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Information and Intuition: Your Keys to Safety and Security When Traveling Solo
By Gina Greenlee
In the past two years, I have surveyed more than 70 women about their solo travel habits, including women who don't travel solo at all. One of the top reasons women who would like to travel solo but don't is concern for safety. These women have asked me for safety "tips" when traveling solo. I tell them what the women I have surveyed told me: my best safety defense is to be well informed about my destination, trust my intuition, and use common sense. But our intuition is not only conversant about safety. It informs us on a wide range of experiences, including where the fun is, who the helpful people are, and how to navigate inconveniences. When we travel solo, our intuition will lead us to the right experiences at the right time. We need only to listen.
Intuition does not preclude an awareness of travel safety basics such as wear inexpensive or no jewelry, and ask for hotel rooms near the elevator vs. at the end of the hall. For visitors to this site who want specific safety tips, you can go to the Postcards and Pearls section of this site for excerpts from my book that address safety issues in a lively travel vignette format. You can also go to "Fifty Travel Safety Tips for Women Travelers" by Detective Kevin Coffey.
In addition to encouraging women to trust their intuition, I also suggest these guidelines:
Obtain destination-specific safety information. Safety concerns in Peru likely will not be the same as safety concerns in Kenya. Also, if you are traveling overseas, it is important to understand the culture and legal background about the country you are visiting. The Internet, your local library and bookstore, and other travelers are your best resources for a specific locale. Almost all travel guides have a "For Women" section that addresses culture, safety, and women-friendly resources.
Travel companies use previous customers as references. I'm a reference for two different companies. Travelers phone me to ask not only about the quality of the travel company's services, but also about their intended destination. If you are traveling with a company for the first time, ask for customer references. If they don't have any, choose another company.
Check the State Department's Travel Advisory Web site. Before you do, know that the State Department's job is security and, by its nature, is conservative about risk. When consulting the advisory, it is important to understand the difference between the country-specific facts presented in the "Consular Information Sheets" and the overt "Travel Warnings" recommending that American travelers avoid certain countries. For suggestions on how to interpret the State Department's Travel Advisory click here.
Read Gavin deBecker's book, "The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence.". deBecker is one of America's foremost personal security experts and he wrote an amazing book. Using a personal narrative format threaded with specific case studies, "The Gift of Fear" is a dramatic, engrossing read demonstrating how the human instinct is the most powerful safety mechanism at our disposal. The author also provides scores of safety tips and lessons learned from each case. I read the book in two nights and have gifted "The Gift of Fear" to over a dozen women and those women, in turn, have gifted it to their daughters, nieces, sisters and friends. I believe every woman on the planet should read it even if she never intends to leave the town she grew up in. deBecker's key message: Do not second-guess your instinct. If a situation doesn't feel right, it isn't.
Carry a cell phone with a national plan when you travel domestically, or an international plan when you travel overseas. There was a time when I would have thought this was overkill but during my world trip, I was stranded in Tahiti when the cruise ship I was on went bankrupt and I needed to contact friends and family in the United States. I borrowed a cell phone with an international plan and called Connecticut from Tahiti. That was all the convincing I needed to of the importance of having a cell phone with international reach.
Leave a copy of your flights, itinerary and lodging addresses and phone numbers with friends, family and co-workers. Even if you are traveling solo within a group, this will make it easier to locate you in an event of an emergency.
Don't panic. It masks your intuition. That's a communication conduit you must keep open for the advice you will need to manage your situation. How do you keep from panicking? Trust your intuition.
Expect good things. I've visited all seven continents, mostly solo. My experience suggests that there are more good people on the planet than not.
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