How to Avoid Passport, Visa, Suitcase, & Hotel Embarrassment On Holiday - learn from my mistakes

Dear Friends

Lean from my mistakes.

Many taxi drivers before taking you to the airport will ask you, 'Do you have your tickets and your passport?' They must have had lots of panic stricken passengers making them return half way or even on arrival at the airport.

Missing Passports & Visas

Have you ever gone away without your passport or visa? Brexit was good for those without passports. But you still needed them for some countries hotels, and banks for money, drawing it out of your account.

Since Brexit, exit from the no passport system joining the UK to Europe, we have needed passports again. I recall the time before we were in Europe and I forgot my passport.

France, Ferries and Missed Fun

For a day trip on a ferry to France, I was so busy making sandwiches for the journey that I forgot my passport. I was so embarrassed, I did not want to admit it to the organizers of the trip. A colleague went and told them for me. He came back with good news. Fortunately, you could buy a visa for a one day trip, and the ferry terminal had a photo machine for the ID on the document. The only loss was loss of face, and a couple of pounds for the document.

On a later occasion, to be sure of not going off without a passport, I left my passport in my big suitcase to be sure of not going off without it. When I went to pack for a brief three day trip, taking a small wheel on suitcase, I could not find my passport in any drawer in the house or any handbag. I missed a trip to the opening of a theme park in France.

On another trip to France, I had my passport okay. We stayed overnight in northern France. We planned a diversion to Italy. When we got to the border to Italy, we had to turn back. I had left my passport on a lanyard over the back of a dining chair at breakfast.

These incidents were all my fault. What are the solutions? Have one place for the passport. It's always there. No frantic hunt. Now I look for it a week before the

Visa And Passport Renewal

Better still, allowing enough time for the passport renewal. My son's father-in-law discovered his passport had less than 6 months and needed renewing. 

Safe Storage Of Passports

On my later trip, I forgot my passport again, and realised twenty minutes down the road. I phoned home. My husband found it in its usual place. He drove towards us so instead of losing twenty minutes going back and hunting for it, we lost only ten minutes.

 I have also read stories of people who left their passports on planes. One couple put their passports in the back pockets of the seat in front. I always check the back pockets, and under the seat. I always keep my passport on me, or in a small cross body bag.

Stolen Passports & Bags In Spain

However, even that can't help if somebody steals the whole bag whilst it is still on you. In Spain a car drove up behind us when we were unloading the car on arrival at our hotel. A Swiss army knife was used to slash the strap of my large shoulder bag and the car sped off with the entire bag. 

If your passport expires or is stolen, mine was stolen in Singapore, the British embassy will give you a replacement to get you home. But it costs about a hundred pounds.

It requires photos signed by somebody who has known you more than three years, such as a doctor or lawyer in a foreign country. They might charge twenty pounds or dollars to sign.

It was a temporary passport without pages for visas and was valid only for a week.

Back in London I had to go through all that cost, and supplying for authenticated photos again to get a new passport.

Expired Passports

Each year check when your passport and credit cards expire? And how long it takes to receive a replacement.  My daughter-in-law was going on a cruise with her family. She discovered that her passport was going to run out. Many countries won't let you in. 

Left On The Plane

The plane seated us separately. Our luggage was on opposite sides of the plane. The duty free chocolates I had bought for his parents were left behind in the overhead locker, along with my hat and umbrella. I now take a folding hat and umbrella and keep them in my handbag. Any duty free goods go into my wheel on bag or are attached with a belt or knot.

Left In Hotel Rooms

My relationship with a partner broke up, because I checked out of the hotel when he rushed off to work. I left behind his silk dressing gown on the back of the bathroom door. 

The only thing you hang on the back of the bathroom door is the hotel bathrobe.

Before leaving a hotel, photograph the minibar with all the contents, or none, so you can show reception downstairs as you settle the bill. Pay the night before for a quick exit if you oversleep or the taxi arrives early and starts charging you for waiting time.

