You know you have read all the things you should do before taking a trip overseas. Well I have read them and like a typical male have discounted most of the tips and hints. We have made four trips overseas without any problems. I hold the passports in a moneybelt under my clothing, any money is deep in a front pocket. My wife only carries one credit card and very little money and that is deep inside a front pocket.
Well, this trip something told me to do more. I made a list of the credit cards we were taking with the phone numbers to call in case of problems, made a copy of our passports just in case.
While in Karlovy Vary (which is overrun by Russian tourists and according to locals most of the larger spas have been bought up by Russians with alot of oil money), my wife was carrying her passport, drivers license and credit cards in a small pocketbook. This is something she NEVER does but we had just arrived in Prague at 8:00am that morning and drove to Karlovy Vary. We were sitting in a small cafe outside having coffee when we got up to leave after paying the bill. For some reason my wife was distracted and we didn't realize she had left her pocketbook at the cafe until 3 hours later as we had gone to our room to take a late afternoon nap. After asking the waitress at the cafe if she had the pocketbook in case it was turned in. She was rather rude and said no. She was aghast when we said we were going to the police to report that it was stolen. We got a police report (written in Czech) that informed anyone who asked that my wife lost her passport. We then called the U.S. Embassy in Prague and all credit card companies.
Using the copy of my wife's passport that I had made (it was the only thing she had that identified who she was), we drove back to Prague the next day and the next morning went to the Embassy to have the passport replaced. She had her passport photo taken at a shop near the Embassy, and using the passport copy was able to get a replacement in 1 hour. The cost was $85.00 US - CASH only. They would take Czech Krounas, if that is all we had.

So a warning....don't get complacent, be prepared it could happen to you.

Thanks for the warning, dh.

Hope this incident didn't ruin your visit.

We always have a copy of our passports when traveling in a place other than our original. We also leave a copy at home that can be easily be faxed by someone, if need be.

Yes, it's better to be prepared. Thanks for reminding us of that, and I'm glad to hear that things worked out well in getting your replacement.

This is a perfect example of reasons to only carry the photo copy of your passport. I don't understand why your wife was carrying her drivers license. That should be in the safe with the original passport, ATM cards, credit cards and airplane tickets.

In fact, unless she was going to be driving in Europe, why did she even bring her drivers license? It's about as useful as you Costco and AAA card.

Curious

I have been taking two copies of my passport. Nice to hear that the replacement worked som smoothly!

Keith

We had this experience in Athens. It was actually an interesting excursion to the US Embassy!

If you ever forget a copy of your passport, ask your hotel to make a copy for you. They will usually oblige.

I was mugged in the little garden behind the Hilton in Brussels and they got my passport (in Belgium, technically you are supposed to carry the original document, not a copy) along with my drivers license, etc. More than a half dozen people were mugged within two days at the same spot.
Getting my passport and credit cards replaced quickly (within 48 hours) was no problem...except the photos. They are done to U.S. (imperial) measurements, not metric, which means there aren't that many places around that do U.S. size passport photos (according to the US consulate in Brussels, at that time there were only 2 that were currently doing U.S. sized photos). My general advice is bring extras with you.
As an expat, I can say that getting a passport replaced is a piece of cake compared to getting a drivers' license replaced, which is done at the state, not federal, level. I now have a nonphoto state drivers license. On my next trip to the U.S., I'll be going to the local AAA for an international drivers license.

The inetrnational driver's "license" that you get from AAA is actually called an international driving PERMIT (IDP), and it's not a legal document -- it's just a translation of your state-issued driver's license, and isn't valid without it.

Curious - if you read the original post he said they had just arrived in Prague that morning and driven to Karlovy Vary and were having a snack before going to the hotel for a nap. So there WAS a reason for the drivers license and passport to be with her (although, as it sounds like they now know, they should have been on her person and not in a pocketbook). Sorry, but it just really bugs me when people respond to posts without reading them. And to dh - thanks, we can always use a reminder not to let our guard down.

I lost my passport in the process of moving from one city to another in Germany, as an exchange student. I did have copies though, and that was the only document I lost. Getting the pictures was hard. There is metric equivalents that the consulate accepts, but they were much different than the European passport style photos, which are much, much more relaxed, smaller and available everywhere. The first place I stopped I had gotten pictures done before for school ID, and they couldn't do the white background, though they said it wouldn't be a trouble to make it the right size. The second place wouldn't have anything to do with the size. Another place had a special "American style passport" package which would require them over a week to get done. And I finally found some place that was able to work with the US's strict requirements, though I had to get my pictures taken twice, because the angle wouldn't work on the first one.

Anyways, I then went to Frankfurt one morning, only an hour away by train, to find they had picture machines in the Frankfurt Consulate set to the correct specifications.. ugh!

The actual process of replacing it was simple though. I showed them the copy of the passport, filled out a form of what happened to the last one, paid the price for a new passport (not renewal passport, which is cheaper), and they mailed it to me a week later. They said they had to send it back to the states to be made, except in emergency situations. I wasn't going to be leaving the country anytime soon, so this wasn't a problem, but I don't know how they would work it for a tourist who needed to fly home soon.

The happy side to the story is I got to spend the rest of the afternoon exploring Frankfurt, once done at the consulate.

Having lost both passport and drivers license in Paris we learned to take not only copies of our passports but extra passport photos. The photos are a lot cheaper at AAA or the local chain drug store than they are overseas. Plus you don't have the extra time hassle and making sure they take US passport photos not local passport photos as there may be a difference.

Sometimes you don't have the option not to carry your passport as many small hotels and B&B's don't have safes. I won't leave my passport in a hotel room for sure.