Best travel wallet 2024: document holders for those on the go

Whether you’re travelling for business or leisure, keeping track of your passport, plane tickets, credit cards are coins can be a pain. Cue the best travel wallets or best travel document holders, which are a handy way to keep all your documents in one place.

It's one of those things that you never knew you needed until you spend your entire time at an airport constantly patting down your pockets and searching through bags and rucksacks for that elusive piece of the jigsaw – passport, boarding pass, money hotel details – until you drive yourself insane. 

With a simple flick through the pockets if a good travel wallet you find everything you need, allowing you to breeze through airports worry-free, leaving you to concentrate on relaxing (or maybe visiting the duty-free) before a flight. Whether you're a frequent flyer or you take a holiday once a year, you can be sure that there’s a travel wallet for you on our list for the best travel wallets in 2024.

WRITTEN BY

WRITTEN BY

Lizzie Wilmot

Lizzie is T3's Home Staff Writer, also covering style, living and wellness. She works closely with Bethan Girdler-Maslen, T3's Home Editor, ensuring all the latest Home news, trends and recommendations are covered. Outside of T3, Lizzie can be found mooching around Bath, attempting (or at least trying to) a new DIY project or spending time with family and friends.

T3's top 3

Best travel wallets ranking 2024

The best overall travel wallet

Made from Fjallraven’s own blend of incredibly durable G-1000 fabric, this travel wallet is no exception to their commitment to producing quality outdoor and travel gear; and the reviewers certainly agree, with many of them commenting on the toughness of the fabric. 

Inside the nifty travel wallet, passports, boarding passes, cash, cards and even a pen can all be safely tucked away. The only negative is the price - but let’s not forget you get what you pay for. 

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The best versatile travel wallet

If you’re looking for a travel wallet that blends style with substance, we think we’ve found the one. Yes, it’s PU leather not real leather and that slight disappointment is reflected in the reviews, but if you take a look at its neat envelope design and its variety of pockets, you’ll find that there isn’t too much to complain about. 

Your passport, boarding passes, money, phone and even your foreign sim card will be kept safe in its pockets, which, although for some, are on the tight side, will fit all your essentials for a compact travel companion. 

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The best smart travel wallet

Losing your valuables is one of the biggest fears while travelling. Can technology help? Ekster makes a line of voice-activated wallets, including this relatively traditional-looking credit card holder. However, beneath the handcrafted leather look is some serious tech; as well as space for nine cards, six of which can be protected by a layer of RFID-block, but the wallet is also compatible with Alexa and Google Home, which using a Chipolo tag can make your wallet emit a ring when you ‘say “where’s my wallet?”

Funded within three hours on Kickstarter, this Ekster wallet also offers worldwide traceability via a smart card so you can tell you where it was last seen on a map. That’s the same technology used by FedEx to track its containers. What’s more, it’s all solar-powered and doesn’t run out of charge for two months.

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The best practical travel wallet

If you’re an outdoors type who’s just as likely to find themselves in the wild as in an airport, you’re going to want a travel document holder with special skills. Cue the Grab A5 from sleeping bag-maker Snugpak. As well as documents, the Grab A5 – with is, naturally, the size of A5 paper, so fairly compact – has room for a pen holder and many other items in its small pockets (there’s even a dedicated phone pocket). The document storage section has a waterproof cover, which will add peace of mind if you go out on a hike. Zipped all around, it’s also got a small carry handle. 

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The best cheap travel wallet

Thoroughly affordable and with plenty of storage, this travel passport wallet can fit four passports and up to six cards, and is plenty big enough for storing boarding passes, too. Unlike most of its rivals, this product includes space for extras; inside are two pen holders, a zippered mesh pocket for notes and coins, and even a tab for attaching keys. It's also got RFID-blocking technology built-in to protect everything inside the wallet, which zips shut along three sides. It’s not particularly stylish, but it is very cheap. 

