Travelling with sunglasses: packing, airports, and not losing them

Holidays are where sunglasses die. Higher UV than at home so you wear them constantly, unfamiliar places so you put them down somewhere strange, water and sand and heat, and a bag that gets thrown around.

Most of it is preventable with a case and one habit.

Packing

A hard case, in the middle of the bag, inside clothing. Clothing absorbs compression; a side pocket does not. This is the whole answer for checked or hold luggage.

Better: keep them on you. Worn, or in a hard case in your personal bag. Hold luggage goes through compression, temperature swings and rough handling, none of which a frame enjoys.

Never loose in a bag. Keys, chargers, a water bottle and a lens are a bad combination, and sand already in the bag from last summer is abrasive.

Not in a soft pouch alone in a bag that will be sat on. A pouch protects against scratching, not against crushing. How to store sunglasses covers the distinction.

Bring two pairs if the trip depends on them. A beach holiday, a ski trip, a long drive — a backup is cheap insurance against a week of squinting. For prescription wearers this is close to essential, and the alternatives are in are prescription sunglasses worth it.

Airports and security

Sunglasses go through the scanner. Take them off and put them in the tray, ideally in their case so they are not under someone's laptop.

No restrictions on carrying them. They are not a liquid, not a sharp, and not restricted anywhere.

Lens cleaning fluid counts as a liquid if it is over the carry-on limit. A travel-size bottle or dry microfibre wipes avoid the question.

Do not put them in the tray loose on top of a bag where they can slide off the end of the belt. This happens more than you would think.

Collect them before you walk away. Security trays are one of the commonest places sunglasses are abandoned.

On the plane

Covered more fully in flying with sunglasses, but the essentials:

UV is higher at altitude, and a window seat in daylight gets meaningful exposure. Aircraft windows block most UVB and much UVA, but a sunglasses-on-the-window-seat habit is reasonable on a long daylight flight.

Cabin humidity is very low, which is hard on dry eyes and harder on contact lenses. Take lenses out on a long flight; the reasoning is in sunglasses for dry eyes.

Do not put them in the seat pocket. The single most reliable way to leave something on a plane.

Pilots should not wear polarized lenses, and the reason — instrument panels and laminated windscreens — is in who should not wear polarized sunglasses.

Heat is the underrated hazard

Frames warp at temperatures that are easy to reach on holiday and hard to reach at home.

A car dashboard in direct sun reaches well over 60°C, which is enough to soften acetate and delaminate a polarized lens permanently. This is the most common way holiday sunglasses are destroyed, and it is entirely avoidable — the detail is in sunglasses left in a hot car.

A rental car is worse than your own, because you are less in the habit of taking things out of it.

A hotel room balcony or windowsill in afternoon sun.

A beach bag left in the sun with the glasses inside, which is a small greenhouse.

A hot tub or sauna, where the combination of heat and moisture is unkind to coatings.

The rule: if you would not leave chocolate there, do not leave sunglasses there.

Salt, sand and chlorine

Rinse in fresh water the same day. This is the single most useful habit on a beach holiday.

Salt crystallises as it dries, and dried salt is abrasive — so the next wipe scratches the lens. In hinges it causes the grinding covered in squeaking sunglasses hinges, and in the lens groove it works a lens loose. Sunglasses and salt water covers the full picture.

Chlorine degrades coatings — anti-reflective and mirror finishes in particular — and the damage is permanent clouding rather than something you can clean off. Sunglasses for swimming covers using goggles instead.

Sand is mechanically the worst. Never dry-wipe a sandy lens; rinse first. Best sunglasses for the beach covers keeping it out in the first place.

Suncream creeps onto lenses and into hinges and collects dust. Wash your hands before handling them, and clean the nose pads — sunglasses nose pads.

Not losing them

A retainer cord. Does most of the work. Bending over water, getting in and out of a car, a child grabbing at your face — all common on holiday. Sunglasses straps and retainers covers choosing one.

Not on your head. The commonest way they are dropped and lost, and how arms get splayed — see how to fix loose sunglasses.

One place in the room. A hotel room has no established home for anything, so pick one on arrival and use it.

One place in the hire car, which is the glovebox or a door pocket, not the dashboard.

Check restaurant tables before leaving. Tables, beach loungers and taxis are where they stay behind.

If they break abroad

A screw. The most common failure and the easiest fix. Opticians and pharmacies in most countries sell repair kits, and many opticians will tighten a screw for nothing. How to fix loose sunglasses covers it.

A popped lens. Often refittable yourself on a plastic frame. When a sunglasses lens pops out covers the technique, and warns against forcing a polarized lens with heat.

A snapped arm or front. Usually not fixable on the road. This is where the second pair earns its place.

If you have no backup and no eye protection, buy something locally with a stated UV specification rather than a market-stall pair — a dark lens with no filter dilates the pupil and admits UV, which is worse than nothing. UV protection vs dark lenses and how to spot fake sunglasses cover why.

Destination-specific

High altitude or snow: UV rises with elevation and snow reflects from below. Category 3 or 4 with wrapped coverage, and a brim. Photokeratitis — corneal sunburn — is a real risk on a ski holiday.

Desert: dust as well as sun, and the eyewear needs to seal. Sunglasses in the desert covers it.

Tropics: high UV year-round and high humidity, which means fogging and sweat. Grippy nose pads matter.

Cities: less reflective light, more glass and wet pavement. Polarized is pleasant rather than necessary.

Boats and islands: the highest reflective exposure outside snow, from a surface that surrounds you.

Border crossings and mailing a replacement

Two niche situations that come up more than you would expect on a long trip.

Prescription eyewear is not restricted anywhere, and there is no reason to declare it. A spare pair in a bag is ordinary personal effects.

Having a replacement pair mailed to you is usually a bad plan. Customs delays, poste restante uncertainty and the time involved mean the pair often arrives after you have left. Buying locally is almost always faster, and the only requirement is a stated UV figure.

Keep a photo of your prescription on your phone if you wear prescription sunglasses. An optician abroad can work from it, and some will make up a pair in a day or two.

The hotel room checklist

Four places sunglasses get left behind, in order of frequency: the bedside table, the bathroom shelf, the safe, and plugged into a bag you then repack.

Pick one place on arrival — a corner of the desk, the inside pocket of the day bag — and use only that. Hotel rooms have no established home for anything, which is why things go missing in them more than anywhere else.

Frequently asked questions

The short version

Hard case, on your person, not in the hold. And a second pair if the trip depends on them.

Heat is the real hazard — dashboards, beach bags, sunny windowsills. Rinse in fresh water after any sea, pool or sand day, and never dry-wipe a sandy lens.

Wear a retainer and pick one place in the room. Between them they prevent most holiday losses.