Pacsafe Travelsafe Gii 5 Liter Portable Safe (Black)

The thing to know about this bag? It's part of a strategy to keep your items from walking away with a savvy thief looking for an opportunity to grab unsecured items. It's not a perfect security solution, nor is it meant to be. As part of a strategy to keep your stuff secured? It's a nice tool in your artillery. Several people have noted - this bag can be cut through with sturdy scissors. And of course it can - it's a mesh-reinforced fabric bag! It is not made of Vibranium...i.e. - a totally mythical substance that is both indestructible yet highly malleable. If you have an item that is extremely valuable, this bag is not the appropriate secure storage solution, and you should make sure that whatever hotel you are staying at provides room safes or has a communal hotel safe where they might store very expensive or sensitive items for you. But for keeping your iPad, Kindle, and other small electronics or some small pieces of jewelry secure? This is a perfectly adequate solution. So what this bag is good for is, in the absence of a room safe, to secure your small valuables to an immovable object. It is not a guarantee your goods will be 100% safe - it just means a thief savvy enough to look for people who leave their objects unsecured will see your stuff in this bag, decide they don't feel like messing with it, and move on to a more vulnerable target. (Similarly, we have a 48-inch steel cable I used to secure all of our luggage together in a corner of the room. A smart thief isn't going to try and walk off with two roller-bags connected to two soft carry-ons - it's too obvious.) We used this bag safe last year on a nearly month-long trip around the UK. For over half of our stay, we were in larger hotels that provided room safes, so we could leave our iPad, passports (in a secure case), and all of our smaller electronics and chargers out of sight. But in three of the smaller cities when we stayed in either boutique or budget hotels, room safes were not provided. So in that case, we would attach the bag with those items to a sturdy, immovable item in the room - the leg of the turned-off radiator in two rooms, and the metal support post of the night-table that was screwed to the floor in the third room. In all of those cases, it worked successfully from keeping anyone from even touching the bag - cleaning staff don't appear to have even moved it, and just let it be. Once we got this thing properly closed and secured - you will have to practice at home to learn how to get that bead into the slot to keep the top from opening - nothing was falling out. The iPad was fine, but I'm not sure a laptop would have fit in there, otherwise a Kindle and all of our chargers for our phones and other travel electronics fit in there nicely. (Our chargers were collected in a cord organizer, though, so they were all neatly rolled.) On the lock - there is nothing particularly magic about this lock. I thought it looked too flimsy, so I swapped out to an older, quasi-carabiner combination lock I've had for years that has a hasp that just fit through the hole. It was an awkward fit, which meant that it was not easy to use, but we thought that was a benefit. It wasn't a style of lock that was easy to pick, and as it was difficult to remove, it was an added layer of security. So if you don't like this lock? Don't use it. You'll still need to find something with a relatively slender hasp, but slender cable-style locks would work just as well. The idea behind the lock is that it just keeps the bead in place and the top of the bag stays cinched. The nice thing about this bag was when it wasn't in use, it was just a flat layer in the bottom of one of our suitcases. It didn't take up too much thickness, and we could put our packing cubes on top of it, no problem. Sometimes, you regret bringing something on a trip, but I didn't regret this. One of the budget hotels was kinda sketchy, and I felt better having our stuff in the bag. So overall, yes, I was pleased to use this bag for the several overnights where I didn't have a room safe available to me. But knowing that was an issue, we certainly didn't travel with anything overly expensive or irreplaceable. For the kinds of items we needed to secure, this bag safe was a great option.

