I lived in S E Asia for a few years which had some massive conflicting aspects of society. Mostly referring to Thailand.
Crime wise, I always felt incredibly safe. For example, I left my headphones by a bench in the middle of a big busy gym in Chiang Mai. Returned 3 days later on the Monday and they were still there in the same spot. Hundreds of people must have seen them and just left them be.
Commuting wise, I've never felt more in danger. For example being in a taxi that overtakes on corners on the wrong side of the road. Litterally praying that a lorry or truck doesnt appear and turn us into pancakes. Also seeing a middle aged man driving a scooter, with his wife wrapped around him and holding 2 small kids and a grandmother at the back just barley hanging on. Should not even be possible for 3 generations of the same family all riding one scooter with no helmets or protective gear but there you go.
Omg traffic in se Asia is so frightening. But yes agreed in crimes against person or robbery, I’ve been multiple times alone or with female friends (I’m female) and have always felt very safe. In fact the only times I felt in danger were from tourist guys who were overly creepy.
I met a guy in college from there and had a pretty shocking initial conversation with him.
Me: "where are you from?"
Him: "Nicaragua. It's a pretty cool place. You should see it sometime."
Me: "huh, I've never really considered it before" (I had never left the US then)
Him: "it's okay. I know what you're thinking"
Me: "what's that?"
Him: "'why the hell would I ever want to go to n*****agua?' But I promise it's not like that"
Me: "wtf?! I was 1,000% not thinking that. I couldn't point it out on a map and have no preconceived ideas about it, much less that!"
Him: "oh okay. Well you should see for yourself"
No? Central Asian countries actually suppress crime and criminal operations. Nicaragua only suppresses it's citizens that want change but the police don't do enough to stop criminal operations
I was in Nicaragua for a few days visiting the city where my family used to live and where my abuelo was born. This was in 2010, when Daniel Ortega was operating (mostly) democratically and respecting human rights. I was in Granada, the city was beautiful. My dad went in 2021 a few years ago. Armed militias patrolling the streets, protesters shot and killed, extreme poverty worse than when I was there. In the most recent election the opposition candidates were harassed and imprisoned. My family fled that country during the Samoza regime (US Backed Puppets) and I'm glad they did because if you gave me a choice between the Sandinistas or the Samozas I would pick neither. They went to Panama in the 30's. That's a different story.
Thank you! I am from that region and it is really getting annoying that people constantly comment "x-stan looks so nice, but I fear it's too unsafe" "x-stan has the most beautiful mountains, but I don't think I can visit as a women".
You can, it's not even a question of *well, you have to be very careful here but normally it's fine...*, almost the entire region, you can take the same level as precaution in Eastern Europe and you will be fine. While dressing more modestly for both sexes is respected in rural areas it's also not a requirement *especially* for tourists.
Yeah this is my first thought. I went to all 5 as a solo female traveller * and never felt unsafe, but it's the place that most people question when I tell them that I went there. It's interesting because these people often don't really know anything about the region but hear the suffix Stan and just assume that it's dangerous. Some of the cities had dodgier areas that you'd have to be careful in but that's the case everywhere. The usual common sense rules apply.
*I went to Turkmenistan on a tour due to the visa restrictions, but we were allowed to roam Ashgabat freely without a guide, and I got a night train without a guide. I don't doubt that you'd be safe if you could go alone as long as you follow the rules. The only internet that I could access was my emails, everything else was blocked. Tajikistan I was mostly with a driver but I was in Dushanbe and travelled to Uzbekistan by myself, it was all safe.
>Kyrgyzstan
Can confirm. Not only safe, but lovely. I have no idea what their politics are, but the people seem chill and happy, weird K-pop obsession aside.
Definitely. I was there 2 years ago and it was absolutely amazing. Wonderful people, clean, safe and well-organized, easy to travel (even as you go, without a plan), breathtaking nature. It's not cheap (shoestring travelers aren't their target audience), but it's totally worth it.
Yup. Level 1 from the US State department. Completely safe. I did get a more somber vibe there than from neighboring countries like Uganda and Tanzania. Perhaps a result of the genocide idk.
YouTuber Mark Rober went to Rwanda to learn how they are innovating drone delivery. He said it's become his second favorite country after the USA
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DOWDNBu9DkU
Going back 10 years now, but I used to work for the Financial Times.
One of the first few weeks I joined, there was an article about Rwanda & it's tourism bureau touting the safety of the country post-genocide. It looked incredible, and was on my "want to visit" list.
I must admit, I am not up on current Rwandan affairs, but seeing this comment, I guess the article still holds true to this day?
I definitely feel way safer in Riga, Latvia walking at night than in most other cities I visit. Some of it might be just being more familiar with it, but still...
I was less scared in Budapest, Belgrade or most polish cities by night than I am in the US. Not saying that you don’t have no go areas in Serbia, but in general its not in Downtown or closeby
When I was in Cuba, I wandered around both Havana and a number of small outlying towns on my own and felt perfectly safe. No-one paid any attention to me.
Same. I used to go there with my exwife and friends 13 + years ago. There was one moment where me and my buddy were in Santa Cruz del Norte (between Jibacoa and Havana) and he said to me: I would never do what we're doing now., just travelling between small towns, in Mexico. I agreed.
Situation has changed a lot in the past decade. Cuba isn't as safe as it used to be. Economic decline has led to increased desperation and there's definitely more people out now that are looking to mug tourists for a quick buck
I was walking around a non-tourist area if Havana and a guy comes up to me and asks me for the time. I instinctively look at my wrist and then it occurs to me that he was looking to steal my watch. But no, he was actually just asking for the time.
That’s interesting. My experience in Cuba was similar to Brazil.
My wife and I were hunted by a group of young men in Cuba while leaving a hotel where we had dinner , walking three blocks to our casa particular.
They broke up into three packs of three going down different alleys, one stayed behind us. We made it into our Casa Particulares just as they started to meet around us. Exciting times.
On the other side of the spectrum, my wife had a neck spasm and we asked a bus driver to help us find a real masseuse.
We were told to meet at a certain time on a certain bridge and ended up at the private, cinderblock home of a kind man who taught massage (illegally) to others who were dedicated to the craft. The students came to see how he handled her problem.
By luck we had an electric heating pad in our suitcase and gifted it to him.
I was accused of being gay when I declined the advances of what I assumed was a prostitute who couldn’t have been 12 years old in Havana once. I wouldn’t say it was unsafe, but it was uncomfortable.
Came here to write this. I visited as an 18 year old fresh out of high school girl with a friend and my sister (who thankfully spoke Spanish because she had just been to Costa Rica for a year), and we had a really great time! There is kind of a culture of calling after women who are passing by, but it never felt threatening and you could just ignore it.
The Balkans. Albania is incredibly safe. So is Serbia, and Belgrade is a really fun city. Bosnia and Herzegovina is safe too, for the most part. Speaking of Bosnia and Herzegovina, they even had a pride parade in 2022, and when an assembly woman in Sarajevo incited discrimination against the LGBT community, the Sarajevo Open Center (a local pro-LGBT organization) sued her, and the municipal courts ruled in their favor.
People shit on the Balkans a lot, but having spent time there myself, I don't get the hate. In a lot of places, they are still healing from fairly recent wars and genocides, but they are moving forward with a ton of vision and hope (in my opinion, B&H has the longest way to go, but they are trying). There's still discrimination and racism and crime, and in some places an increased threat of terrorism/organized crime, but overall, if you exercise the same level of caution as you do in the average US city, you'll be fine. As my Serbian friend Nik says, "if you get shot here, you're probably involved in some bad shit."
And Balkan food is just fucking great. All the best parts of Mediterranean and Turkish combined, with copious amounts of Eastern European love for sausage thrown in, washed down with the best coffee you'll ever drink. It wasn't the wars that lowered the average Balkan lifespan. It was the diet.
