Best Way To Keep Your Passport Safe While Traveling

When traveling, your top priority should be to protect your passport as it verifies your identity and nationality as well as the visa stamp allowing your entry into the country. A misplaced, stolen, or lost passport can ruin your holidays.

If your passport is stolen by a criminal, it can be used to create a new identity or even used by an identity thief. So, how to protect your passport when traveling?

There are a number of ways to protect your passport these range from using the hotel safe to store your passport and not carrying your passport around with you when exploring. You should also make copies of your passport and bring another form of ID as some countries require you to have your ID with you at all times.

In this post, we will go through the best way to keep your passport safe while traveling. Let’s get started!

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Best Ways To Keep Your Passport Safe

Protecting your passport should be a top priority. Passports verify your identity and nationality as well as the visa stamp allowing your entry into the country. These tips to protect your passport are mostly common sense.

Here are our tips on keeping your passport safe when you are traveling.

Protect Your Passport

Your passport is the most valuable document that you will carry abroad. Simply put, your passport proves your citizenship.

Protect your passport never leave it out of sight.
Do not use it as collateral for a loan or lend it to anyone.
It is your best form of identification.

When entering some countries or checking in at hotels, you will be asked to provide information such as your name, passport number, destination, local address, and reason for travel.

You may be required to leave your passport at the hotel reception desk overnight so that it may be checked by local police.

These are normal procedures required by local laws. If your passport is not returned the following morning. Some hotels will hold a passport for the duration of your stay and return it when checking out.

If not, immediately report it to the local police and contact your nearest embassy or consulate.

Make Copies Of Your Passport

Make several copies of your passport and the visa entry stamp. Take photos of your passport and upload them to a cloud storage service like Dropbox or Google drive or make a few extra copies.

Leave a copy with a trusted friend or family member. This helps if anything goes wrong.

Beware Of Pickpockets

Thieves will use all kinds of ploys to divert your attention just long enough to pick up your pocket and grab your purse or wallet.

These ploys include creating a disturbance, spilling something on your clothing, or even handing you a baby to hold.

You can try to prevent theft by securely carrying your belongings. For example, consider not carrying a purse or wallet when going along crowded streets.

Walking around with your passport makes you a target because it is an easy way for others to identify that you are visiting from another country.

Conceal your passport by purchasing a passport holder that will conceal the front cover.

Women who carry a shoulder bag should keep it tucked under the arm and held securely by the strap. Men should put their wallets in their front trouser pockets or use money belts instead of hip pockets.

A wallet wrapped in rubber bands is more difficult to remove without notice.

Be especially cautious in a large crowd, on subways, on buses, at the marketplace, at a festival, or if surrounded by groups of children. Do not make it easy for thieves!

Store Passport In Your Hotel

Once you have arrived and checked into your hotel. Make sure your hotel has a safe before booking and store your passport in the safe. Don’t leave it in your room unattended.

If there is no safe in your room and you are staying in a hotel that you trust, ask the front desk if they have a safe available to store personal belongings.

Safeguard Your Passport

Carelessness is the main cause of losing a passport or having it stolen.

You may find that you have to carry your passport with you because you need to show it when you are using the foreign exchange or the country that you are visiting requires you to carry it as an identity document.

When you must carry your passport, hide it securely on your person. Do not leave it in a handbag or an exposed pocket.

Whenever possible, leave your passport in the hotel safe, not in an empty hotel room, and not packed in your luggage.

One family member should not carry all the passports for the entire family.

If Your Passport Goes Missing

If your passport is lost or stolen, report it immediately. Contact your nearest Embassy or Consulate and explain the incident in full detail as well as the local police.

They will advise you on the next steps and can help you file a police report if necessary.

USEFUL TRAVEL RESOURCES

Book Accommodation

Booking.com has a large range of properties from hotels, hostels, guesthouses, and resorts where you will find the best deals. Airbnb and Hostelworld also have a good range of places to stay at good prices.

Booking Flight

Skyscanner is a flight search comparison website that searches millions of flights all at once. Ultimately it is the best flight comparison website online at the moment.

Booking Transportation & Things To Do

Rome2rio and 12Go are useful to plan how to get anywhere by searching train, bus, car, and ferry routes. Especially useful in countries like Vietnam or Thailand. While Klook is great for exploring things to do in each place.

Travel Insurance

Travel insurance is cheap and more than likely you will never need to use it but you will have peace of mind if something does happen, you are covered in case of an emergency. World Nomads have great customer service and competitive prices.

Check out our resource page for the best companies to use when you travel.

Wrapping Up

Finally, there are several ways to protect your passport these range from using the hotel safe to store your passport and not carrying your passport around with you when exploring. You should also make copies of your passport and bring another form of ID as some countries like Thailand require you to have your ID with you at all times.

And that’s it for now! I’d love to know if these tips on how to keep your passport safe while traveling has helped you. Let me know if you have any questions and let me know if there is more to add.