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When you travel, you need a practical wallet that can hold your passport, boarding pass, and all your credit cards and cash. The Bellroy Travel Wallet fits the bill with its super smart design that holds everything easily without adding bulk.
I never used to be a fan of passport holders and cases. Passports are thin, light, and just the right size to slip into a jeans pocket, or maybe the small front pocket or quick-access compartment of a carry-on backpack.
Then my passport started to get battered, and I took a few international flights where I couldn’t use mobile boarding passes and had to carry paper ones. I remembered what a pain it can be to keep track of your passport, boarding pass, and landing cards, plus other notes and documents you might need when you’re throwing everything loose into a backpack pocket.
I decided to look into travel wallets and passport covers. My thinking was that it would be easier to streamline everything if I could keep all the travel documents for a given flight in one holder, plus I’d be able to protect my passport. I knew that money belts and travel wallets that go around the neck are popular, but I had no interest in one of those. I wanted a sleek clean wallet.
I spent some time researching different options, trying a handful of different ones, and I’m happy to say that I found my favorite and new go-to: the Bellroy Travel Wallet. I’ve also found a number of other great travel wallet options if Bellroy’s wares aren’t for you. Read on to see which of put picks is the best for your travel wallet needs.
Although the Bellroy Travel Wallet is the best one I’ve used, there are other great options out there. If you decide it isn’t for you, I also recommend looking at the Tumi Alpha Passport Case, the Mr. Lentz Slim Passport Wallet, the Fjallraven Passport Wallet, and the Zero Grid Travel Wallet and Passport Holder in the slides below.
The best travel wallet overall
Why you’ll love it: The Bellroy Travel Wallet keeps your passport, boarding passes, landing cards, and more in a compact, organized package.
If you’re a regular reader of Insider Picks Guides, chances are you’re already familiar with Bellroy — after all, the company makes our favorite wallets. The young Australian brand has a smart, minimalist and functional design philosophy. It also uses ethically-sourced materials and has a great manufacturing process to produce high-quality gear.
What I love about Bellroy’s travel wallet is that it holds everything — It has room for all of the travel documents you might need over the course of a multi-stop international trip, plus cash, credit cards, a SIM card, and even a pen.
At first glance, the wallet looks like an oversized bifold, opening just like an everyday wallet. One side has room for your passport, with a dedicated pocket that takes up that whole side. The other side has credit card slots — either two or four, depending on which edition of the wallet you choose — positioned vertically so you just drop the cards in. The wallet also has an open top pocket like a traditional bill compartment, but it’s divided into two sections.
There are a few more “hidden” card slots and a sim card holder within the inner cash compartment, as well as my favorite feature of this wallet: a tiny pen, which is kept tucked away right in the middle so that you can fill out landing cards and jot any quick notes you need.
The wallet is big enough to hold just about any currency, and I like to keep a little bit in one of the sections of the large cash/document pocket. The other section is great for holding boarding passes, custom cards and any other travel documents you might need to have handy. I prefer putting these in the outermost section so that they don’t crease when folded. I use the inside part for cash — You can put cash in both sections, using the divider to keep different currencies separated.
In theory, Bellroy intends the travel wallet to be your everyday wallet on the road, something you can carry with your cards, cash, passport and everything else you need for a day of exploring.
I think it’s a little big for that. I can certainly fit in in a back pocket or jacket when I’m in the airport, but it’s big enough that I would be worried about theft walking around a city with it. It’s great to keep everything handy in the airport and during transit, but once I reach my destination, I’d probably carry my daily cash, credit cards and ID in a regular wallet and leave the travel wallet behind in a hotel safe.
The wallet is available in a few different colors, plus, there’s a RFID-blocking version and a new “designer’s edition.” The designer’s edition is meant for the luxury market and has a softer leather with a few design tweaks. It also only has two credit card slots on the main part of the wallet, rather than four. Other than that, it’s basically the same product as the original. Whether you choose the regular or the designer’s edition, you can’t go wrong.
