If you take medications when you travel, below are five tips to help you have a much smoother and safer trip. RELATED: Don’t Try a New Medication For the First Time on a Plane
1. Pack your medications in your carry-on
Don’t ever put medications in your checked luggage. Keep them on you at all times until you reach your destination and make sure the prescriptions are in your name.
2. Bring more than what you think you’ll need
Pack at least two to three weeks worth of extra medications just in case your travel plans change for any reason. You don’t want to be stuck abroad without medications that you need.
3. Lock your medications up and keep them safe
Don’t leave your medications out in the open in your hotel room for someone to steal. Take them with you when you leave your room and keep them safely packed away in your luggage or lock them in the safe when you’re back in your room.
4. Keep medications in their original bottles
Keep your medications in their original, labeled containers. If you don’t want to carry the oversized containers that many pills come in, ask your pharmacist to place your medication in the smallest container possible.
5. Take Photos of Prescription Labels
Photograph each prescription label and keep those photos on your phone. In 2014, my then 86-year-old dad met me in Barcelona to go on a Windstar Cruise on the Mediterranean. I gave him strict instructions regarding things to bring and at the top of the list was his medications, since he took a lot (my beloved father passed away in March, 2023). Sure enough, he forgot to pack them and sure enough, the pharmacy was closed. Before having someone back home overnight his pills for a ridiculous amount of money, we went to a small pharmacy at our first port of call in Sete, France. I didn’t think there was any chance the pharmacist would speak English, or would have the pills my dad needed or even agree to fill the prescriptions. But because I had photos of the prescription labels on my phone, the pharmacist, who spoke better English than me (not that difficult, I know), was able to fill them. And guess what? It cost far less than what the pills cost back home.
KEEP READING:
–12 Things to Know Before You Travel to Europe
–12 Things You Never Knew About Italy
–7 Things to Do in Naples, Italy
–12 Things to Know Before Going to Paris
–19 of the Best Off-the-Beaten Path Things to See and Do in Paris
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I take 19 medications and vitamins! There is no way I will bring all 19 bottles with me when I fly. Any law or regulation that requires me to bring all 19 is completely ridiculous!
I agree but if you’re traveling internationally you could run into trouble
Correction: There are no pill bottles that are small enough to allow me to carry about fifteen bottles. It would take up too much space in a carry-on bag. I never check a bag unless it’s on its way home.