We’ve all been in the situation of traveling abroad and not being sure of what places are safe and what are not. You may feel pretty confident about yourself and your handling of bad situations in your own town, but once you’re abroad everything changes and you’re just a tourist with no connections and you probably don’t even speak the language. Knowing that something like this can really hurt your holiday experience we’ve put together a few tips to help you feel safer and minimize the risk of being robbed while traveling.
1 – Preparation
The time to make plans for a rainy day is when the sun is shining, and the time to plan for having your things stolen while on holiday is before even stepping on a plane. Make sure you have all the contact information for your credit cards in case you need to cancel and all the contact for law enforcement and for your embassy in your destination. Make a few copies of this and put it in separate places so you can be sure to have at least one of them with you in case something happens. Also, make copies of your passport and all other travel documents and have them somewhere safe as well – if they get stolen, it’s much easier to have them replaced if you have a copy of them with you.
2 – On public transportation
The odds of you being a victim of a violent crime are very slim. Thieves tend to avoid facing you and the pickpocket is a master at this. But you can make the pickpocket’s life harder with just a few simple steps. Keep in contact with your possessions at all times and don’t leave anything valuable somewhere that’s easy to reach or where you can’t see it. If you have ever seen people wearing their backpacks backwards in public transport you’ll know they’re not making a fashion statement: it’s because they can keep an eye on the zipper. The key, besides keeping a low profile, is making the thief think you’re not an easy target and move on to someone else.
3 – With a rental car
Insurance is the first thing we’d recommend when you’re driving in a foreign land. Make sure it’s fully insured and if something happens, from having the windows broken to the having the entire car stolen, you’re off the hook as far as the rental company is concerned. But you can avoid things just by taking a few simple steps. Don’t leave any valuables in your car and don’t leave out anything which may contain valuables. For example, you may know that the bag you’ve left in your back seat is empty, but a thief may still break the car window to get to it. Some people go as far as to take the trunk cover off just so a thief can see that there’s nothing in the trunk. And there’s the special tip that we were given recently: to check if an area is a frequent target for robbers, check the asphalt. If it glitters it means that a lot of windows have been broken there, so park at your own risk.
About the author: This post was written by Holly Adams from Coupon Croc, check it out to find all the travel deals Thomson discount codes can offer.
Credits: Photo courtesy of Timo Balk.