Protecting mobile phones with smart cases when travelling

I like my mobile phones well protected when travelling. It's so easy to bang a phone. It may be safe in your pocket, but your jacket swings as you bend down to pick something up, or knocks against a wall or the grab rail of a bus or train.

In Poundland I found this nifty phone cover. It is very well padded on the back and sides. (Not the front.)

With many phone covers sold in blister packs you have to check carefully that what the cover you are considering buying will fit. I like to have the phone with me and hold it against the cover, checking all the holes are in the right place, as well as checking what is written on the packaging.

If you have phones of various sizes in your big extended family or are considering upgrading, but keep old phones in other sizes, the covers are only £1 each, so it may be worthwhile buying two or three to fit your family's phones.

This is brown and cream. It looks purple because I lightened it to show the hole at the top.

I like a distinctive cover. It's easy to look back at a table and think that a black phone belongs to somebody else, then realise that you have left yours behind. If your phone cover is so identifiable that people comment on it, or just look at it, then if you leave your phone behind, a friend or acquaintance is likely to dash after you saying, "Hey - you left your phone. This is yours, isn't it!"

Here's one with a playing card theme. Less protective, but memorable.

I love red. It makes me happy. Here's a red cover.

You might keep a spare phone with the Sim card for another country, or keep one phone for phone calls, another just for photos.

To guard against a forgotten phone being hidden inside a bag, you may wish to keep a note of which old phone is in which case in which room.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author, speaker.