Before going on holiday

I lave the family my itinerary, transport, hotels, any foreign phone's numbers. And my insurance company hotline.

Suitcases Safety

Suitcase Exterior

I like to check suitcases early in the week before travelling. What have I found wrong? Cases which needed cleaning. Missing or wonky wheels. Handles which would not pull up, or down. Combination locks I could not undo. 

Suitcase Contents

Suitcases filled with off-season clothes which created a mess when I emptied the suitcase. Mouldy food. Once a mouldy swimsuit which had been wet a fortnight before. Four washes in the washing machine.

The last thing I photograph is my luggage. It it is missing I can show the photo, or fill out a form giving the brand name and colours.

Suitcase Covers

In Japan you can buy a suitcase cover to protect it. I bought a cover in Singapore from a budget shop. A cheap alternative is on old tee-shirt with sleeves folded inside. You might wish to add a strap or ribbon to the hem.

Your Hotel Identity

Print the hotel name to show the taxi driver, and the nearest landmark, such as the nearby, church, square, shopping mall, beach. Note any other hotel with similar names. And cities with similar names.

USA Phoenix Holiday Inn

 And how many branches of that hotel are in the city. We tried to convince a suspicious hotel receptionist in Phoenix, Arizona, that we had a booking at the Holiday Inn, she she denied. When we produced our booking confirmation letter, she saw immediately that we were booked into a different holiday inn five miles away.

Spanish Canary Island of Tenerife - Melia Hotel

In the Canary Islands this year, July 2026, we stayed at a Melia Hotel. It had a long name. I just remembered the word Melia. Melia is a group. they had three Melia hotels in our destination. The taxi driver kept querying which Melia hotel. Luckily we knew it was near the beach.

If you can get your hotel to send a car to meet you at the airport, you can be sure of going to the right hotel.

So, learn from my mistakes. Happy travelling.

Book of anecdotes by Angela Lansbury.

Trackers to help find your passport and time the distance to airport departure gates

Great news for both those who are on time and those who aren't.

Airports fine airlines which delay departure because they are obliged to stop to offload luggage of people who are late or lost their passport. Now an airline is investigating and researching ways of putting a tracing chip on passengers to tell them how far they are from the departure gate and how long it will take to get there. The clever device even allows for dawdlers and those delayed dragging along a heavy suitcase or a baby and two toddlers.

You won't delay others nor miss a flight. Others won't delay you.

Next microchip your passport, so you can find it lost behind the chest of drawers, left in a suitcase, hidden under  a cover, left on the back of a dining chair, in the hotel's safe.

It's also great news about being able to copy your passport onto your phone and show it.

Has it affected you? You probably think it hasn't. Until you make a list of the time you have had a problem.

Here's my list of lost passport and airport and flight mishaps:

1 It's not just airports that have delays due to lost or missing passports. I was on a cruise ship that got delayed when a passenger decided to swim out to the ship. It took longer than anticipated. When he reached the ship he was denied boarding. His passport was with his wife. We were all delayed, ship and of course crew and passengers.

2 I left a passport in a neck bag, having from one of the two upright posts on a dining chair at my au pair girl Caroline's family's house. We reached the tunnel from France to Italy and my family could not go as they could not leave me behind at the border.

3 Today a family on their way to the USA was turned back from an airport because the family members do not have the new style biometric passports.

The same thing happened to me. I missed my flight. Had to get up at dawn next day to get a new passport and rush to the airport, very stressed, arriving just in time to catch the next day's flight. Meanwhile my meet and greet person at the New York state area had already departed to join a press group in another city. (AlsoI left  my UK phone was not working in the USA to link up. Luckily an American bystander passer-by let me make a local phone call on their phone to say I'm now at your local airport, which train do I take to meet you?)