I had to give this thing 5 stars, just to respond to some of the unfavorable reviews. It is exactly what it says it is and what you're paying for: an inexpensive, light, portable low-security device. It has the security level of a decent cable-based bicycle lock. It comes with a lightweight but perfectly adequate 3-number dial-type combination lock with a TSA-approved key slot. The closing mechanism of the bag is simple and reliable. The lock is simple and reliable. The whole thing is about as idiot-proof as any similar device could be: set the combo on the lock; put your stuff (15" laptop fist with room to spare for passports, cables, wallets, cell phones, etc); pull the cable through the locking mechanism, using the steel beads to select a tightness of closure; flip the free end of the cable over some convenient fixed object; lock the lock. Presto. Your stuff is safe from casual thieves. To open, reverse the process. No fuss, no mess. -Your stuff is not safe from anyone with time or tools. A $15 bolt cutter would defeat the device in seconds. A set of trauma shears would get you into the bag in 5 minutes. It's a fabric bag reinforced with bike-lock cable. It's not Fort Knox. To the reviewer who had $20,000 worth of stuff stolen, I can only say: don't put $20,000 worth of stuff in an 80 dollar fabric bag. That's not what this thing is for. It's to keep the housekeeper from pilfering your stuff or the casual snatch and grabber from snatching and grabbing. -To the reviewer who couldn't figure out how to open a 3-digit combination lock and had to leave the bag locked to a pipe in a hotel in Mexico, a lock in which the user sets the comb by the usual mechanism of rotating the shank 90 degrees when open, pushing it down, and changing the default code of 0-0-0 to some other set of numbers, then closing lock, I can only ask whether they are safe to travel alone. Come on. Figure that stuff out before you leave home. The instructions are written at a 6th grade level. If you can read this review, or even if you can't read this review but can look at pictures, you can figure it out in 3 minutes. -To the reviewer who couldn't figure out how to close the bag all the way and so could not secure their small valuables, even though when you use the inner, tighter, metal bead to close the bag the opening is smaller than a wedding ring (Yes, I'm sure. I put mine inside, closed the bag, turned it upside down and shook. No ring came out and my ring was still inside when I opened the bag.), I can only say that I wonder whether they can use a pair of scissors without inadvertently removing a digit or two. Not rocket science. If you have an intact brain and want a quick way to get some basic security for your low-level valuables, this is for you. If you're brain dead or traveling with serious valuables, look elsewhere. One thing, though, if you have $20,000 worth of stuff you need to secure, I can't imagine what a portable safe would look like. It has to be light. Therefore it has to be vulnerable. Do the math. Have a great trip, wherever you're going! This thing gave us piece of mind on a 2-week home-stay visit to Costa Rica... just let us know that the honest people would stay honest. That is, after all, what locks are for.

I can only comment on what seems to be a quality item, that seems like it would do the trick to at least keep a casual thief from waling off with an item. I bought this primarily to secure my 15" laptop while traveling, and it fits in fine with room to spare for other devices (hard drives, electronics, etc). The lock mechanism is a bit weird, but seems to work fine. The combination lock will drive you mad if you forget that the red-line side is the one to line up (there is a 2-sided design tot he number wheels). What surprised me was the lack of places to attach this to in most of the hotel rooms I have been in. The loop cable seems just about the right length. Other reviews that mentioned the fabric could be cut and items pulled out of the gaps seems right to me. Which is a small bummer. but for protecting items larger than those gaps, this thing seems like it's well-made to do that job. I will reiterate other reviews that mention the fact that this will not compress down easily. It will flatten somewhat, but you're not going to fold it up and stash it away. Of course, there is no way to truly know if this thing actually works, but I bring it with me on trips whenever I need to secure items and feel far more secure than I did in the past leaving expensive laptops in the hotel room.

