Traveling can help you relax, discover new cultures, and even grow as a person. However, with pickpocketing on the rise, you should be careful if you’ll be traveling out of town, especially if you’re used to carrying a purse. A great way to protect yourself and your valuables is to travel without a purse.
Here’s how to travel without a purse:
- Minimize your travel items.
- Wear cargo pants.
- Lock your valuables.
- Maximize your phone use.
- Buy smart travel gadgets.
The best way to protect yourself when traveling is to plan ahead. If you plan to not carry a purse with you, you’ll greatly minimize your chances of getting pickpocketed or mugged when you travel. Keep reading this guide to learn how to leave your purse at home and avoid losing your valuables while out of town.
1. Minimize Your Travel Items
The first thing you can do to prevent theft while traveling is to minimize what you bring with you.
While we may think that we need to recreate our daily life while we’re away from home, the truth is that there’s a lot that we can go without for a few days of travel. Follow these tips to travel light like a pro.
Bring a Smaller Suitcase
Having a large suitcase makes it really hard not to overpack. Have you ever kept throwing stuff into your suitcase simply because it fits? If that’s the case, you might be an over-packer.
If you tend to overpack, you’ll need to have an honest conversation with yourself before packing to figure out what you need to bring with you. You’ll likely find that many of the items you normally bring on a trip are unnecessary.
If you still can’t figure out what to leave at home, try bringing a smaller suitcase with you. With the reduced storage space, you’ll quickly figure out what is and isn’t essential for your trip.
We recommend getting this Wrangler Smart Luggage Set (available on Amazon.com) to cut down on the amount of stuff you bring with you. It has a fully-lined interior that comes with accessory pockets and expands for extra capacity.
Plan Your Outfits in Advance
One of the best ways to cut down on the number of clothes you bring with you is to plan your outfits in advance. Even if you’re not sure exactly what you’re going to do every single day, you can estimate what you’re going to need and put together a few outfits.
Remember, the point of packing is bringing what you’re going to need—not bringing your whole closet overseas. You shouldn’t bring more clothes than you can wear during your trip.
Also, remember that it’s okay to wear things more than once while you’re traveling. Unless you’re going to be walking all day in a particular item, you shouldn’t feel pressured not to wear things more than once while you’re on vacation.
If you’re worried about your clothes smelling bad, try tossing a dryer sheet in your suitcase to keep your clothes smelling fresh for longer. The sheets will help you deodorize your used clothes and keep your fresh clothes smelling clean longer.
Ditch the Toiletries
If you still bring your toiletries with you every time you go out of town, you need to get used to the idea that you shouldn’t bring your toiletries with you.
First, if you’re staying in a hotel, most of your toiletries will be provided for you free of charge upon request. You can ask your hotel front desk for things like:
- Shaving creams
- Razors and razor blades
- Feminine hygiene products
- Toothbrush and toothpaste
- Deodorant
- Soaps, including shampoo and body wash
- Conditioner
- Sewing kit
- Hairstyling tools like combs and brushes
Some hotels will even provide phone chargers and slippers free of charge. There are many things that you can get from your hotel for free, and all you have to do is ask
If you’re staying in an Airbnb or hostel, chances are that they’ll provide a lot of the essentials for you as well. If you’re not sure what will be available for you upon check-in, you can always call your accommodations beforehand to double-check what you’ll be able to get from them during your stay.
If you have any indispensable toiletries, like some special creams or products, that you absolutely must bring with you, you should use travel-sized containers to bring exactly the amount you’ll need during the trip.
Don’t bring the entire tub of cream or bottle of soap with you on your trip if you’re not going to need the whole thing. Instead, use travel-sized bottles and containers such as the Morfone Travel Bottles Set (available on Amazon.com).
The bottles are secure and lightweight.
Alternatively, you can also choose to get samples of your favorite creams, perfumes, and serums at your destination. Just make sure you double-check that there are stores that carry your favorite products in your destination city. Usually, they’ll be happy to provide samples of the products that you already use and love.
You’d be surprised by how much space you can save by leaving your toiletries at home and instead, getting new ones at your destination.
2. Wear Cargo Pants
If you think that cargo pants are out of style, you might want to think again. Supermodels like Bella and Gigi Hadid routinely wear cargo pants, making these oversized pants fashionable and super handy garments.
Cargo pants can come in handy when you travel as they have tons of pockets where you can store the items you would normally put in your purse. Many of these pockets come with zippers, making it really hard for pickpocketers to get your stuff.
This makes cargo pants a fantastic way to travel in style and without a purse. We recommend these stylish Libin Women’s Cargo Joggers (available on Amazon.com). Their pockets will keep your items safe while also giving you a fresh and fashionable look.
3. Lock Your Valuables
Many people choose to bring a purse with them everywhere they go when they travel to avoid leaving their most valuable stuff in the hotel or hostel.
