Medication refrigerated

There are some recent threads on this in the forum.

To recap, let the RS tour know in advance so they can book you rooms with a refrigerator. If that is not possible, you can communicate with the hotels in advance and arrange to have them refrigerate your meds for you. I've done that before and never had a problem - just label your meds with your name, room number, and tel number.

On your flights to/from Spain you can use a refrigerated bag with built in ice pack, or any bag and your own ice packs (just make sure they are frozen solid or TSA will confiscate them.) This is also the method you will use on the bus between hotels. Many of the busses have a small refrigerated compartment but you cannot put your meds in there.

If this happens to be one of the GLP1 medications, I can offer some advice.

4allfamily Explorer cooler. On sale prime days! I use this with great success. If a freezer is available to freeze it, the included ice pack keeps cold for at least 18 hours. If not, hotels will give you ice if you ask. Keeps cold even on long bus days. Finally, can be turned into a mini-fridge with usc power cord.

Have a copy of prescription on you. I have been asked for it at security before.

Check out Frio medication coolers. I used one for a 5 week trip recently. All you need to keep them cold is water.

I carry self injecting needles that need to be kept cool. My approach is that I have a small hard case, zipper pouch -- maybe the size of two or three eye glass cases. Have no idea when I got it. I just had it and it was perfect size for the four pens (one/week) I need to carry. I have four zip lock bags -- 2 sandwich and 2 snack size. Each day I load both snack size with ice and double bag with the sandwich bags. Just to prevent an leakage problem. I don't use a lot of ice so everything fits neatly in the zipper pouch. It lasts 12 to 18 hours and the ice is easy to obtain from the hotel each evening or morning. After the first week I gain a little more room and can add some additional ice. But it works pretty well. If going for more than a month, I have a second pouch.

Some of the above recommendations are a bit complicated. I just need to keep everything cool and not frozen. And cool is defined as around 50, 60 degrees.

My wife and I both take refrigerated meds and we have two weeks in Switzerland in September. In both cases the meds are ok out of the fridge for 28 days. We might use insulated cases for travel but shouldn’t need to have them refrigerated. My wife uses an RA injection while mine is a GLP-1.

My wife and I both take refrigerated meds and we have two weeks in Switzerland in September. In both cases the meds are ok out of the fridge for 28 days.

It depends on ambient room temperature. For many meds that can be kept unrefrigerated for 28 days while in use (like Ozempic), the range of temps it is left out in is important, and the pen will not tolerate being left on a kitchen counter in a room that gets warmer than the mid 80s F for even a short amount of time. Also, never leave one of these pens in direct sunlight even in an air conditioned room.

Frio wallets are incredibly useful for storing pens if you do not have access to a fridge. While traveling with these pens, you will want a Frio wallet for travel days anyway, so use them in your hotel room, too.

Jojo Rabbit: That makes sense. Good advice.

I think other folks have given some good options, but one thing to be sure of while traveling with these medications, especially the peptides-based ones is that your injections should not be in direct contact with frozen packs because that may potentially damage medication. Frio is good because it is water-activated, but may not last long for that reason. 4AllFamily uses a gel back in a bottle which then introduces the concern of damaging the peptide. I recently attended a diabetes conference in Barcelona and saw breezy packs and Eurolabx - both of them are good insulated options. So you can check those out as well.

I have answered this in detail on similar threads. I want to stress that you absolutely can not count on the hotel to refrigerate your meds. They do not all do this. On the other hand, I have never had a hotel refuse me ice for a medication cooler. You need to take responsibility for your meds and not assume hotel frigs are available and adequate. Plenty of good portable coolers out there.

I've traveled all over the world with medication that has to be refrigerated.
In hotels that don't have in-room refrigerators, I get a large glass from the hotel bar or restaurant, fill it with ice and put my medication inside a ziplock bag in the glass. When/if the ice melts, replace it.
In between hotel stays, I keep it in a small insulated bottle with a refreezable gel pack or ice.