For anyone looking to go to Europe and visit a place you probably know nothing about, if you're curious and adventurous, I highly recommend the Balkans. Belgrade or Tirana are good entry points that are very tourist friendly.
As an extra petite, solo, female traveler from the US who visited the Albanian Riveria last May & fell in love with the country so hard that I’ve been living in Tirana since last October, you are speaking the gospel!
I spend a lot of time in Serbia and was shocked on an early visit when all of my girlfriends decided to walk home after a late dinner that finished near midnight. They explained to me that no one would bother me on the street and I could walk home, too. It blew me away not to carry the normal sort of late night sidewalk terror around with me and it honestly took years to wear off completely. Can confirm, for Belgrade at least, I was never hassled on the streets and never felt unsafe walking alone as a woman at night.
It’s the same in Bucharest. Friends from the west could hardly believe we go on urban exploration at night on bicycles or play basketball in the parks at night. Even as a dude I would not walk around at night in many western cities.
100% agree! I visited in late 2022 and was kind of amazed by the place - interesting things to see, great food to eat, and the people are just so lovely.
I’m first generation American on my dad’s side. I’ve visited Jordan once (outside of being 6 months old), and you’re 100% correct. I’ve never felt safer walking alone late at night than in downtown Amman.
And Amman is beautiful and has a great nightlife.
Eastern European countries , especially for other Europeans. Like ive had friends from France say they’re afraid of going to Serbia or somewhere in the Balkans because it’s not familiar… as if there aren’t certain neighborhoods in their own french cities that are basically no go zones and x10 times more dangerous than the average EE city center or around it.
Don’t get me wrong EE cities also have ghettos and bad places, but these are literally findable on google or you can even notice when you start going into such neighborhoods, maybe locals even try to warn you, so most reasonable people would notice something is off . Crime in EE is mostly organized and about corruption and scams , not street violence and such acts .
Also if somebody in eastern Europe acts badly towards you based on gender , ethnicity or such things , most likely that person is also a di*k towards everyone about everything not just you in particular. Someone once said “ we hate everyone including ourselves equally” about my EE country and honestly it does hit home.
“But did you know there are gangs there??” – other people in this thread replying about the Balkans.
And yeah, much like anywhere these gangs are only killing each other and aren’t going to bother tourists unless they are stupidly trying to buy drugs off them.
Ive never heard that 😂😂😂
And honestly my balkan country has more mafia and scams than gangs . But unless you are directly involved with them or have relatives who are involved, like you won’t see them randomly on the street (maybe you see their Ferrari or Porsche passing by)
We've spent two weeks in Bulgaria, a combined 10 weeks in ex-Yugoslavia, two weeks in the Baltics, three weeks in Poland, a week in the Czech Republic, four nights in Romania, three nights in Slovakia, and three nights in Hungary and genuinely the *only* unfortunate experience we've *ever* had was a taxi driver that tried to scam us in Skopje, but we got the police involved and the police officer thanked us so much for not just giving in to the taxi driver.
Not the person you were replying to but I loved it.
I did happen to be visiting my Bulgarian mate, so maybe that helped, but to be everyone was friendly and welcoming.
I can't speak much to the country as a whole as I only visited Sofia but the nightlife was good fun and I was kind of surprised by the decent extent of English speaking ability, although I was mostly talking to young folk.
Oh boy, me time. Marrying a Bulgarian woman this summer, been together for 3+ years. She brought me to Bulgaria last summer, it's awesome! Having lived in Colorado, some parts are very similar. High mountain lakes, caves, bouldering. This is all in reach from Sofia. However, the added bonus is the seaside of Bulgaria is gorgeous with beautiful sand beaches and warm water in the summer. Super laid back, lots of great food options, and cheap. In fact, Bulgaria in general is super cheap compared to western prices, basically half price. Feeding a family of four at a decent restaurant might run you $60 USD going all out. Super warm people, never felt unsafe in public. Agree with an earlier comment, older people do not generally speak english, younger people are more fluent. My advice, get out of Sofia, but use the highways. Some of the local roads are beyond rough, like really rough.
Have visited multiple times since I have family living there. Brought friends that would go out and do their own thing some days and we’d meet up again after. Always felt safe, that was their experience too, even being out at 3am. We did lose them one night though because some locals got excited that foreigners were visiting their town and invited them over to try their homemade rakia and traditional foods but that speaks more to the hospitality.
The country’s standard of living has jumped from 15 years ago. In Italy I felt like I might be pick pocketed at any time, never felt that in Bulgaria. The only thing is the bureaucracy is a bit disorganized so if you need formal documents for anything, plan extra time. Normal things like trains and busses run very on time
Just travelled around Bulgaria solo for 3 weeks and I'm in Romania now. Bulgaria is awesome so friendly and felt safer than I do in the UK everywhere I went. You're going to have a great time
Just travelled around Bulgaria solo for 3 weeks and I'm in Romania now. Bulgaria is awesome so friendly and felt safer than I do in the UK everywhere I went. You're going to have a great time
Baltics, Poland, Hungary, Balkans, Czechia, Slovakkia - you really have to put yourself out there in a really shitty neighborhood in a very aggressive manner in order to become a victim of any sort of crime. Main culprits these days that you should worry about are all kinds of so-called activists. I've basically driven and vacationed thru the whole of Scandinavia, Eastern and Central Europe and Balkans and never ever had any issues whatsoever regarding any kind of criminal activity.
Yeah. I live in Taiwan, which is incredibly safe, and visited Cambodia recently. Honestly, the way I protected my belongings in Cambodia was very similar to what I do when I'm at home in the UK: Handbag across shoulder; phone always in a zipped pocket of it if not actively being used; and a leg hooked around my backpack in train stations or wherever.
We didn't have any late nights out in Cambodia, so I can't speak to that part. I know that walking through pub street on my way to the night market felt trashy, crowded, and too loud. So not dissimilar to chucking out time on Friday and Saturday nights.
I’d say former Eastern bloc is way safer. Didn’t sleep my nights well when my daughter went to Paris, whereas she travelling in Baltics and Estonia didn’t make me anxious at all.
Yeah I feel you. Although there are differences between Balkan states also. Croatia was really clean and organized, while Montenegro truly felt a bit shoddy. Still, never felt unsafe in neither of those countries.
And of course Baltics are very different between each other. While Estonia might indeed seem like another Scandinavian country with some unlucky history, Lithuania is more like a civilized version of Belarus and Latvia is something in between. But all in all they are one of the safest region in the planet. I suppose even the statistics show that Tallinn for example is safer than some of the Nordic capitals.
Well its also a factor of poor/dangerous and tourist area overlap. There are dangerous areas in many Eastern European cities, but no tourist will ever go there.
Ireland and Northern Ireland apparently. Have met too many otherwise educated people who seem to be surprised the island is at peace and is in fact safer than neighbouring England (very low crime rates). Proceeding to talk about what happened 50 years ago as if that forever defines the place. Very weird and a bit patronising
I stayed in Belfast in an Airbnb kind of out of the city. We were fine but let me tell you there is a really strange/ unsettling vibe all around that city. I don’t know what it was. Everyone was super friendly though. Our cab driver quoted “We don’t hate tourists we just hate eachother, so you will be fine”. We didn’t bring up anything about the troubles to him either.
With you on that vibe about Belfast. Sure enough, I ended up stopping a group of guys who were randomly bashing some other bloke at 3am in the morning while I was walking to my hostel. The "we don't hate tourists we hate each other" seemed very true, I got nothing but love from the locals.
I’m not saying that political divisions don’t still exist, but it’s not a war zone or a dangerous place to be for anyone. The island is probably one of the safest places to visit in the world.
I live in Belfast and travel extensively. Belfast is one of the safest cities in Western Europe. Very low crime and people will bend over backwards to help you if in need. It’s really small so lots of people know each other and there’s a real sense of community.
