Taking medications into London and Rome

Just about every over the counter med you can get at home you can find in Europe. You can bring what you need. They won't go crazy unless you're bringing hundreds of tablets in.

As far as the smoked salmon....how is it packaged. (And you do realize that Scottish Smoked Salmon is plentiful all over the UK?). If the salmon is in a can, that's fine. If it's fresh, no it can't be brought in.

Bringing your own is a good idea. Because some over the counter pills we can easily buy here at Rite-Aid are, as it turns out, not so easily available there, you have to go back to see the pharmacist, and only during pharmacy hours, some kinds of pain reducers, example ibuprofen is I think one we couldn't just buy off the counter. And the names of the products are different.

So bring what you need. No restrictions as long as they aren't prescription. And of course bring your own prescription medication, for sure, you may not be able to get it prescribed there without some difficulty.

I would think that salmon (i.e. Fish) is meat. Not sure how England looks at it though. Good luck.

1) Paracetamol is Tylenol. (It's simply another name for acetaminophen.)

2) Unless things have changed, in at least some parts of the EU (for sure in Germany), it's not possible to get anything with pseudoephedrine, e.g., (real) Sudafed, Claritin-D, etc., so if you're a regular user, you certainly want to bring it along.

Scottish smoked salmon is a luxury item & considered the finest in the world, so maybe something else for your English hosts would be in order.

I didnt have any issues with bringing in medicines on my trip to London.
Being somewhat frugal, I try to bring anything I need. Like Sudafed, etc. I can get the generic for $1.88 a pack of 24 at Walmart, but in the UK at Boots or Superdrug, it was 3 GBP for one pack of 12 ($5). I didnt bring it the first trip but I did on my second.

And an FYI for the ladies - they dont sell Midol/Pamprin in the UK. They do have 2 types of Feminax, one is Paracetemol with Codeine (yes CODEINE, over the counter!) Paracetemol is basically Tylenol. The other Feminax has naproxen. They dont have the diuretics in them though so bring your Midol/Pamrpin with you, ladies!!!

Tami,, we can get codeine over the counter in Canada too,, do you have to get a prescription for it in States,, seems it would be expensive to run to the doctor for that ..You can only get the lower dose products though.. not like T3s .

Shannon,, I always bring my own stuff, especially when I have the kids with me. I know and trust the brands or types of stuff I use at home. I know they have similar or same stuff in Europe, but, kids get fevers , tummy aches, earaches etc.. usually at 11 pm on a Saturday evening... so its best to have stuff with you. If you run out fine,, buy more there.
I always take pain reliever( no name advil etc) decongestant( we like Dimetapp) and Pepto Bismal,, I also now will always include Imodium,, its not just for Mexico ,, LOL I also take Polysporin ( antiseptic cream ) and bandages..

Shannon,
You can bring smoked salmon into the UK from the US. While Scottish salmon is excellent, Atlantic salmon definitely has a different taste from Pacific so your hosts might appreciate this. If you want to read the details of the rules, go to the website
customs.hrmc.gov.uk and search on "Bringing food products into the UK". There is a pdf that you can download with the details of the rules. It states that smoked fish is permitted.

As far as medications, I usually bring my own from U.S. and did this even when I lived in the UK purely for convenience. While there is a wide range of OTC meds available in London, they are not always the same brand names and formulas that you would recognize from the U.S. Go to any "Boots" if you need OTC meds. In Italy, you generally need to speak to the pharmacist and explain what you need.

If there's any confusion about brand names of OTC medications, just compare the generic names of the ingredients. Despite the huge number of OTC products you see at a typical drugstore in the US, most are just combinations of a limited number of drugs. Ibuprofen, acetaminophen, doxylamine, diphenhydramine, dextromethorphan, naproxen, aspirin, guaifenisin, and phenylephrine, ranitidine and topical lidocain account for most OTC drugs.

Rather than take a bottle of 30 Claritin, etc, I bought the ones with the blister packs. Normally I don't, but I didn't want to take bottles of 10 different things. I could then estimate how much I'd need, and just take that much. I would use a marker on each pack to write what it was so I didn't have to read the tiny print in the dark.

You can get Ibuprofen over the counter in Italy but it was 8 euro for a pack of 12. Personally I always take a small amount of any otc meds we might need. Yes you can probably get something similar there--- but why waste time looking for what you need when you're already not feeling well?

Also, bring bandaids, gauze, tape etc. Bandaids are a fortune in London and Paris!

Before each trip I always get packs of Ibuprofen, generic nyquil, generic Tylenol PM, etc at my local Dollar store and put it in my carryon luggage. That way if it does get confiscated, I havent spent a ton of money. And the cheap stuff seems to work just fine, though I do prefer the name brand stuff at home.