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I have never had a problem with a room safe box. I have stayed at some pretty dicey places, one of which had a guard at the front door with a shotgun. But the sleazier places I don't think had an in-room safe but I cannot remember exactly what place had what. At any rate, my #1 priority is protecting my passport so if I think it is safer on me, I take it, otherwise I leave it behind. I have never been asked by a cop for it, but banks and money exchange places often want to see it.
Traveling in some 3rd world countries can be challenging. I think Honduras was one of the worst for us, never seen so many armed people everywhere.
While I believe it states quite clearly that you have to be able to present your Passport at any time when in a visiting country, I do two things:
One, my seamstress friend sewed a secret pocket for my Passport, and I always split my I.D. in three places. My drivers' license is NEVER in the same place as my Passport.
Two: I always have a carbon copy of all my I.D. put in a book or other place that's not going to be looked at seriously. That way at least the Consulate work will be easier.
When swimming my hard pack I.D. goes into my shoes or an innocent looking fold of cloth,
and when I hear of people having ALL their stuff in some handbag on the beach I just shake my head in disbelief. It takes seconds to grab, and it's gone.
I don't like the room safes either. It's not a posh hotel thing, we've been in $20/night guest houses that had room safes, it's the questionable access control. We've had where it was shut and locked when we arrived and when told them at the front desk they just grabbed a master key hanging there in plain sight, removed the front touchpad plate of safe (which reveals master key slot) and opened it right up so could be reset.
Later you pass by front desk and nobody is around, yet that key is hanging there. Makes no sense.
I don't mean when traveling between destinations in a country where obviously you have all your stuff, more like after you've checked in to lodgings and are heading out to do whatever tourists/travelers do.
It seems different countries have different laws, and to further muddy the waters they are often interpreted differently by the police or soldiers. Some folks say a paper copy will suffice, some claim a picture on a cell phone is fine, some claim you also need an image or copy of the entry stamp, others say you need to have the physical passport with you.
Personally I never carry it unless I'm doing something that needs it, like in some countries required for buying train tickets or changing money.
I lived in a country where foreigners were supposed to carry their passport by law at all times.
I never did. There is a risk of losing or say, for example, getting it soaked in a freak rainstorm.
At the very most, I carried a photocopy of my PP in my walled or money belt.
I don't carry my passport unless I will be going through a checkpoint. But if I'm just out and about in a foreign location, I carry identification but not my passport. I keep that locked in a safe either in a hotel or on my ship, if I am on a cruise.
In countries that require doing so, of course. Otherwise, typically no. The exception is if we are taking a day trip quite a ways from where we are staying (a couple hours or more) on the chance that we could miss the last train back or something along those lines. But pretty much once we get to the city we are visiting, we leave the passports secured in our accommodation.
I always have mine in my purse when I'm traveling. Never know when you're going to need extra forms of ID, ime.
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