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Travel is exciting, but it’s changed a lot, especially for those of us over 50.
We aren’t just thinking about passports, packing cubes, and whether we have packed enough socks. We also need to think about scams, lost luggage, public Wi-Fi, travel insurance, and whether our home looks empty while we are away.
That might sound like a lot, but it doesn’t have to be stressful. Most travel safety problems can be reduced or avoided completely, with a bit of planning before you leave.
My background is in forensic accounting, so I tend to notice risks, patterns, and things that don’t quite add up. Darren works in cybersecurity, so we talk a lot about digital safety at home and when we travel. Between the two of us, travel security has become part of how we plan every trip.
Over time, we’ve built a few safety habits into the way we travel. We do things like use a VPN, keep backup copies of key documents and split our cards and cash between us. It doesn’t make travel feel harder. It makes it easier to relax because we know we have covered the basics.
I wrote this guide because travel safety can feel overwhelming if you are not used to thinking about it. You do not need to become a security expert. You just need a few simple habits that help you feel more confident before, during, and after your trip.
Travel security after 50 can require new habits, such as using digital tools, managing medications, and protecting important documents. But travel doesn’t have to feel risky. The main idea: just a few smart habits make the experience calmer and more enjoyable.
When it comes to travel security, what you do before you leave is just as important as what happens on the road. A little preparation can save you a lot of stress and protect you from common pitfalls many travellers don’t even think about.
Here’s how we prepare for a safe and secure trip.
One of the best safety steps you can take happens before you even book the trip. We always do a bit of research into the destination, the neighbourhood we are thinking of staying in, and how we will get from the airport or train station to our accommodation.
This doesn’t mean looking for reasons not to go. It simply means knowing what to expect before you arrive. Check your government’s travel advice, read recent traveller reviews, look into common scams, and pay attention to comments about safety, transport, and walking around at night.
We also look at where the accommodation is located. A beautiful hotel is not much use if it’s in an area where we wouldn’t feel comfortable coming back after dinner. For us, location is part of travel security, not merely convenience.
Travel insurance is one of the first things we organise once we book a trip. It’s easy to think of it as something you only need for medical emergencies, but it can also help with theft, cancellations, lost baggage, delays, and some identity theft issues, depending on the policy.
We don’t leave it until the week before we fly. Once flights or tours are booked, we sort the insurance so we are covered if something goes wrong before we even leave home.
The important thing is to read the policy properly. Check what’s covered, what’s excluded, and whether there are limits for things like phones, cameras, luggage, and pre-existing medical conditions.
Before we leave, we do a few simple things to make the house look lived in. We set timers on lights, stop or redirect mail, avoid leaving bins out for days, and make sure there are no obvious signs that no one is home.
We also let a trusted neighbour know our travel dates and keep exterior cameras running while we’re gone. I break this down more in:
👉How to Secure Your Home Before Travel: 9 Must-Do Safety Tips
These days, travel security isn’t just physical, it’s digital. Before every trip, we take a few quick steps to make sure our devices and data are protected on the go.
We already use a VPN daily, have two-factor authentication enabled, and keep our devices updated with the latest software. We also never allow our phones or laptops to auto-connect to public Wi-Fi – one of the easiest ways for hackers to sneak in. Strong, regularly updated passwords are part of our routine, not just a travel step.
Don’t stress if you’re not IT-savvy; start with the basics. Simple steps like using a VPN on public Wi-Fi, turning on two-factor authentication and disabling auto-connect to random networks are easy first steps.
You don’t need to understand every technical detail. You just need a few good habits that protect your banking, emails, and personal information while you are away.
If you’re new to VPNs or not sure how they work, I’ve broken it down in this post:
When it comes to security, what you carry and how you carry it matters. We use anti-theft backpacks, RFID-blocking wallets, and always limit the valuables we bring.
You don’t need to go overboard, but a few smart choices can prevent a lot of hassle.
Losing your passport, ID, or insurance info when you’re away can turn a dream trip into a nightmare. We always:
To make this easier for you, I’ve created a checklist:
👉International Travel Documents Checklist
Before we head off, I send our basic trip details to someone at home. Nothing fancy: flight numbers, where we are staying, any booked tours, and how to reach us if needed.
It is one of those jobs that takes less than five minutes, but I would rather do it before we leave than have someone trying to work out where we are from a string of half-read messages.
In many countries, you can also register your trip with your government’s foreign affairs department (like the U.S. STEP program or Canada’s Registration of Canadians Abroad). This means local embassies know you’re in the country and can contact you in a crisis.
Australia used to offer this service, but it ceased in 2019 due to travellers providing inaccurate information. We made a habit of registering every trip and providing accurate information. While it’s no longer available to us, it’s still a smart safety step if your government offers it.
None of these steps are difficult, but they are much easier to do before you leave. You don’t want to be standing in an airport trying to fix a problem.