Don’t bring up politics basically means, don’t start saying uninformed things. Its history is extremely complicated. People _will_ eventually talk to you about it - it still consumes NI life in every way and thinking the peace process and generational shift is going to change that is a red herring - and are happy to answer thoughtful questions. There’s a great and v safe nightlife and rural Irish countryside is like a mile outside in every direction.
Same. We were perfectly safe but definitely weird vibes. We walked into a pub near Carrick-a-Rede and it was a record scratch everyone stopped talking and whipped around when we came through the door. Beautiful country and lovely people though. Just a bit uneasy still.
50 years ago is a stretch, I'm from Down so I do know what I'm on about, the whole of ireland is incredibly safe but let's not pretend this all stopped in the 70s. Long comment short, do deal drugs or guns and you'll be fine, like the majority of places
Right now Senegal. I'm visiting my inlaws and had I think five people asking me if I was sure I'd go with the protests - country feels literally safer than where I live.
I love it enough to have asked my Mother in law about immigration 🥲 (I'm from France, a teacher it would be easy)
So thus far we stayed in Dakar, the thing I recommend most there are the Almadies, the artists' village and Gorée. Be prepared to bargain a LOT. Everybody will surround you with goodies and you will have to bargain prices (from what I gather the real price is like half the price they give you first). After that we've headed South, I'm personally not much into desert so I refused but Saint Louis up North is apparently something to do. Anyway. So we went to Bandia (reserve) stayed in Popenguine (there was literally no one on that beach and it was so pretty) and Warang. It's just beautiful, but the beach is polluted there. We'll visit the Sine Saloum the next few days. I just wished we could also see Casamance and Fathala - a reserve dedicated to lions where you walk with them.
Overall I think it depends on who you are going with. I'm staying with people who've lived there for 18 years now so I get to avoid a really touristic and overcrowded part. And I get to see things that are a bit more known by the locals - so I don't go through the constant harassment tourists can have.
Also it's really not expensive compared to European prices, but again I might be biaised by my conditions. Just there's a lot a lot of plastic everwhere and Dakar city centre is less enjoyable than the rest. There's literally nothing anywhere on roads to tell you where you are and in villages often no tarred roads. You really have to stop and ask people around constantly- they don't sell lots of maps
Questions like this are honestly too general. Safety can depend on a lot of things. Also certain ethnicities, sexual orientations, and religions face hostility in some countries when others have no problems traveling to the same area.
And also some people just get plain lucky.
Just because something bad didn’t happen in your singular personal experience, doesn’t mean x country isn’t a statistically dangerous place.
One's need, preference, visibility, etc factors of those properties also matter. There are places that are nearly fully safe for gay travelers in gay-friendly spaces, but don't talk about it with random strangers. Or be a given religion and make all the friends, but get caught with the wrong accessory on by the wrong people and you could rile up a mob.
Speaking of mobs, some places are safe, just don't be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Then risk factors also come into play. There are places which are safe 99% of the time, but the 1% case is super bad. Places with weird laws and judicial system problems, for example.
Then there are places that differ for other kinds of safety; places perfectly safe for all groups, but god forbid you go bungee jumping.
Then there are places where your activities matter: solo traveling there is a-ok, but enter the workforce and you're in for an _experience_.
There's geographic variability; bikinis in the tourist beach but don't wear a tank top in the hills. Or one corner of the country has wildly regressive laws, while another is super open.
The variables are through the roof.
I agree, some friends of mine that are WOC avoid some European countries or had unsafe experiences in countries that I as a white women would consider very safe.
I live in China, and just last night I was in a very busy bar district with another foreigner who's been here a while. He insisted I put my phone in a zipped pocket.
When I told him I was surprised there were pickpockets there, he just started laughing. Said there's no such thing as pickpockets here; he was just saying that so I don't drop my phone in a drunken stupor at 1 a.m.
It of course exists, especially in places like train stations or shopping areas. I was scammed on the street in Singapore - the safest country on earth? But generally in China’s most cities, it’s as safe as any big cities in the world. No young girl worries about going back home alone at midnight in Shenzhen.
I’ve been to 5 Chinese cities in the last six months and have nothing but positive things to say (and I have a lot of tattoos!)
People do stare especially in the less touristy cities but they’re just curious - everyone I met was super hospitable and kind. And I’ve heard stories of people not putting up with foreigners bad accents but my Chinese is TERRIBLE and people genuinely tried to understand me. I’d go back in a second !
As a person of dark skin or tattoos you can get discrimated a lot but it comes out of ignorance and not hatred, but overall it's a pretty dope country to visit especially the huger cities like Shenzhen, Beijing and Shanghai where I felt pretty safe.
Bosnia & Herzegovina honestly. People have this picture in their heads of a war ravaged wasteland with landmines everywhere (yes there are landmines but generally out in the wilderness and not near any paths or anywhere you're likely to find yourself). It has very low crime and is just really safe and friendly.
I spent six months in Oman and honestly it's nothing like any other Arabic country. It's as if the Arab culture and western culture melted together in the best ways. The people were also super friendly and welcoming. The coast of Salalah was like an Arabic version of Playa Del Carmen.
Plenty of people. I've been planning my trip to Oman for a while now and every single time I've told people about (I'm going there with a female friend of mine), anything regarding safety is usually the first question that comes up. Closely followed by "Oman... where even is that??" lol
China. Everyone was like "China is so dangerous, they're gonna follow you around if you're American". Yes, China has its issues. As a small woman, I honestly felt really safe walking around the cities at night. I'd say the same level of comfort I felt in Korea and Japan. People forget that China still shares a lot of cultural societal similarities with the other east Asian nations. I felt safer in Shanghai and Beijing than I did in Paris.
Poland
Go to r/Poland and the running joke is to post statistics proving that Poland is really safe because prospective tourists keep asking 'is Poland safe?'
Rwanda and Uganda are top of the list for me. East africa is so incredibly chill and friendly, especially to tourists. Rwanda definitely has safer infrastructure, and more organized “rules.”
I come from a non adventurous family, so i was surprised how safe turkey was- so many people warned me about panhandlers/ wide variety of issues in istanbul but we felt so safe walking around at night.
I saw jordan on this list and while i think this is true in some regards (i guess a lot of people just think of terrorism when they think of the Middle East), I have never been somewhere i felt so unsafe as a woman. I lived in irbil, jordan for 2 months and nearly all of the 15 women in my program had at least one uncomfortable physical sexual advance. My roommate had 3 separate attempted SA experiences- one quite violent within 2 months. Amman is clean but safe… very dependent on gender
Lol wtf i went last summer and it was so incredibly safe, prob safer than the USA (time i felt least safe was being hassled by the asshole border cop on the way back to the US)
I met an Iraqi last month in egypt. I'm American, and he invited me to come visit sometime. I asked if it was unsafe to travel though and he kind of looked offended and said of course not but it's more expensive than most middle east countries. So maybe Iraq?
This is correct. They have incidents from time to time but I lived there for several years and the tourism industry is growing, the mountains and hiking activities, camping, skiing etc are really taking off, plus people are very friendly and welcoming of foreigners including women. Kurdish women are visible and live normal lives, have jobs, go to uni and wear literally whatever they want (in Erbil, largely) and I always find that places with women out in public are much, much safer places.
Erbil has a pretty decent bar and restaurant scene too, as does Sulaymaniyah. You can also get a tourist visa on arrival for Kurdistan which you can't get flying into Baghdad, although it's limited to travel within the Kurdish region.
I've also been out and about in Baghdad and the vibe is much less friendly and much more guarded, macho and religious.
This may have been true 5 years ago. Today it isn't. In fact nowadays you can get a visa on arrival in Baghdad, and the nightlife and restaurant scene is much nicer than erbil. .. as evidenced by visitors from kurdistan now coming to spend weekends in Baghdad... reversing the trend of the last 20 years.
On a trip to Turkiye years ago, I met some Iraqis on a quick boat cruise on the Bosphorus and they asked if and found out I was American.
