Carrying Passports
 

I will be going to Barcelona soon and want to be safe. I have never carried my Passport on me---are you supposed to do this? Should I photocopy the passports and keep the originals in the Hotel safe? Do I present photocopies to the front desk, if they should ask? I am a little confused about the most correct and safest thing to do?Thanks!

No, you are not expected to carry your passport at all times, leave it to the safe. But it is a good idea to have also the photocopy of your passport, just in case.

At the front desk you give your original passport if they want it. Sometimes you get it back right away, sometimes in a couple of hours, sometimes the next day.

Personally when I travel I always keep my passport with me in a moneybelt under my clothes. You should have photocopies with you in your luggage or left in hotel safe. ALso leave a copy at home along with your itinerary for whomever is your contact while you are away.

If the hotel asks to keep your passport for the duration of the stay I would refuse as you need to have it at all times.

I carry my passport. I just wouldn't feel right not having it in my possession in a foreign country. Exceptions are when you need to give it to the hotel front desk for a brief time at check-in or on an overnight train when the conductor needs to have it for border crossings.

I'm not a big worrier generally speaking, but what if something happens to you while you're out and about, and your passport is back locked in the hotel safe. I have never understood why people do this.

I always carry my passport on my person, in a leg pouch. My reasoning is the same as suze.

~Liz

I always carry my original passport with me. To me it makes no sense keeping it in a safe.

suze, I always leave it in the safe because I don´t see where would I need it, and that has been the case in all the 40 years I have travelled. The only times while staying in some country I have needed it: money-exchange, applying for a residence permit, and always in the former Sovietunion.

I keep a copy of my passport with me when I am off the ship or away from the hotel. This way if my bag gets stolen all they get is a copy and I am somewhat safe. I always pack a copy in my suitcase also.

I have a problem delegating the responsibility for anything as important as my passport to someone else.

Safes simply aren't.

I never carry my original passport with me as I am visiting various places. But of course when I am changing locations I have my original passport with me. I put the original in the hotel safe (not room safe). I carry a photocopy of my passport in my purse. I also leave a photocopy of my passport at home with my family.

In Italy one always hands the original passport to the hotel clerk when checking in. They have to copy down the information and give it to the local police department. I have had them keep it a few hours up to overnight. I have never had a problem.

I would assume the same procedure applies in Spain.

Wishing you a good trip.

I always keep my passport w/ me except when it has to be out of my custody at check-in. I'd never leave it in a room safe. It would probably be OK in a hotel's main safe but I prefer to have it on me.

Same here, I keep my passport in a moneybelt. I don't trust either a room safe or a hotel safe.

I do carry a copy of my passport in a different location than the original. However, I never leave the passport in a safe. It is always on my person, in a neck pouch.
Furthermore, I have decided to no longer leave my passport for an extended period with hotel clerks at check-in time. I will instruct them to write down whatever information they need from the passport while I am standing there.

You are required by Spanish law to carry some type of photo ID on you at all times, passport, driver license, etc.. You can carry a photocopy of your passport, which should serve you under most circumstances, but there are places where you may want to shop, or use your credit card, that require you may to show your passport. Generally, my passport stays in the hotel at all times, regardless. You do not need one to use the ATM machine.

Carrying a copy of your passport in your suitcase has been warned against recently. With the more comon occurence of identity theft it is not a very good idea these days.

I don't wish to sound morbid, but don't know how better to make my point... *if* something really terrible happens (heaven forbid you are hit by a bus, caught in a bombing, have a heart attack) your passport back in the hotel safe isn't going to be much help to you.

Sorry, but I cannot see how a passport on your person would help in a possible accident. For example I have always my driver´s lisence in my wallet, that I use as an ID-card also at home. It has my name and social security ID-number. With that info any official, anywhere in the world would find out who I am. Passport doesn´t have more useful information.

I just think it is in a safer place in a safe than with me.

Elina: Not related to the OP passport question -- but am very curious what state you are from that has SSN info on your driver's license? No DL I've ever had included SSN.

Just seems strange - like a sure recipe for identity theft. Every time you show your DL you are also disclosing your SSN . . . .

I don't think carrying <i>any</i> document bearing your Social Security number is prudent. It's one of the key elements of identity theft. I don't carry my wallet on European jaunts at all.

Your passport has a place in the front where you can write down emergency contact information. I should think it would be the first place an emergency responder would look.

I had a girlfriend who flew for Braniff. Her company ID card was embossed metal. I asked why. &quot;Now, think&quot; was the reply.

I agree my passport should stay with me at all times, except when checking in at a hotel. I don't, in general, trust hotel safes. My only exception is when swimming...that CAN be a problem if you haven't planned for it!

And, I do use a lightweight silk moneybelt.

