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Vagabonding traveler Rolf Potts answers your questions about travel

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Vagabonding traveler Rolf Potts answers your questions about travel

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Vagabonding traveler Rolf Potts answers your questions about travel

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I Plan to Travel With a Laptop. Can You Suggest Secure Places to Store It?

Dear Rolf,

I’m a freelance database programmer, and I’d like to carry a laptop when I travel. Have you ever been able to secure your laptop on the road—e.g. leave it off at a secure place for a couple of weeks and then retrieve it later?  How do you go about doing this?

--Rob

Dear Rob,

Traveling with a laptop is becoming more and more common these days as people use their personal computers for a variety of reasons, such as keeping journals, maintaining travel blogs and making Skype calls. I don’t really condone traveling long-term with a laptop if it’s not tied to your career; I’m just saying that this means you’ll have plenty of company in your laptop security concerns as you travel—and that increases your odds of finding good storage locations for your computer.

In my experience, your best bet for temporary laptop storage is either a locker, a hotel safe-room or a trusted friend. Lockers, unfortunately, are pretty rare, but you can sometimes find them in airports, bus stations and traveler hostels or guest houses. Just padlock your computer in the locker and take the key with you until you’re ready to retrieve your gear. The rub here is rental expense, which can make this impractical for long periods of time (particularly in airport lockers, which tend to be expensive).

Hotel safe-rooms can sometimes be better for your laptop storage needs, but again you’ll want to make sure it’s a decent hotel with a decent lockup room. Get an annotated receipt for your gear, and make sure there is a logical organizational system to the safe-room (i.e., ensure that the hotel doesn’t just let random people go in and claim their gear). In this case it’s probably wise to approach more expensive or established hotels. Naturally, this will mean your storage rental might be expensive as well—but sometimes upscale hotels will store your gear for free if you stay with them before and after your absence.

A third option is to make local friends along the way and leave your computer with them. This is no doubt the cheapest way to secure your laptop—just make sure they have a secure place to store it. (You’ll also want to make sure they’re authentic friends, lest your laptop end up in the local flea market!)

Columnist Rolf Potts is the author of Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel.

Send your questions to .

I go with the hide it technique. I do stored luggage at hotels. just lock the bag and hope for the best. Hotel room safe is nice. It is stressful to travel with computer though. i find it takes away from the trip. unless you really need it.. i would leave it home.  : )

2 cents

I’d want to travel with my lappy so this is a little ...sad to hear.

Keep it with you, and keep it safe by
1) keeping it your backpack when you’re not using it, and keep that backpack locked when you’re not in the room (even for trips to the bathroom)
2) keep your locked backpack chained to something sturdy in the room to deter snatch-and-grabs
3) don’t let people see you use it to play games or music—many locals see laptops as work, not play, until you show them otherwise
3) invest in a Kensington laptop lock (although some may know to bypass: http://www.boingboing.net/2005/05/18/howto-open-laptop-lo.html)

craig - http://www.travelvice.com

Well, I have to say that the trusted friend is the best choice of all as the lockers can cost a pretty penny and hotels are never careful with your luggage or for that matter with the itens in their safe. The laptop in the hotel safe would still be there when you get back but do not expect it to be in pristine condition!

Very useful suggestions.