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How To Protect Your Expensive Jewelry While Traveling Abroad

Packing for a trip abroad is always a difficult balancing act. You want the maximum amount of clothing options without making your suitcases impossibly heavy. You want to take your jewelry and accessories but can’t give them the same level of security as your other possessions. Jewelry in particular is a tough one, considering that it is perfect for glam nights out but is so easily stolen.

In order to keep your jewelry safe, thereby protecting their financial and sentimental value, you need to take some significant steps.

Here is how you can protect your expensive jewelry while traveling abroad.

Check your insurance policy

Your possessions are covered by your renters or homeowners insurance, even when you are not at home. In fact, your possessions can be snatched from you on the other side of the world and insurance will still pay. However, you may need to get specific jewelry insurance coverage.

This is because your jewelry is probably more expensive than most of your other possessions and is therefore not covered by your contents insurance. The insurance you get for items like jewelry is called scheduled personal property insurance. It will pay out the value of your jewelry no matter where you are when it is taken.

Research crime and use your discretion

Different countries have different levels and types of crime. Even if you are used to a relatively high level of crime in your area of the US, that does not mean you’re prepared for crime in another country.

Going to Cape Town in South Africa, for example, will mean you’re exposed to some of the worst crime in the world and will have to be careful at all times. Visiting Paris, however, you will face a far lower level of crime but will still be exposed to pickpockets and jewelry snatchers. Either way, you need to find out how to navigate the local crime.

Here you will have to use your discretion. In some cases, it is just not worth bringing your jewelry with you, considering the likelihood it will be stolen. You may even be putting your life in danger by wearing jewelry out in public.

Learn about safe safety

In theory, a hotel safe is all you need to keep your jewelry safe when you leave it in your hotel room. Unfortunately, however, it is rarely that simple. Some hotels will have particularly high levels of security and will therefore track down any staff member who tries to get away with your jewelry. But most of the time, there is the chance of your jewelry being stolen and you may not notice immediately.

Again, you’ll have to use your discretion to decide when it is safe to leave your jewelry in a hotel safe. If staff come around daily, you may never feel secure. If you’re in an Airbnb where there is no cleaning staff, you may feel more secure, but the host does have access at all times.

You can get an extra lock for your safe that gives it an extra level of security. This is a mechanical device that only you can open. You lock your hotel safe with it and the staff cannot simply reset it.

Avoid walking and public transport

When you wear your jewelry in another country, you should never have to walk somewhere or use public transport. This is when your jewelry is most at risk. Even though it may look great gleaming around your neck in the summer sun, your jewelry should be reserved for events and venues.

Even in these venues, make sure to stay alert. In a crowded space, it may be hours before you realize your jewelry is gone. By that time, the thief may have gotten away and will be impossible to track down.

Taking jewelry on an international trip always poses a risk, but it can be worth it to look your best in a glamorous place. Be careful and stay alert, as theft is common and can be easy to perpetrate against tourists.

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