4 I was asked to remove the passport hanging round my neck and put it in a tray at security when leaving the US airport for London, Heathrow. I picked up my clothes and shoes but left the passport behind. On the plane I realised I'd lost it. Ignoring the protest of the stewardess that I could not leave the plane I shouted and rushed off. Security had closed. My passport was now upstairs in lost property. I rushed upstairs. The security man was busy dealing with another customer. He told me to wait. I shouted, "You're making an entire plane wait - you've got my passport!" He asked me if I had any identity. I told him, "No - you've got my passport. Check my picture." I then had to race back. I arrived back on the plane, gasping for breath, heart beating like bong drums, hoping for some soothing remark. My husband glared, "Don't ever do that to me again." I tell this story as an amusing speech at Toastmasters International.

Passport tracking would have prevented this episode.

Next we need a warning that you have a flight tomorrow. I get this now by email from Singapore Airlines. That would have saved me missing a fabulous press trip to Venice. I mistakenly assumed the flight was on a working day, Monday, when it left on Sunday. I arrived at the airport on Monday to find my flight was the day before.

I just gave my family this good news about tracking apoeple at airports. I got the following humorous responses:

"Yes, dear. The airport will tell you: 'If I were you I'd book the following flight.' "

I replied, "Yes. It will send messages like Monopoly boards: Get out of Toilets. Do not pass Perfume Shop."

Further replies: "Your wife is by YSL."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3576091/BA-app-mean-never-miss-flight-Passengers-told-time-gate-location-airport.html

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Don't take my lost passport to the passport office!

Now I've reported my passport as stolen and applied for a new one, the passport office will destroy my old passport. Nobody can use it anyway, because the number has been reported as a lost or stolen passport. My new (British) passport will have a new passport number.

The passport offices will not even bother to tell me that my passport has been found, so I'll have no reassurance that a kind person tried to return it, nor the reassurance that nobody attempted to sell it or use it. I'll have no way of contacting whoever handed it in to thank them. No way of finding out if they have other items of my property.

The UK application office assured me they had no need to tell me if my passport was found, because I had no need to worry, nobody else could use it. So what would be the point of returning it to them?

So if you find my passport, please try to find me on the internet. I'd love to have my passport back, with my photo, and the records of all my journeys.

What if I were to mislay my passport at home, and find it later, after reporting it missing? That happened to me once, when I thought leaving it in my suitcase would guarantee that I would not travel without it. Unfortunately, I had more than one suitcase, and unable to find my missing passport, did not even start to pack.

On a second occasion, I bought a fancy silver cover, which hid the passport so that it looked like a notebook. Eventually I found the missing passport.

In such a case when you have found your own passport at home, or when you apply for a new one, they can cut of the corner.

Why can't they simply cut the serial number off a passport which was found by somebody else?

My advice to you - photocopy every page of your passport in colour before every trip (even to the bank asking for it as proof of identity. When I get my new passport I am thinking of placing inside my passport the address of a friend or relative to contact, warning a finder not to return the passport to any official body but to me direct, and notice that I will pay a reward.

What do you think?

Lost Passports

Passport Numbers
It's handy to have a photo of your passport in case of loss as you may be asked for it, and you need a record of the number.

In other countries such as Singapore the British embassy no longer issues a new passport, only a travel document which can be used up to five times, which will get you home. This document costs you S$208, over £100, then you will need to pay for a new passport when you get back to Britain.

I would suggest you always carry your passport strapped to your body, not in a shoulder back you will put down or which could be snatched from you.

Journey Records
My bag disappeared on a number 14 bus in Singapore. How can I be sure it was a number 14 bus? I had trouble working it out. Several buses run along the same road.  I just jumped on the first bus. Inside the bus the bus number is not displayed.

Trip Records
I knew the details of every trip are recorded on the multi-trip transport cards. (Like the London, UK multi-trip Oyster card for use on the tube trains.)

Checking My Bus Route
At the interchange with a manned ticket office, they can put your ticket into their reader and see all journeys taken, from which boarding point to which exit point. Their bus timetable tells them the bus running that route at that hour.

Phone Tracking
My passport was in a bag with my phone. In theory if you have a tracker on your phone you can see where your bag is.