The Most Important Travel Safety Tips

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As a solo female traveler, the #1 line of inquiry I always get is regarding my own safety. (The second is loneliness -- that's a different post!)

Safety concerns are the biggest reason many people are either hesitant or wholly against traveling alone. Hearing this from someone who does have that strong, visceral desire to travel always devastates me because fear should not be the thing that holds you back from the incredible, life-changing experiences one has while traveling.

It's natural to be afraid; it's human to feel fear. In fact, it's actually a good thing to feel fear. Think about it. Fear plays a major part in our intuition, our hair-raising gut feeling. Fear keeps us safe. If we didn't ever feel fear, we wouldn't know how to approach a dangerous situation versus a safe one.

But fear isn't always the evolutionary protective fail-safe it is meant to be. Sometimes this purpose goes into utter overdrive. It's not a "life led by fear;" it's a life limited by fear. There's a time to be limited, and there's a time to limit.

Traveling doesn't have to be scary. Sometimes it is, both in good ways and in bad ways, no matter how much you plan and prepare. But that's life. The things that scare you now will likely always scare you. So, if not now, when?

In regard to safety, I want to provide you the tips and tricks that I have gleamed from my years traveling and share them with you. These are based on my personal experiences and will have to be tailored towards you and your comfort levels. What I need to do to be safe as a physically small female traveling alone will be different than a male counterpart. Still, these safety tips are relatively universal.

Swimming in Beautiful Mattawa, ON, Canada

1. #1 rule is never tell anyone you are alone! It may seem obvious, but it is very easy to let this slip in conversation. I like to believe that everyone has the best of intentions — and most do — but you need to be careful regardless. Use plural language such as “WE went to that museum earlier.” Sometimes people have flat-out asked me if I was alone (again, likely without bad intentions). I usually respond with something along the lines of “I’m meeting a friend later,” “My friend is waiting back at the hotel,” etc. Let them think someone is waiting on you to come home at the end of the day and will notice if you are missing immediately.

2. Try not to look like a traveler. Don’t be that person who is walking super slow or, even worse, just standing at a street corner looking confused with a map wide open. Not only is this super annoying for everyone trying to get around you, it screams: “I am lost and helpless! Murder me!"

3. Utilize location-sharing apps. I share my location with my friends constantly on Find My Friends, and share my location with my family on life360 in addition only when I am traveling.

4. Continuing, let people know where you are, what you are doing, etc! I usually offer my friends or family a rough itinerary before I leave, but my plans usually change. This doesn’t have to be “I’m going to get coffee at this shop in 5 minutes, blah blah blah,” (but it can be). Usually I will shoot off a text to someone before going somewhere I may be service for a duration of time (ie on a hike) and again once I return. Another time was when I was checking into a hotel in a bad spot of town just to catch some hours of sleep after driving all day, and I felt somewhat uncomfortable. I texted my mom that I was checking in and would text her again in 10 minutes, then I set a timer. She knew that if I didn’t text her in that time frame, that something was probably wrong.

5. If you plan on posting on social media, try to lag your posts. Meaning, post places only after you have left them (especially if you are geotagging them), not in real time. Again, it’s unlikely that something bad would happen, but you don’t exactly want to broadcast to all of the world: “I am completely alone and here is exactly where to find me!” — especially if you are out of the country and/or a woman, more so.

6. Have a plan B. (and maybe C, too). Know that things will go wrong. You will be miss flights. You will forget things. When rock climbers set anchors, we ensure redundancy. Sure, one carabiner can definitely hold my weight. But if that other carabiner breaks, I’m going to be glad I used a second. When I was in Montreal, I was downtown at 2300 and tried to enter the metro station only to find it was early locked for the night — Maintenance? Accident? I don’t know why. Either way, I found myself an hour’s walk from my hostel. This is why it’s important to have apps like Uber/Lyft or the local equivalent already set up on your phone (I Ubered) or enough local currency to ensure you can get a taxi/bus ride. Be wary of taxis; they can be anything from scams to human trafficking schemes.

7. Keep cards, cash, and ID separate. You don’t want to put all your eggs in one basket, have someone steal that basket, and then find your self basketless in another country with no way to get home. Or even to the embassy. If you can, try not to carry your passport with you at all. If you are staying somewhere with a safe, leave it there along with an emergency credit card and local currency. Otherwise keep it hidden on your actual person — constantly. I've kept my license and a credit card tucked in my bra before. I usually carry two bags with me: a small bag/purse that you can keep close to your body (I love the Lululemon or Fjallraven cross body bags because they are so much harder to grab off you or pickpocket than a handbag) with my phone and important things and then a backpack with everything else.

8. If you are in a position that you are able to/want an alcoholic drink with dinner or even go clubbing, etc, keep it classy. This applies 100% more if you are a woman. Avoid anything more than a buzz. If possible, go out with people. If you stay at a hostel, many of them have organized pub crawls you can join. It’s a wise idea to make friends during this, too, to increase the possibility someone is looking out for you.

9. Research local culture: appropriate dress, common scams, areas to avoid, etc. This is always good information! I find that a google search often does the trick, but I often check sites like Reddit and even TikTok.

10. Learning basic words/phrases in the local language is a cultural courtesy but can be helpful too! Words like “hello, bathroom, thank you” are important, but also learn “emergency words” like “help me, lost, hospital, etc.” Not everyone speaks your language, and when you are in their home, you should be making an attempt anyway to speak theirs.

11. Be careful with carrying self-defense weapons of any sort. You can get in a lot of trouble if you don’t research the law regarding such. In many places, such as Canada, you can’t even bring pepper spray (you can bring bear spray, though). Invest in a personal alarm if this makes you feel safer.

12. Emergency toolkit! This should definitely, without a doubt, 110%, include an emergency phone portable charger. Or two. Ensure they are fully charged. Other items can include things like a flashlight, OTC medications

13. Listen to your gut. 100% all the time, even if this means changing plans at the last second. Also, everyone’s levels of what feels safe to them is different. For example, I often hear that as a solo female traveler that I shouldn’t wear my big over-ear headphones when I’m out and about in order to increase awareness of my surroundings. However, I feel perfectly comfortable and safe wearing headphones because it personally doesn’t distract me in that way. Do what you need to do!

14. Travel with travel insurance. I always travel with Safety Wing because it was super easy to figure out and covers me globally. I recommend the same to a lot of my friends and other travelers I met on the road. I always thought insurance would be complicated, so traveling with Safety Wing has been a relief in more ways than one.

Check out Safety Wing!

I hope you are able to incorporate some of my tricks to ease any travel anxieties that might be holding you back. As always, travel safely!