Whether you’re travelling for business or pleasure we all travel with valuables. This could be your laptop, phone, camera, cash, or credit or debit cards. It could be the little matter of your passport. And we don’t always want to carry them with us at all times. No need to take the full bag out for dinner or while you’re sightseeing in the city. In the primarily cash society that is Cuba, it’s a great way to have peace of mind that your money is safe. It’s especially difficult if you’re solo traveling and there isn’t someone you trust to “look after your stuff” while you go snorkeling for instance that’s why we always travel with a portable travel safe. It helps us feel secure in the knowledge that our gear is locked away, regardless of what our accommodation or situation is. Here’s how we use a portable travel safe, why we use it, and how we secure our valuables while traveling in Cuba and beyond.
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Best Portable Travel Safe for Cuba
This fabulous portable travel safe is big enough for laptops, phones, cameras, and a whole lot more. It packs flat and secures to just about anything!
What is a portable travel safe?
A portable travel safe is a packable device that includes security elements like steel mesh cages, or durable quality plastic. There are different designs for different use cases, but all offer the ability to lock valuables inside the safe which is designed to stop opportunistic thieves. All portable travel safes are then designed to be securely attached to a stationary object. You should buy a portable safe with a security cable as the cable is essential to being able to secure your travel-size safe.
We’ve attached portable travel safes to trees, fences, spare tires in the trunk of a car, bed frames, toilets, and a whole lot more!
Portable travel safes come in different sizes – so it’s important to buy one for the scenario that you’ll use it in. There is no point in buying a small portable lockbox if you want to secure your laptop! It’s most useful to actually have two portable travel safes – so you can leave your larger valuables like a laptop secured in your accommodation and then a smaller one to secure your keys and cash if you’re heading to the beach.
If you enjoy a lot of beach and water sports, you might also want to consider waterproof portable safes. The top beach lockboxes are essentially waterproof boxes that you can secure to a beach chair a tree or some other object.
Best Travel Safes At a Glance
Our Portable Travel safe was essential for us in Cuba. Whether we were staying in a Casa Particular, snorkeling or swimming from beaches in Cuba or diving in Cuba, we used our portable travel safe daily.
Here are the best portable travel safes at a glance. Read on further in this article for our full travel safe reviews.
| TRAVEL SAFES | KEY FEATURES | READ MORE REVIEWS AND BUY | |
| Best Portable Travel Safe | • 360-degree stainless steel wire mesh is highly cut resistant. • Can be locked securely with TSA accepted 3-dial combination lock. • Stainless steel cable to secure the bag. • Can be worn as a shoulder bag with a detachable shoulder strap. Also, due to the flat bottom design, the bag will stand on the floor when filled. • Flat bottom design lets the bag will stand on the floor when filled. • Fits up to two 15 inch notebooks/ MacBooks, phone, iPad, camera, cell, ID, money, credit cards jewellery, passport, DSLR and other valuables. • 15″H x 9.4″W x 6.3″D. Lightweight: 1.7 lbs. • Comes with a 5-year Pacsafe warranty. • Bag fabric is water-resistant • Made of durable, easy to clean long lasting Nylon • With shoulder strap and carry handles. | Read reviews and buy this awesome travelsafe now! | |
| Best Beach Lockbox | 3-digit custom combination code + access key Rugged flexible steel cable to securely lock in almost any fixed object Rust-resistant, nickel-plated (zinc alloy) Extremely durable, impact-resistant, ABS plastic Lightweight and water-resistant 90-day warranty policy included | Buy this best buy beach lockbox | |
| Best Steel Mesh Travel Safe | • Stainless steel bag protector wraps and locks 360-degrees around a backpack, duffel bag, or luggage up to 55 litres • Patented stainless steel eXomesh locking system secures contents and locks to fixture • Comes with padlock and carry pouch for easy packing when not in use • Weighs 1 pound; The 55L Backpack & Bag Protector is perfect for small backpacks and smaller luggage items.Fits volume approximately: 22 – 55 L / 1342 – 3356 cubic in. • Folds down to 5.5 x 4.7 x 2 inches | Best Backpack protector – steel mesh travel safe | |
| Best Laptop Travel Safe | • 360-degree stainless steel wire mesh embedded in Nylon fabric is highly cut resistant. • Can be locked securely with TSA accepted 3-dial combination lock (included). • Stainless steel cable can be used to securely cable bag to furniture, heaters or pipes with narrow clearance when in hotel rooms, or to beach chairs or trees with large diameters when at the beach or by the pool. • Can be worn as a shoulder bag with a detachable shoulder strap. Flat bottom design means the bag will stand on the floor when filled. • Fits up to two 15 inch notebooks/ MacBooks, phone, iPad, camera, cell, ID, money, credit cards jewellery, passport, DSLR and other valuables. • 15″H x 9.4″W x 6.3″D. Lightweight: 1.7 lbs. • Comes with a 5-year Pacsafe warranty. • Bag fabric is water-resistant to protect your personal items. • Made of durable and easy to clean Nylon to ensure secure & long-lasting usage. • With shoulder strap and carry handles. | Read reviews and buy this awesome laptop security travel safe |
Why use a portable travel safe
Some hotels provide room safes. Some don’t. Some hotels and hostels advise you to leave your valuables at reception. (eye roll). The chances are that the safes that they provide just aren’t big enough to get your laptop into anyway! You’re very, very unlikely to find safes in Casa Particulars (and many hotels) in Cuba.
