How To Know If Your Vacation Destination Is Safe
You’re on Facebook and you see a great fare to Turkmenistan pop up. Like $100 round trip great. You never thought about going to Turkmenistan before, you don’t know anything about it, and you surely can’t find it on a map. BUT $100 ROUND TRIP - WHY WOULDN’T YOU?
Slow down there - You. Don’t. Know. Anything. About. Turkmenistan. Or Andorra. Or Svalbard. Do you buy the ticket? Honestly, I dunno - is it cold there? If so, I’m probably not going. But - I can help you find the FACTS YOU NEED TO KNOW before you book your next trip. And I’m gonna cover the most important element here - is your vacation destination safe?
How do you decide if a place is safe to visit? Is there anywhere in the world that you are afraid to visit? Yes? What is that fear based on? Are you hearing information from your friends or people online, or are you getting factual advice from security experts?
Now, there's nothing wrong with getting advice from friends or from strangers on the internet, but it's a good idea to flesh out that information with help from experts.
I definitely do both. You'll hear over and over again how safe Israel is, but every single black woman I've spoken to has told me that their treatment in the Tel Aviv airport made them feel so threatened they would not go back. For me, that's really important info that I'm not going to get from generic "safety advice."
But my friends can't tell me the geopolitical situation and specific safety concerns as it applies to Americans in every country in the world. But you know who can? The US State Department.
Skeptical? Of course you are, and you should be, but rock with me a little. You can learn a lot about whether a location is a safe place for American passport holders to travel from…wait for it…the US government.
Now let's talk about this one, Americans. If we're honest with ourselves, our government frequently acts like America is the safest place on Earth, and everywhere else is a savage, undeveloped hole, and you're gonna die of consumption if you go there. It's okay to take our government's (or any government's) warnings with a grain of salt. If you're an experienced traveler, you probably have a good idea of what countries are safe for YOU (this is all subjective) and don't have to follow warnings as rigid guidelines.
I check government warnings by going to the State Department's Travel Advisory page. It sounds like this page might have some propaganda on it, doesn't it? That's okay, you are smart, you can wade through it.
I find checking the State Department's Travel Advisories a lot more helpful than to guess, rely on the propaganda we hear in the news, or to generalize about a region. Let's walk through some of these examples, and you'll see why.
The State Department’s Travel Advisories has 4 Levels of warnings for US travelers.
Level 1 = Exercise Normal Cautions
Some Examples: Argentina, Seychelles, Rwanda, Zambia, Vietnam (if it was up to me, Vietnam would be Level 3 ), Kuwait, Bahrain
Level 2 = Exercise Increased Caution
Some Examples: Jordan, Israel, Antarctica (due to environmental hazards posed by extreme and unpredictable weather), Turks and Caicos, Mexico, UK, Germany, Saudi Arabia
Level 3 = Reconsider Travel
Some Examples: Haiti, Honduras, Guinea-Bissau, Nigeria
Level 4 = Do Not Travel
Some Examples: Iran, Libya, Bolivia, North Korea, Somalia
Can we talk about this list, though? It's much longer, and there are a ton of countries I left off in the interest of space. You can catch them all here.
But would you have guessed where some of these countries are places by the US government? I definitely wouldn't have. According to the State Department’s Travel Advisories, it's safer for me to go to Saudi Arabia than Haiti.
Interesting.
Vietnam. Listed at Level 1. I STRONGLY DISAGREE - LEVEL 3 OR HIGHER.
According to the State Department’s Travel Advisories, Kuwait and Rwanda are safer than the UK, Germany and Turks and Caicos? I bet you wouldn't have guessed that either.
So now, what do you do with this info? Everyone is different, and I suggest you look at the details of the specific country you're going to see if you're willing to deal with those risks. I'm currently planning on going to Antarctica in January 2021, and I'm not going to cancel my trip due to extreme and unpredictable weather, but different strokes for different folks.
Here's my formula for wading through these warnings.
I don't go anywhere in Level 4. Nope. Every time I read the level 4 warnings, it sounds like "If something happens to you in these countries, the US government is not coming for you." So it's a nope for me.
I don't expect the United States government to rescue me, no matter what country I'm in, but those Level 4 warnings just sound like they are leading to a "We told you so," and I wanna avoid that situation.
Now, you might want to take a different method and be flexible in Level 4. I read the description of the reason that Bolivia is a Level 4 warning, and it sounds exactly like what has been happening in Hong Kong for the past few months, and HK is only a Level 2.
It's hard not to see some of these rankings as political. And since it's coming from the State Department, you bet it's political. But if something happens to me in a foreign country, my family is gonna contact the State Department, so I can't act like the political part of it isn't important.
Within the other levels, I look at the actual warning associated with each country to figure out whether I want to risk it. Let's take a look at a Level 2 (Exercise Caution) country, Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Arabia warning starts with: Exercise increased caution in Saudi Arabia due to terrorism and the threat of missile and drone attacks on civilian targets. Nah…Shida ain't going. How do you exercise caution against a missile or drone strike? The low level of this warning feels extremely political.
So read the specific warnings and see if you are willing to risk it. I went to Egypt in December 2011, immediately after the uprisings. I think the warning was Level 3 (reconsider travel), and I had a fantastic time and felt safe everywhere I went. Use these warnings as guidelines, If you don't feel like the country will be safe for you, cancel your ticket now. And if you have a hard time deciding, let the next few steps help you out.
The travel advisories will also tell you if specific regions, cities, or streets in a particular country are unsafe for US visitors, as well as telling you the specific crime to look out for.
Other helpful information on the State Department’s Travel Advisories include facts like, can you bring a drone into the country, what you can get detained for taking pictures of, what vaccinations are required, and if a visa is required and how many blank pages you need in your passports.
So before you plan your next trip, find out if the destination is safe by checking the State Department’s Travel Advisories. You might be surprised at what you learn there. That super-cheap fare might not be a great deal after all.