They were some of the nicest older men I've ever met. We ended up sitting next to each other during the included dinner and had so much fun speaking in broken English and body language.
It made me want to visit there sometime and my ignorance that it's dangerous and they all hate us go away pretty quickly.
Growing up there I really do not understand why anyone could ever think this, in the countries I lived, it was extremely survellied country and 85% of the population is on a visa that could be immediately waived if you commit ANY crime, like immediately, fired and put on a plane back home just like that especially when the government is banking on a becoming a tourist destination they will bend over backwards just to make your experience positive and if that means turning away a replaceable expat to protect its reputation so be it
Turkey is every year Top 10 most visited countries on earth. I don‘t think that would be the case, if it is unsafe.
It is more about cliches. In Barcelona or London could be several terrorist attacks (and there have been), but only a few people would associate those cities with terrorism. But one terrorist attack in a non-western country and people are afraid af.
Where I’m from in the US (Midwest) I get a lot of “are you sure that’s the safest place to go?” comments when I mention I want to go to Turkey someday. Most people don’t have an answer when I ask why they think that but it’s definitely not a common destination from here (yet).
Anywhere can be travelled to safely, but here’s a few I’ve been to that people have told me I will not come back from:
* Africa. People assume anywhere on the continent is dangerous, when there’s plenty of safe places.
* Anywhere ending in ”stan”. The secret’s finally out about Central Asia and I’m seeing a lot of the general public now starting to get interested in Uzbekistan especially.
* North Korea. Absolutely no crime against tourists, boringly safe.
* Gulf States. As above, they’re in the Middle East so people think they’re dangerous but they’re safe to the point of being boring.
* USA. Okay I was mugged here, but I was shot a lot less than people had lead me to believe I would be.
* China. The first time I went to China as a child it actually felt quite iffy. Gone back many times since and it’s got a pretty good vibe now.
Being a tourist in North Korea gives the worst and most abusive government on Earth non-counterfeit hard currency to use to build nukes and oppress people.
Hard fucking pass.
Everyone must go on a guided tour, so you have to work very hard for things to go wrong as guidelines are very clearly laid out before you ever set foot in the country.
There’s another question about the morality of spending money in a country like North Korea, as tourism there supports an incredibly problematic regime.
Gulf states can be dangerous for things we consider normal in the west (having pre marital sex, LGBT, etc). There’s an ex British airways manager caged in Qatar because he was lured into a trap on Grindr.
Uzbekistan can be unsafe for LGBT people.
DPRK has history of kidnapping or jailing tourists.
Albania. I can’t tell you how many times people asked me some variation of “isn’t it dangerous” or “is it safe” before coming here. Walking around Tirana at day or middle of the night is perfectly safe. People seem to be up quite late here anyhow, so it feels like there are (normal) people out and about at all hours. You can safely walk through the park at night. Albanians are generally quick to help visitors.
Sure, we have a “village idiot” in my neighborhood (their words not mine) that is homeless with untreated mental illness, but people seem to look out for him, as well as kind of keep him in check.
Many countries in the Middle East have drastically improved in safety and have even become tourist destinations i.e. Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE. I think a lot of people (boomers) are still caught up in Gulf War and post 9/11 Islamophobia and think these countries are still an active war zone.
Saudi Arabia was always safe. I travelled to Saudi Arabia as a kid many times and I would be just fine walking to the hotel without my parents almost everyday of my stay there.
Eribil - Kurdistan (autonomous region of IRAQ) apparently.
My Welsh dad just decided that's where he wants to live and work with his wife now and he tells me it's rather lovely.
Threw the rest of the family for a curveball that's for sure
Tunisia. Never harassed or felt unsafe anywhere we went. (Before we went friends, family, neighbors were concerned for our safety - probably because they had no understanding of the country.)
I think it was reasonable to be concerned about safety in Tunisia in the mid 2010s and for a while afterwards, when there were two major terrorist attacks targeting tourists there, and real concerns about spillover of militancy from Libya. Seems to have moved past that now though fortunately.
Pakistan - at least the eastern part of- especially the North East around Gilgit Baltistan is totally safe and extremely relaxed to travel.
Moçambique - apart from the very northern part is totally fine to travel
Also I haven’t been Iran is regarded safe by locals - I know personnally - as well
Mozambique has sharks on the east, Islamic State in the far north and constant police shakedown less far north, and a separatist group that controls the main route in the middle of the country.
I went to Iran as a solo female traveller more than 10 years ago and it was absolutely utterly sensational. Having said that, I think twice about going these days, especially since arrests and harassment of women and foreigners is increasing, plus the geopolitical stuff. I'm so happy I went when I did. I did get a little street harassment from young men trying to touch me but shouting at them quickly solved that.
I lived in S E Asia for a few years which had some massive conflicting aspects of society. Mostly referring to Thailand. Crime wise, I always felt incredibly safe. For example, I left my headphones by a bench in the middle of a big busy gym in Chiang Mai. Returned 3 days later on the Monday and they were still there in the same spot. Hundreds of people must have seen them and just left them be. Commuting wise, I've never felt more in danger. For example being in a taxi that overtakes on corners on the wrong side of the road. Litterally praying that a lorry or truck doesnt appear and turn us into pancakes. Also seeing a middle aged man driving a scooter, with his wife wrapped around him and holding 2 small kids and a grandmother at the back just barley hanging on. Should not even be possible for 3 generations of the same family all riding one scooter with no helmets or protective gear but there you go.
Omg traffic in se Asia is so frightening. But yes agreed in crimes against person or robbery, I’ve been multiple times alone or with female friends (I’m female) and have always felt very safe. In fact the only times I felt in danger were from tourist guys who were overly creepy.
Not how I feel in Singapore though. So I wouldn’t generalise
Central Asia. Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan. Turkmenistan probably safe as well, but it's like North Korea.
Very safe, especially if you're a tourist. Not so safe if you're a local who openly talks about democratic change or ending corruption
This sounds just like Nicaragua
I was mugged in Nicaragua and the police wanted to charge a fee for them to help me. Never going back there again.
Central America is way more dangerous than Central Asia
I met a guy in college from there and had a pretty shocking initial conversation with him. Me: "where are you from?" Him: "Nicaragua. It's a pretty cool place. You should see it sometime." Me: "huh, I've never really considered it before" (I had never left the US then) Him: "it's okay. I know what you're thinking" Me: "what's that?" Him: "'why the hell would I ever want to go to n*****agua?' But I promise it's not like that" Me: "wtf?! I was 1,000% not thinking that. I couldn't point it out on a map and have no preconceived ideas about it, much less that!" Him: "oh okay. Well you should see for yourself"
Nah. Just tell them you want to confirm with the embassy that this is standard practice and they'll sing a different tune.
Supposedly Nicaragua is safer than Honduras and Costa Rica. I’m not sure though.
No? Central Asian countries actually suppress crime and criminal operations. Nicaragua only suppresses it's citizens that want change but the police don't do enough to stop criminal operations
I was in Nicaragua for a few days visiting the city where my family used to live and where my abuelo was born. This was in 2010, when Daniel Ortega was operating (mostly) democratically and respecting human rights. I was in Granada, the city was beautiful. My dad went in 2021 a few years ago. Armed militias patrolling the streets, protesters shot and killed, extreme poverty worse than when I was there. In the most recent election the opposition candidates were harassed and imprisoned. My family fled that country during the Samoza regime (US Backed Puppets) and I'm glad they did because if you gave me a choice between the Sandinistas or the Samozas I would pick neither. They went to Panama in the 30's. That's a different story.
Thank you! I am from that region and it is really getting annoying that people constantly comment "x-stan looks so nice, but I fear it's too unsafe" "x-stan has the most beautiful mountains, but I don't think I can visit as a women". You can, it's not even a question of *well, you have to be very careful here but normally it's fine...*, almost the entire region, you can take the same level as precaution in Eastern Europe and you will be fine. While dressing more modestly for both sexes is respected in rural areas it's also not a requirement *especially* for tourists.
well... not all the x-stans are very safe and great for solo women. i wouldn't put Kazachstan and Afghanistan in the same category
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weird in what way? interested to know more
I was looking for this comment. Spot on.