Using a portable travel safe allows you to take control of the situation and apply your own rules to the physical security of your stuff. You get to choose how to lock it up and where to lock it up.
And all the hotel safes in the world don’t help you when you go to the beach for a day and want to go snorkelling. Of course in this situation, you can put your small valuables in a container and bury it in the sand, but I’m never convinced that there isn’t someone watching for people doing exactly that!.
Use your portable travel safe instead. Attach it to a beach chair or a tree.
When to use a portable travel safe
The best time to use a portable travel safe is when you want to secure valuables that will not be on your person. So if you’re leaving your casa particular or hotel to go out to dinner. If you’re taking an overnight Viazul bus and want to be sure that your valuables will be secure while you’re asleep use a portable travel safe. Use a portable travel safe when camping or while you’re visiting or sightseeing. The list is endless.
Where to use a portable travel safe
Portable travel safes are now available for all sizes, shapes and use cases. You can use a portable travel safe anywhere, but here are some examples of where a portable travel safe is useful
- In a dorm room in a hostel
- In your casa particular room
- At a swimming pool
- At the gym
- While you’re diving – like when we went to the Bay of Pigs
- In your car
- On a boat
- On the beach
- While camping
- Inside a hotel room
- Inside a holiday apartment
- On an overnight bus
- On an overnight train
Types of Portable Travel Safe
There are several types of portable travel safe, but here are the main ones.
A steel mesh travel safe to secure a bag or backpack
Securing your backpack, case, tent or equipment inside this steel mesh stops thieves from walking away with it. Your entire bag or suitcase goes inside the mesh and you then attach it to a stationary object. There are different sizes available – 55 litres, 85 litres and 120 litres. These are the best steel mesh travel safes available.
A hard-sided beach lockbox for small valuables
These types of portable travel safes tend to be of lightweight plastic. They’re hard-sided and you can use them both indoors and outdoors. They’re designed to be water-resistant and have a heavy-duty flexible steel cable that you can use to secure around fixed objects. See your options here. They usually come with a combination code lock.
Portable beach safes can be attached by a steel cable to beach chairs, trees or picnic tables. Some of the top beach lock boxes use combination locks,
An internal wire mesh travel safe portable travel safe
With an internal wire mesh infrastructure with a tough fabric covering, this design of portable travel safe looks quite like an ordinary travel bag. (check it out here) A stainless steel locking cable and padlock of your choice (key or combination) allow you to secure it to any stationary object. We think that these are the best travel safes available
A portable laptop safe
Portable laptop security is about two things, digital security, and physical security. For digital security we recommend using a VPN – if you want to know why then read this if you want a great deal on a VPN, then we recommend ExpressVPN
For physically securing your laptop you want to hide it from view and also attach it to something immoveable securely. This is the best travel safe for laptops. . We’ve attached our portable travel safe to head bed frames, toilets, washbasin, and heating pipes.
Water-resistant portable travel safes
With an internal wire mesh design and a highly rated water resistant back, this is a great option for all weather and all activity security Take it on a boat, tie it to a tree in the rain. Great for regular divers or snorkelers. We recommend this water-resistant travel safe and use it when we go on dive boats, or to the beach snorkeling.
Best Size of Portable Travel Safes
The best size portable travel safe to pick depends on what you want to put in it and how you’ll be transporting it around. Some of the best rated small travel safes weigh more than 3lbs (1.4 kilos) and that’s too heavy for me to add to my backpack. We aim for lightweight, but secure. Our suggestion depending on how you’ll use your portable travel safe is to actually have two.
- A small one for smaller valuables – like car keys, wallet and phone that you can lock if you’re at the beach, pool, or gym > our favorites here
- A large one that fits laptops, cameras, e-readers, and the like into that you can leave in your accommodation or the trunk of a car > our favorites here
What to look for in a portable travel safe
Depending on how you travel, where you stay, and what your activities are will define what you should look for in a portable travel safe. We travel with backpacks, stay in casa particulars, hotels, hostels, apartments and sometimes campsites. What you should look for in a travel safe also depends on what you want to secure in the safe.
Where you’ll use the portable travel safe
If you plan on using your portable safe at the beach, you’ll want to get a water-resistant one. Check the best dry bag portable travel safes here. And the right size for what you plan to put in it. Check the best beach lockboxes and the best portable safe for the beach here.
Wanting to secure your valuables while backpacking? We recommend the Portable Travel Safe by Pacsafe – it’s relatively lightweight, pack easily and secures well.
The type of lock that the portable safe has
We have a combination lock on our portable travel safe. It means that there’s one less key to lose. Pacsafe travel safes come with a combination lock.
What size of portable safe should you get?
What are you going to put into your portable travel safe?
