Travel safety tips

If you are planing to travel somewhere and you are packing your stuff, it is very important to read these travel safety tips, that can help preventing your passwords, bank accounts and your digital identity from being exposed.

1. Leave Important documents at home or hotel

The first tip from our travel safety tips is to only take with you the necessary personal and identification documents. For example, why would you take your driving license with you if you are not going to use it while traveling. Those documents are easy stolen or forgotten from your wallet.

Once you arrive to your destination, carry a copy of your passport instead of the original one. This will enable you to move around without important things to worry about if they got lost.

2. Avoid public Wi-Fi at airport or public places

The next tip from our travel safety tips is to never connect to insecure Wi-Fi network on your laptop or mobile device. Doing that will enable others to capture your internet history tracking data and access your email and social networking accounts. Stay on your 3G or 4G connection instead whenever possible. Only connect to airport Wi-Fi or public Wi-Fi if you want to do normal internet browsing without using your passwords. Do not shop or use your credit card while using public Wi-Fi connection.

3. Keep your mobile device locked

The next tip from our travel safety tips is to password protect your phone in case it is lost or stolen. This can prevent or at least delay others from accessing your email or sensitive data. I usually back up all my personal images on my phone to a cloud services, just in case my mobile get stolen. I do not want those great memories to be lost if my phone get stolen.

4. Do not store devices in checked baggage

While it may be tempting to store a heavy laptop in your checked luggage, it’s safer to keep your devices with you in your carry-on baggage. Keeping your devices close to you while traveling helps keep snoops away.

5. Avoid posting on social media during traveling

This is one of my favorite tip from all travel safety tips. This can be extreme thing to do, but not doing so, may alert others to your absence and give a prime opportunity to snatch your unchecked mail or worse, break into your unprotected house.

6.  Update everything before traveling

It is very important to update all your devices (mobile and laptop) and make sure they are up to date with the latest software updates prior to going to a trip. Updating them while traveling (on hotel or public Wi-Fi) can increase your chances of downloading malware.

7.  Use the hotel security box

Carry as little personal information with you as possible to protect against pickpockets and muggers, and safely store the rest of your documents in the hotel safe.

8.  Check your bank account activity intermittently

Make sure there’s no fraudulent activity occurring during your trip – and after. Keep an eye on your bank account for several weeks after returning from a trip; identity thieves are patient and will likely use your information after you return home.

9. Change your passwords when you return

It is a good practice to change all your passwords if possible when you are back home. You normally log on to social networks or check your email while traveling, and your passwords may be exposed. Changing them after you get back is a very good thing to do.

10. Prepare for the Worst with Documents and Secret Cash

If bad hings happens, your wallet is stolen, your credit cards are mixed out, you get sick and want to visit a hospital, it is always good to prepare and have a backup plan.

I usually keep copy of all my important documents on a safe cloud storage like OneDrive or Dropbox, as well as a copy of my passport.

It is also a good practice to keep a backup cash stash. I usually keep 100$ hidden somewhere beside my wallet just in case.