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If you’re a seasoned traveler or have been a subscriber to my newsletter for over a decade, you may already know this tip. The last time I wrote about it was in 2014 and since the idea seems to be having a moment in the spotlight on social media, it seemed like a good idea to remind readers about it again.
Many frequent travelers, myself included, like to wear the same clothes and shoes on travel days because they’re comfortable, they don’t set the metal detectors off and/or they’re superstitious. I’m guilty of all three, including the last. I always wear my airplane boxers when I travel for both comfort and superstition.
In 2014, I wrote, “If you like to use the safe when you stay in a hotel but worry you’re going to forget you’ve left your valuables in there, here’s a solution: Put one of your shoes in the safe with your belongings the night before you leave. That way, when it’s time to leave the hotel, you’ll be forced to remember! It’s an old trick and works for many.”
For this to work, you really just have to remember to put one of your shoes in the safe the night before you’re checking out of your room.
I wish one of my childhood friends had known this rule 20 years ago. We were taking the train between Hungary and Slovakia and when the Slovakian border agents boarded the train to check passports, I heard my buddy muttering expletives to himself. He’d left his passport in the hotel room safe. Fortunately, the agents let him slide by requiring him to make arrangements right there with the hotel to FedEx it and then go to the police station the next day. Back then, the phone calls and mail fees alone cost a couple hundred dollars.
The reason I’m resurrecting this old tip is that I was scrolling through Threads and found this post in my feed: “My mom taught me that when you go to a hotel and put your passport and money in the safe also put one of the shoes that you will be wearing on the flight home, that way there’s no way that you forget to get everything out of the safe because you’ll notice walking out the door with one shoe. This is good advice and I recommend it to everyone.”
Post by @smiling__sisyphus
View on Threads
I was on the fence about rerunning this tip but the comments motivated me to do it. Here are some of them:
@Askdrportia: Seriously thank you!!! In this situation now. I need to wear my shoe but will come up with something else, maybe set aside my traveling home outfit and put a reminder note on top.
@forever_fifty_nine: Flight attendants do this all the time
@khakishortsyt: This is genius! I left money and passports in a safe at a hotel in Incheon on a trip when we switched to a house in Seoul. Luckily we weren’t flying but it meant a 2 hour round trip train ride to collect them.
@Foxhairedgirl: So I’m the only one who checks 75 times that I have my passport before leaving?
One response offered a good reminder that because of this, the safe is most likely pretty dirty. So put your valuables in a plastic bag or on top of a piece of paper to keep them clean.
@janet.laxton: … and that safe will stink like smelly shoes for the next person putting their jewellery pouch in there 😤😡
Have you ever tried this trick or wish you had?
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