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Stuff being snuck into your luggage

Just to put your mind at ease, none of us here at gapyear.com have ever heard this happen to anyone. However, you should always take precautions.

To stop it happening
- Have padlocks / wire on your backpack zips and keep them locked at all times from when you have packed until check-in
- Keep an eye on your luggage
- Double check your bags before you stick them on the plane

** Vital bit of advice **
If the worst comes to the worst and someone does stick something in your bag... and it is pulled out by an official in front of you... DO NOT TOUCH IT!

Get someone from the Foreign Office down there immediately, especially if you feel that you can’t trust the police, and then ask them to fingerprint it. Your prints will not be on it, thus proving your innocence.

PLEASE DO NOT WORRY ABOUT THIS TOO MUCH, JUST BE CAREFUL. The biggest problem you will have is people nicking stuff from the side pockets and other open areas as it goes through the airport system - which can be solved by not having valuable stuff in there or by securing the zips.

Useful items
- Saklocks - enable you to lock your backpack straps
- ‘Plastic’ wire (you know - the wire with plastic round it that you use to seal bags of pasta etc.) - this is a great fast way to fasten your zips together to stop people quickly unzipping your bag
- Asking to have your backpack sealed in a large plastic airport bag, which they sometimes do to stop the straps catching. Or why not take a very strong plastic bag and seal with you to do the same job?