Here's the first thing you should do when you wind up lost, check into a hotel, enter a historic site, and other travel situations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TIP 1: When you get out your suitcase:

Update the luggage tags.

Remove your home address and add your cell-phone number.

Most of us dutifully write our full name, home phone, and home address on our tags, but that reveals too much personal information, says Anne McAlpin, a packing expert and the author of "Pack It Up: The Essential Guide to Organized Travel."

Instead, print your first initial and last name, a safety precaution for women, since it doesn’t signal your sex or that you might have jewelry in your bag.

Second, leave off your home address. It tells a potentially unscrupulous baggage handler, “No one’s home at this address.”

Third, instead of including a home phone (which isn’t much use when you’re not home), include your email address and your cell- phone number.

Other information to include on the airline’s paper bag tags (which you can update for each trip): a phone number for (1) your first hotel and (2) a friend or a relative at home who can reach you.