Pros: Keeps everything you need handy while traveling, easy to navigate, great organization, includes a pen, small enough to carry in a pocket in the airport
Cons: Too big to use as a daily wallet during trips
Buy the Bellroy Travel Wallet on Amazon for $ 119.99 and up (price varies by color)
The best travel wallet with RFID blocking
Why you’ll love it: The Tumi Alpha Passport Case is stylish, plus it keeps your passport and cards safe — in more ways than one.
Did you know that passports, Global Entry cards, and some credit cards include a small RFID, or radio frequency identification chip, used to help prevent fraud or make it easier to pay for things? A small electronic chip is embedded in the card or document and emits a certain radio signal, which can be interpreted when the chip is near a reader. In the case of a passport, this radio signal verifies all the information on your photo page.
While RFID technology adds to security and convenience, the major downside is that anyone can use a portable scanner and steal information just by walking next to someone with a RFID-equipped passport or credit card. There’s some debate about how real of a threat this is, as most credit cards don’t include these chips anymore and the information a thief can get by “skimming” a passport is fairly innocuous. However, if you want to reduce the risk of identity theft as much as possible, you may want to keep your passport and credit cards in a RFID-blocking wallet.
The Tumi Alpha Passport Case is one of the best RFID-blocking wallets out there. It can be hard to strike a balance between blocking RFID signals and keeping the wallet slim and stylish, and the Tumi Alpha does it well. The wallet is made from Tumi’s signature woven ballistic nylon, with a leather interior and trim. The RFID-blocking material is woven in with the rest of the fabric so that it’s virtually unnoticeable. The wallet is also extremely lightweight.
The wallet is a regular bifold, though because it’s taller than it is wide it opens along the longer edge, like a book. The passport sleeve is on the left side when the wallet is open and sits upright. There’s an ID window right under that, perfect for a driver’s license. The right side of the wallet has eight credit card slots. There’s also an extra sleeve between the credit card slots, which can hold folded travel documents. The note sleeve is at the top of the wallet and is fairly deep.
The wallet is clean, simple and sharp-looking. The layout is easy and feels natural, like any regular wallet. While the wallet is sized a bit awkwardly and might not be easy to fit in your pocket, it should be comfortable enough in a pocket for quick storage while you’re heading through the airport.
Pros: Great RFID protection, sleek and stylish
Cons: A little large, travel documents need to be folded, can be hard to pull bills out of the deep pocket
Buy the Tumi Alpha Passport Case on Amazon for $ 110
The best travel wallet made from rugged leather
Why you’ll love it: The Mr. Lentz Slim Passport Wallet is rugged, old-school, handmade, and built to last.
The Mr. Lentz brand is run by one person — Evan Lentz — who makes all of his products by hand in his own workshop. Lentz built the brand with a “modern cowboy” feel, designed to evoke days of hard work on the windswept plains, and his online shops reflect that with old-west images and icons.
Mr. Lentz makes wallets, bags and other accessories using durable, rugged and time-proven materials like full-grain leather, brass, and wood. Lentz’s passport wallet is a typical example of this style.
The wallet is simple, much more scaled down than the Bellroy Travel Wallet. A solid piece of leather makes a bifold that opens like a book. The right-side has a pocket for your passport, which is a little tight and only meant to fit the back cover of the passport. That way, the passport can be read without removing it from the wallet. You can just hand the whole package to the customs agent. Once the wallet breaks in a bit, you can fit the whole closed passport in that pocket.
The other side of the wallet has two card slots that can hold 4-6 cards. There’s a larger pocket right behind the card slots that is perfect for holding a bit of spare cash. You can also fit travel documents, like boarding passes, in this sleeve.
Aesthetically, the Mr. Lentz Passport Wallet looks rugged and hardy. The thick full-grain leather holds up well and develops a nice patina as you use it and break it in. Solid brass rivets line the outsides of the wallet, holding it together. The wallet also ships with a free tin of proprietary leather conditioner to help keep it soft as it ages and breaks in.
Thin enough to fit in a front pocket, this wallet is a perfect option for those looking for something that will last a long time and hold just the essentials. You can also choose to engrave the wallet, using any of a few different methods.
Pros: Slim, rugged, hand-made and built to last, holds the essentials
Cons: Needs to be broken in, brass rivets may not be everyone’s favorite look
Buy the Mr. Lentz Passport Wallet on Etsy for $ 68
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