Continuing our series on tips for traveling safely – today’s Part 2 guest post talks about tips for protecting your belongings while you’re traveling. If you missed our previous tips for traveling safety – check out Part 1: 8 travel safety tips that will make you think twice when traveling
2 tips to travel safely before you even leave
- Don’t bring valuables: When climbing the ruins of Angkor Wat, do you really need all that bling? Leave the expensive, flashy diamonds and Rolexes at home. I typically wear a watch and my wedding ring (remember Tip 7 from Part 1?) and opt for an inexpensive purse when abroad. Expensive stuff signals that you have money and could make you a target of thieves.
- Minimize your theft risk: Don’t bring everything with you! When I’m at home, I often have 8-10 credit cards in my wallet (yay for minimum spends and bonuses) along with Costco cards and all kinds of junk. Before you leave on your trip make sure to clean it out and only bring what you need. For me? Two debit cards (Schwab plus a backup), 2 Visas (no foreign transaction fees only), 1 Amex (for Centurion lounge access) (PWaC: Must be nice!), Priority Pass card, and my health insurance card. I bring backups of the debit and Visa in case something happens. When out for the day, I only bring the debit card and one visa card. My passport (along with green card and Global Entry card) often gets left at the hotel too (unless I’m somewhere that doesn’t have a safe or where I need to show my passport for entry to sites).
4 more tips for traveling safely with your belongings
- Nothing in your pockets: Pockets are a pickpocket’s best friend. It is in their name after all! Everything I bring outdoors with me is secured in a zipped and buttoned bag. One common mistake I see is the phone in the back pocket. Such an easy grab for a thief! If you are a guy and don’t want a man purse or backpack, make sure your wallet is in your front pocket.
- Don’t assume your hotel room is safe: One strategy to preventing sticky fingers at hotels is to lock items in the safe. However, my laptop often doesn’t fit or the safe is one you can pick up and walk out with. In these cases, I put my electronics in my luggage and lock my luggage. Yes, they could walk out with my luggage, but that is probably harder for them to do unobtrusively. Sometimes I’ll put them in my backpack, lock it, and slide the backpack under the bed or put it in a drawer. It’s just about making it a little bit harder for a thief. I’ve also left my locked backpack at the front desk in places where I just wasn’t sure.
- Watch your stuff on trains: European train travel is amazing. However, I have personally witnessed several snatch and grabs. (PWaC: I was literally just talking to someone last weekend who had all his belongings stolen on an Italian overnight train and I also know someone who had his money and passport stolen on a Mexican bus). Always try to put your luggage directly above your head. Keep valuables on your lap and secured (or below your feet…I’ll put my foot through a strap so someone can’t grab). If you can’t do this, then you need to get up at every stop and watch your luggage. I really wish Europe would implement Japan’s safety measures on trains (Japan has locks available at the luggage racks).
- Watch crowded places: When it gets crowded at a tourist site or on a bus/metro, make sure you know where your stuff is. I hold on to my bag extra tight and will swing backpacks around to the front and hold it. Pickpockets are really good!
Thanks for reading! I am really not a paranoid person. I am willing to go just about anywhere in the world and love traveling solo. These are all precautions that are second nature to me and should be practiced around the world.
Any more tips for traveling safely or how to stay safe and protect your belongings while traveling? Leave them in the comments
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
Actually hotel room safes aren’t always safe. It really depends on the property. I’m a risk consultant and work with hotels and resorts. One of the theft prevention questions I always ask is who controls the room safe master key. They should always require two employees or an employee and guest when opening the safe with the master key. However, many time the housekeepers can just use the master key by themselves anytime they want. I also look my stuff in my suitcase with a TSA lock with the theory that any employee theft is less likely to haul my big suitcase down the hall or force entry past the lock than to just walk off with an ipad, etc.
Interesting – thanks for the insight
I agree! I am not a huge fan of hotel safes either. However, I think that if something went missing then they would know whoever was in my room. So I’ll use it when it seems to be immovable. In SE Asia, it was often this flimsy thing that you could pick up and walk out with, so I never left stuff in there.
