How To Bring Hiking Poles on a Plane: Tips + TSA Rules

Can You Bring Trekking Poles in Your Checked Luggage?

✅ Yes, TSA guidelines allow trekking poles in checked luggage without stipulations. It’s the best way to transport them.

On international flights, your checked luggage is the best place for your hiking poles, but keep them in an easy to reach spot.

⚠️ A few different countries, like Australia and New Zealand, require inspection of hiking poles at customs before they let you and the poles into their country.

They’re looking for contaminants and invasive species. Generally, if you keep your poles in good repair and fairly clean, the customs inspection doesn’t take long.

Can You Bring Trekking Poles in Your Carry-On Luggage?

✅ Yes, the TSA guidance on hiking poles in carry-on luggage changed in early 2025 to allow them with blunt tips only.

⚠️ Most of the world prohibits trekking poles in hand luggage, and the US still prohibits them in carry-on bags if they have sharp tips.

If your poles have changeable tips, put the rubber tips on to carry them through security. Keep the sharp, metal tips in your checked bag or in a separate, small bag in your carry-on that you can quickly and easily remove if TSA wants to inspect them.

If they’ll let some scissors through security, they may let sharp tips for hiking poles through, too. I still think the safest place for the sharp tips is your checked bag.

Keep in mind that rubber tips merely covering sharp tips that can’t be removed from the rest of the pole is not sufficient. They’ll flag it if they think the rubber tip is “concealing” a sharp tip, and if they find it is, they won’t let those poles through security.

In the end, the final decision rests with the TSA officer in the US, but it seems like they all got the message on the updated rules because summer 2025 saw many people bringing trekking poles through security without any problems.

Non-collapsible hiking poles and long walking sticks will still get turned away if you’re not using it as a medical device (mobility aid, like a cane). Your airline also still has rules on length of items allowed in the overhead bins, so make sure you have collapsible poles.

Can I Bring Non-Collapsible Hiking Poles on a Plane as a Mobility Aid?

✅ Probably, if it has blunt, rubber tips. TSA can be flexible about what counts as a cane.

Mobility aids like walkers, crutches, and canes are all allowed per TSA rules but are all subject to additional screenings at security.

There’s a whole page on their website about special procedures for those with mobility issues.

They prefer to put aids through the screening machine but will hand inspect larger items that won’t fit.

Before you think you can just fake a mobility issue to get your hiking pole through security, know that TSA can and may ask for medical documentation of your disability that requires the mobility aid.

If you can’t provide medical reasons, the officer is allowed to deny the object in their sole discretion.

It’s also completely unethical to fake a disability. Just check your non-collapsible hiking poles, and move on with your integrity intact.

---

---

With the new rules, you can carry-on your hiking poles with no sharp tips!

If you’re a carry-on only kind of traveler, you can now bring your collapsible, blunt-tipped hiking poles through security without fear of having them confiscated.

But you can also still save yourself the hassle of getting your trekking poles through airport security, and just transport them in your checked luggage. Up to you in the US!

Don’t forget the rest of the world has different rules, though, so check each country’s guidelines before you fly.

Happy travels!

---

---

Share it!