When do you NOT carry around your passports?

What do you do with your passports when you hit up the beach or places where you're only wearing a bathing suit? Where do you keep your money or keys, assuming you want to get in the water and no one else can watch your stuff?

If there's a safe in the room I'm in then the valuables go in there. Honestly it's pretty rare that you'll go to the beach by yourself completely (by definition these are places where it's easy to make friends), but I'd usually stick my valuables in a not-obvious place and just not go out so far that it wasn't in full view/ couldn't get back quick if someone started poking around. Common sense stuff really.

Can some hostels safekeep them for you?

Hi Kenneth, I highly recommend you buy this product from Pacsafe. I have one of those and nowadays, I won't stay in a hostel without one.

I second the vote for the packsafe locking safe bag. We've been using it for 3+ months in Central America. We only carry our passports on travel days. Otherwise we leave them in the safe and carry a copy. We have copies in each bag and on each person. If we are swimming, we bring only the bare necessities...flipflops and maybe a towel.

The PacSafe looks handy. Is it pretty fool-proof? Do you hook it up to something in the hostel?

K2 wrote:The PacSafe looks handy. Is it pretty fool-proof? Do you hook it up to something in the hostel?

You hook it up to your bedpost or something secure. It's secure enough, but if someone really wants to get your stuff (like the CIA or Mossad perhaps), they'll find a way.

heymikey wrote:

K2 wrote:The PacSafe looks handy. Is it pretty fool-proof? Do you hook it up to something in the hostel?

You hook it up to your bedpost or something secure. It's secure enough, but if someone really wants to get your stuff (like the CIA or Mossad perhaps), they'll find a way.

Luckily for me, I have no beef with them.

Myself I never did the PacSafe stuff so I can't comment on them. That and consider them unnecessary for the average traveler, but if I'd had an issue I might be saying something different right?

As for getting the hostel to keep your stuff, most will give you a place to keep your stuff be it a safe or a cage or whatever (bring a lock, as you will need it!). When it comes to places in more 3rd world destinations I wouldn't keep my stuff in a communal safe as too many people working at the hostel have access to it.

Ok seriously now, it's worth pointing out that the grand majority of thefts are ones connected to a moment of opportunity- knew a girl whose digital camera was stolen when she left it on her bed to go to breakfast, knew two guys held up wandering in the dark in a strange city, that sort of thing. When traveling I always kept my passport close at hand in a place where I could immediately feel if someone so much as jostled me and know I had it on hand, and I once had some currency stolen by a fellow traveler, but there will always be a trade-off between security and hassle and mine doesn't go beyond vigilance and common sense. After all long-term travelers never have much worth stealing, nothing a trip to a bank or a consulate won't solve anyway.

But in the end, who will guard your stuff when you're at the beach?

The only other thing I can think of is a waterproof bag which you can put your passport, keys, money. Put that bag in a secure pocket on your swim shorts.

When I was on the beach in Mexico, I put the stuff in my pack, and gave my pack to be watched by a reliable looking restaurant owner. I had no trouble, though I had worries. I don't like swimming in beaches alone, because I am often alone. Its a cost of travelling alone for me.

K2 wrote:But in the end, who will guard your stuff when you're at the beach?

The only other thing I can think of is a waterproof bag which you can put your passport, keys, money. Put that bag in a secure pocket on your swim shorts.

That would be the only alternative to leaving it in a hostel locker or front desk lockup.

Can anyone recommend such a waterproof bag?

It's always a difficult one this is. If you can use a safety box at the hostel/hotel, put your valuables in that. Problem is if you camp like we have done for months on end, no locks on tents. We use body belts but of course you can't swim with them on. Buy trousers and shorts with zipped and concealed pockets for keys and carrying currency. If we are on the beach we would take it in turns to go into the sea. We usually have the camera anyhow and certainly wouldn't want that or money stolen, pics are irreplaceable.
Jean

K2 wrote:Can anyone recommend such a waterproof bag?

There are quite a few out there — although I'm pretty sure a few on these boards have recommended the Denko PakPak.