two hours.
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.