Travel Safety

​Recently there have been many headlines about tourist safety in Mexico, some frightening, others tragic.  For some reason mainstream media has made the decision to single out Mexico as seemingly being alone in reporting “increasing concerns in tourist safety” when, in reality, many top tourist destinations are under the exact same US Department of State Tourist Advisory (Level 2) including Germany, France, Turks and Caicos, The Bahamas, The United Kingdom, Italy, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Spain, China and many more.  None of these destinations are making national headlines like Mexico.  For example, dozens have been killed or injured in multiple terrorist attacks in popular tourist destinations within France in 2018 alone yet I can’t recall one news story urging Americans to reconsider vacation travel to France.

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The reality is all travel comes with a risk regardless of where you are traveling to.  Anytime you leave your home, something can potentially happen; it can even happen inside your home. There is crime all over the world, some violent, some not.  When you are out and about in your town you take precautions.  You lock your doors, you don’t go to certain areas of town, especially at night, you don’t get into cars with strangers.  Unfortunately, what happens too often is that when people travel they enter “vacation mode”, let down their defenses and want to experience destinations as the locals do.  Instead, travelers need to be more aware of their surroundings and use their common sense.  If you wouldn’t do it at home, don’t do it when away.  Don’t go out at night alone, don’t wander down dark empty streets, don’t wear flashy jewelry or carry large amounts of cash, don’t get into a taxi if someone else is already in the backseat, don’t leave your drinks unattended, if you feel drunk, stop drinking.  If something doesn’t feel right, don’t do it.  Listen to your gut, regardless of if you are traveling to Chicago, Cancun, Rome or Los Angeles. 

Vacations have been scientifically proven to beneficial to your health.  If we allow these news stories, which often take a small number of specific incidents and report them as if they are happening daily to a majority of tourists, to scare us out of taking that much needed vacation, no one wins.  If you have questions about a destination, ask us.  We do extensive research and can provide the facts and the bigger picture of what is happening in that destination.  Our number one priority is that you have a relaxing and memorable vacation experience for all the right reasons.  Recommending an unsafe destination or a destination we would not personally travel to with our families is something we simply will never do.   
More information regarding the US Department of State Travel advisories can be found at:
https://travel.state.gov/…/traveladv…/traveladvisories.html/

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