Many young travellers choose to do a gap year of exploration and adventure before settling down with university life or permanent careers. This gap year travel is a great time to get and use a tourist visa to visit numerous countries around the world. If you’re thinking about traveling this summer between high school and college, here’s a few things to keep in mind from an experience traveler!
Although gap year travels are meant to be a time of fun, growth and exploration, there have also been several reported cases of lost or stolen passports that make for some pretty hectic and expensive stories for those who have experienced that. In fact, Amanda Craig, writer for the Telegraph, shared her story of frustration and fear when she found out her son had gotten his passport and phone stolen by a meth addict while traveling in Australia on his gap year.
It is all too common for gap year travellers to have to scramble to replace their forms of identification while away from their home countries due to unforeseen accidents or general absentmindedness. Prior to any long trips, it is important to look up travel insurance options, which may have services in place to help replace or retrieve lost or stolen passports.
Anya Li, a gap year traveler shared her story of traveling to the forests of Kiritimati with a broken backpack. On her hike, she noticed the zipper of her backpack was open and she was missing her passport and camera. Luckily for Li, she found her things, “My camera, destroyed by rain water and sitting under the tree where we had last stopped. And next to it a pair of soggy socks and my waterlogged passport. Clearly I’d left it my bag open by accident and they’d all fallen out before we’d even left”.
But many people aren’t so lucky to be able to retrace their steps and find their passports in exotic lands.
I have been traveling in the UK since October after leaving the United States for two years and although I’ve really enjoyed my opportunities to travel, enjoy new foods and meet some pretty amazing people, I too have faced losing my passport while in the UK. I had a trip from Belfast, Northern Ireland to England coming up a little over a month ago and so in preparation for the trip to England I checked the last place I thought I had my passport, but realized I couldn’t find it.
I scrambled for days retracing my steps and trying to remember the last time I had my passport. The thought occurred to me that I must have thrown out my passport with an embarrassing accumulation of trash that had been in my room and that I would need to quickly replace it. Luckily, I was able to access the US embassy in Belfast and get a temporary travel document before my trip to England. Upon my return I got a legitimate passport ten days later in the mail, which was convenient.
Apparently accidentally throwing away a passport in a foreign country is a lot more common than I had thought it would be…In any case, I have learned to be more careful with where I keep my passport so I can avoid any future complications!
It’s important to keep in mind that you should take several extra steps to keep all of your important belongings safe while travelling. Going over a checklist of where you will keep your things and what you have with you will also help to avoid any lost or stolen documents.
Have you ever lost a passport or had other important travel documents stolen? Share you story in the comments below!
