Travel Safety
Advice and Information 2

Unsafe Streets | Driving Abroad
Travel Safety 1 | Robbery Stories | Animals

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Basic Travel Safety advice, continued:

8) Calculate it: Ensure that you recognise and understand the values of different local banknotes, especially in areas of high inflation. Work out how much you should get before you go anywhere near the change place. Carry a calculator and be seen to use it when you change money, even at official currency change shops. Beware of sleight-of-hand merchants, especially when changing money on the street. Count the money in your hand, and don't allow him/her to recount in his hand!

9) Don't take the Biscuit: Avoid food and drink offerings from strangers. They can be drugged, a growing global habit, though especially prevalent in Latin America and South East Asia.

10) Driving crazy: Beware the flat tyre and the helpful locals who distract you with fast talking assistance while an associate surreptitiously rifles your vehicle. Especially a problem around Barcelona and Madrid, but also known in France and Mexico.
Southern France, on the other hand, has a surfeit of full-on smash and grab robbers, often on motorcycles or scooters. So keep your valuables locked in the glove compartment, check your tyres often, and never stop for anyone except police. If you have to stop do it in a busy well-lit place. And carry a quick [temporary] repair aerosol.

11) Don't give it away: in some countries, such as Pakistan and the Russian Federation, conmen sometimes pose as secret police, demanding to see passports and other documets, even money. They then either disappear with your valuables or hassle you for a bribe to let you go. Check their documents carefully first, before letting go of your valuables!

12) Log on: Deposit important data [passport/credit card/travellers cheque etc. numbers] onto a secure web site - maybe scans of key pages - so if you are relieved of your kit you can retrieve the data from a local cyber café. The Lonely Planet site Ekno page, is one organ that provides this free service, or use a Hotmail or Yahoo! account and mail yourself the data.

13) Unlucky for some... get insurance! One in seven British travellers on overseas trips don't have any insurance. This is madness, and I speak as one who has been robbed three times, had bags crushed once, and had to cancel a trip through family illness on another occasion. In every case I was fully reimbursed -less a small excess charge - by my insurers.
Problems and accidents are far, far more frequent abroad, and local assistance may be very costly. For example, a broken leg in the USA may cost up to £10,000, yet a year's worldwide insurance with a good company will cost well under £100.
Me, I'd rather skimp on home insurance than travel insurance. Safety first!

14) Lock yourself up! Ensure your bedroom door locks/bolts from the inside, especially in lower level establishments. If not, stick a chair under the door handle or push something heavy in front of it. Always keep it locked when you are asleep.
There are many recent reports of surreptitious nighttime thefts - of all vlauables - in cheap hotels, particularly in Thailand's island of Ko Chang and some Indian establishments, where staff are clearly in cahoots with the local police and no effective investigations are made.
Young backpackers are especially careless/trusting in this way and vulnerable after a hard night's bingeing.

15) And for the really paranoid: Carry a card that contains the following information: your blood type, allergies, medical conditions, any medication you must have, your insurance company, who to contact in an emergency and other safety details.
Avoid advertising yourself as an employee of a prominent global company.
Remove identifying tags on your laptop bag etc.
Request a room on the third to sixth floor to keep you out of reach of criminal activity on the street and still be within reach of fire engine ladders.
Register with your home country's embassy/consulate as soon as possible after arrival at your destination if going into a sensitive political area.
Keep a copy of your passport and/or visa with you at all times and secure the originals. When in a politically sensitive area, carry your passport, return travel tickets and local and home currency in adequate amounts at all times, in case of need to evacuate on an immediate basis.
Avoid wearing religious jewellery (even under your clothing) or carrying any political brochures or publications in areas where such symbols might subject you to harassment. Safety first!

The world's least safe streets:
[information from MoneyGram money transfer service]

1] Snake Alley, Taipei
2] Khao San Road, Bangkok
3] King's Cross, Sydney
4] Times Square, New York
5] Tverskaya Ulitsa, Moscow
6] Bois de Boulogne, Paris
7] Chandni Chowk, Delhi
8] Frenchtown, Shanghai
9] Las Ramblas, Barcelona
10] Stazione Termini, Rome

Travel Safety part 1 | Travel Robbery Stories | Dangerous Animals

For up-to-date terrorist information and advice:

please check the excellent Foreign Office [FO] world travel safety site [Yes, Americans too!]. But note that Government warnings tend to be extremely cautious. Read the papers, watch the news, judge for yourself - travelling when things are a little hairy means fewer tourists, more room availability, less cost, more cool. Life is a gamble...

The pictures above show two cities where you should be particularly safety conscious.
Left, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Right, Nairobi, Kenya.

Travel Safety Ranking:

1] Usually safe:
Austria, Iceland, Japan, Jordan, South Korea, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Monaco, New Zealand, Oman, Scandinavia, Singapore, Switzerland, Tunisia.

2] Generally non violent thieving:
Australia, Argentina, Bolivia, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Cuba, Egypt, Europe, Gambia, Greece, Hong Kong, India*, Indonesia*, Israel, Mali, Madagascar, Malaysia, Morocco, Namibia, Nepal, Peru, Russia*, Syria, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Vietnam

3] Sometimes violent thieving:
Brazil, Cambodia*, Colombia, Ecuador*, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Kenya, Mexico, Pakistan*, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Philippines*, South Africa*, Sri Lanka*, Tanzania, USA

4] Don't even consider
[unless escorted]:
Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Angola, Burundi, C.A.R, Congo, Chechen Republic, Dagestan, DRC, Cote d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Iraq, Liberia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Somalia, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Venezuela, Yemen, Yugoslavia, Zaire, Zimbabwe

* safety depends on the area