A 15-litre portable travel safe from Pacsafe holds 2 11 inch laptops, 2 e-readers, a camera, passports, cash, wallets and our box of cables that we can’t live without. > check out options here.
A 5-litre portable travel safe keeps our wallets, car keys and drivers license secure when we go snorkelling or diving from the shore. > check options here.
Safego portable lock boxes are generally the best portable beach lockboxes. Safego lock boxes come in a multitude of colours – a fashion accessory for your beach holiday!
What to attach your portable safe to
The idea of a portable safe is to stop the opportunistic thief. So you’ll want to attach it to something sturdy. We aim for a wooden or metal bed frame. Or if that’s not possible, then we look at attaching it around the toilet, or the plumbing of a sink.
This won’t stop the most determined of thieves, who may just rip the plumbing apart, or they’ll pull the bed frame apart. However, the noise and mess that they make in doing that are likely to bring them to someone’s attention.
We haven’t had anyone tamper with or portable travel safe, or try to break any furniture or plumbing while we’ve been travelling.
How we use a portable travel safe
Our portable travel safe goes everywhere with us. We opted for a 15 litre one, it folds flat to go into a backpack when we’re on a plane or a bus and our valuables are in our daypacks. We use it in our accommodation. We use our portable travel safe when diving, snorkelling and when all our gear is in the trunk of a car if we’re exploring a city. Here are a few more details about just how we use a portable travel safe.
Using a portable travel safe in your Casa Particular, hotel room or accommodation
We use our portable travel safe in our travel accommodation. We mainly stay in casa particulars, apartments, hotels and hostels. When we leave the room we gather together all the valuables that we’re not taking with us – laptops, power banks, cash, passports, kindles and secure them into our portable travel safe. (read about Cuban Currency here) We then lock the travel safe to either a bed frame or secure it to some part of the plumbing in the room. (this can be around the toilet or the sink). If you travel with a vehicle and aren’t too worried about not being able to pack your travel safe down flat, then some of the best beach lockboxes might be a good option for you.
Using a portable travel safe when taking day trips
While renting a car in Cuba isn’t usually done by tourists, if we have a car and are taking a trip, with valuables that we don’t want to carry with us – say if we’re hiking, then we’ll secure the valuables in the portable travel safe and then secure the travel safe in the trunk (or boot) of the car. We always try to do this BEFORE we arrive at the destination where we’ll be parking the car. Our portable car safe is simply our regular portable safe with a cable that attaches around the spare wheel!
Using a portable travel safe when camping
We camp occasionally, (as in stay and sleep in a tent), and take our portable travel safe for camping trips. If we have a car with us, we’ll secure the portable safe in the boot of the car. If we don’t have a car with us, then we’ll find a sturdy looking tree that we can attach the safe to. It stays inside the tent with us overnight.
Using a portable travel safe on the beach
Whether you’re spending the day on the beach or snorkelling or even diving from the beach keeping your valuables safe is key. We secure all the valuables that we’re not leaving in in our casa particular into the portable safe and then attach it to a tree or fence post or gate. We use a combination lock on our portable travel safe so it means we don’t have to worry about dropping a key while snorkelling.
Using a portable safe while diving
Especially if you dive from the shore you’ll want to secure your valuables. We did this in Cuba, in the Bay of Pigs, where shore diving makes it one of the cheaper places to dive in the world. Cuba, we felt was very safe, but that apparently doesn’t work with travel insurance companies if something gets stolen. So we loaded up our portable travel safe and tied it to a tree, then jumped into the Caribbean Sea.
Which is the best portable travel safe?
This really should be what is the best portable travel safe for you. Which travel safe you buy and use depends on how you’re going to use it. If you want the best beach lockbox, then we recommend SafeGo, if you want what we think is generally the best portable travel safe then we recommend the Pacsafe. The easiest way to find the right portable travel safe for you is to work out what you want to use it for, what you need it to secure and then take a look! Good luck and let us know how you get on!
ESSENTIAL TIPS FOR EXPLORING CUBA INDEPENDENTLY
These are the resources and booking sites that we use when traveling to Cuba.
!NEW! – Our 130 page ebook – Cuba by Bus – provides 5 detailed itineraries, includes specific buses to book, and full step by step guides to visiting Cuba. Buy it here.
Get a Cuba Travel and Medical Insurance Quote from Visitors Coverage here –
Alternatively, Civitatis Insurance is a great option for the required insurance for Cuba.
Read about the Cuba eVisa, and buy your Cuban eVisa here.
Flying via the USA and relying on entry with an ESTA? Read this.
Book your Viazul Bus tickets here
Use Daytrip to book transport between cities AND to sightsee along the way
Pre-book and prepay shared & private shuttles here
Book the best FREE Walking Tours in Cuba
Reserve attractions, day trips, and activities in Cuba here
Get online in Cuba EASILY with a Cuba eSIM Card here, or read my guide to Cuba physical SIMs here.
Download and install a VPN BEFORE you travel to Cuba > discount coupon here
Book Accommodation in Cuba’s Casa Particular here
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