Deal Girl makes friends in Guatemala. August 2011.
I’ve had safety on the brain lately. Maybe it’s because I’m taking the kids to Asia for the 1st time, but I’m seeing more and more mention of “safe destinations”. Saverocity’s own Joe Cortez recently wrote a piece about cities to avoid solo.
I disagree with the premise. With common sense and good prep most places in my experience can be visited with a reasonable degree of safety. Of course I’m not vacationing in Kabul or Sanaa this summer, but after more than 20 years living and traveling around the world, I’ve seen my share of places that officially qualify as “unsafe”.
Listen, I get it. Traveling outside of your own comfort zone can be scary. Adding kids to the mix only makes it more so. I just want you to consider a couple of facts before you automatically cross a destination off your list:
- This winter an outbreak of measles started at…Disneyland.
- I got trapped in demonstrations recently in…New York City.
Does that mean you should avoid Disneyland and New York City?
A few years ago my own Washington DC was the “murder capital”. Sure, there are still certain neighborhoods I don’t venture into solo at 2AM, but should I be venturing anywhere alone at 2AM?
We took the kids to Guatemala for two weeks when they were 4 and 7. While it was jarring at first to see guards with Uzis at the 7-11, I never once felt unsafe. Well, maybe when our driver hit 90MPH, but I never felt threatened by the people.
The first place Joe mentioned in the piece above as “unsafe for solo travel” is Mexico City. I escaped last winter for a solo weekend in Mexico City and not once felt my neck hairs prickle.
You know where I DID feel threatened? Rome. My radar went up on the 1st day and didn’t come down. I’ll save the details for another post, but last summer in Rome I was harassed more as a single female than I have been ANYWHERE. Did Rome make the hit list? No.
I’d love to hear from you on how you define a “safe destination”. Did any places surprise you, one way or the other? Please share in the comments.
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Great stuff. The only place I’ve had ‘that feeling’ and wondered if we should just keep going was in Hilo. Hawaii. And of course it was safe. If you exercise the same common sense you do at home, the most dangerous part of any trip is almost certainly the drive to your home airport. So take the bus.
The bottom line is “Sh!t happens”. If you’re reasonably prepared, you’ll work through it.
Hilo? Can you provide some context as to what gave you “that feeling”? When I visited I was so comfortable there safety wasn’t even on my mind. I’m very curious to hear what you encountered.
After an Aussie baseball player was killed in OK by three bored teenagers, the Australian govt issued a warning against travel in the US.
Perspective matters, doesn’t it? DD lived in Rome for about 6 months when she was in her early 20’s. She learned to glare ominously, and to keep her backpack tucked around front on the subway. As she told me, “Most of the pickpockets are so inept. I just look at them and say, really loudly, ‘WHAT do you think you are doing?'”
In Italian, of course, which precludes my doing that. But then, I have the Mom Glare down to a fine art.
LOL with the Mom stare. I finally went with the firm and loud “NO!!” Which helped in the moment, but not with prevention.
I love Mexico City. I went when I was 6 months pregnant with my husband and 80 year old mother. We never once felt our safety was compromised. Not once.
Mexico City is such an under appreciated world class city! I can’t wait to return with my 2 boys someday.
Hi Lindy,
I can’t wait to take the kids, too. Thanks for chiming in.
I’m taking the wife and four young kids to Nicaragua later this year. But then, we have family there, and we’ll mostly be visiting with them the whole time, so it’s not much more dangerous than visiting any place else here in the U.S.
I actually have friends (who also have family in Managua) that raved about their time there. Nicaragua went higher up on my list and I’m curious to hear your observations.
We actually have this thing called statistics, and the field of study called risk assessment and analysis, and it is these tools that are being used when people discuss areas as unsafe. It’s not “feelings” or anecdotal evidence which leads to these labels being applied. It doesn’t matter how safe you perceive a place to be while you’re there. There are objective facts that can be measured about different areas of the world and it’s foolish to not pay attention to them.
Using statistical outliers as rationalizations for your decision making (such as a measles outbreak at Disneyland, a generally non-threatening event and avoidable via vaccination) and expressing concern over being in a generally safe place such as Europe might lead people to making poor decisions when traveling.
In most areas of the United States, it’s perfectly safe to walk anywhere you want at all hours of the night. That’s a counter to your idea that “should you really be anywhere at 2am?” On the contrary, if you’re visting Kingston, Jamaica you should think twice about this action. This is because the statistics show that action to raise your probability of getting into a situation you’d rather avoid.
People should base their actions on risk assessment, then temper that with their desire to explore the world. But mathematical literacy needs to be encouraged, and probabilities championed, while we do away of anecdotal thinking and feelings-based analysis of such things.
Hi Josh,
Thanks for your comment.
I agree with you in the aggregate (but still do not see any reason to walk around solo anywhere at 2AM). My latest piece for Traveling Mom discusses the State Department’s advisories for Mexico (which holds up with my observations about Mexico City, BTW).
However, I stand by my premise for two reasons:
1. After living for two decades in a foreign service family, I’m not nearly as glib as you about anecdotal evidence. Ground situations can change faster than statistics catch up.
2. Outliers are more common than you posit: Did statistics predict Charlie Hebdo? The Nepal earthquake? The Nairobi mall attacks? Even garden variety protests can both disrupt your travel and cause harm. In the heat of the moment, preparation beats statistics every time.
There is a website called numbeo which compares different stadistics. For instance, I used to live in mexico city, but now I live in Philadelphia. Acording with the stadistics I am in more danger now than I was… People in Philadelphia is not as concerned with being robbed or their cars stolen, but actually they are more likely to suffer those incidents. Numbeo.com/cost-of-living/comparisonhttp://www.numbeo.com
Great tip. Thanks!