To make travel more enjoyable and less stressful (owing to how often things go wrong) it is often a good idea to re-iterate a few simple rules that can help prevent disaster. Finding cheap airfares is difficult and travel can be expensive enough without expensive mistakes which could be avoided, resulting in a dislike for your chosen location and its people. In some instances it is not uncommon for fear to set in and venturing from the relative safety of the hotel room or resort is out of the question. Common sense is still the single most important tool for traveling safely when you’re in a foreign land, meeting new people, walking down strange roads, eating and drinking new things.
Trust your instincts if something doesn’t feel right, do something about it. A big mistake made by many tourists is they take everything of value with them which makes it very easy for thieves and pickpockets to steal their whole identity in one go. Expensive and necessary items like identification tickets for example should be left at the hotel in their safe or the room safe if you have one; it is much easier to recover your vacation if you only lose a few important belongings instead of all of them. If you place your cash, traveler’s checks and credit cards in various locations about your person, then there is less likelihood of pickpockets stealing all your financial assets and leaving you with nothing.
Many couples who have not adopted the travel safely ethos will have 2 credit cards, both accessing the same account; it is much easier to use two cards, each accessing separate accounts so if one is lost or stolen, there is a backup. Some of the easiest possessions to steal are bags and cameras owing to the way people carry them without even recognizing that they are an easy target for thieves; ensure the straps are over the head and across the chest if you want to hold on to them. Don’t make it easy for them when you walk around by having bags and other valuable objects attached to straps next to the road where it is a simple matter for thieves on bikes to just grab at or cut the straps with a knife. The reason most people fall for these tricks is because we are more relaxed on vacation and the people that carry out these crimes are very good at it.
Complacency is a dangerous trait and we have all been guilty of it when we are on vacation, remember this is what they do every day to make money and feed their families. One way to help reduce the chances of things being stolen is by using a back pack with a padlock, this makes it more difficult to get into and therefore acts as a deterrent. Another good idea is to use a hikers (or climbers) small shackle that can be used to safely secure your keys to a belt or bag for those people that frequently lose their keys. Both men and women lose their wallets and purses because men have wallets in their back pockets and women have their open handbags; so the easiest thing is for men to change the place they keep their wallet and for women to make sure their handbag is closed properly. There is absolutely no reason why when you are on vacation you shouldn’t be able to travel safely and have a great deal of worry free fun; just stick to the points mentioned here and use your common sense at all times.
