A lot of people are making travel plans for the upcoming summer. In this recurring column, we’re sharing all kinds of tips to make your travel safer, easier and more fun.
There’s nothing more important than staying safe when you travel. Here’s what I do. Yes, even when I travel domestically and yes, even when I stay at luxury hotels. I have a nephew who is a travel bug, and I’ve also bought these products for him. (Well, really for me, because I worry about him. He has gone to Colombia, Greece and Italy in the last six months.)
- Follow Cici.IntheSky. Cici is a flight attendant who gives a lot of quick, efficient, useful travel tips on instagram. I follow her religiously and some of these safety tips are from her.
- Get this bare minimum sweep of safety products: personal alarm, portable door lock, door alarm and a wireless travel router. Descriptions/use cases and links are below. Cici also travels with a portable security camera, propped on her bed to deter anyone from entering her hotel room. I don’t, but because she recommends it so I thought I should let you know.
- Leave the Do Not Disturb sign on your door, and turn your television on in a normal volume when you leave the room so people think you’re in there.
- Don’t wear flashy clothes or jewelry. I have a lot of very stylish friends, many of whom I travel with, who don’t follow this advice so there’s that. But I’m still going to share it. Some of them work in glamorous fields where being chic is necessary for their profession. Also maybe they haven’t had a Cartier watch or Armani coat disappear, or they haven’t been mugged. Or followed down a hallway back to their room. I have. I don’t like to look rich when I travel as I think it makes me a target. I do like to look stylish, but when I balance that against wanting to feel safe I end up deciding (most often) to leave my nicest things home. I opt for understated, high-end attire and costume jewelry. And then I almost always have a large Hermes shawl to dress things up and one pair of stylish Manolo Blahniks (those can be worn with a dress or jeans).
- Don’t sit at the hotel bar solo and drink a lot of alcohol. Just don’t drink too much. This is obvious? You will be noticed. And you have to be aware to be safe.
5 Products for Hotel Safety
These products are recommended by Cici. (I now travel with all of them except the security camera Cici swears by.) Here is her amazon travel safety page with a comprehensive list of safety products.
Personal Handheld Alarm - Vantamo Keep this attached to the outside of your luggage; put it in your hand before entering the elevator to go up to your room.
Portable Door Lock Put this on your door when you’re in the room.
Portable Door Alarm/Stopper The reason you need this in addition to the door lock is that it’s hard to find a portable door lock that works on every hotel door. Also, this has the alarm feature, so you’re notified (for instance if you’re asleep).
NB: You’ll need this 9V battery for the doorstop, so maybe go ahead and buy it when you order the doorstop. I bought this for my nephew before he went to Greece, but without the battery (so it was useless). Also, take the battery out of the doorstop and wrap the battery up in kleenex to get through security (a lesson I learned on my recent trip to New Zealand).
A Wireless Travel Router It’s not safe to use public WiFi’s in airports or your hotel wifi. Those are the wifi networks targeted by hackers. Here is an article on the best travel routers for 2024. I use this TP -Link Travel Router because it is under $40 and light and has all the power that I need, but if I were traveling as a family I would buy the more expensive Netgear Nighthawk because it accommodates more internet users at fast speeds. (A VPN is also advisable (which I have), but at least have a personal router.)
A Wireless Security Camera. It notifies you if there is any motion detected in your room. Note that if your hotel has a landing page, you will not be able to connect the security camera to the hotel’s wifi, so you’ll need to connect through your travel router.
The Crush Letter
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