BootsnAll Travel Community

I may just be really stupid, but when you're travelling with a large backpack and you want to leave it in your hostel dorm room while you go out and do stuff... what do you do with it? How do you keep it safe from theft? I mean, it doesn't make much sense to just leave it laying by your bunk. Do hostels provide locking services? Do you have to buy heavy and expensive pacsafe netting stuff? *newbie*

No question is dumb! That's why we're all here.

Some people swear by Pacsafe. I simply carry a long lightweight bycicle lock. If someone wants to steal, they will. At least with the lock they won't take the whole pack.

My best advice is not to leave anything valuable behind - stick it into your money belt if it's money or papers, and in your daypack if it's a bit more bulky, like your iPod.

In three years of non-stop backpacking, I never had anything stolen. I know that's not everyone's case, but not leaving valuables lying around make it less tempting.

Visible valuables vanish.

Anything of real value goes with you. The pack, and all of your clothes and books and crap, stays there.

In general, I don't worry about it. The iPod, camera and family jewels go with me in my day pack.

With any luck, thieves will steal your dirty underwear and socks and have them cleaned, starched and pressed for you while you are away.

and some, but by no means all, hostels DO have a lockup for you to put your stuff in. Some places have a lockup for you even if you aren't planning to stay there. WHich is nice.

D

Like others, my solution is to just have nothing worth stealing in the pack. The only things of value that I travel with are camera, passport, mp3 player, money/credit cards, and plane tickets (and really, thanks to etickets, the physical ticket is no longer needed). Conveniently, all of those things are easy to keep in a daypack.

If someone wants to steal my clothes...well they must be pretty desperate. My backpacking clothes get ratty pretty quick on the road.

In general, people didn't travel halfway around the world to steal your stuff. Most hostel theft is food. As long as your valubles are out of sight when you're there, and taken with you during the day, you likely won't have any trouble.

I've only lost valuables that were out in the open and not on my body. The only times I can say I lost anyhting in all my years of NOT locking up my pack was in Singapore or KL, when someone took all my shirts. It was a bunner, because they were ideal hot weather clothers I haven't yet replaced. However, they probably took them because they werent IN th epack, but laying loosely on top of them.

So, to be short and to the point. Don't take anything worth stealing, and no one will take anything from a hostel environment.

If there are locks, great, but don't go hogwild on security. Its not worth the bother or the weight in hostels.

Hostels usually provide a place to stash your pack if you're going to be away for an extended period. This place may or may not be secure, but chances are nothing will happen. I generally only do this if I'm leaving it for more than a day, in which case I wouldn't have a bed to put it on anyway. Just tuck everything in and don't worry too much about it. Important items like my passport stay with me in a hidden pocket.

For me, it's largely a matter of mental preparation. I have several "emergency kits" stashed in my pack and clothing - enough cash for a few days, a copy of my passport info page, and a list of phone numbers and account numbers (scrambled, of course) plus another pack uploaded to my webmail account. I know that even if everything I have is stolen, I can recover and be just fine. Nothing I'm bringing is particularly valuable besides my camera and mp3 player, but those can be replaced easily enough. The process of recovering will give me memories and stories to tell, which are why I'm going on a trip in the first place.

Just sort of commented in this thread.