What to pack
Twice as much kit as the trip needs, split across two bags, insulin in hand luggage. The packing list and the reasons.
Pack twice as much insulin and kit as the trip length, and split it across two bags so losing one bag never leaves you without insulin. Everything you inject with goes in your hand luggage, never the hold, because a suitcase can go missing and hold temperatures can wreck insulin.
- Carry two to three times the insulin, pen needles or pump supplies, and sensors you’d normally use for the trip, in case of delays, breakages or a sensor that won’t stick.
- Keep insulin and all injecting or pump kit in your hand luggage, split some into a second bag your travel companion carries.
- Pack hypo treatment (fast sugar like glucose tabs or juice) somewhere you can reach it without unpacking, plus slower carbs to follow up.
- Bring backups: spare glucose meter and finger-prick strips even if you use a sensor, spare batteries or chargers, and a letter or prescription for your kit.
- Take enough ketone testing (strips or a meter) to check if you feel unwell or run high, because being off-routine makes that more likely.
Why the number is double, not exact
The point of packing two to three times what you’d normally use isn’t caution for its own sake. Travel is where the ordinary things that keep you supplied stop working. A pharmacy might be shut, closed for a holiday, or in a country where your insulin has a different name. A flight gets delayed and a two-day trip becomes three. A sensor peels off in the sea on day one.
So the maths is simple: work out what you’d use if everything went to plan, then pack that again on top. If you’re going somewhere remote, or somewhere replacing insulin would be hard, lean towards three times. This isn’t about your glucose numbers, it’s about never being stuck without the thing you physically cannot go a day without.
Split the kit, keep it on you
Two rules do most of the work here. First, insulin and everything you inject or infuse with travels in hand luggage. Hold luggage can be lost, delayed or sent to the wrong airport, and the hold itself can drop below freezing, which damages insulin. Second, split your supplies so no single lost bag is a disaster. Half in your bag, half in a companion’s, or half in a day bag and half in the case you keep with you.
Keep hypo treatment and your meter somewhere you can grab them in seconds, not buried at the bottom. On a plane, at a festival, or on a long drive, you may not get to open a suitcase when you need sugar fast. A small pouch that stays on you is worth setting up before you leave.
Being away moves your glucose both ways
Travel doesn’t leave your levels alone, and it pushes in both directions depending on the day. More walking, carrying bags and generally being on your feet tends to pull glucose down, and can drop you low while you’re still going, not only afterwards: a low can hit during a long walk round a city or midway through a festival set, and it can also come back hours later, including overnight. Sitting still on a long flight or coach, plus different food, disrupted sleep and the stress of getting somewhere, can push it up.
That’s why the packing list includes more hypo treatment than usual and enough ketone testing to cover a run of highs. Check your glucose more often than at home for the first day or two: before you set off, when you arrive, before bed, and any time you feel off or your routine has just changed. What you’re looking for is a low that needs treating, or a high with ketones that needs acting on. Extra carbohydrate is something you can manage yourself; insulin adjustments are worked out with your diabetes team.
What changes what you pack
There’s no single kit list, because the right amount depends on where you’re going and how you manage. A weekend in a city with pharmacies everywhere is different from a fortnight somewhere replacing insulin would be hard. A pump means packing infusion sets, reservoirs and a backup plan (usually pens) in case the pump fails, where injections mean spare pens and needles. Hot climates need a cool pack to protect insulin, cold ones mean keeping it off the freezing edges of a bag. Crossing time zones changes when your background insulin lands, which is worth sorting before you go.
What this looks like in practice
Examples, not instructions or doses.
You’re going for three days. You pack six days of pens or pump supplies, split between your bag and a friend’s, with hypo treatment in a bum bag that stays on you and a spare meter in case a sensor gets knocked off in a crowd.
All your insulin, pens or pump kit and your meter go in your hand luggage. You keep a cool pack for the insulin and glucose tabs in the seat pocket, not the overhead locker, so you can reach them when your glucose reads 4.2 mmol/L on the descent.
You’ve been running high since arriving and you feel rough. Because you packed ketone strips, you can check for ketones rather than guess, and you know when a high plus ketones is a reason to contact your team rather than wait it out.
Worth paying attention to
Questions that make an appointment useful
When it's urgent
If you have high glucose with ketones, are being sick, and feel drowsy, breathless or have tummy pain, that can be DKA (diabetic ketoacidosis), a life-threatening emergency that comes on faster when you’re unwell or off-routine. It does not wait until you’re home. Contact your diabetes team urgently, call NHS 111 for advice, or call 999 if you are very unwell. Abroad, get to local emergency care. If someone with diabetes is having a severe hypo and cannot safely swallow or is unconscious, call 999 (or the local emergency number).