Traveling to Spain with a lot of prescription medications

I don't actually know what Spain's rules are in terms of entering the country with prescription medication I can only give you my personal experience of travelling to Spain more times than I can actually recall and none of the medication has ever been queried or noticed. I always have my medication in a daily pill box, no packaging, no GP prescription, carried in my carry-on bag.

It depends on the medication.

No medication has to be in unopened bottles. Original containers is what's recommended but they are different depending on where you are from.

Take your medication whichever way you want. Have a copy of the prescription label found on the bottles with you to show what they are, they are prescribed to you, the doctor's name and the dates. Take enough for your trip and a few days more. Dont' take three months worth if your trip is for two weeks.

If any of your prescriptions are for controlled substances or narcotics, then keep them in their original container.

I take three months worth of medication when I start my trips because they last for three months. That's a lot of pills. I've never been hassled or even asked about it but I have the documentations necessary should I be asked.

So to answer your quesiton..yes, you can fill your pill bottles up. No they do not have to be unopened bottles. MD statement not necessary if you have the prescription labels. (An MD letter might be needed if any of your prescriptions are injectable.)

I use a blow dryer to heat the labels off the bottles and then sick them on Ziplock sandwich baggies and put the pills in there. All small baggies go into a big Ziplock and into my carry-on. I've never had a problem with that. Been to Spain 4 times using this method and never had a question. I have several chronic conditions due to autoimmune so I travel with a ton of medications and I don't bring "just enough" as you never know when you might need to stay longer. Plastic bottles take up too much space and are not considered "green". You will be fine with just baggies and a normal amount of pills. J

Joanne, thank you so much for sharing your experience! My pharmacy (Walgreens) recently started giving me meds in ginormous bottles--apparently because it's easier for the meds to be filled by machines. I'm glad to hear I don't have to bring these huge bottles with me.

I use a daily pill sorter. In repeated trips to Spain I have never had anyone express any interest in it.