Most people are optimistic travellers. They pack three hats, five Instagrammable outfits, and zero clue about what happens when they scrape their knee on a cobblestoned alley or touch a bathroom door. Reality check: you need antiseptics, not another pair of linen trousers. No, you don’t need hydrogen peroxide unless you enjoy carrying dead weight. No, you don’t need to lug a “wound wash spray” unless you’re secretly auditioning to be a field medic. And absolutely no, you can’t just “wing it” with bottled water and optimism.
Travel is messy, germs don’t care about your itinerary, and nothing kills the mood faster than an infected cut. So ditch one of your unnecessary accessories and make room for these. Trust me, nobody ever looked at a festering wound and thought, “Good thing I packed that second pair of espadrilles.” Here’s the short, sharp, no-excuses list of what belongs in your bag:
Not the fruity, glittery kind. The actual germ-killer. It’s for when you can’t find soap or when the soap is clearly just water in disguise.
Because you’re not going to pour liquid onto a napkin in the middle of a train station. These clean hands, cuts, and suspicious tabletops. No drama.
It’s ugly brown, it stains, and it works. Perfect for cleaning wounds that are more than just a scratch. Think of it as the grown-up version of "Mom kissed it better."
Yes, technically this is beyond "antiseptic," but it stops cuts from going feral. You’ll thank yourself when that blister doesn’t turn into a science experiment.
The classics. If you’re the type who trusts grandma’s medicine cabinet, this is your comfort blanket, but only useful if you actually dilute it and use it.
Because cleaning a cut is pointless if you let it rub against your sweaty backpack straps afterwards.