Thursday, January 21, 2010
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Five Simple Rules for Travel Safety
By exercising the slightest amount of common sense, you can greatly reduce the chance that you will experience any serious incident, whether at home or abroad.
1. Don't drink to excess. Most vacation incidents involve alcohol abuse. Drunk travelers fall off cruise ships. They get mugged on dark streets. They crash their car. They decide to jump off their hotel balcony. Whether it's crime or accidents, drinking too much is very likely a contributing factor, if not the root cause.
2. Don't try to buy drugs. Drug dealers are by their very definition criminals. Are you surprised if bad things befall you when you buy drugs in an unfamiliar place (or even a familiar place)? And don't forget that laws abroad can be significantly more stringent than they are in the U.S.
3. Don't carry all your money and your passport on your person. In general, you should carry only 5 things on your person: money for the day, an ATM card, a credit card, your driver's license, and a color photocopy of your passport. Leave everything else back in your hotel or villa safe; if there is no safe, lock it in your property manager's or hotel's safe or simply in your luggage. If you take even the slightest precaution you will decrease the chance of getting robbed exponentially. Most thieves are looking to pluck the low-hanging fruit.
4. Always try to look like you know what you're doing. As silly as this sounds, walking with a sense of purpose will place you among those people who are less likely to become the victims of street crime. Criminals prefer to prey on the weak and distracted; they like bickering couples and families with crying 2-year-olds. The more you can seem in control, the more you will be in control. You can't help but look like a tourist (even if you don't think you do), but you can certainly look like a tourist who knows what he or she is doing.
5. Don't be stupid. Whenever you are in an unfamiliar place, it's important not to leave your wits back at home. Don't take chances by doing things on vacation that you wouldn't do at home. Ask the front desk clerk or property manager about the safety of the area immediately around your hotel or villa; then follow that advice. If you find yourself in an unfamiliar city and don't feel comfortable walking around at night, then don't. Don't leave all your money and valuables on the beach; thieves know the most likely hiding places.
There's so much about life that's not in our control. We can't know if a mugger is going to try to rob us as we walk back from the the theater. We can't know if the money-changer is going to short-change us. And it's not as if we shouldn't worry about those problems. You need to do your research when you're traveling to find out about specific dangers and annoyances in the place you're going. That doesn't mean you should stay at home or even avoid a place because crime has been know to happen there. News flash: crime can happen anywhere, from the parking lot at Disney's Magic Kingdom to the gritty streets of Buenos Aires and yes, in our own backyard. But for the most part, if you exercise the slightest amount of common sense, you will be able to avoid 99% of all the problems you are likely to encounter.
Expert from Fodor's travel blog.
Safe travels everyone.
Loretanamama
www.casadeplayita.com
1. Don't drink to excess. Most vacation incidents involve alcohol abuse. Drunk travelers fall off cruise ships. They get mugged on dark streets. They crash their car. They decide to jump off their hotel balcony. Whether it's crime or accidents, drinking too much is very likely a contributing factor, if not the root cause.
2. Don't try to buy drugs. Drug dealers are by their very definition criminals. Are you surprised if bad things befall you when you buy drugs in an unfamiliar place (or even a familiar place)? And don't forget that laws abroad can be significantly more stringent than they are in the U.S.
3. Don't carry all your money and your passport on your person. In general, you should carry only 5 things on your person: money for the day, an ATM card, a credit card, your driver's license, and a color photocopy of your passport. Leave everything else back in your hotel or villa safe; if there is no safe, lock it in your property manager's or hotel's safe or simply in your luggage. If you take even the slightest precaution you will decrease the chance of getting robbed exponentially. Most thieves are looking to pluck the low-hanging fruit.
4. Always try to look like you know what you're doing. As silly as this sounds, walking with a sense of purpose will place you among those people who are less likely to become the victims of street crime. Criminals prefer to prey on the weak and distracted; they like bickering couples and families with crying 2-year-olds. The more you can seem in control, the more you will be in control. You can't help but look like a tourist (even if you don't think you do), but you can certainly look like a tourist who knows what he or she is doing.
5. Don't be stupid. Whenever you are in an unfamiliar place, it's important not to leave your wits back at home. Don't take chances by doing things on vacation that you wouldn't do at home. Ask the front desk clerk or property manager about the safety of the area immediately around your hotel or villa; then follow that advice. If you find yourself in an unfamiliar city and don't feel comfortable walking around at night, then don't. Don't leave all your money and valuables on the beach; thieves know the most likely hiding places.
There's so much about life that's not in our control. We can't know if a mugger is going to try to rob us as we walk back from the the theater. We can't know if the money-changer is going to short-change us. And it's not as if we shouldn't worry about those problems. You need to do your research when you're traveling to find out about specific dangers and annoyances in the place you're going. That doesn't mean you should stay at home or even avoid a place because crime has been know to happen there. News flash: crime can happen anywhere, from the parking lot at Disney's Magic Kingdom to the gritty streets of Buenos Aires and yes, in our own backyard. But for the most part, if you exercise the slightest amount of common sense, you will be able to avoid 99% of all the problems you are likely to encounter.
Expert from Fodor's travel blog.
Safe travels everyone.
Loretanamama
www.casadeplayita.com
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