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I only carry mine when I don't feel good about the in room hotel safe.
I don't trust hotel safes. Often there's a safety default code (like 0000) in case you forget your code. There is a master code to the safe and room door. I do not trust maintenance and cleaning personnel.
Sorry, but I've seen too many videos. Yes, I'll carry my passport on me, but on a different part of my body than my daily cash, such as in a neckpouch that goes under my T-shirt.
Years back, we didn’t have photos on our driving licences in U.K., it was just a piece of paper, folded over, and placed in a plastic folder, with your name and address visible.
When you took it out and unfolded it, it showed which groups you were licenced to drive, motorcycles, cars, light vans, 7-10 ton vans, 18 wheelers etc., and any infractions which had earned you demerit points, speeding, running a red etc.
One day in the early eighties, I was vacationing in New York, staying with a girlfriend that I’d met while she was an exchange student in London.
She lived near Howard Beach, in the south of Queens, and one day, we were going to visit a friend of hers, in my rental, who lived in Sheepshead Bay.
As I was sailing along the Brooklyn Belt Parkway, within the speed limit, a cop pulled me over, he said that he thought my hood wasn’t closed properly, but it was.
He asked for ID, and I told him that our licences didn’t have photos, sorry.
He said, “You’re obviously British, have you got your passport?”
I said, “Not with me, it’s at my girlfriend’s house, in Howard Beach.”
He said, “If I was you kid, (he and I were both around the same age), I’d keep it with me while in the U.S., now you take it easy, and enjoy your day.”
If I am tourist in a foreign country, then I carry my passport with me any time I leave the immediate vicinity of my lodging place (except for a situation where I might go swimming or any water activities which is quite rare for me). If I am in a foreign country for other purposes (such as a prolonged work assignment), I won't carry my passport with me everywhere. Some countries provide people on the temporary legal work assignments a local identity card so one doesn't need to have their passport with them.
When I travel, I keep my passport with me. When I lived in Europe, I kept my passport in my safe deposit box there, unless I planned to cross a border (prior to EU) and/or wanted to get a refund of VAT taxes.
lock your passport in a safe if you have access to one, or if you are required to keep it with you, ensure its location is not visible.
make two photocopies of your passport – leave one with friends or family and take the second with you, or store an electronic copy securely; where permitted, use your photocopy as alternative ID, for example when going out at night.
for certain countries your passport must be valid for 6 months after the date you travel – check the entry requirements before you go
ensure you fill in the emergency details / next of kin page before you go.
I have only been out of the country to Canada and on a cruise, but my DH travels internationally for work and he said he puts it in the safe as soon as he checks in to the hotel. He has been to China, UK, Germany, France, Belgium and several other countries. He has never been asked to see it in any of these countries, but does keep a photo of it on his phone and in his wallet.
Never - we travelled around the world last year visiting over 25 countries and were never asked to produce a passport! As a contingency I have a scanned copy on my phone.
The risk of losing (or having it stolen) is possibly far higher than being asked to produce it!
On my two trips to China, I never carried it except when I specifically needed it (traveling internally, banking, etc.). I was mostly in Shanghai, and was never randomly stopped and asked to show it. From what I saw, the police there harass and randomly stop "rural-looking" Chinese, Ughers, and Africans all the time, but never white Westerners. My first trip I was there for a month and a half, and my second trip was for a month, and I never had a problem not having my passport on me.
On my two trips to China, I never carried it except when I specifically needed it (traveling internally, banking, etc.). I was mostly in Shanghai, and was never randomly stopped and asked to show it. From what I saw, the police there harass and randomly stop "rural-looking" Chinese, Ughers, and Africans all the time, but never white Westerners. My first trip I was there for a month and a half, and my second trip was for a month, and I never had a problem not having my passport on me.
In China foreigners need a passport to check into a hotel. I heard a story from one of my former colleague that a colleague of theirs (that I had never met) traveled to Beijing without his passport and although he had a hotel reservation, the hotel refused to check him in because he didn't have his passport. The guy was forced to spend the night on a bench at a local train station to go back the next morning to where he had come from!
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