Most international travel is uneventful, and the preparation that keeps it that way is unglamorous: read the advisory for where you are actually going, carry copies of your documents separately from the documents, know the local emergency number, and agree with your group what happens if someone is not where they said they would be. None of it takes long. All of it is difficult to improvise.
The short version
- Read your own destination’s advisory, not a general impression of the region.
- The U.S. scale has four levels: Exercise Normal Precautions, Exercise Increased Caution, Reconsider Travel, Do Not Travel.
- Read a second government too. Canada, the U.K. and New Zealand publish their own, on different scales.
- Copies of documents, stored apart from the documents. This is the single highest-value habit.
- Agree a meeting point before you need one. Groups separate; the plan is what makes it a non-event.
What This Section Covers
Safety planning has three parts and these eleven guides follow them. The first is reading: finding out what is actually true of your destination, from a government that publishes it rather than from a news cycle. The second is habits: what you carry, where you carry it, and what you do with your documents. The third is arrangements: the phone numbers, the meeting points and the agreements that only work if they were made in advance. Almost everything that goes wrong for ordinary travelers is ordinary. Of the 211 destinations the U.S. State Department publishes country information for, 125 describe pickpocketing, petty theft or bag snatching, and 148 note that demonstrations or protests occur. Those are the two things most likely to touch a trip, and both are manageable with attention rather than anxiety.
What this section does not do is tell you whether a country is safe. That judgment belongs to the governments that publish advisories and to you, reading them for the specific places on your own itinerary. What these guides do is show you where the assessments live and how to read one properly.
The Decisions You Need to Make
Where am I getting the official advice?
The U.S. State Department publishes an advisory and a country information page for every destination it covers. Canada, the United Kingdom and New Zealand publish their own independently. Reading the U.S. one plus one other takes a few minutes and is the single most useful thing in this section.
What does the advisory level actually tell me?
Less than the text underneath it. An advisory describes a country, and a country is not uniform. A Level 3 rating driven by conditions in one border province tells you little about a capital city eight hundred miles away, and a Level 2 rating can conceal a specific area that is genuinely dangerous. Level 3 is “Reconsider Travel”, which is an instruction to look harder rather than a prohibition. The level is the headline; the text is the information.
Is a second government’s view worth the extra five minutes?
Yes, because the assessments are made independently, on different scales, by people weighing different considerations. Where two governments agree, you can be fairly confident. Where they differ, the difference itself is informative. The U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Global Affairs Canada and New Zealand’s SafeTravel each publish their own, alongside the U.S. Department of State.
How am I carrying my documents?
With copies stored somewhere your bag cannot take them, which is the habit that turns a stolen passport from a crisis into an errand. Carrying the passport and its only copy together defeats the whole exercise.
What happens if the group separates?
Whatever you agreed on the first day, which is why the conversation has to happen then. Agree a meeting point for each location, collect emergency contacts, and write down the local emergency number for each country: it is not 911 in most of the world. Enrolling in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program takes a few minutes, costs nothing, and lets the nearest embassy reach you.
Travel requirements, health guidance and safety conditions can change. Always confirm current requirements with the appropriate government or official authority before departure.
Start Here
- International Travel Safety Checklist. The short list, in order.
- Understanding U.S. Travel Advisories. What they are and are not.
- Travel Advisory Levels 1 to 4. What each level actually means.
Guides in This Section
Reading your destination
- International Travel Safety Checklist. The short list, in order.
- Understanding U.S. Travel Advisories. What they are and are not.
- Travel Advisory Levels 1 to 4. What each level actually means.
- STEP: Enrolling With the U.S. Embassy. A few minutes, and free.
Habits, and the arrangements made in advance
- Protecting Your Passport and Travel Documents. Copies, and where they live.
- Hotel Safety Abroad. Choosing a room and using a safe.
- Common Tourist Scams. The shapes they take.
- Emergency Contacts to Carry. On paper.
- What to Do in an Emergency Abroad. The first hour.
- Group Travel Safety. Planning for a group.
- What to Do if You Are Separated From Your Group. The plan you make on day one.
Traveling as a group? A group is safer in most respects and harder in one: it separates, and it needs an agreed plan for what happens when it does.
Explore group travel planningRelated Travel Tips
- Understanding Travel Advisories. Reading a destination at the planning stage.
- Medical Emergencies Abroad. The medical half of an emergency.
- Credit Card Security Abroad. The financial half.
- The full Travel Tips library, for the other sections.
Plan Your Trip With LABUSA Travel
What an advisory means for a specific itinerary, as opposed to a country, is a question of where you will actually be and when. LABUSA Travel reads them route by route rather than headline by headline.
Talk with a LABUSA Travel advisor about a trip you are considering, or browse our destination guides for a specific country.