by Andre Sanchez

Although it is very useful to be aware of as many safety tips while traveling abroad as possible, a great deal depends on the country, or even the area of the country, that you are visiting.

One of the easiest ways to stay safe while traveling abroad is not to walk around alone and to keep away from areas you have not visited before and are not familiar with. Take the advice of your hosts or hotels to where it is safe to wander alone, and at what times of the day.

Many safety tips, such as not carrying a lot of cash or keeping your valuables in the hotel safe, are not safety tips at all.  They are tips on how to keep your money from being stolen.  However, if you are subject to a mugging it might be safer for you if you have money with you to satisfy the demands of the muggers. Advice to keep your money at home or in a hotel safe might save you money, but will not protect you, and might even have the reverse effect.

The tips I am about to give you will work:  they have worked for many others so there is not one single reason why they should not work for you.

First, carry a wallet. Do not advertise it and keep it as hidden as you can, but carry one. If you are mugged and the mugger asks you for your wallet, they will not accept you claiming that you have none.  You are liable to be forced to produce one, normally with violence.  If you left your wallet in you hotel room you could suffer badly for that decision.

So, tip number one:  carry a wallet. Remove all your essential personal details such as address, phone number, and so on.  Leave some false details if you want, but not the real ones.  Have some cash:  about 50 bucks should be enough, and one of your credit cards in case you need it yourself.  After all, you might not get mugged!  Once you have been robbed you can immediately cancel the card using the 24 hour line that all credit card companies have.

The reason that I have spent so much of this article on mugging is because that comprises over 90% of offences that you are liable to experience.  The vast majority of muggers will take your wallet and run, especially if they see a couple of twenty dollar bills in it. Let them have it – your life is not worth risking for forty or fifty dollars, and if you have followed the advice your wallet will not contain anything important to you.

Secondly, don’t make your mobile phone obvious.  Keep your hands empty, and your valuable stuff hidden. If you must carry important information keep it in a USB memory stick with password protection. There is rarely a need for expensive laptops to be carried around if you are traveling on business.  All you need are the files; the hardware can be supplied by the company you are visiting. 

Third, try to have all belongings that you carry insured.  Insure your mobile separately from the phone company insurance, since they might not cover calls the mugger makes until you are able to cancel the phone.  Make sure that all of your personal goods are insured.   Stuff like MP3 players and even your wallet.  Why should you have to pay even $50 to replace a stolen wallet?

Another good tip is that you should carry a second wallet in case the mugger decides to check you out further. Put a few old dud credit cards in this along with some photographs that don’t belong to you, plus another ten dollar bill.  Muggers don’t check the expiry dates of the credit cards in your wallet! Hide it in an inside pocket and when the muggers find it they will laugh at you and run.  You can laugh at them behind their backs!  What you do then is to walk away and forget it:  do not prosecute them or your name and address could be provided to them.

That’s how to outsmart the baddies, but what about your health?  Rule Number One is Never Drink The Local Water unless you know from experience that it is fine to drink. It does not matter what assurances you are given, never do so unless you have a small bottle of bleach with you. One small drop of household bleach makes the water drinkable.  Otherwise drink bottled water.

Try not to look affluent until you have to.  You don’t have to look affluent while shopping or looking round tourist attractions. Also don’t advertise your purse or wallet. If you can put your hand in one of your pockets and get something valuable without having to undo a button or a zip, then so can a pickpocket, only they are experts at the game.  Make sure that all of the valuables that you carry on your person are locked in some way, either with a button or a zipper, so that it cannot be easily stolen from you.

Finally, never accept an invitation from somebody unless you are accompanied, and never accept an invitation from somebody you do not know, accompanied or not.

There are more safety tips while staying abroad, and these are but a few.  Probably the best is to use your common sense, and if you feel uncomfortable in a situation, then move away from it.  Better safe than sorry!

Safety Tips While Traveling Abroad was originally published at http://www.globallifenow.com