Cuts, blisters and scrapes
The half of the kit that is not medicine at all
The most-used part of any travel kit, and the part nobody thinks about until a new pair of sandals has done its work on day two. None of it needs a pharmacist's judgement, all of it is cheap, and it is the one module where carrying your own genuinely beats finding a shop.
What belongs in this module
Dressings and the tools to apply them. Sizes matter more than brands here — a box of one size fits almost nothing.
- 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
How to pack it
This module is the one that gets raided most, so it wants to be findable rather than optimally packed.
- Keep it in its own small pouch, not loose in the wash bag — you will be opening it in the dark at some point.
- Split it: a few plasters and one blister pad in a day bag, the rest in the main bag.
- Sachets over bottles. An antiseptic wipe cannot leak over your clothes and does not count towards the cabin liquid allowance.
- Check the dates once a year. Adhesive dries out long before anything else in the kit.
At the airport
Tweezers are fine in cabin baggage almost everywhere. Scissors are the argument: EU rules allow blunt-ended blades under a set length, but the officer in front of you applies the local reading, and a pair confiscated at 6am is a pair you no longer have. If they matter to you, put them in the hold.
Buying it there instead
Easy anywhere with a pharmacy or a supermarket, and often cheaper than at home. The exception is blister pads, which are a European habit and can be oddly hard to find elsewhere.
Worth knowing
- Plasters and heat do not mix: adhesive in a beach bag gives up quickly, so keep a few somewhere shaded.
- Fabric plasters stay on wet skin far better than plastic ones, which matters on a beach or a boat trip.
- A blister that has already opened is a different problem from one that has not — the pads are shaped for both, and buying only one kind is the usual mistake.
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
It is a reasonable starting point and a poor finishing point. Ready-made kits are sized for a car boot rather than a rucksack and are usually heavy on gauze and light on plasters. Buy one if it saves you an afternoon, then take half of it out and add the sizes you actually use.
Often, within a blade-length limit, and never reliably. The rule is national and the reading is local. If you need scissors on the trip rather than during the flight, the hold is the answer that always works.
A strip of plasters and two blister pads covers almost every weekend. The full module earns its place on walking trips, with children, and anywhere a pharmacy is more than a few minutes away.
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.