Checklist · 6 min
Travel health checklist: what to sort out before you go
Six weeks, two weeks, the day before. What actually needs doing, and when.
Travelling in good health depends less on what you pack than on what you sorted out beforehand. Here is the order to do it in.
Six weeks before
This is the only genuinely fixed deadline. Some vaccines need several doses spaced apart, and an appointment at a travel clinic is not always available at short notice.
Book with your doctor or a travel medicine centre. Recommendations depend on your itinerary, the season, your age and your health — which is exactly why we cannot make them for you.
Check your passport while you are at it. Many countries require six months of validity beyond your return date.
Two to three weeks before
Review your travel insurance, particularly medical repatriation cover. A medical evacuation from Southeast Asia runs into tens of thousands of francs.
If you take regular medication, order enough for the trip plus a week's margin. Cancelled flights and unexpected delays happen.
Ask your doctor for a prescription in English if you are carrying prescribed medicines. Some countries check, and an unlabelled box can cause problems at customs.
One week before
Check your first-aid kit. Expiry dates on sunscreen and antiseptics pass quickly, and a kit that has sat in a cupboard for two summers may no longer be usable.
Replace what is missing. This is also the moment to order what you do not have: allowing a week means you do not leave without it.
Save local emergency numbers and your insurer's contact details offline. A phone with no signal is useless if everything lives in the cloud.
The day before
Split your medication between cabin and hold baggage. If one bag goes missing, you have not lost everything.
Check the liquids rule: 100 ml maximum per container in the cabin. A 200 ml sunscreen goes in the hold.
Keep in your cabin bag what you will need during the flight: compression socks, sleep mask, hand sanitiser, lip balm.
What no checklist mentions
Jet lag can be prepared for too. Shifting your bedtime by an hour a day over the three days before an eastbound flight noticeably reduces the discomfort on arrival.
And if you travel with a particular medical condition — pregnancy, immunosuppressive treatment, a chronic illness — discuss it with your doctor well in advance. This guide describes general precautions and does not replace that advice.