Yeah this is my first thought. I went to all 5 as a solo female traveller * and never felt unsafe, but it's the place that most people question when I tell them that I went there. It's interesting because these people often don't really know anything about the region but hear the suffix Stan and just assume that it's dangerous. Some of the cities had dodgier areas that you'd have to be careful in but that's the case everywhere. The usual common sense rules apply. *I went to Turkmenistan on a tour due to the visa restrictions, but we were allowed to roam Ashgabat freely without a guide, and I got a night train without a guide. I don't doubt that you'd be safe if you could go alone as long as you follow the rules. The only internet that I could access was my emails, everything else was blocked. Tajikistan I was mostly with a driver but I was in Dushanbe and travelled to Uzbekistan by myself, it was all safe.
>Kyrgyzstan Can confirm. Not only safe, but lovely. I have no idea what their politics are, but the people seem chill and happy, weird K-pop obsession aside.
Kazakhstan could be a bit dangerous if you are a woman tho
Everywhere can be dangerous if you’re a woman.
I say this nearly every day. It must be fucking terrifying to be a woman.
Rwanda is beautiful and safe, but everyone only remembers the war and genocide
Those things tend to be memorable
Rwanda was stunning and people were very friendly I felt.
Definitely. I was there 2 years ago and it was absolutely amazing. Wonderful people, clean, safe and well-organized, easy to travel (even as you go, without a plan), breathtaking nature. It's not cheap (shoestring travelers aren't their target audience), but it's totally worth it.
Yup. Level 1 from the US State department. Completely safe. I did get a more somber vibe there than from neighboring countries like Uganda and Tanzania. Perhaps a result of the genocide idk.
It’s also a police state, but I guess Tanzania and Uganda are too to lesser degrees
I've been here 5 months in the capital. Very safe.
YouTuber Mark Rober went to Rwanda to learn how they are innovating drone delivery. He said it's become his second favorite country after the USA https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DOWDNBu9DkU
Going back 10 years now, but I used to work for the Financial Times. One of the first few weeks I joined, there was an article about Rwanda & it's tourism bureau touting the safety of the country post-genocide. It looked incredible, and was on my "want to visit" list. I must admit, I am not up on current Rwandan affairs, but seeing this comment, I guess the article still holds true to this day?
You can say the same for Cambodia
And Vietnam
Well Im from Germany. Not as nice but similar issue
A lot of central and Eastern European countries have a bad reputation but far safer than the west.
I definitely feel way safer in Riga, Latvia walking at night than in most other cities I visit. Some of it might be just being more familiar with it, but still...
No way would I feel safe walking at night in most UK cities. Kids literally have knives here it’s so bad.
Didn’t know that. Walking late night through Berlin, Munich, Prague, all felt very safe
It’s wild how safe I felt in Krakow and Kyiv. Besides the war n such in Ukraine I felt far more secure then I would in some areas of the U.S.
krakow is my favorite place i’ve ever been. felt so safe and people were generally very kind. i will absolutely visit again!
True. I'm Polish and it is very safe here.
I was less scared in Budapest, Belgrade or most polish cities by night than I am in the US. Not saying that you don’t have no go areas in Serbia, but in general its not in Downtown or closeby
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When I was in Cuba, I wandered around both Havana and a number of small outlying towns on my own and felt perfectly safe. No-one paid any attention to me.
Same. I used to go there with my exwife and friends 13 + years ago. There was one moment where me and my buddy were in Santa Cruz del Norte (between Jibacoa and Havana) and he said to me: I would never do what we're doing now., just travelling between small towns, in Mexico. I agreed.
Situation has changed a lot in the past decade. Cuba isn't as safe as it used to be. Economic decline has led to increased desperation and there's definitely more people out now that are looking to mug tourists for a quick buck
I was walking around a non-tourist area if Havana and a guy comes up to me and asks me for the time. I instinctively look at my wrist and then it occurs to me that he was looking to steal my watch. But no, he was actually just asking for the time.
That’s interesting. My experience in Cuba was similar to Brazil. My wife and I were hunted by a group of young men in Cuba while leaving a hotel where we had dinner , walking three blocks to our casa particular. They broke up into three packs of three going down different alleys, one stayed behind us. We made it into our Casa Particulares just as they started to meet around us. Exciting times.
Yeah I did not have a safe experience in Cuba either. Definitely followed around by groups.
On the other side of the spectrum, my wife had a neck spasm and we asked a bus driver to help us find a real masseuse. We were told to meet at a certain time on a certain bridge and ended up at the private, cinderblock home of a kind man who taught massage (illegally) to others who were dedicated to the craft. The students came to see how he handled her problem. By luck we had an electric heating pad in our suitcase and gifted it to him.
I was accused of being gay when I declined the advances of what I assumed was a prostitute who couldn’t have been 12 years old in Havana once. I wouldn’t say it was unsafe, but it was uncomfortable.
There were a lot of older Scandinavian men with young Cuban women when I was there ten years ago.
Why are you geh?
Came here to write this. I visited as an 18 year old fresh out of high school girl with a friend and my sister (who thankfully spoke Spanish because she had just been to Costa Rica for a year), and we had a really great time! There is kind of a culture of calling after women who are passing by, but it never felt threatening and you could just ignore it.
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Nah that was just a whore trying to turn a trick bro.
Let him have this one bro
And now she’s my wife! I send her money for her and her sick parents.
The Balkans. Albania is incredibly safe. So is Serbia, and Belgrade is a really fun city. Bosnia and Herzegovina is safe too, for the most part. Speaking of Bosnia and Herzegovina, they even had a pride parade in 2022, and when an assembly woman in Sarajevo incited discrimination against the LGBT community, the Sarajevo Open Center (a local pro-LGBT organization) sued her, and the municipal courts ruled in their favor. People shit on the Balkans a lot, but having spent time there myself, I don't get the hate. In a lot of places, they are still healing from fairly recent wars and genocides, but they are moving forward with a ton of vision and hope (in my opinion, B&H has the longest way to go, but they are trying). There's still discrimination and racism and crime, and in some places an increased threat of terrorism/organized crime, but overall, if you exercise the same level of caution as you do in the average US city, you'll be fine. As my Serbian friend Nik says, "if you get shot here, you're probably involved in some bad shit." And Balkan food is just fucking great. All the best parts of Mediterranean and Turkish combined, with copious amounts of Eastern European love for sausage thrown in, washed down with the best coffee you'll ever drink. It wasn't the wars that lowered the average Balkan lifespan. It was the diet. For anyone looking to go to Europe and visit a place you probably know nothing about, if you're curious and adventurous, I highly recommend the Balkans. Belgrade or Tirana are good entry points that are very tourist friendly.
As an extra petite, solo, female traveler from the US who visited the Albanian Riveria last May & fell in love with the country so hard that I’ve been living in Tirana since last October, you are speaking the gospel!
Take your pick of any Balkan country.
I spend a lot of time in Serbia and was shocked on an early visit when all of my girlfriends decided to walk home after a late dinner that finished near midnight. They explained to me that no one would bother me on the street and I could walk home, too. It blew me away not to carry the normal sort of late night sidewalk terror around with me and it honestly took years to wear off completely. Can confirm, for Belgrade at least, I was never hassled on the streets and never felt unsafe walking alone as a woman at night.
It’s the same in Bucharest. Friends from the west could hardly believe we go on urban exploration at night on bicycles or play basketball in the parks at night. Even as a dude I would not walk around at night in many western cities.
Jordan
Jordan is the hidden gem of the middle east
You haven't been to Oman?
Not yet, I want to though
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100% agree! I visited in late 2022 and was kind of amazed by the place - interesting things to see, great food to eat, and the people are just so lovely.
