Although you can certainly get cash in plenty of places overseas, in a good many others ATMs just do not exist. You gotta plan ahead: this nylon money belt is pretty much exactly what I've always been looking for in a money belt, because it's actually a belt. While traveling in Asia for six months, and on trips to Mexico, I've used a standard money "belt" that's really more of a pouch you tuck into your beltline. You then subsequently appear to have either a distended abdomen or a money belt tucked into your pants, which obviously contradicts the goal: fly under the radar. I can keep my documents and passport safely hidden elsewhere, thanks much. But for carrying cash through pickpockety or banditry-prone places, this belt with a slim, zippered pocket is a real winner. I happened to see it at REI just before I left for a three-week trip to Nicaragua. I did have some trouble getting people to accept my origami-style folded bills (I really loaded up the belt), which is ironic because I didn't find a single dry Cordoba in the entire country! Still, from now on, I will always travel with this belt.

-- Mathew Honan

The Eagle Creek money belt has another great feature -- the buckle is plastic, unlike many others with metal buckles, so it doesn't have to be removed during airport screening. Keeps your cash right where you want it, not on a conveyor belt disappearing into an x-ray machine and not out in the open where someone with a sharp eye might notice it.

-- Evan Marks

Eagle Creek All-Terrain Money Belt
$12
(black or brown)
Available from Campmor

Or $15 from Amazon
(black, palm or brown)

Manufactured by Eagle Creek

Related items previously reviewed on Cool Tools:

Tool Belt


Pacsafe Travelsafe

World Stompers