As someone who loves to travel, lives as an expat, and tries to be well-informed, I spend much time deciding where to go and when to visit. Security is always the overriding issue for me: I don’t care how cheap or comfortable or easy it is to go somewhere if I don’t feel safe in traveling there. On the internet and social media, I run across lots of opinion (mostly ill-informed), but also some fairly authoritative advice. One place I always check is the US Department of State (DoS) website for travel advisories. I have often encountered misunderstandings about the State Department warnings, so here is some (insider) guidance.
First, the purpose of the DoS site is general education. It is not meant to dissuade Americans from traveling: in fact, you’ll find State Department employees to be probably the most travel-friendly federal workers. They are interested in the rest of the world, and they want you to be, too. Neither is the site meant to be critical of foreign countries, or a comparison with the US. I often see folks opining on social media “what about gun violence in Chicago? Why don’t they talk about that?” Well, the State Department does not cover Chicago, and in fact, no federal agency is responsible for telling Americans where, when, or how to travel within the United States. Americans are free to go anywhere they want in the US, anytime.
Unfortunately, this leads some Americans to think they can go anywhere they want, anytime they want, throughout the entire world. Some think “I’m an American, who’s gonna mess with the US?” Others think “I’m just a friendly tourist, who’s gonna bother with me?” Maybe they just don’t think. Americans do things like backpack along the Iran-Iraq border, open the car window in a safari park, or tour authoritarian nightmares like North Korea. Note that I am not criticizing such folks, or suggesting they deserved what happened: just stating for the record what they did.
As an American traveling abroad, the US DoS is responsible for you. Did you know you should go online and enroll in the STEP program showing where you’re going and when you’ll be there, in case of a natural or man-made emergency, so the DoS can account for you? Few Americans do; in most cases it doesn’t matter.
The travel advisory website exists so that no American should ever travel without being forewarned about the risks. You may be well-read about international news, and know all about the how the regime in Turkey has a nasty habit of rounding up anybody (including Americans) it suspects of anti-government activity, or that terrorists there specifically target western tourists. You may already know the Philippine government has declared martial law in Mindanao, or what the rules about spitting are in Singapore. But in case you’re not that up-to-date, they are all noted on the appropriate DoS travel pages.
One insider tip: read carefully the entire section of the travel advisory, including where it explains the restrictions on the travel of US government personnel. Here is a screenshot example from my expat home of Jalisco:
If you just read the headline for my state (“reconsider travel”) you might think “whoa, not going there!” But if you read the entire thing, you’ll see the very detailed guidance on where US government employees can and can’t go. This is very important. DoS controls (for the most part) where US government employees can travel, and this very detailed guidance represents the specific information they have about what is dangerous. When you read the Jalisco guidance, you see that my town (Ajijic) has no restrictions, while some other places, roads, even businesses (like casinos or cantinas) are placed off limits.
So be a savvy–but nor scared–traveler. Read the DoS material and consider it in light of your own tolerance for safety. Don’t do stupid things you wouldn’t do at home. So many terrible travel tales begin with too many drinks the first night in country, an attempt to buy drugs because they are decriminalized where you are visiting, or just being out in the middle of the night in a place you don’t really know.
¡Que te vaya bien!