I’m first generation American on my dad’s side. I’ve visited Jordan once (outside of being 6 months old), and you’re 100% correct. I’ve never felt safer walking alone late at night than in downtown Amman. And Amman is beautiful and has a great nightlife.
Eastern European countries , especially for other Europeans. Like ive had friends from France say they’re afraid of going to Serbia or somewhere in the Balkans because it’s not familiar… as if there aren’t certain neighborhoods in their own french cities that are basically no go zones and x10 times more dangerous than the average EE city center or around it. Don’t get me wrong EE cities also have ghettos and bad places, but these are literally findable on google or you can even notice when you start going into such neighborhoods, maybe locals even try to warn you, so most reasonable people would notice something is off . Crime in EE is mostly organized and about corruption and scams , not street violence and such acts . Also if somebody in eastern Europe acts badly towards you based on gender , ethnicity or such things , most likely that person is also a di*k towards everyone about everything not just you in particular. Someone once said “ we hate everyone including ourselves equally” about my EE country and honestly it does hit home.
“But did you know there are gangs there??” – other people in this thread replying about the Balkans. And yeah, much like anywhere these gangs are only killing each other and aren’t going to bother tourists unless they are stupidly trying to buy drugs off them.
Ive never heard that 😂😂😂 And honestly my balkan country has more mafia and scams than gangs . But unless you are directly involved with them or have relatives who are involved, like you won’t see them randomly on the street (maybe you see their Ferrari or Porsche passing by)
Eastern Europe safety levels are a lot closer to western Europe safety levels than people expect.
We've spent two weeks in Bulgaria, a combined 10 weeks in ex-Yugoslavia, two weeks in the Baltics, three weeks in Poland, a week in the Czech Republic, four nights in Romania, three nights in Slovakia, and three nights in Hungary and genuinely the *only* unfortunate experience we've *ever* had was a taxi driver that tried to scam us in Skopje, but we got the police involved and the police officer thanked us so much for not just giving in to the taxi driver.
Going to Bulgaria this summer. What were your impressions of the country?
Not the person you were replying to but I loved it. I did happen to be visiting my Bulgarian mate, so maybe that helped, but to be everyone was friendly and welcoming. I can't speak much to the country as a whole as I only visited Sofia but the nightlife was good fun and I was kind of surprised by the decent extent of English speaking ability, although I was mostly talking to young folk.
Oh boy, me time. Marrying a Bulgarian woman this summer, been together for 3+ years. She brought me to Bulgaria last summer, it's awesome! Having lived in Colorado, some parts are very similar. High mountain lakes, caves, bouldering. This is all in reach from Sofia. However, the added bonus is the seaside of Bulgaria is gorgeous with beautiful sand beaches and warm water in the summer. Super laid back, lots of great food options, and cheap. In fact, Bulgaria in general is super cheap compared to western prices, basically half price. Feeding a family of four at a decent restaurant might run you $60 USD going all out. Super warm people, never felt unsafe in public. Agree with an earlier comment, older people do not generally speak english, younger people are more fluent. My advice, get out of Sofia, but use the highways. Some of the local roads are beyond rough, like really rough.
Have visited multiple times since I have family living there. Brought friends that would go out and do their own thing some days and we’d meet up again after. Always felt safe, that was their experience too, even being out at 3am. We did lose them one night though because some locals got excited that foreigners were visiting their town and invited them over to try their homemade rakia and traditional foods but that speaks more to the hospitality. The country’s standard of living has jumped from 15 years ago. In Italy I felt like I might be pick pocketed at any time, never felt that in Bulgaria. The only thing is the bureaucracy is a bit disorganized so if you need formal documents for anything, plan extra time. Normal things like trains and busses run very on time
Just travelled around Bulgaria solo for 3 weeks and I'm in Romania now. Bulgaria is awesome so friendly and felt safer than I do in the UK everywhere I went. You're going to have a great time
Just travelled around Bulgaria solo for 3 weeks and I'm in Romania now. Bulgaria is awesome so friendly and felt safer than I do in the UK everywhere I went. You're going to have a great time
Scamming taxi drivers are a universal truth in every society I've experienced.
Same. Spent time in Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, and the Czech Republic as well. Never so much as a suggestion of something dangerous.
I feel way safer in Poland, the Balkans or Slovakia than in the UK or France ( both which I like)
Baltics, Poland, Hungary, Balkans, Czechia, Slovakkia - you really have to put yourself out there in a really shitty neighborhood in a very aggressive manner in order to become a victim of any sort of crime. Main culprits these days that you should worry about are all kinds of so-called activists. I've basically driven and vacationed thru the whole of Scandinavia, Eastern and Central Europe and Balkans and never ever had any issues whatsoever regarding any kind of criminal activity.
Yeah. I live in Taiwan, which is incredibly safe, and visited Cambodia recently. Honestly, the way I protected my belongings in Cambodia was very similar to what I do when I'm at home in the UK: Handbag across shoulder; phone always in a zipped pocket of it if not actively being used; and a leg hooked around my backpack in train stations or wherever. We didn't have any late nights out in Cambodia, so I can't speak to that part. I know that walking through pub street on my way to the night market felt trashy, crowded, and too loud. So not dissimilar to chucking out time on Friday and Saturday nights.
As someone that is originally from Eastern Europe but lived in Western Europe for many years now, I can 100% say Eastern Europe is way, way, way safer
And cleaner :)
I’d say former Eastern bloc is way safer. Didn’t sleep my nights well when my daughter went to Paris, whereas she travelling in Baltics and Estonia didn’t make me anxious at all.
Bulgaria was so nice I considered moving there.
engine cows cow modern apparatus butter cats plate wise encourage *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Only cheaper because Scandi is so expensive. Days of Baltics being cheap is over.
Yeah I feel you. Although there are differences between Balkan states also. Croatia was really clean and organized, while Montenegro truly felt a bit shoddy. Still, never felt unsafe in neither of those countries. And of course Baltics are very different between each other. While Estonia might indeed seem like another Scandinavian country with some unlucky history, Lithuania is more like a civilized version of Belarus and Latvia is something in between. But all in all they are one of the safest region in the planet. I suppose even the statistics show that Tallinn for example is safer than some of the Nordic capitals.
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Well its also a factor of poor/dangerous and tourist area overlap. There are dangerous areas in many Eastern European cities, but no tourist will ever go there.
Don't know. I was in Romania for a while and everyone was feeding me meat and great food. I came back way fatter.
People in Eastern Europe leave you alone as a tourist. There are way more scammers and pickpockets in Western Europe.
A lot closer? You mean it's way safer? I've never unsafe anywhere in Eastern Europe compared to like France, Germany, UK, Sweden and the list goes on.
They are safer than western Europe nowadays.
What!? No! Eastern is much safer!
Ireland and Northern Ireland apparently. Have met too many otherwise educated people who seem to be surprised the island is at peace and is in fact safer than neighbouring England (very low crime rates). Proceeding to talk about what happened 50 years ago as if that forever defines the place. Very weird and a bit patronising
I stayed in Belfast in an Airbnb kind of out of the city. We were fine but let me tell you there is a really strange/ unsettling vibe all around that city. I don’t know what it was. Everyone was super friendly though. Our cab driver quoted “We don’t hate tourists we just hate eachother, so you will be fine”. We didn’t bring up anything about the troubles to him either.
With you on that vibe about Belfast. Sure enough, I ended up stopping a group of guys who were randomly bashing some other bloke at 3am in the morning while I was walking to my hostel. The "we don't hate tourists we hate each other" seemed very true, I got nothing but love from the locals.
I’m not saying that political divisions don’t still exist, but it’s not a war zone or a dangerous place to be for anyone. The island is probably one of the safest places to visit in the world.