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The best minimalist travel wallet

This clever bi-fold wallet is crafted in Germany, and it shows. It’s organised so well; there are seven card slots – six on the inside and one on the outside – but despite that it’s a mere 11.9x8.3x1.6 cm. Unlike most modern travel wallets, it’s designed to carry cash, with a stainless steel money clip integrated into the interior that securely grasps bank notes. The Travando is also constructed to protect against data theft by RFiD scanners.

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The best travel wallet for RFID protection

If you’re looking for a no frills travel wallet that that keeps your cards, cash and receipts safe, this Pacsafe wallet could serve you well. While you can see from the design that there is room enough for up to 8 cards, there’s also a window pocket each for your passport and driver’s license and plenty of room for loose change. 

The manufacturer promises protection against identity theft, while the bracelet with its handy loop acts as a handy mechanism to prevent you from dropping it in the middle of the airport concourse. 

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The best waterproof travel wallet

RFID protected and featuring waterproof fabric and zip, this lifeproof travel document holder is the perfect practical solution to carrying around your documents. One side of the wallet is dedicated to travel money and cards, with 9 slots providing enough room for IDs, credit cards, debit cards and travel money cards. 

Thanks to its RFID protection, you don’t need to worry about identity fraud, especially if you’re travelling to areas where that kind of thing is rife, and with a smartphone stash pocket, too, you can make sure all of your necessities are safely tucked away, yet completely accessible for when you need them. 

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The best compact travel wallet

When you’re travelling, you’re going to be on a budget and if you’re planning on backpacking off the beaten track, Lifeventure has made sure this travel wallet is prepared for all circumstances. 

Find yourself waist deep in a river? It’s waterproof. Find yourself going through some sketchy looking areas? It protects against Radio-Frequency Identification devices. It boasts pockets for your passport, boarding passes, cash, cards and even your smartphone. It's the perfect compact travel wallet and for the price, and reviewers agree, you can’t beat it.

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The best multi pocket travel wallet

This travel document holder is the perfect contender for the most amount of pockets featured in a small space competition. There’s several card slots, an ID slot, a travel money zipped pocket, a slot to put your boarding passes and enough slots for several passports, if you’re travelling as a family. 

It’s also good to note that this travel wallet provides RFID protection, so you can be completely sure that your identification is safe. Comments suggest that it’s fairly bulky in size, and therefore needs a large pocket for storing it away, aside from that, it’s the perfect practical travel companion. 

How to buy the best travel wallet for you

Your choice of travel wallet will partly depend on style. Leather screams ‘sophisticated businessman’, while durable, waterproof materials will appeal to those who only entertain travel-grade products that will last much longer than the air miles you collect. 

Having space for passports and cards is standard, but not all travel document holders have space for keys, pens, and cash, and even some electronics. 

You can find small travel wallets for single travellers, slightly bigger versions for couples, and whopping great A4-sized versions for large families and tour group leaders. They can be pocket-sized, or rucksack-sized, depending on your requirements. There are other things to think about, too.

Another aspect to consider is whether you want your travel wallet to provide protection against Radio-Frequency Identification devices (RFiD). Although rare, identification theft is an issue, and something you may or may not be worried out. Some of the best travel wallets block these devices, while others don’t, so it’s worth bearing it in mind when choosing. Ditto worldwide tracking, which adds even more peace of mind in case of theft. 

When it comes to the best travel wallets, you get what you pay for. There’s nothing wrong with being cheap and cheerful, but if you want a wallet to become your faithful travel companion, you’re going to have to stretch that budget.  

If you have a travel document holder, it's usefulness can spread beyond airports. Always take the same credit card when you travel? If you do have cards and documents that you only use when you travel – principally your passport, of course – a travel document holder is the ideal place to store them all when you are at home. Ditto emergency cash; no-one should go anywhere without at least US$50 in emergency cash (dollars are always better than pounds, especially when travelling outside Europe), and a travel document holder is the ideal place to keep it when you're at home as well as on your travels.

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