Staying Safe Abroad-Taking Care of the Basics
Hello there fellow traveler!
We have all heard the classic advice of not flaunting your wealth around and try to blend in with the crowd when traveling, but today we want to give you some more specific and practical safety travel tips to keep you prepared when going abroad- so here we go:
-Choose apps like Uber rather than taking a taxi
It is amazing the number of cases of scams we have heard of taxi drivers praying on foreigners. In many cases, they are actually just pretending to be official taxis. Foreigners to them are an easy target because many won’t notice the ridiculously high prices as they are not familiar with the local currency. For these reasons, using apps such as Uber is the first of our travel safety tips.
-Take a cheap phone with you when going outdoors
You can purchase a cheap phone and put a local sim card into it and just use your regular phone when inside your apartment/hotel. First, it won’t draw nearly as much attention as your flashy regular phone and second, if you do still get mugged the loss won’t be so great.
-Do not leave your drink unattended
Spiking of drinks has become a bit more usual lately, and if you are very drunk and alone you become an easy target to such things. Nowadays you can easily find other fellow travelers from all over the world on online forums- who are eager to hang out and who will also keep an eye on you when you are out and about.
-Make photocopies of your passport
Do not carry your actual passport around, leave it in your apartment. If you need to show your identity you can show a copy of it. Losing a passport is truly a nightmare when abroad, getting another sent to you is a hassle that is best to avoid.
-Meet strangers strictly in popular public places
With the ever-increasing popularity of dating apps such as Tinder, criminals have started making use of them for finding victims. The tip here is for you to always meet a stranger in a very public place. A criminal will likely attempt to lure you to a more secluded and less safe area of town, insist on going to places you know are safe and very public.
-Make sure to book your stay in a safe area of town
Some of you might make the mistake of assuming that if an apartment is on a respected site such as Airbnb then it must obviously be in a safe touristy area. That is not at all always the case. When looking for apartments online, always make sure that it has many reviews and then to actually read a lot of them as people will often comment there if they felt the area was not safe. And also you have to take into consideration that the place you are going to stay is free of pests. We should make sure that the places are free of bed bugs and other kinds of pests. Just in case, be prepared on how to fight off bed bugs. You can visit Wavepest and get lot of knowledge that will help you during your adventures.
-Dummy wallet
Similarly to our advice on carrying a cheap phone outdoors, we also advise that you carry a dummy wallet. You can put a small amount of cash there and some expired cards. If you get mugged this is what you give to the thief. If going to the beach, you can put your bigger bills inside containers such as empty sunscreen bottles that will not raise the attention of thieves.
-Download a translation app
In many many places, it is still hard to find English speakers. If you run into any troubles it will be very handy to have a translation app on your phone such as google translate.
-Make sure you have an exit ticket if needed for your destination country
A little bonus tip here that is not related to safety exactly but ignoring it might nonetheless ruin your travels. You might plan to spend a few months in another country and you might not want to tie yourself with a definitive return date, we get you. The problem is that some countries require you to have an exit ticket before arrival to their country, and the airline might not even let you board the plane if you don’t have one. Make sure to research if your destination country requires an exit ticket.
So there you go! we are confident that following these safety travel tips will keep you out of many potential bad situations and will allow you to enjoy your travels worry-free.
