I’m always cau­tious about pro­tect­ing my belong­ings when trav­el­ing, espe­cially when trav­el­ing to other coun­tries. I remem­ber the first time I trav­eled abroad, on my hon­ey­moon with my wife to France and Spain for two weeks. We took an overnight train in Spain and were lucky to get a sleep­ing room, though we had to share the room itself with other trav­el­ers. I slept with my arm around my pack and my other bag tucked under my head. My pass­port and money were stashed in a pass­port pouch that hung from my neck that I kept from view under my shirt.

I thought I was being a ter­ri­bly para­noid, ugly American kind of first-time trav­eler. You know, overly cau­tious and dis­trust­ful of other cul­tures. When we arrived in Madrid and checked into the bed and break­fast we were stay­ing at, we were con­fronted by two col­lege girls who’d just come from Amsterdam and were try­ing to com­mu­ni­cate with the elderly owner of the establishment.

My wife spoke excel­lent Spanish at the time and offered to trans­late. Turns out they’d arrived at the air­port and had their lug­gage stolen right out from under their noses. An woman dis­tracted them with some inno­cent ques­tions in bro­ken English while her accom­plice took both their packs, includ­ing their pass­ports, credit cards and most of their money.

Instead of enjoy­ing the Spanish leg of their European trip, they spent the first few days obtain­ing new pass­ports, fil­ing police reports and get­ting money wired from their par­ents to pay for their room.

Needless to say, I stopped feel­ing like I was being overly cau­tious! just as I did, you can eas­ily pro­tect your valu­ables and travel doc­u­ments with a good money belt and/or neck pouch. Below are a few rec­om­men­da­tions based on my travel experiences.

Victorinox Neck Pouch

Victorinox Deluxe Concealed Neck Pouch

The Victorinox neck pouch is made of nylon, comes in tan or black, and has a soft lan­yard that allows the whole thing to hang unob­tru­sively under­neath your cloth­ing. It has a large com­part­ment and another “stash” pocket for stor­ing money, tick­ets, pass­port, traveler’s checks, etc. There are also two zip­pered pock­ets for hold­ing coins, ticket stubs, or other small items.

I pre­fer these neck pouches because they keep your valu­ables hid­den from view and are vir­tu­ally impos­si­ble for pick­pock­ets to get to. My wife wasn’t keen on hav­ing one of these hang­ing down the inside front of her shirt. If you’re like her, you could also try an over-the-shoulder ver­sion. It still goes under your shirt, but lays off to the side, under your arm, like a hid­den purse.

Victorinox Deluxe Concealed Security Belt

Victorinox Money Belt

If that’s just not your style, you could also try a money belt. the nylon Victorinox secu­rity belt fits around your waist, under your cloth­ing, has two large zip­pered com­part­ments that will hold most sizes of cur­rency, tick­ets, pass­ports, traveler’s checks, etc., and has an elas­tic strap that will adjust to your size and secures with a lock­ing clip.

There are also a vari­ety of money belts that are actual belts! These are really only good for con­ceal­ing cash and are pretty dif­fi­cult to get to quickly or out in the open. I’d only rec­om­mend them for keep­ing some emer­gency backup cash handy, in the event you lose every­thing else.

If you don’t want some­thing around your waist or neck, there is also the leg-style money belt. As the name implies, this money belt fits around your leg, under your pants. For obvi­ous rea­sons, these aren’t good if you’re wear­ing shorts, and my expe­ri­ence is that they can be uncom­fort­able if you’re walk­ing or hik­ing a lot, and tend to reveal them­selves when you’re sit­ting, or if your clothes aren’t par­tic­u­larly baggy. Still, they may be an option for you.

There are lots of options, styles and brand names. The most impor­tant thing is to get one that’s com­fort­able and suits your style of travel. If it’s not com­fort­able you’ll just end up not using it, and that would defeat the purpose!

Feel free to share other tips and prod­ucts that you might have for secur­ing your valu­ables by adding a com­ment to this post below. Safe trav­el­ing!

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