Passport Proxy

I've traveled alot (7 continents, 29 countries, and 45 states so far) and am always on the lookout for good travel advice. Here's a neat idea:

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A seasoned traveler who ventured further into third world slums than I ever would told me about this nifty trick-of-the-trade. Make a good color copy of your passport, including the covers. Align the inside sheet of your passport data with the outside passport cover sheet. Glue together. Laminate. Score and fold. You now have a fairly official looking travel document.

I have found that for most purposes -- changing money at a bank, rentals, hotel front desks, and even police -- this passport clone is sufficient. You hide or store your real one and use this one for everything else except crossing borders. I don't know why, but most people seem happy to accept it. It may be because it seems like some new futuristic version 2.0 passport and who are they to question it?

-- KK

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I'll definitely have to try this next time I go overseas. I always travel with a photocopy of my passport in my luggage, but this is even better. One other idea that I've done is to scan in a copy of your passport (and visa) and e-mail it to a Gmail account and/or store it in a Yahoo briefcase. If you ever get separated from your documentation, you can print out a backup copy anywhere you can get access to the internet and a printer.

In a related post, read about a few of my global misadventures here.