UPDATE: I used this bag for a week staying in cabins and lodges. With the first use though literally I threw away the awful included lock - silver on silver numbers and multiple stops between the digits, try to unlock that while crouching under the bathroom sink in a dark lodge. I substituted one of my regular suitcase locks, not quite as heavy duty, but secure enough for the purpose, and I could open it. I am both impressed and disappointed by this item. Impressed because the construction seems very strong. It is a bit stiff and bulky, but is light and should be fairly easy to travel with. Disappointed because the dimensions given are misleading. The 5L version says it is for tablets and phones, but I measured carefully and determined that my ultraportable laptop would fit inside. It does, just barely, but two things about the size are not made clear. The neck of the bag is about an inch narrower than the rest of the bag, even expanded to it's maximum size. It's a different material sewn on to the lower part and is just smaller. This is an issue if you've have a close fit. Turns out my laptop still just squeezes in through the narrower opening. The other issue though is that to properly lock the bag you must gather the top very tightly, and that significantly reduces the width of the top several inches of the bag. This isn't really clear from the pictures. With my laptop going right to the edge of the main bag material, I cannot draw the bag closed tightly enough to lock it as intended. I'm not going to return this for the 12L version, based on the bulkiness of the 5L the 12 would be far more than I'm willing to carry. I've devised a kind of workaround where by wrapping the cable several times around an object, instead of just looping it through, it closes the bag tightly enough to keep my laptop secure. The opening isn't fully closed though, so wouldn't put my wallet or passport into it this way, but will still work for my computer.

If you have more than a few things you would like to keep safe in a hotel room or car, this is a very good choice. I also have the smaller one, but sometimes need more storage space, and this size will reside in my car (unless it comes into a hotel room with me). As with every Pacsafe product I've bought, it is very well thought out. The design has obviously been revised to make it even easier to use than the older one I have. I had used the smaller size on a trip to visit my mother when she was injured, and I knew I would be leaving things in her apartment, to which other people had access, so I'd left them in the portable safe when I was gone, attached to my bed, and covered by the bedspread. Since we were still in and out, going to medical appointments, meals, etc., after her discharge, I'd left it there, and used it on those occasions. By the time I left for home, I was using it so infrequently that I'd forgotten about it, and left it behind, then couldn't figure out where it was. It was when moving my mother to an apartment with a higher level of care that it came to light. I'd left the key at home (two states away), and we were unable to get the (empty) safe loose until we had the entire bed apart, which took a good 20-30 minutes, and the efforts of both one of the movers and myself to get it free. Nobody is going to walk off with your valuables if they're in this, and it's attached to something immovable, without their using some very obvious tools, muscle, and time; and since most thieves want to be inconspicuous and quick, this will most likely do an excellent job of keeping what's yours yours.

If I could give this product 10 stars, I would. I bought this for travel in case a room did not have a safe or I wanted to stash things in my car. I bought the 5 liter bag because I thought it would fit about as much stuff as a hotel safe, and it does. Perhaps a little more. I like that it is cut resistant all the way to the top. I also like that you can secure it to anything stationary with the cable. The lock that came with it was ok, but I found a bigger one at a hardware store. I wish the hole for lock shackle was larger but its not a huge deal. I packed it empty and flat in my suitcase, so it didnt take up any room. I was able to wrap the cable around the hanger bar inside the closet in my hotel and cruise cabin. I placed the bag between my hanging clothes and you couldn't even tell it was there. This really is a great solution to secure your things while traveling.

Very good quality, feel safe locking my items away in this

I ordered the Pacsafe Travelsafe 5L to take with us on our trip to Mexico last week. DO NOT BUY THIS SAFE!! I should have listened to the product reviews I read prior to ordering it for myself, but unfortunately I decided to order it anyway. I "practiced" with the safe 3 times before we left on our trip and the safe seemed to work fine; HOWEVER, when we arrived in Mexico, put our passports, money and other valuables in the safe and attached it to the closet rod in our hotel room WE COULDN'T GET IT OPEN AGAIN!!! For some strange reason, our 3 digit code would not work (and yes, we remembered our code). Oddly enough (as stated in some of the other reviews), we were able to work the cable enough to reach in and get our valuables out of the safe (some protection, huh?)! We tried over and over to unlock the safe, but to no avail. We arrived home last night from our trip, and our safe...IS STILL IN MEXICO hanging from the hotel closet rod! I wish I had been able to send this HORRIBLE product back, but instead we are out the $66+ it cost us! Shame on this company for continuing to sell this ridiculous product and rip people off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!