A little preparation gives you more room to enjoy the trip. You know your documents are backed up, your home is looked after, your insurance is sorted, and you have a plan if something goes wrong. That is the kind of travel safety I like: calm, practical, and not over the top.
When you’re finally out there enjoying your trip, the last thing you want is to be on edge the whole time. We’ve found that with a few smart habits and a little awareness, staying safe starts to feel natural, not stressful.
These are the habits and tools we rely on while on the road.
You’ll find free Wi-Fi just about everywhere – airports, cafés, hotels – but it’s not always as safe as it seems. Public networks are a favourite target for hackers, especially if your phone or laptop connects automatically without you realising.
When we use public Wi-Fi, we turn on our VPN first. I also avoid checking bank accounts, logging into sensitive accounts, or doing anything that would be a pain to fix later if someone got access.
Before you leave home, check your phone settings and turn off Wi-Fi auto-connect. You do not want your phone joining random networks without you knowing.
👉8 Tips When Using Public Wi-Fi When Travelling
We’ve seen scams come in all forms, from fake taxis to overly friendly strangers trying to get too close. They usually work by catching you off guard, using distraction or urgency to throw you off. And while we hate to say it, age can sometimes make us more of a target. Scammers often assume we’re not as tech-savvy or that we’ll be more trusting.
We pay attention when something feels rushed or a bit odd. It might be someone getting too close, pushing a “special deal”, offering help we did not ask for, or trying to distract us while we are dealing with bags or money.
Before we travel, we also look up the common scams for that destination. It’s much easier to spot a trick when you have already read about it.
👉 Scams When Travelling: 15 Travel Scams to Know and Avoid
The first hour in a new place can be a bit of a scramble. You’re tired, trying to read signs you only half understand, and working out where to go. And you’re doing this while dragging luggage behind you.
That’s why we try to sort transport before we arrive. It gives us one less thing to think about when our brains are not exactly at their sharpest.
Before we arrive somewhere new, we always know how we are getting from the airport, train station, or port to our accommodation. We check whether official taxis, hotel transfers, rideshare, or public transport are the safest option, and we avoid making rushed decisions when someone is standing in front of us offering a “special price”.
We also keep the accommodation address saved offline and written down, ideally in the local language as well as English, just in case the phone battery decides this is the perfect moment to die or we need to show it to a driver.
A little planning before you land can make that first arrival feel much calmer.
Airports, bus terminals, and train stations are the places where I pay the most attention to my bags. There is usually a lot going on, and it only takes a second for someone to grab something.
I keep my backpack on my lap or between my feet, not hanging off the back of a chair. We also use small locks or clips on zips, especially in crowded areas, so it is harder for anyone to get into a bag without us noticing.
If we use luggage storage or leave bags in a hotel room, we take valuables out first. For extra peace of mind, we sometimes use a luggage cable lock to secure a bag to furniture or a rail. It is not perfect, but it adds one more layer of protection.
Hotels generally feel safe, but that doesn’t mean you should get too comfortable. We’ve had situations where hotel staff entered the room without knocking, and once even had a cleaner leave the door ajar.
Now, we always:
We don’t usually use the hotel safe for passports, cards, or key documents. Some hotel safes can be opened or reset by staff, so we prefer not to rely on them for anything important.
Instead, we carry our passports and key documents with us in a secure bag. It is not always convenient, but it gives us more control than leaving them in the room
For us, this approach has become second nature, helping us feel more in control no matter where we’re staying.
We travel with a few simple but effective tools:
You don’t need to go overboard, but the right gear makes you feel more confident and less like a target.
We don’t want to spend a trip worrying about every little thing. That would be exhausting, and frankly, not much fun. A few basic safety habits let us handle the boring stuff early and then enjoy where we are.
A few simple rules we live by:
When you travel as a couple, it’s easy to fall into the habit of one person managing everything: the passports, cards, bookings, hotel address, and travel documents. That might work perfectly well until that person’s phone dies, their bag goes missing, or you get separated in a busy airport or train station.
Darren and I have learned not to let one person hold all the trip information. It sounds fine until that person’s phone dies, or they are the one off looking for coffee when you suddenly need the hotel address.
So we both need access to the basics: where we are staying, booking details, insurance documents, and emergency contacts.
We also split cards and cash between us. Losing one bag would be bad enough without losing every card, every bit of cash, and every backup plan at the same time.
It’s not about planning for disaster. It’s about making sure either of you can calmly handle things if something goes wrong.
Once we are home, I do a few quick checks before I fully switch out of travel mode.
It is much easier to spot a strange card charge, save receipts for an insurance claim, or change a password while the trip is still fresh in your mind. Leave it too long, and the details start to blur.
These are the simple things we check after each trip:
When we get home, I check our card transactions more than once. I usually look in the first few days, then again a week or two later.
I’m not just looking for big charges. Sometimes the odd little amount is the one that matters, because it can be a test before someone tries a larger payment.
Even if we barely used a card while away, I still check. It only takes a minute, and I would rather spot something early.
