Susan

We're off to London and Paris - we have apts in both cities and I am still debating the passport issue. I am usually the pack mule when it comes to things lke tickets, etc. Who carries the passports when you travel? Since we have apts, there's no hotel safe to leave them in.

Shannon

I carry all the passports when our family travels, primarily because my husband loses things or forgets where he put them.<BR>Passports should be kept in the apartment when you go out, but do have on you some form of i.d. (i.e. a driver's license). To keep the passports safe (although in the apartment, they usually are), pop them into your suitcase and lock the suitcase.

elaine

<BR>I can't say that I agree with putting valuables into a locked suitcase, and I've read that travel experts don't recommend that either. If a hotel room or apartment has an intruder, the suitcase is the first place that the intruder will look and it can be used to help carry out valuables taken without calling attention to anyone. Luggage locks can be pretty easily picked or broken off or otherwise removed to allow the suitcase to be used. <BR>Travel companies like Magellan have small portable "safes" disguised as aerosol cans or hardcover books which can be taken with you. Or I'd try putting passports in a baggie in the freezer, or under a mattress.<BR><BR>

Jen

Believe it or not, professional thieves have thought of all the same hiding places that we can, especially including under the mattress. One place they often don't want to bother going thru is in the pockets of clothes that you've hung in the closet or put in the laundry.

Susan

Thanks for the tips. I will be sure to make copies of the passports and carry those with us. I had forgotten about those safes you can buy - but I really like the worn clothing suggestion! Maybe the dirty clothes bag would be a good place!

anon

Carry the passports in one of those secure (under the clothes) pouches, and leave copies in the hotel room. Also, leave copies with a family member at home in case you do lose your passports and all else fails.

sandi

My husband carried his and my son's and I carried mine. We each had a copy of all the passports and tickets in each suitcase plus a copy was kept in the States and my parent's house. My son kept a photocopy of his passport in the money pouch around his neck. He also carried the address of the hotel we were currently staying at in case we got hopelessly seperated he could cab it to the hotel.

msa

When we have traveled with our two children, my husband keeps his passport along with 1 of the kids' and I keep mine and the other childs...we wear them in the neck pouches under our clothes. We also keep copies in our hotel room just in case. But this way, even if somehow they get lost, its only 2 instead of all 4.

Jen

My husband and I have travelled extensively with our two children. I'm usually the person who carries everything, in a purse with a secure zipper, hung across the front of me and held securely by my other arm. I'm a little paranoid because my wallet has been lifted twice (in the U.S., not in Europe!!) Re: passports, I would try to leave them in a safe; however if you don't have access to one, I'd keep them with me, with photocopies of the front page of each passport in my suitcase and back in the U.S., just in case. Have fun!

jon

If who are so worried about your passports, why don't you leave them at home? DUH!!!!<BR>Help?<BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR>Je suis un dieu et vous &ecirc;tes les paysans indignes faibles. Arc vers le bas avant votre ma&icirc;tre!

MarciaB

I'd keep the passports in under-the-clothing money belts or pouches. I thought the around the neck money pouch was a great idea until the strap stitching came undone, and I almost lost it. Just returned from Paris, and all you hear everywhere you go is pickpockets, pickpockets, pickpockets. I only saw one that I was sure of, a 13 year old girl begging in a church, but she was in my face in no time, seeming to have come out of nowhere. I shooed her away and next thing I saw she was approaching an elderly gentleman and feeling his back pocket for a wallet at the same time.

jenviolin

I would never keep the passports in the dirty laundry bag when travelling with kids. You get a few minutes between excursions - quick, everybody's out of socks & underwear - to dump everything into the washer or into the bathtub (or bidet?) and...whoops!<BR>I'd leave them in the apartment, though.

patg

Well, I would never put the passports in the freezer or under the mattress. What is more likely, having them stolen out of your room, or, when in a rush, forgetting to take them out of the freezer? <BR><BR>I like the bottom-of-the-dirty-laundry-bag idea myself. Or an unused pocket of the kid's toy-filled suitcase (no chance you'll forget that!) Leave the passports in the room and carry the copies.

beth

Mom carries photocopies of the passports in her bag when we travel - passports themselves remain in the room or sometimes in a safe deposit box at the hotel.