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If you are planning a trip overseas and you take medication, you have some pre-planning you need to do.
7 Tips for Travelling With Medication
Here are seven basic guidelines to help when planning your trip.
- Talk to your doctor or travel medical specialist before travelling about any medicines and / or medical devices you need to take with you. Make sure you discuss prescription medication as well as over the counter medicines and complementary / homeopathic medicines that you may take.
- Contact the Embassy or Consulate of the country you are travelling to if you or your doctor have any doubts or concerns about the medication and / or medical devices you will need to take with you into that country. Some medicines may not be legally allowed to be taken into another country. Some medicines may contain ingredients that you need permission to take into another country. For example, Codeine that is widely available in Australia but requires permission to take into some countries.
- Have your doctor prepare a letter detailing all prescription medication you will be taking with you. Make sure you carry that letter with you when travelling. Your doctor should know what to include in the letter, including the name of the medicine, your dosage and that it is for personal use.
- Make sure your prescription medication has the appropriate dispensing labels on them setting out your name and dosage requirements.
- Take all items in their original packaging. It needs to be easily identifiable if your luggage is inspected. Do NOT remove it from its original packaging.
- Take the medication in your carry on luggage. If your luggage goes missing you will still have your medication.
- Take enough medication for your entire trip. You may not be able to get the same medication overseas and your prescription may not be valid in other countries. Yes that may mean you have to carry a lot of items in their original packaging but you do not want to risk running out.
General Rule
As a good rule of thumb – if in doubt ask your doctor. If still in doubt – contact the Embassy or Consulate of the country/ies you are travelling to.
As a general rule, when we travel, we have the doctor include all potential medication that we carry with us. We include altitude sickness tablets for our trips at altitude. We include headache tablets that we can buy in a supermarket as well as any prescription medication we need to carry.
You may also like to read, 5 Items I Always Have in My First Aid Kit.
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Pia from Dream and Wanderland
May 11, 2019Very good tips! Especially, any medication should be in the carry-on. A few years ago, a friend of mine put hers into the checked bag, and it didn´t make it to her travel destination. NOT good. We couldn´t enjoy the time as we always worried that something could happen as she usually needed to take it daily.
Lisa
May 12, 2019Thanks Pia. Medication is the one thing we always make sure is in our carry on. We just don’t want to take the risk. Hope your friend was ok.
Silly Little Kiwi Blog | Tara
May 12, 2019This is super informative. Especially if you are traveling somewhere where it’s recommended that you bring medications with you as a precaution. Great work!
Lisa
May 12, 2019Thanks Tara.
Chittra M
May 12, 2019I always carry a pouch full of general medication. comes quite handy. Especially common cold and allergens tablets.
Lisa
May 12, 2019You never know when you will need something when travelling.
Margarita
May 12, 2019I’ve never had to travel with prescription medicines, but after catching a nasty cold a few times on my travels, I always pack flu meds, painkillers and a bunch of other ‘just in case’ meds. They come super handy when you need them and have saved my day many times.
Lisa
May 14, 2019We do as well. You never know when you can catch a cold.
Anisa
May 12, 2019Great tips! You definitely don’t want to have your medicine confiscated, that could be disaster.
Lisa
May 14, 2019Thanks Anisa. And absolutely not. For a little organisation, it saves any stress.
Andi
October 7, 2019Great tips especially keeping the medication in its original packaging. Prescription bottles are so wasteful all that plastic and usually bigger than what you actually need so the tendency is to put it into a smaller bottle, however that is not the best thing to do!
Lisa
October 7, 2019Thanks Andi. The problem with the prescription medication is that when you enter the country you are travelling to they need to be able to see that it has been prescribed, so they need to you your name of the label. So unfortunately can mean carrying bulky packaging.
Amy
October 8, 2019Good post. I’m wondering if you have experience traveling for extended periods with medications. Or example, you are only allowed 1 month of medication when traveling in Japan. What do you do if you will be traveling for 8 weeks??
Lisa
October 8, 2019Thanks Amy. When we are in doubt about taking medication we contact the embassy for that country. They can usually either give you advice or provide you with someone that can.