If you don’t feel comfortable leaving your passport, jewelry, or valuables alone in your room while you’re in a foreign land, you can try locking them in a safe or a locker to keep them safe while you’re away.
Most hotel rooms have a safe somewhere in the room, be it in the closet or the nightstand.
If your room doesn’t have a safe, ask the front desk if they have a safe available where you can leave your valuables.
Many hostels also have lockers available for rent. You can bring your own lock or buy one on location to ensure that absolutely nobody but you has access to whatever you choose to leave in it. You can also get this convenient and TSA-approved Master Lock Luggage Lock (available on Amazon.com) to secure your stuff.
4. Maximize Your Phone Use
Phones are great travel companions. In addition to helping you make calls and browse the internet, phones can help you carry digital versions of many documents that you would otherwise need to carry in your purse.
You can use your phone to:
- Bring digital boarding passes. By getting your boarding pass on your phone, you won’t need to worry about physical boarding passes to keep track of.
- Keep track of reservations and itineraries. You can keep copies of all of your hotel, hostel, and Airbnb bookings on your phone instead of carrying printed copies of everything.
- Vaccination cards. With proof of vaccination becoming a more prevalent requirement, you’ll want to make sure to bring yours with you. Getting yours on your mobile device will save you the hassle of carrying a physical document around.
- Use the Kindle app to read. You can download the Kindle app for free and read ebooks on your phone instead of carrying physical books all over the world.
- Use your phone’s case as your wallet. While you can buy many dedicated phone wallet cases such as the Hoblaze Phone Card Holder (available on Amazon.com), with its universal size, you can just stick one or two credit cards under your regular phone case.
As long as you’re traveling in a place where smartphone use is commonplace, you should be able to do many things from your phone without the need to carry physical documents around. This will eliminate a lot of your reasons for carrying a purse.
5. Buy Smart Travel Gadgets
There are countless smart travel gadgets available today that can help you store items safely and inconspicuously. These gadgets serve the same purpose as a purse, but the fact that they’re disguised makes them a lot harder to pickpocket.
Check out some of our top recommendations available on Amazon.com:
Travelambo Minimalist Slim Wallet
Today, most places around the world accept credit and debit cards as payment methods. This means that you no longer need to carry around big stacks of cash to make your purchases while abroad.
This Travelambo cardholder is perfect for a safety-conscious traveler as you can store it in your front pocket, making it impossibly hard to pickpocket. You can use it to store your credit and debit cards, IDs, vaccination cards, hotel keys, and even a few bills in case you do run into a place that only accepts cash.
SCOTTeVEST Women’s Travel Jacket
This travel jacket comes with a whopping 19 pockets. Designed to specifically protect against pickpocketing, you’ll be sure to find enough safe storage space for all of your items in this jacket.
The best thing about this windbreaker is that it looks just like any other hiking jacket, making it an inconspicuous way to hide your stuff. Just make sure that you don’t leave it anywhere it could get stolen. If you want to travel without a purse due to the inconvenience of purses, a jacket might not be your best choice.
FlipBelt Zipper
FlipBelts are loved by runners worldwide, but they can also be a great option for travelers who want to keep their valuables secure. You can keep your items secure by fitting them inside your zippered FlipBelt to prevent pickpocketing.
If you want to be extra secure, you can put your FlipBelt underneath your shirt. Chances are, you can disguise your belt to the point where passers-by won’t even notice that you’re wearing one.
Braza Secret Bra Stash
A secret bra stash can be a great way to bring valuable items pretty much anywhere without raising any eyebrows. The Braza Secret Bra Stash comes with a hook and loop closure to fit credit cards, IDs, cash, and other small items. While this is a great product for most women, it’s not very convenient for men and some women.
Barbra Lingerie Women’s Travel Pocket Underwear
If you’re looking to really maximize the hidden storage space when you travel, you can look into getting travel underwear with secret pockets. This can be a great option for people traveling to very crowded or unsafe destinations where they may feel like they need to be extremely cautious.
SHOLDIT Infinity Wrap Scarf
This may look like an ordinary infinity scarf, but it comes with a little secret: it has a zippered pocket that can carry your phone, passport, wallet, cash, and many other small objects that you could carry in your purse.
There are many different versions of this scarf, so you can surely find one that’ll come in the style and color you like.
Conclusion
You shouldn’t have to feel constantly on guard when you travel. By traveling without a purse, you can know that you won’t get pickpocketed walking down the street.
To successfully travel without a purse, try following some or all of these tips:
- Wear cargo pants to safely store important items.
- Lock your valuables at the hotel.
- Use your phone as a replacement for documents.
- Buy smart travel items that will allow you to hide items in plain sight.
If you follow these tips, you should have no problems going on any type of trip without a purse.
Sources
- The Atlantic: Pickpocketing Is on the Rise in Many U.S. Cities
- YouTube: How To Pack Light For A Long Trip
- W: Bella and Gigi Hadid And EmRata Take Big Pants, Little Tops to the Extremes
