SECURITY OF MIND AND LUGGAGE
Staying secure when you travel is essential to keeping you self-contained and mobile. If you’re traveling light, with just the stuff you need and nothing you don’t, you have to make sure you don’t lose any of those essentials! That’s where travel security tactics and gear come in. They protect you against the three main threats to your money and gear: theft, accidental loss, and yourself.
Security Against Theft
Theft can happen. I have lost a few items to theft (and robbery) over the course of my travels, including a camera in Vietnam, a toiletry kit in Honduras, and five bucks in Madrid. When I look back on these, they all happened because I failed to follow my own rules as relates to security.
Wear a money belt
Money belts are important. They keep your cash, credit carts, passport, and anything else that’s hard or impossible to replace, in a secure pouch under your clothes – somewhere that you’d definitely notice a thief putting his hand. I always keep a small amount of cash in my pocket for daily use, but big bills go right in the money belt. That’s why I only lost five bucks to the pickpocket in Madrid – that’s all that was in my pocket.
>>Check out our helpful guide to money belts to narrow down which one is best for you.
Use luggage locks
Most thieves are looking to quickly grab something and get out of there; they’ll try to unzip the bag, grab what they see and go. If you use luggage locks on your zippers, a potential thief is most likely to just move on to another bag that isn’t locked. The one time I forgot to bring luggage locks is the time a thief unzipped my bag in Honduras and took my toiletry kit – why, I have no idea, but there is now a well-coiffed bandito somewhere around San Pedro Sula.
Some people worry that a thief might cut open a locked bag, so the buy bags with steel cables in them to prevent cutting. In my opinion, this is overkill. I’ve heard a lot of worry about this subject, but I’ve never met anybody whose bag was cut open, and I’ve certainly never met anybody who told a story of their stuff being saved by a steel cable. So I’d just stick with the luggage locks.
Security Against Loss
One story I’ve heard many times, and had happen to me as well, is luggage that was lost by the airline. I’ve also heard about luggage being mistakenly picked up by someone else at the carousel – at a certain point, black wheeled upright bags all start to look the same. The one fool proof method of avoiding this is to be self-contained, and only have a carry-on size bag. They can’t lose it if they never have it!
Luggage Tags
This is your next line of defense against loss. Always have a luggage tag on your bag with your contact info, so that, if it is lost, they can easily track you down. And, if you use fun bright-color luggage tags, you’re also protecting yourself against someone accidentally grabbing the wrong bag. Your unique tag will mean you can instantly identify the bag, and others will know to steer clear.
Security Against Yourself
I have learned not to underestimate by ability to lose the most important things I’ve brought with me, so I have developed some strategies to protect my stuff from myself. Using a money belt is a big part of this – it protects my stuff from me, not just from pickpockets. If my passport is always in my hand or my money belt, I won’t be able to set it down and lose it. Same goes for cash, credit cards, and a copy of my flight itinerary.
But, if you’re like me, you will inevitably leave a jacket or umbrella on a bus sometime, or leave your toothpaste in the bathroom of your last hotel. This is when it’s important to remember a rule from our “Self-Contained” section: Other countries have stores too. So really, it’s important to chill out and not worry too much about loss, theft, etc. Ultimately, stuff can be replaced.