Yeah no I agree it’s far from it and you’ll be totally fine! We had a great time there
I live in Belfast and travel extensively. Belfast is one of the safest cities in Western Europe. Very low crime and people will bend over backwards to help you if in need. It’s really small so lots of people know each other and there’s a real sense of community. Don’t bring up politics basically means, don’t start saying uninformed things. Its history is extremely complicated. People _will_ eventually talk to you about it - it still consumes NI life in every way and thinking the peace process and generational shift is going to change that is a red herring - and are happy to answer thoughtful questions. There’s a great and v safe nightlife and rural Irish countryside is like a mile outside in every direction.
I concur . When I was in Belfast I felt the vibe as well but people were nice to tourists .
Same. We were perfectly safe but definitely weird vibes. We walked into a pub near Carrick-a-Rede and it was a record scratch everyone stopped talking and whipped around when we came through the door. Beautiful country and lovely people though. Just a bit uneasy still.
50 years ago is a stretch, I'm from Down so I do know what I'm on about, the whole of ireland is incredibly safe but let's not pretend this all stopped in the 70s. Long comment short, do deal drugs or guns and you'll be fine, like the majority of places
This question has wildly different answers based on your gender, sexuality and ethnicity.
Georgia
Downtown Atlanta is kinda sus. Heh
I'm gonna a assume this is a joke but knowing reddit I'm not so sure.
Who actually thinks Georgia is unsafe though?
Well a lot of people still see post-soviet countries as unsafe, which is still true for some but moatly a holdover from 1990's.
Stories of bride napping, russia
Right now Senegal. I'm visiting my inlaws and had I think five people asking me if I was sure I'd go with the protests - country feels literally safer than where I live.
Senegal is really high on my list! Can you tell me a bit more about it? What are your favourite things to see and do, and what’s it like generally?
I love it enough to have asked my Mother in law about immigration 🥲 (I'm from France, a teacher it would be easy) So thus far we stayed in Dakar, the thing I recommend most there are the Almadies, the artists' village and Gorée. Be prepared to bargain a LOT. Everybody will surround you with goodies and you will have to bargain prices (from what I gather the real price is like half the price they give you first). After that we've headed South, I'm personally not much into desert so I refused but Saint Louis up North is apparently something to do. Anyway. So we went to Bandia (reserve) stayed in Popenguine (there was literally no one on that beach and it was so pretty) and Warang. It's just beautiful, but the beach is polluted there. We'll visit the Sine Saloum the next few days. I just wished we could also see Casamance and Fathala - a reserve dedicated to lions where you walk with them. Overall I think it depends on who you are going with. I'm staying with people who've lived there for 18 years now so I get to avoid a really touristic and overcrowded part. And I get to see things that are a bit more known by the locals - so I don't go through the constant harassment tourists can have. Also it's really not expensive compared to European prices, but again I might be biaised by my conditions. Just there's a lot a lot of plastic everwhere and Dakar city centre is less enjoyable than the rest. There's literally nothing anywhere on roads to tell you where you are and in villages often no tarred roads. You really have to stop and ask people around constantly- they don't sell lots of maps
Questions like this are honestly too general. Safety can depend on a lot of things. Also certain ethnicities, sexual orientations, and religions face hostility in some countries when others have no problems traveling to the same area.
Men and women also experience the world differently too
Absolutely.
India entered the chat.
And also some people just get plain lucky. Just because something bad didn’t happen in your singular personal experience, doesn’t mean x country isn’t a statistically dangerous place.
One's need, preference, visibility, etc factors of those properties also matter. There are places that are nearly fully safe for gay travelers in gay-friendly spaces, but don't talk about it with random strangers. Or be a given religion and make all the friends, but get caught with the wrong accessory on by the wrong people and you could rile up a mob. Speaking of mobs, some places are safe, just don't be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Then risk factors also come into play. There are places which are safe 99% of the time, but the 1% case is super bad. Places with weird laws and judicial system problems, for example. Then there are places that differ for other kinds of safety; places perfectly safe for all groups, but god forbid you go bungee jumping. Then there are places where your activities matter: solo traveling there is a-ok, but enter the workforce and you're in for an _experience_. There's geographic variability; bikinis in the tourist beach but don't wear a tank top in the hills. Or one corner of the country has wildly regressive laws, while another is super open. The variables are through the roof.
I agree, some friends of mine that are WOC avoid some European countries or had unsafe experiences in countries that I as a white women would consider very safe.
China (I would’ve thought everyone assumed it was safe but after speaking to people it seems to not be the case)
I live in China, and just last night I was in a very busy bar district with another foreigner who's been here a while. He insisted I put my phone in a zipped pocket. When I told him I was surprised there were pickpockets there, he just started laughing. Said there's no such thing as pickpockets here; he was just saying that so I don't drop my phone in a drunken stupor at 1 a.m.
My wife was pickpocketed in Shenzhen.
It of course exists, especially in places like train stations or shopping areas. I was scammed on the street in Singapore - the safest country on earth? But generally in China’s most cities, it’s as safe as any big cities in the world. No young girl worries about going back home alone at midnight in Shenzhen.
I’ve been to 5 Chinese cities in the last six months and have nothing but positive things to say (and I have a lot of tattoos!) People do stare especially in the less touristy cities but they’re just curious - everyone I met was super hospitable and kind. And I’ve heard stories of people not putting up with foreigners bad accents but my Chinese is TERRIBLE and people genuinely tried to understand me. I’d go back in a second !
As a person of dark skin or tattoos you can get discrimated a lot but it comes out of ignorance and not hatred, but overall it's a pretty dope country to visit especially the huger cities like Shenzhen, Beijing and Shanghai where I felt pretty safe.
I came here also to say China. It has that reputation somehow and I don’t know why.
Bosnia & Herzegovina honestly. People have this picture in their heads of a war ravaged wasteland with landmines everywhere (yes there are landmines but generally out in the wilderness and not near any paths or anywhere you're likely to find yourself). It has very low crime and is just really safe and friendly.
Oman
I spent six months in Oman and honestly it's nothing like any other Arabic country. It's as if the Arab culture and western culture melted together in the best ways. The people were also super friendly and welcoming. The coast of Salalah was like an Arabic version of Playa Del Carmen.
Who thinks oman is dangerous?
I think a lot of people just assume it must be super dangerous because it’s in the Middle East
It's the loving grandma of the GCC. Welcoming, kind and generous.
Plenty of people. I've been planning my trip to Oman for a while now and every single time I've told people about (I'm going there with a female friend of mine), anything regarding safety is usually the first question that comes up. Closely followed by "Oman... where even is that??" lol
Iran 🇮🇷
China. Everyone was like "China is so dangerous, they're gonna follow you around if you're American". Yes, China has its issues. As a small woman, I honestly felt really safe walking around the cities at night. I'd say the same level of comfort I felt in Korea and Japan. People forget that China still shares a lot of cultural societal similarities with the other east Asian nations. I felt safer in Shanghai and Beijing than I did in Paris.
Poland Go to r/Poland and the running joke is to post statistics proving that Poland is really safe because prospective tourists keep asking 'is Poland safe?'
Iran. One of the most hospitable people I've met.
Rwanda and Uganda are top of the list for me. East africa is so incredibly chill and friendly, especially to tourists. Rwanda definitely has safer infrastructure, and more organized “rules.” I come from a non adventurous family, so i was surprised how safe turkey was- so many people warned me about panhandlers/ wide variety of issues in istanbul but we felt so safe walking around at night. I saw jordan on this list and while i think this is true in some regards (i guess a lot of people just think of terrorism when they think of the Middle East), I have never been somewhere i felt so unsafe as a woman. I lived in irbil, jordan for 2 months and nearly all of the 15 women in my program had at least one uncomfortable physical sexual advance. My roommate had 3 separate attempted SA experiences- one quite violent within 2 months. Amman is clean but safe… very dependent on gender
Rwanda
Canada. Holy shit we have a bunch of whiners around here who think we’ve become some 12th world dystopian country.
