It is astounding to think back at how I knew everything there was to know when I was 19, and how little I know now at 56.

Hello WM......sorry to hear about your daughter's experience. I sincerely hope, however, as other posters have said...... please encourage her NOT to take the view that London is a terrible place, and that the rest of her trip will be a complete bust.

My sister backpacked around Europe and England for 5 months a few years ago. She got robbed while she was in Barcelona, but she said it taught her how to handle an emergency, and she was quite proud of how she dealt with her experience.

In addition, she decided to just apply what she had learned instead of getting angry, bitter or fearful, and she ended up having a FANTASTIC backpacking adventure.

Your daughter will someday look back on her trip with much fondness, I am sure. She'll be ok!!!

My how I have come to love and enjoy coming to this site. People are so warm and caring and offer the best support and ideas. Actually gocats2002 has now also given me something else to worry about......romance!!!! (lol---ha,ha)Thanks to you all. It all seems to be coming together, rather slowly but we are getting there. Oh yes the police report is a definite!! She wasn't intending to file one because she felt it a great lose for herself but nothering of concern for anybody else. Just another stolen wallet!!! She'll need it at this end for insurance claims.

Hi WM,

I agree, passport more important than ATM or cash. number one importance - personal safety. this will be but a blip for her, and she will laugh about it one day. maybe soon! tell her to go take a London Walks pub crawl (www.walks.com, or ask the hostel for the brochure) and she will meet some nice people and laugh it off over a pint.

I've made two good friends, whom I still keep up with, using London Walks. it's just so much fun.

ATM - easy to get a new one. have her bank issue one post haste, and mail it to an AMEX office.

please don't tell her "I told you so" re: the money belt. she knows. please don't make it worse!

internet cafes are very notorious for thefts of this sort. there are signs posted everywhere, and even on the computer a warning will flash every 15 minutes WATCH YOUR STUFF. not to paint a broad brush, but the internet cafs are packed with young hostelers/backpackers and it only takes one idiot to make them all look bad. (funny isn't it, I truly believe MOST people in this world, vast vast majority, are nice and mean well - it's the 1% who cause all the mistrust in the world!!)

tell her she will love London - give it a chance please! she is likely still a little jetlagged. seriously, go have a pint. take a walk, visit a museum. it's my favorite city on the planet and she cannot help but fall in love with it. it's just bad luck, that's all.