The section "Store these documents as PDFs" was updated on May 14, 2012.

It can always happen, that you loose something or it gets stolen. But if you are prepared, loosing something isn't stressful at all. You only need a computer, scanner, printer and USB stick.

Preparation of your documents

Passport: Scan your personal details page and all visa pages you need for the journey.

Credit cards and debit cards like Maestro, Mastercard, Visa Electron: Scan the front- and backside. Why? Because the emergency number is usually on the backside - and the card number to get help from that number, on the front side.

Driving license, national ID card: Scan the front- and the backside

Vaccination pass, other medical passes: Scan that too. In an emergency people will find it going through your luggage and they can find your details including your blood type and hence help you better and quicker.

Insurance papers: Scan all your insurance contracts, at least the one, that covers travel emergencies. This will also help you in a foreign country, because they will then know that you have money to cover the costs.

Store these documents as PDFs (known worldwide, printable almost everywhere) in your „cloud“.

-- Your cloud might be storage space on your smart-phone including the online-backup,

-- it could also be a backup service like Wuala (that I use) or

-- it could be an e-mail you send to your own e-mail-address containing the PDFs as attachments.

You can also store your backups on a USB stick, but it might be stolen together with the rest of your things, so an USB stick is good as an extra but doesn't replace your “cloud”.

In case of a loss you can print your documents in an internet-café to prove your identity.

Tip: No cloud or backup makes sense, if you don’t know how to access the data without your smart-phone or laptop, as they might be stolen together with your passport. So find that out and choose a secure password for access, e.g. not the name of your cat. But you should nevertheless be able to remember the password in an emergency situation.

Print out all the documents and carry them with you in your luggage. If something gets stolen you can go to your consulate or embassy in case of a lost passport or you can call the emergency hotline and block your cards in case those ones were stolen or lost. If you want to be on the very safe side, carry one set in your hand luggage and the other one in your travel luggage.

Special caution around airports, train stations, bus stations and similar places

All thieves of this world know, that people coming out of airports, train stations, etc. are excellent targets, because they have everything on them: Money, passport, credit cards, laptops, cameras, etc. So make the journey from the airport or bus station to your hotel a safe one. No experiments just to save some money! You can do that once your stuff is safely stored in the hotel safe and someone can only steal the daily ration of your cash from you.

Power of attorney - Special tip for long time travellers (longer than a month)

Give a trusted person a power of attorney – one letter in general and one for every account you have your travel money on. That will enable them to withdraw money from your account - in case all your cards are stolen or lost - and send it to you with Western Union.

More than one card

Take two credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, etc.) and two debit cards (Maestro, Visa Electron, etc.) with you. Have one set in your wallet and the other set in the hotel safe. So if you lose one set you still have the second one. That is a big advantage. You can just block the stolen/lost cards and use the replacement and don't have all the hassle, that the new cards need to be sent to your current travel location.