I should add my camera bag was my 'every day purse.' I took it everywhere and did not let it out of my sight .. as you would do with a purse. We also had copies of our passport.

We keep ours in the hotel safe in case we are mugged-we are assuming most muggers know that tourists carry money belts. We also carry a copy in case our passport is lost or stolen-it is supposed to be easier to get a replacement if you have a copy.

My God!! Always keep it on you. Even at night

I keep my passport with me, in my purse.

I keep mine in the room safe of my hotel. If the hotel is too small to have a room safe, that means I am so far out in the countryside, I just stick it my luggage.

I carry a photocopy with me.

I keep mine in a pocket with a secure closure.

When I home exchange, I leave it in the house. Since I almost never need it as identification because I hardly ever use travelers' cheques, why carry it?

My husband kept our family's passports in his briefcase (he thought it the most safe place). Of course, the briefcase travels with him to work (locally) and who'd have guessed that our passports would have been stolen right out of his briefcase when he went for lunch (and left the briefcase unlocked)! He discovered the theft days later - but couldn't prove anything. WOW - can't even trust co-workers these days! Our local police say that the black market in passports is HUGE!

Exactly why I never take my with me if I can help it. Like most women I keep my purse with me at all times - and sometimes its under the table in a restaurant where someone can grab it, occasionally I have an off moment and put it down somewhere, take my eyes off it, whatever. Just had a visit from some people who had a wallet stolen from their restaurant table in Paris. Swore he never took his hand off the wallet while waiting for change, but somehow the pickpockets around distracted him and got it.

So unless you can carry it somewhere close to your body where neither you nor anyone else can get at it, I'd leave it behind.

And, having lived in France for 12 years I've never been asked for ID other than drivers licence if stopped by police - 'Just checking your papers, madame.'

I keep mine in the hotelroom safe. And if there is no safe, I keep it in a locked suitcase.

I have lived in Europe almost all my life, and never before I have heard that you always have to have an ID with you. The only times I need it (usually driving license) is when I pay something with credit card and the sum exceeds a certain amount.. And the only times I used to need a passport were in before-ATM-times while exchanging money.

We usually keep them on us while we are in Europe because we have needed them for id's at various times.

Most recently when we used multi day passes in cities we were asked for our passports for entrance to some of the museums. In the UK I think I remember needing them when using the Heritage Pass.

I use a "healthy bag" with multi-pockets on the inside. For my husband I usually baste velcro inside one of the front pockets of the pants he wears on our trips.

We have also left them in hotel safes or hidden in the luggage at our hotel. We have never had a problem other than needing to remember exactly where we put our passport ;;) Deborah

I suspect that the ability to use a photocopy as ID would depend entirely on the discretion of the one asking for it. I doubt there are many laws specifying that a photocopy is valid ID.

If there's a room safe, we leave it there. But as we often stay in places where this is none, I keep both of ours on me, in a small fabric loop wallet thats hooks over the belt and can tuck in or go into the front pocket. It feels like a compromise between the moneybelt fortress and nothing. I do throw my old wallet (basically empty) in my backpocket anyway. I'm used to it being there and I only have today's lunch money in it, so no big loss if it's grabbed. More than anything, it's kind of a decoy really. But it just seems like more hassle than it's worth if you lost the passports, to not just put them away somewhere.

I carry mine right out in the open, waving it in the air and then laughing as I slap the hands of those reaching for it.

One vote for moneybelt here.