If anything looks off, contact your bank right away. It’s much easier to deal with potential fraud sooner rather than later.
If we’ve used public Wi-Fi at any point (even with a VPN), we change the passwords on any accounts we accessed while away. That includes email, cloud storage, and banking apps.
This might feel overcautious, but it’s a simple way to stay one step ahead. Travel exposes you to more digital risks, and updating your login info only takes a few minutes.
After a trip, I do a quick check for anything that looks off. It might be a card charge I don’t recognise, a strange login alert or an email from a site I haven’t used.
Pay extra attention if you’ve had a card, passport, or phone go missing while away. Even if everything seems fine at the time, you should still check. I would much rather find a problem early than discover it weeks later when it is harder to sort out.
If something goes wrong during the trip, start the insurance claim as soon as possible. Delays, lost bags, cancelled flights, medical issues, and theft can all need different paperwork.
Do it while you still remember what happened. It’s much easier to explain dates, times, names, and costs straight away than a month later when everything has blurred together.
We keep a folder of receipts, photos, and any incident reports just in case we need to lodge something. It makes the process smoother and increases the chance of getting reimbursed.
When we get home, we usually have a quick chat about what worked and what didn’t. Did we pack the right things? Did we feel uneasy anywhere? Was there anything we would handle differently next time?
It doesn’t need to be a big review. Sometimes it’s just a quick conversation while unpacking. But it helps us remember the little things before they disappear from our brains completely.
Then, before the next trip, we can make a few changes instead of repeating the same mistakes.
Yes, absolutely. But over 50, I think it’s worth being honest about what makes a trip feel comfortable for you.
You don’t need to be nervous, but you do need to be aware. A bit of research before you book and a few simple safety habits while you are away can make a big difference.
Yes. Darren and I use a VPN when we travel.
I mainly think about it when we are using hotel, airport, or café Wi-Fi. I still avoid logging into banking on public Wi-Fi if I can help it, because I would rather not take the risk. But if I need to check something important, the VPN goes on first.
👉 Learn more: Should I Use a VPN Overseas? Why It Matters for Travellers
Hotel safes offer some protection, but they’re not foolproof – many can be accessed by staff or reset with generic codes. We personally choose not to use them and instead carry our passports and valuables with us. If you do use a safe, avoid storing electronics or financial items inside.
Before we leave, we try to make it less obvious that the house is empty. We use light timers, stop or redirect mail, check the bins, and let a trusted neighbour know we’re away.
Cameras and smart doorbells can also help, but the small jobs matter too. A pile of mail or bins left out for days can be a bigger giveaway than people realise.
👉 Full checklist: How to Secure Your Home Before Travel.
The first thing I would do is stop any more money going out. Call the bank, freeze the card, and save proof of what happened before you start explaining the story to anyone else.
If it happened through a taxi, tour, hotel, or booking site, report it to them as well. For anything serious, or if you need insurance paperwork, contact the local police and ask for a report.
Yes, I would still consider it for a short trip. Bags can go missing, flights can be delayed, and people can get sick, whether they are away for two days or two months.
The main thing is to check what the policy actually covers. A cheap policy is not much help if it excludes the thing you are most worried about.
Staying safe while travelling doesn’t mean you have to be on edge all the time – it’s about creating habits that help you feel confident and in control. From securing your home before you go to protecting your data on public Wi-Fi and reviewing things when you return, each step plays a part.
You do not need to be a tech expert or security expert to travel safely. You just need a few habits that make sense for your travel style.
For us, that means sorting insurance early, protecting our documents, using a VPN, keeping an eye on our bags, and doing a few checks when we get home. Nothing complicated, and definitely nothing that should take the fun out of the trip.
Use this guide as a starting point before your next trip. Then, as I publish more posts in this Travel Security series, you can dive deeper into the areas that matter most to you, whether that is public Wi-Fi, scams, luggage safety, travel insurance, or protecting your home while you are away.
Hi, I’m Lisa Bundesen - the voice behind The Middle Age Wanderer. I’m a retired chartered accountant turned passionate traveller and photographer. Alongside my husband Darren (and with our two fur babies waiting at home in Australia), we explore the world one adventure at a time.
I’ve travelled to over 35 countries, and I created this blog to inspire fellow travellers in their 50s, 60s, and beyond to embrace adventure. Whether it’s hiking ancient trails, diving into new cultures, or sipping wine in scenic places, I believe life after 50 is the perfect time to explore more.
Here, you’ll find honest travel advice, destination guides, and real stories to help you travel smarter and with more confidence - because age is not a barrier, it’s an invitation.
Hi, I’m Lisa, a 50+ retired chartered accountant. My husband, Darren, and I explore the world every opportunity we get. Staying fit is key to our adventures, from hiking the Inca Trail to scuba diving. We call Australia home but travel overseas often, always eager to discover new cultures, bustling cities, cuisines, nature and wildlife.
We would love you to join us on our journeys and hope that our adventures give you encouragement to explore this amazing world.
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