We always keep our passport in the hotel or the room safe.. and when traveling my husband wears a carrier around his neck that he puts under his shirt.. we also carry copies of the passport.Glad to know we will need passport i.d. in Barcelona.. we will carry copies..thanks

Carrying a photocopy of your passport is comletely useless. Such a copy has no value at all. If you are stopped by the police, and the only thing you can show is a copy of your passport, then you better hope they are in a good mood, because there is always the possibility that they will take you to the police office for a few hours. In most countries in Europe you are supposed to have some kind of identification with you, and this is also valid for tourists, whereever they come from. By the way, if at the hotel desk they ask for your passport, and they keep it for a few hours, they do it because they have to register you with the local authorities.

Janis, I am not from any state, I am from Finland.

Hmm, I have not even thought about this identity theft thing. It just isn´t common in Europe. I had to do a sarch to know what you are talking about, and when I typed &quot;identity theft in Europe&quot;, the first one that appeared ws this: http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/...cy/P116528.asp

This started to bother me, so I had to check. There is social security number also in my passport. So that doesn´t make a difference weather I carry a passport or a driver´s license.

And Robespierre, you said like this. &quot;Your passport has a place in the front where you can write down emergency
contact information. I should think it would be the first place an emergency
esponder would look.&quot;

My passport is an EU-passport, and it doesn´t have anything like that.

i.e. in Germany, it is (of cause) no offence if you don`t carry your id card/passport with you. It is only an offence if you refuse to follow the police to have your identity checked. So as long as you have it at the hotel and stay within a few meters, there is no need to take your passport with you.

Janis -- Iowa used your Social Security number as your driver's licence number, at least up until a few years ago. Maybe still does.

I don't think that's a great idea, but considering how many places SSNs are already floating around (employment records, education records, 401(k) records, student IDs, mortgages, car loans, credit card records, utility records, etc., etc.,) I'm not sure it hurts too much. That's just me, though.

this is kind of related to the topic, should i be bringing my social security card to europe with me?

I do not know of any reason to carry a U.S. social security card to Europe. Anyone?

I wouldn't think there's any reason to have a SS card in Europe. It has no photo, no official use there that wouldn't be covered by a passport. I'd leave it at home. (Even though I don't - I always have my SS card in my wallet so I can always find it. -- See? Told you I just can't get too worked up about security.)

I what I need from my wallet before traveling, and leave the rest of it intact at home. No need to drag along a department store credit card or anything else you don't really need on your trip.

I take what I need (sheez, sorry)...

elina: Sorry for jumping to the conclusion you were from the States. I don't usually assume fodorites are Americans but you mentioned your social security ID-number and I figured you meant a US social security account number . . . .

I travel internationally about 50% of the time for business. I work for a Fortune 500 company, and we have offices globally. Our company policy is strictly NOT to carry a passport, nor business cards, nor a cell phone nor any other item that may be used against you when you are in a foreign airport, on a plane or sight-seeing. You do not want to give the impression that you are wealthy, or that you may fetch a good ransom.

I've been traveling internationally for 20 years, and have never had a problem. I can't see any reason to carry a passport. Leave it in the hotel safe.

Honestly, what would someone do with it anyway? It's a mild inconvenience to get a new one, as I learned from a friend who was carrying her passport and had her purse stolen. . .

Just my $0.02.

&lt;Our company policy is strictly NOT to carry a passport... you when you are in a foreign airport...&gt;

How does that work? You don't need your passport in an airport? I don't get it.

That's interesting you say you are advised not to carry a passport even at an airport. Yes, please explain. Sorry I don't agree with you as I don't feel that losing my passport is just a 'mild inconvenience'.

Besides the &quot;no passport rule&quot; which does not make any sense to me -- why no cell phones? I personally don't carry one on vacation (I want to get away from phones) but ALWAYS carry one on business.

Do you mean a cell phone will draw attention? Believe me - In London for example you will stand out MUCH more by not having a phone. It seems that 90% of Brits carry one. No one would give you a second look . . . .

I don't think Frequent Flyer meant he did not carry his passport in the airport or on the plane. I think he meant the other items, business cards, cell phones etc. I know of people that work for international corporations that, for security reasons, give their employees these type of instructions.

I &quot;think&quot; this was a mistype. It would have to be IMO. Unless there is something the rest of us don't know.

If Frequent Flyer really does work for a company with a policy of not carrying ID abroad, he needs to get another job fast.

In much of Continental Europe - including Spain - never mind really authoritarian states, it's a legal requirement to carry a passport or national ID card at all times. If his security people have created a policy of breaking Spanish law, he's got real problems.

As for not having mobile phones, especially in countries where American tourists are the only people without them...

Let's hope his employers aren't actually paying money to the lunatics who create policies this inane.

A little anecdote:
Years ago, I saw that EVERYONE in Rome had a cell phone. This was several years before they became very popular in the USA. It was easy to notice this since people would stand in the middle of a busy street or piazza talking on their phones while Fiats, delivery trucks and Vespas whizzed by them. I thought, this must be a peculiar Roman thing.

The general concensus here is to keep passports on you at all times.
Thats fine but where do you keep them when on the beach or swimming?

Just for the record, we always lock them in the safe. No probs so far.
Like elina, the only time we needed to carry them is for currency exchange.


Muck