Where to keep valuables when going in pool or sea

[sidsgranny]

My DH and I have always left mobiles etc in bag on/under lounger when we go in the pool or sea but I'm travelling for a week with my mum and she thinks this sounds dodgy and that we won't both be able to go in the water together. It's made me wonder if we've been to trusting in the past but I can't see what else you would do? One of those clear pouches round your neck for your phone? I've never seen anyone using one so can I ask what you all do?

To be honest we just usually keep stuff in our beach bag at the bottom or kind of wrapped up in a towel in there. I never worry too much. I haven’t done it myself, but I’ve seen people use a nappy and then wrap it up like it’s a used one, definitely a good idea if you have kids and nappies readily available.

This is what I do. Doubles as a dry bag and float. Only ever take a bit of cash and my phone to the beach as contactless limits on cards means that someone could rack up quite a bit of spending before you know it.

This.

Always the clear pouch. I sometimes stuff it down my swimsuit if I am proper swimming. They’re brilliant things.

https://amzn.eu/d/09D1Msfv

waterproof belt from amazon

I wear a rash vest so it is also covered. At the pool I just leave stuff in my beach bag.

I wonder about this too. At the pool I just try to hide it under a towel or something. But you hope that a hotel pool would be fairly safe?

At the beach I avoid taking it, because my DH would always bring his and it doesn’t make sense for both of us to lose our phones. I leave my phone in our room safe and take a payment card plus a bit of cash.

I recently bought a cheap waterproof watch for beach or outdoor occasions, to avoid losing track of time.

Everyone knows that if you cover your valuables with a bit of your towel it renders them invisible. That’s what we do and it’s worked so far 😝

Oh totally, I also have a zipped case which renders things invisible! 😂

On many beaches where you can hire sunbeds the parasols often have a little safe attached to them that you can use - we recently used one of these in Majorca so we could swim in the sea

My husband wears a waterproof sealed wallet for cash, card and car keys whilst we swim. Phones get locked in the car or left in the room safe in the hotel. You can buy the wallets on Amazon. This means we can swim together and feel relaxed without worrying about our valuables.

Don't take anything irreplacable, make sure you've got decent insurance and your phone could be replaced if needed (i.e. everything stored in the cloud).

People joke about covering with a towel/ putting in a nappy bag etc but really most beach thieves will be opportunists. If you leave your phone on display it's much more likely to be grabbed. So making sure it's not fully visible is sensible.

Maybe hotel pool if I could see it i’d leave it, but never a beach. Usually one person stays with the stuff as most people want to go in water at different times.

I have one for my phone and they are good, especially if you do use the camera and want to get some pool pictures

We just leave our stuff on the beach and never experienced or been aware of thieves targeting tourist bags.

I did buy a waterproof waist pack - I do day trips alone so have no choice but to leave all my stuff on the beach including my passport, which I'd be really inconvenienced if stolen, but I've never actually bothered using it.

I just place myself near the lifeguard station, reasoning that if there is anyone dodgy, they're not going to be hanging around there and keep an eye on my stuff while in the sea. If I went somewhere with a reputation for theft, like Barcelona I might think twice but just about everywhere else, it doesn't seem like a risk worth worrying about.

My son has a medical condition that is controlled by phone devices and we have no choice really but to take them in the water with us. I was sceptical at first but they really are watertight. Bonus is you can take pictures in the water too, even underwater. If your mum is worried you can just get one of those each. They do lanyard styles or bumbag styles. Total peace of mind.

I am often on a beach on my own and only take my credit card, then I either tie my bag around the lounger and cover or tie my handbag around my rucksack and cover with a few stones. That way, if someone tries to grab it, it will be more noticeable. I also don’t swim too far. I’ve also asked ofher solo travellers to keep an eye on my stuff and vise versa.

Found this on Amazon

We always book small hotels so we can see our loungers from the pool. The sea is more tricky though. I just bury them at the bottom of my bag and put under the sunlounger. Maybe I'm too trusting but its been OK so far.

Avon used to do a fake suncream bottle, that looked exactly like a bottle of their suncream that you took the lid off and put your valuables inside. Don’t know if they still do it, but maybe worth looking online

If you're going down the fake suncream bottle route you could probably use a suitably sized plastic tub. Thieves are unlikely to bother taking endless snack tubs in the hope that they find one that contains a phone, money and other valuables.

My phone goes on a waterproof pouch, no cash or keys, all on phone.

We generally stay in ai hotels for beach holidays and leave valuables in the room and just take our room cards, means we don’t doom scroll too

We’ve always left them in bags under the lounger too. Although the beds at the beach on our holiday this year had a safe on the umbrellas but we still didn’t use them!
I did take my phone in a pouch to take photos of the kids but everything else was left. I’ve also buried ziplock bags before right beside the bed and put something on top to be able to find it again.

I don’t like the idea of anything loose around my neck when swimming, a teenager when we were in Cyprus got a phone pouch caught on part of the walkway/steps that were there to get in and out of the sea. It was quite choppy and it was stopping her from keeping her head out of the water. Her Dad managed to snap it off and pull her out, then lots of people were snorkelling trying to find her phone.

We tend to just leave things in various places around where we’re sitting and keep an eye out.
There’s usually six of us and a lot of bags and stuff, I maybe naively assume it would be too conspicuous for someone to be searching through to find out what’s our clothes, our snacks or our valuables.

In the Us on holiday and bought a water bum bag. However I see locals using lockable bags that then also lock to the sun loungers which are way better imho.