<p>If you are staying in a private home, leave your passport with your host most of the time. You may need it for identification purposes for some official business such as cashing travellers’ checks, getting a student ID, a library card or permission to use the archives and such, as well as for crossing borders; otherwise, it’s safer left at your host’s.</p>
<p>When DS went to Europe I bought him a zippered pouch with brown and black belt loops like this one
<a href=“http://home.bluemarble.net/~traveler/LNCpassport_travel_loop_wallet.htm[/url]”>http://home.bluemarble.net/~traveler/LNCpassport_travel_loop_wallet.htm</a>
at the Totes Outlet store. </p>
<p>I thought it would be more comfortable than a moneybelt and he would be more likely to use it—and he did!</p>
<p>bing, I wondered the same (re:carrying passport) for my s who will be studying abroad in China and staying in a dorm room, I believe.
Hmm…, jane, that looks like a great alternative if s wears a belt!?</p>
<p>D just returned yesterday from a solo trip to Germany (via France) and our biggest worry was that she would lose track of her passport! So I can relate to your concerns.</p>
<p>We have passport wallets that hang on a string around the neck that we all use on actual travel days. We have several kinds, but our favorites came from WalMart. (I have one of those waist packs that fit inside your clothes, too, but I find it uncomfortable - sweaty.) They hold passport, money, and plane tickets, in different pockets. When travelling through airports and such, it makes it very easy to get what you need without having to rumage through purses or backpacks. (We never put passports in backpacks, because it’s too easy to open them without the wearer being aware.) They are flat, and can slip inside a shirt, or be covered by a sweater or jacket, and be unnoticed.</p>
<p>The rest of the time, H (and my sons) carries his passport in a wallet that he keeps in his front pocket. D and I keep ours in our purses. We do not generally leave them in hotel safes - in many countries, you are expected to have your passport on you at all times. We have tried to train our kids to continually ask themselves, “Where is my passport?”</p>
<p>D also carried a scan of her passport on a memory stick (encripted), and a paper copy in her suitcase, and we have it on the computer at home, to email if she needed it.</p>