A lot of time, patience and effort go into planning a perfect vacation. Although several things can go wrong when you are on a holiday, there is one thing that is guaranteed to spoil your entire trip: losing money. Most people might not realize it, but it’s really important to hide your money while travelling.
Unfortunately, tourists are easy targets for pickpockets and thus far more susceptible to theft and scams. However, you need to be smart while deciding how and where to hide your money. In fact, you should formulate a fool-proof strategy before reaching your destination so that you can enjoy your trip without any worries.
With summer vacation just around the corner, a lot of people must be planning to take a trip abroad. If you are among them, make sure to follow these simple tips on how to hide cash while travelling to keep your holidays from getting ruined.
Basic Tips on How to Keep Your Money Safe While Travelling
Here are a few fundamental travel safety hacks all tourists should follow.
Don’t keep all your cash in one place
This one’s certainly a no brainer. The best way to carry money while travelling is by splitting it up and storing it in multiple places. Basically, you need to ensure you always have backup cash stowed someplace safe either in your luggage or in your clothes just in case you end up losing your wallet or purse.
Regardless of the crime rate in the country you’ve chosen to visit, all areas with heavy tourist flow experience at least a small percentage of petty thefts on a daily basis. Therefore, one of the easiest ways of keeping your money safe when travelling abroad is to divide it up.
Always carry small bills for daily usage
Never carry large denominations in your wallet. Instead, just take out the cash you’ll be needing for the day, convert it into smaller bills and keep it in your pocket. As for the larger bills, they need to be hidden away. However, if you’re travelling without a credit card, you may want to keep some extra cash on your person.
Using smaller bills is a smart way to keep your money safe while travelling, as you are less likely to draw the attention of any pickpockets or thieves lurking about. Moreover, carrying a limited amount every day is yet another travel safety hack because just in case you end up accidentally dropping your money while shopping, it won’t set you back by much.
If you have a set travel itinerary, setting a daily travel budget won’t be much difficult.
Be vigilant about your backpack/purse
Never let your backpack or handbag out of sight. If you are sitting down to eat a restaurant, never hang your bag behind the chair or beside it. Make sure to either keep it on your lap or on the table right in front of you.
Of course, you shouldn’t spend most of the trip worrying about where to hide your money while travelling or how to keep it safe. But since most tourists tend to use their backpacks for the purpose, pickpockets usually aim for them. Therefore, even when you are just exploring your holiday destination, keep a check on your bag to ensure there aren’t any open zips or unbuttoned pockets. In fact, you should also think about investing in a small lock for your bag to keep your possessions safe.
How to Hide Your Money in Hotel Room
We’ve all heard horror stories about hotel room safes. Apart from those metal boxes in the cupboards that staff can easily open in most instances, here are a few secret places that might come in handy if you want to hide your money while travelling.
Bottom of the drawer
Bring along a duct tape and some small plastic bags if you are planning to hide money in your hotel room. One of the best places to hide your money while travelling is at the bottom of the last drawer in the dresser. You might have to take the entire drawer out for this purpose, but duct taping your cash after wrapping it in a plastic bag would most likely keep it safe.
Hotel staff are less likely to pull out each drawer while cleaning the room. However, you should only follow this travel safety hack if you believe it’s not possible for you to carry the money on your body while going outside.
Under a heavy piece of furniture
Do not hide your cash under the mattress. If you want to keep your money safe in a hotel room, your safest bet is perhaps sticking some bills under a heavy piece of furniture. Hotel staff are less likely to move around the furniture while cleaning. Therefore, you might want to try and move a heavy couch and using duct tape to secure your money on the floor. Make sure to move the furniture back to its original place so that no one notices any changes in the décor.
Of course, in order to do this, you must be able to lift or move furniture yourself. Furthermore, you need to ensure you don’t ruin the carpet or damage the hotel’s property while trying to hide your money while travelling.
Cushions with zips
Check the couch and armchairs in the room for zipper cushions. If you can find one of those in your hotel room, remember these things serve as perfect spots to hide your money while travelling. Just make sure to push the money to the centre of the cushion lining instead of just leaving it at the corner.
However, if you can’t find a zipper on any of the cushions, you can also use a throw pillow or a pillow to keep your money safe. But only hide your cash there once the bed has been made and the cleaning crew has left. This travel safety hack can come in handy if you don’t have any other options left.
How to Hide Money on Your Body
The best way to hide your money while travelling is by keeping it on yourself. The general rule of thumb is to never put your wallet in your back pocket – unless it’s a dummy wallet, of course. Take a look at some more travel safety hacks to keep your money safe when you are on a holiday.
Inside your socks or shoes
Stashing cash inside your shoes is one of the most practical and clever ways to hide money in clothing while travelling. Since you are bound to walk a lot while on a trip, it’s better to wrap the money in a small plastic bag and slipping it under the insole so that it’s not as uncomfortable. In case you’re wearing sandals, you can instead hide money inside your socks.
Of course, this tip on how to hide cash while travelling can only be useful if you are planning to wear sandals or sneakers during your holidays instead of flip flops.
Invest in a money belt
Money belts are one of the most popular ways of keeping your money safe when travelling abroad. Although they may appear like a regular belt, they actually have a secret pocket for cash that others cannot see.
However, you cannot treat the money belt like a wallet and use it to store daily cash or credit cards. This means you can’t place to take any cash out of it at your convenience, as it would completely defeat its purpose – which is to hide your money while travelling. Generally, you can store emergency cash, one credit card and a driver’s license in a money belt, as it is designed to keep your valuables from getting stolen.
These belts are widely available in the market. Also, you can easily order one online for yourself.
A secret pocket
This is an age-old travel safety hack used by most tourists. Instead of storing it in your jeans pockets, you should keep your money safe by hiding it inside secret coat and jacket pockets. If you can’t find a jacket with a hidden pocket or if it’s simply too hot to wear one, you can always sew a secret pocket inside your daily wear shirt or on your scarf.
All you need is a bit of plain fabric and a sewing kit to make a hidden pocket and hide your money while travelling.
Under your cap or hat
This tip to hide cash while travelling works best during both winters and summers. You can simply take your cash and place inside the lining of your cap or hat and no one is going to suspect anything – as long as you don’t take the money from its secret hiding place in front of others. In fact, you can even store your passport or identification card inside your hat. Just make sure to place it in a plastic wrap.
Furthermore, if you are going someplace cold, you can even sew a small pouch inside your woollen hat to keep your money safe.
Meanwhile, if you are interested in history, you can travel to any of these historic places around the world this summer. Moreover, if you are a female tourist planning to travel alone, here are some of the safest solo travel destinations for women that you might enjoy.
