Vital Personal Safety Tips When Traveling Abroad(Photo by JESHOOTS.COM on Unsplash)
Traveling abroad is always a wonderful opportunity to explore what lies beyond the borders and to expose yourself to new experiences and cultures. There is always a lot to be considered for the success of such trips, such as getting visas or applying for the Canada ETA if you are headed to Canada and your area from a visa exempt country. But while you make all the preparations, it is important to also think very critically about your personal safety. The last place you would wish to get into trouble is when you are miles and miles away from home, with no friends or relatives on whom you would naturally rely on their support. Presented below are a few personal safety tips you can rely on to help you stay safe when you are traveling abroad 🙂
Get all the recommended vaccinations
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Falling sick when abroad is disgusting in many ways. It will not just slow you down with your plans, but if you are in a country whose health care you can’t trust, you won’t help but worry about dying in a foreign country. There are a number of reasons why you may fall sick abroad, but there are always a lot of ways you can use to lower your chances of falling ill abroad. Getting all the recommended travel vaccines is one such way of ensuring that your body has the necessary defence against specific diseases which may be present in your destination. Check with your travel clinic to ensure that you are well updated on all the necessary vaccines and you get the required jabs in good time.
Have electronic copies of all your essential documents
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Losing any travel document would mean a lot of misery when traveling and you may be forced to cut your trip short because no country will allow you entry if you don’t have a document like your travel visa. Traveling can sometimes be very unpredictable and you never know when things may go south. Losing travel documents is not something that anyone would look forward to, but there are a number of occasions when you may find that you have lost a document or two. As a precautionary measure and to give you a place to start from when such happens, you should think about having electronic copies of all your travel documents. These you can then back up in your email or cloud accounts and be guaranteed that you can access from any place, provided that you will have access to the internet.
Get travel insurance
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So many things can go wrong when you travel, most of which may come with significant financial consequences. Think about your flight being delayed and getting compelled to miss your connecting flight. Or think about getting sick and having to go to the hospitals for some medical care. How about when you have a family emergency back at home and you have cut short your trip and come back home? In all these scenarios, you will be spending a lot of money you have not budgeted for, and this will surely be a big offset in your finances. However, such can be avoided if you invest in a travel insurance. Travel insurances are not as expensive as many people think of them to be, yet they are very crucial for those traveling abroad. Get the peace of mind you know that you will be well cushioned financially should something go wrong by having a travel insurance.
Keep safely the address to your accommodation
If possible, write down the address to the place you are having your accommodation on your phone book or your travel notebook. This should be written in both English and the native language of the country you are visiting. This is so that you have a way of tracing your way back in case you forget or if you run into any kind of emergency and you fall unconscious, it will be easy for good Samaritans to trace back where you came from, and that would be a good reference point to getting help under such circumstances.
Don’t keep everything in the same place
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You may think it is safe or even convenient to have all your cards, checks, and money and travel documents all in the same place. This is not a good idea since when you lose one, you lose all. For a start, it is recommended that you don’t keep such stuff in the same place. Keep the most important documents and which you will need most of the times, such as money and identification documents on your person, and the rest you can keep safely in one of your bags. When you go for your daily adventures, again don’t take everything. Just pick about the amount of money you will need and your identification documents. Leave the rest locked safely in your hotel rooms safe.
Keep money in multiple locations
In the same manner, don’t have all your money in the same wallet or the same bag. Keep them safe but in multiple places to reduce your chance of losing everything should such an ugly scenario show itself. Ideally, you should have some on your person, in the wallet and some safely kept in one of your bags. You should also be very careful to note display the cash you have in public since you will be making yourself an unnecessary target.
Don’t leave your drink unattended
If you will be drinking out and you know you can easily be identified as a tourist, and you are alone, you should never leave your drink unattended. You can easily be spiked, and this may be the beginning or your misery in a foreign land. You should be very careful if it is at night because very bad things can go wrong and which will definitely ruin your experience.
In addition to not leaving your drink unattended, you should also not get drank, especially if you are not in the place where you booked for your accommodation. This sounds obvious but so many people tend to ignore it and have always found themselves in places and situations they later regretted.
Disclaimer: The above is a guest post
