A few days ago, I was doing my usual travel research, when i stumbled upon a travel warning post. Having not read one before, I read intently at the warning about the one place I wanted to go to — Kenya. Of course, I will still make my way to Kenya at some point, but reading the different warnings from different touristic locations, opened my eyes to how little I really knew about most of the problems occurring around the world.
I hardly read or watch the news and whenever Facebook mentions a tragedy, I ignore it. However, reading the travel warnings made me aware of the dangers of the world and how as a tourist in different places, I should be cautious.
So how do we travel the world safely?
1. Read the Travel Warnings. If you live in the United States, you can find these on the U.S Passports & International Travel Page.
2. Common Sense. If you do not know a place well, please do not walk around through alleys in the middle of the night. This is not only dangerous, but this is also an invitation for people to rob you. Have some common sense and do not do anything that will put you in danger.
3. If you are a solo traveler, try to always keep yourself in well lit places and in crowds. It is not only safe, but smart.
4. As a traveler, you should always do your research about the place you are visiting. You have no idea how many times I’ve heard people complain about robberies in Peru. Although Peru is a great place to visit (depending on the city you visit), it can also be extremely dangerous. You should not carry anything valuable with you and you should not flash your smartphone around. My cousins in Peru have gotten their phones robbed in plain daylight and they live there. So be smart, safe and research your next destination.
5. No matter how safe a place may be, always keep your guard up. There will always be a jerk out there trying to ruin it for the rest of us.
Remember, there are plenty of ways to travel the world safely, but that all depends on how you plan for it, your common sense and the most important — your research on your next destination.
xxHanny
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1 Comment
As a young woman who is about to embark on solo travel around Europe and Asia (first time in those places, but not the first time soloing it), friends and family are informing me about numerous warnings regarding the places that I want to travel, and while I do take the things going on in some of those countries very, very seriously and do a large amount of meticulous research, I am also a firm believe that a lot of the bad things that happen to tourists could have been prevented if they had common sense. Don’t flash expensive things around. Don’t walk around at night if you don’t know what the area is like, perhaps not even then. The list goes on obviously, and while there are terrible people in the world and awful things happening, most of the people that travel have no trouble at all. And more than often, the ones that I hear about getting into strife aren’t those that were randomly targeted, but were doing something silly.