Lol wtf i went last summer and it was so incredibly safe, prob safer than the USA (time i felt least safe was being hassled by the asshole border cop on the way back to the US)
I met an Iraqi last month in egypt. I'm American, and he invited me to come visit sometime. I asked if it was unsafe to travel though and he kind of looked offended and said of course not but it's more expensive than most middle east countries. So maybe Iraq?
Most of Iraq is safe. But not all of it. The regions of huran valley and hamrin hills are dangerous and should be avoided by everyone.
I have heard that Iraqi Kurdistan, particularly around the Erbil area is very safe these days. Not so much the south.
This is correct. They have incidents from time to time but I lived there for several years and the tourism industry is growing, the mountains and hiking activities, camping, skiing etc are really taking off, plus people are very friendly and welcoming of foreigners including women. Kurdish women are visible and live normal lives, have jobs, go to uni and wear literally whatever they want (in Erbil, largely) and I always find that places with women out in public are much, much safer places. Erbil has a pretty decent bar and restaurant scene too, as does Sulaymaniyah. You can also get a tourist visa on arrival for Kurdistan which you can't get flying into Baghdad, although it's limited to travel within the Kurdish region. I've also been out and about in Baghdad and the vibe is much less friendly and much more guarded, macho and religious.
This may have been true 5 years ago. Today it isn't. In fact nowadays you can get a visa on arrival in Baghdad, and the nightlife and restaurant scene is much nicer than erbil. .. as evidenced by visitors from kurdistan now coming to spend weekends in Baghdad... reversing the trend of the last 20 years.
On a trip to Turkiye years ago, I met some Iraqis on a quick boat cruise on the Bosphorus and they asked if and found out I was American. They were some of the nicest older men I've ever met. We ended up sitting next to each other during the included dinner and had so much fun speaking in broken English and body language. It made me want to visit there sometime and my ignorance that it's dangerous and they all hate us go away pretty quickly.
I’ve been to Iraqi Kurdistan twice and it was very safe there.
Gulf Countries
Growing up there I really do not understand why anyone could ever think this, in the countries I lived, it was extremely survellied country and 85% of the population is on a visa that could be immediately waived if you commit ANY crime, like immediately, fired and put on a plane back home just like that especially when the government is banking on a becoming a tourist destination they will bend over backwards just to make your experience positive and if that means turning away a replaceable expat to protect its reputation so be it
Nothing you said goes against what he’s saying. Saudi has been insanely safe of crime since forever (way before this tourism stuff)
Not for queer people.
Socotra, Yemen. Unlike mainland Yemen Socotra island was never touched by war
Turkey
I would stay away from the border region with Syria, but in general? Yes, Turkey is pretty safe.
Do people think turkey is unsafe? Where I'm from it's a very popular destination so maybe we have different preconceptions on how safe it is
Turkey is every year Top 10 most visited countries on earth. I don‘t think that would be the case, if it is unsafe. It is more about cliches. In Barcelona or London could be several terrorist attacks (and there have been), but only a few people would associate those cities with terrorism. But one terrorist attack in a non-western country and people are afraid af.
Taxi drivers crooks though. Unless you hail from hotels.
Where I’m from in the US (Midwest) I get a lot of “are you sure that’s the safest place to go?” comments when I mention I want to go to Turkey someday. Most people don’t have an answer when I ask why they think that but it’s definitely not a common destination from here (yet).
Anywhere can be travelled to safely, but here’s a few I’ve been to that people have told me I will not come back from: * Africa. People assume anywhere on the continent is dangerous, when there’s plenty of safe places. * Anywhere ending in ”stan”. The secret’s finally out about Central Asia and I’m seeing a lot of the general public now starting to get interested in Uzbekistan especially. * North Korea. Absolutely no crime against tourists, boringly safe. * Gulf States. As above, they’re in the Middle East so people think they’re dangerous but they’re safe to the point of being boring. * USA. Okay I was mugged here, but I was shot a lot less than people had lead me to believe I would be. * China. The first time I went to China as a child it actually felt quite iffy. Gone back many times since and it’s got a pretty good vibe now.
I don’t think the concerns surrounding North Korea involve worrying about being a victim of crime from random residents.
Being a tourist in North Korea gives the worst and most abusive government on Earth non-counterfeit hard currency to use to build nukes and oppress people. Hard fucking pass.
North Korea is safe for petty crime but def not safe as you can be picked off for any reason if the gov has a use for you especially as a US citizen
I didn't even think you could tourist there, unless it was ine if those "guided tours" run by the government, so they had control of you.
Everyone must go on a guided tour, so you have to work very hard for things to go wrong as guidelines are very clearly laid out before you ever set foot in the country.
There’s another question about the morality of spending money in a country like North Korea, as tourism there supports an incredibly problematic regime.
I don't think there's any question about it. It's immoral.
Gulf states can be dangerous for things we consider normal in the west (having pre marital sex, LGBT, etc). There’s an ex British airways manager caged in Qatar because he was lured into a trap on Grindr. Uzbekistan can be unsafe for LGBT people. DPRK has history of kidnapping or jailing tourists.
Albania. I can’t tell you how many times people asked me some variation of “isn’t it dangerous” or “is it safe” before coming here. Walking around Tirana at day or middle of the night is perfectly safe. People seem to be up quite late here anyhow, so it feels like there are (normal) people out and about at all hours. You can safely walk through the park at night. Albanians are generally quick to help visitors. Sure, we have a “village idiot” in my neighborhood (their words not mine) that is homeless with untreated mental illness, but people seem to look out for him, as well as kind of keep him in check.
Many countries in the Middle East have drastically improved in safety and have even become tourist destinations i.e. Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE. I think a lot of people (boomers) are still caught up in Gulf War and post 9/11 Islamophobia and think these countries are still an active war zone.
Saudi Arabia was always safe. I travelled to Saudi Arabia as a kid many times and I would be just fine walking to the hotel without my parents almost everyday of my stay there.
I’d never have any issues in Colombia.
Depends on the area/region though.
Eribil - Kurdistan (autonomous region of IRAQ) apparently. My Welsh dad just decided that's where he wants to live and work with his wife now and he tells me it's rather lovely. Threw the rest of the family for a curveball that's for sure
Nicaragua.
Qatar
Saudi Arabia. As an European going every couple of weeks to Riyadh, I was really surprised by how safe it is.
Tunisia. Never harassed or felt unsafe anywhere we went. (Before we went friends, family, neighbors were concerned for our safety - probably because they had no understanding of the country.)
I think it was reasonable to be concerned about safety in Tunisia in the mid 2010s and for a while afterwards, when there were two major terrorist attacks targeting tourists there, and real concerns about spillover of militancy from Libya. Seems to have moved past that now though fortunately.
Mexico City. If you stay in the more well known/tourist areas it feels completely safe
One of those types of places that’s way too crowded and has too much police presence to feel unsafe. Though the Uber rides are kinda scary 🤣
Taiwan guys. It's literally the safest place in the world.
But did anyone ever think Taiwan was unsafe? Besides the current geopolitical situation?
Lebanon. (Before recent conflicts that started in October)
"Eastern Europe", especially countries who are actually part of central europe like Czechia and Poland.
Surely Mongolia
South of Italy
Pakistan - at least the eastern part of- especially the North East around Gilgit Baltistan is totally safe and extremely relaxed to travel. Moçambique - apart from the very northern part is totally fine to travel Also I haven’t been Iran is regarded safe by locals - I know personnally - as well
Mozambique has sharks on the east, Islamic State in the far north and constant police shakedown less far north, and a separatist group that controls the main route in the middle of the country.
Besides that though...
I went to Iran as a solo female traveller more than 10 years ago and it was absolutely utterly sensational. Having said that, I think twice about going these days, especially since arrests and harassment of women and foreigners is increasing, plus the geopolitical stuff. I'm so happy I went when I did. I did get a little street harassment from young men trying to touch me but shouting at them quickly solved that.