Travel Tips

An article (with) the scope of “How to Play It Safe in Foreign Lands” (Youth Beat, March 14) should have included a reminder about an old trick that saves lots of time and money in case of loss or theft: Before leaving home, take your passport, ticket stubs, driver’s license and possibly the trip itinerary, if known, to a copy shop. Produce a single-page document that shows the first pages of the passport, any pages with visas and all of the other documents mentioned. Add your home address, contact phone numbers and the phone and fax numbers of U.S. consulates or embassies in the countries you’re about to visit.

Leave a copy with people you can trust to be there if you need to call in the middle of the night. Keep a copy on your person, separate from the pouch in which you carry the originals. If you should lose the originals, the photocopy means that replacements can be made, sometimes within hours instead of days or weeks.

LORENZ RYCHNER

Studio City