Never, ever use a debit card! E.V.E.R. Ask your bank for an ATM only card. Why do people use debit cards? If you debit account is breached, the Bank can place a hold on YOUR money. If a credit card is breached, it is not your problem.
People use debit cards because banks (in my experience) do not proactively offer the option for ATM only cards. I had to specifically request this (otherwise the default is the debit card). When the agent replied – but your debit card IS your ATM card, I echoed that ATM card was safer because it could not be used for online purchases and requires a PIN to use unlike debit cards. The situation is better now with the ability to freeze cards.
I would absolutely not put anything under a hotel bed. That’s one spot that’s never cleaned. Too much bugs, especially mites that you’ll be putting on your belongings.
I had an almost experience in a train in Baecelona. I now have a PacSafe backpack. It has terrific features. Zipper locks, Exomesh slash guard straps, and a turn lock, so you can put your backpack on the floor and lock it around your chair in a restaurant. Another way, thieves comes by and grab your things. I bought this kind, there are others, but the features are perfect!
We take alot of cruises and those cruise ports are ripe for pickpockets. Where a lanyard around your neck with a big pouch that you tuck inside your shirt. We each have one and you cannot see them through your clothes. Just don’t make them bulky. We carry visa, cruise card, debit, COPY of passport, and sometimes cash in local currency. We carry one cell phone in our front pocket.
If we go to lots of countries quickly, I keep a currency conversion card with me to be sure. Some areas are cash.
I always put a runner’s belt under my top. It fits snugly but doesn’t bind and it’s wide enough to hold my passport, iPhone, credit cards and money. If I carry a purse it only holds maps, tour books, and other things that are not valuable. In weather that’s cool enough for a jacket, I just use the pockets and eliminate the purse.
Like others who have commented, in airports I have a travel pouch with my documents and tuck it in my shirt.
Just want to convey a theft experience (not exactly a pickpocket) in Barcelona. Four of us were dining at a sidewalk table. I (stupidly, I now realize) had my phone on the table. A beggar came up to our table with a sort of laminated sheet with letters on it, and thrust it right in front of me, while mumbling and gesturing to the sheet, as if he could not talk properly. While my kind-hearted husband fished for some change, this person discretely stole my phone with his other hand. Didn’t even realize until 10 minutes later.
Wow – that’s bold!
For cruises, we get larger pouches that go on a lanyard. We drop these under our shirts. Pull them out to get the Schwab debit card and back it goes. I think this works well. We generally take copies of passport, drivers license, when off the ship.
Having seen in attempted pickpocketing the “clipboard survey takes” in Paris last year, I bought “pickpocket-proof” shirts and pants from clothingarts.com
The apparel has zippered pockets underneath a buttoned flap. Pant pockets easily are big enough for passports and large cell phone. I’ll wear this clothing as well as have my zippered passport wallet underneath my shirt. Some of the apparel is suitable for “business casual” events. They also sell RFID blocking sleeves for credit cards and passports.
After several decades of successfully avoiding pickpockets, I finally lost the battle to an older male one a couple of years ago on a crowded Paris subway. The wallet in my front pocket was taken, with a single credit card inside.
Back at the hotel I discovered that the card had been, and was being, used to purchase a significant number of local train tickets. I turned off the card online, reported the theft, and a month or two later the stolen funds were credited back to my account.
I have been using the shoulder sling bag advertised on facebook. The zip compartments are either under my arm or in front of my chest. I run a SS cable through them and a clasp at the top. Not the prettiest or stylish, but works for me.
When at the Maldives we had to hand over passports to the tour coordinator. I felt very vulnerable doing that and will not do that ever again.
Bring string or rope and tie your bag to the train luggage rack or something else. If sleeping in airports, tie the bag to your leg.
I’ve always locked up valuables in my suitcase rather than the hotel safe. And I take it a step further by using a locking cable to attach my suitcase(s) to something stationary in the room.
And never anything in my back pocket.