Losing a wallet abroad is an afternoon of queueing. Losing it when nobody in your group has a copy of anything is a day and a half.
Photograph these before you go
- Passport or ID, the page with the photo.
- Travel insurance certificate, and the emergency number printed on it.
- EHIC, or your national health card.
- Driving licence, if anyone is renting a car.
- Tickets and bookings for the days that would be hard to rebook.
Keep them somewhere the group can reach
A photo in your own gallery is no help when your phone is the thing that went missing. Put the copies where somebody else can also open them: a shared group in Petra keeps them encrypted, on every member’s phone, readable with no signal and no roaming.
What a copy can and cannot do
A copy will not get you on a plane or across a border. What it does is make the first hour work: the consulate knows which passport number to look up, the insurer can open a case, the hospital can bill the right company, and the person helping you does not have to guess your date of birth.
Carry the originals, and keep them somewhere different from the copies. Photographs help with the first questions; they replace nothing.