7 Ways to STAY SAFE when you TRAVEL ALONE

[00:00] Hello internet, Kristen here. Today we're talking about how to travel alone safely. So I've been traveling alone for over nine years. I've been to over 50 countries by myself on every continent and planet earth except for Antarctica. And I pitch hiked on all of them alone too. I'm here to tell

[00:17] you that a lot of things that people are going to tell you are not safe, that you should never do by yourself. It's not really true. I don't believe that traveling alone is inherently unsafe or less safe and traveling with, say, the wrong person or the wrong people. And I do believe that it gives us

[00:33] so many benefits in life that you just can't trade. It's an opportunity to sort of be selfish for the first time for some of us in our entire lives. It's the opportunity to sharpen your intuition, find out what you're made of and come back like really confident and badass. So grab this opportunity

[00:48] with both hands. And let's talk about some really simple ways to make sure that you stay safe when you travel alone. Starting with number one and that is to stay aware. Staying aware means paying attention to the things that are happening around you, paying attention to how you feel in a certain

[01:03] situation, paying attention to how maybe you're being observed by people, usually in almost every situation I've had where I've traveled, I felt fine. I have felt safe. I've come up against very few bad situations, one of which we'll talk about later, where things just didn't go right for me.

[01:20] But I think the first thing and that's a really simple thing is just to take in your surroundings. Just, you know, listen, be watching, be paying close attention to everything that's going on around you. And I think you're going to find that that alone makes you feel a lot calmer and better about

[01:36] the situation. Number two, do your research. I love showing up to a place and mostly winging it. I've been known to show up to a place without any accommodation booked or any plans whatsoever. And then just completely winging it from there. But there are a few things that I always know before

[01:52] I go. What are the major scams? What are the dangers in this particular place that I need to be aware of? What are some of the things that as a woman traveling alone, I should know, such as modesty or maybe

[02:05] some beliefs in the country that are not similar to where I come from, which is very progressive. What are some of the things that I need to know about how I address people? For example, in India, you don't want to use your left hand to gesture it. Or for example, in Ho Chi Minh City,

[02:17] you don't want to have your phone out because someone could come by and snatch it out of your hand. These are just things that if you know, if you Google a little bit before you go, you don't have to worry about as much when you get there. Definitely research airport scams.

[02:30] This is a big one. This is where many, many people take their first tumble. Why? You're easy prey when you get off of a long international flight. You're tired. You don't know much yet about your surroundings, and if you just do a little bit of research on what a taxi should cost,

[02:45] whether or not you can get an Uber, whether or not you can get a SIM card, and personally, I always withdraw cash at the airport ATM. It's really good to do that initial research so that you don't get scammed because that's a really crappy way to start a trip. Number three, this might be the

[03:01] biggest one. Don't get intoxicated. If you want to go out with your friends and have a couple drinks, by all means go for it, but the biggest problems tend to arise when you go out. You're not with anyone

[03:13] you know, so no one's really responsible for watching you, and you shouldn't make anyone responsible for watching you anyway, and you get too intoxicated, and that makes you a very easy target. If you are careful about your alcohol intake, you're going to eliminate seriously like 90% of the

[03:29] problems that can be fall a solo traveler, especially a solo female traveler, but guys too, it's important to make sure that you lay off the sauce, and anyway, you're going to have a better time on your travels if you're not super long over, so limit the amount of alcohol that you're

[03:45] taking in, and limit the amount of nights that you're out drinking so that you can actually get to know the place that you're in. That brings me to number four, which is related, and that's to think twice before going out alone at night. So I used to live in Berlin, Germany, and walking around alone at night,

[03:59] there was no big deal because the sidewalks pretty much are always full of people, and it's a pretty safe city overall, and so for me walking alone at night, they're not a big problem. Would I do that in my home city of Los Angeles? No. And the only time that I actually ran into a big

[04:18] problem when I was abroad was when I went out alone at night. I've talked about this in the 10 mistakes that you can make traveling alone video, but to repeat it here, I was groped when I was walking alone at night in Nepal. I should have made sure that someone was with me before I went out

[04:34] to buy water. The power got cut early. I didn't see that coming, and so I just went out to buy water, and that's when it happened. So unfortunately, I have to learn that the hard way, and most of the time

[04:46] when bad things happen, when you travel alone, it's going to be because you broke one of your own rules. Find other people to go out with if you want to go out at night, but you can meet them at your accommodation. You can meet them often in online forums. I have to be my travel muse solo female traveler connect

[05:00] group on Facebook. That's a great way to meet other solo travelers. It's going to be linked below. Number five, be intuitive. Over time, your intuition just gets better and better when you solo travel,

[05:12] and you should listen to it. So if you are in a situation where there's a voice in the back of your head that is saying, no, no, no, don't feel like you have to be polite and continue to do something that you're not comfortable with. I think that's actually one of the biggest superpowers that

[05:27] traveling alone has given me is that I just don't feel the need to explain myself, be polite or say yes if I don't want to anymore. I will just be like, I'm going to go now because I want to, and I just don't feel like I have to explain myself. On the other hand, that's why I've ended up

[05:44] hitchhiking in so many places, and sometimes picking up hitchhikers as well, and backpacking by myself, road tripping by myself doing so many things by myself, because I really trust my ability at this point

[05:56] to read a situation, to read people, and to know whether it's a yes or a no for me. I do want to say that my point number six actually is to not be so afraid of things that you never say yes,

[06:09] because the beauty of solo traveling is that you're going to meet a lot of people who kind of want to take you under their wing or expose you to their culture in a really amazing ways. I've been invited to so many cool things because there was space for one person, and I almost always said yes,

[06:26] unless my intuition was telling me no, but for the most part it's been a yes, and I've been able to just have so many amazing experiences as a result of that, so definitely don't be so afraid of everything

[06:40] that you don't ever let yourself go do those amazing things that as solo travelers we have the opportunity to do. The last thing I want to bring up point number seven is personal products that you can have with you to better ensure your safety. One of them that a lot of solo female travelers

[06:56] swear by is using a door jam, so you can just shove that under a door and then that way it's not really possible to get in if you are sleeping or just want like for your personal safety to make sure that

[07:08] even if someone has a key they can't get in. Not as helpful for sliding glass doors, but at least you can block a hotel door room, a hotel room door, yes, with a door jam. Another thing is a lot of people

[07:22] recommend a personal alarm. It's just something where if you push it it'll make a whole bunch of noise, if you're in a situation where something's going wrong and you really want to get some eyeballs in your direction. You could have something like that with you. Self defense is always a good thing to

[07:38] know though and I do advocate that you train and study that other than that most of the issues you might be looking at are probably going to come down to petty theft and for that I really like the dummy wallet or dummy purse and it's something that you can just easily hand over that doesn't have much in

[07:53] it but that gives the thief something so that they can get away having gotten something from you. So I put the real things of value in a shoe in a boot or a lot of people put it in their bra

[08:05] and then you can have just some cancelled cards or like an old library card or something like that in the dummy purse and that is what you hand over if someone is trying to mug a rob you. I'll do that if I'm in like say a big city in South Africa where muggings are really common or I think in

[08:21] Brazil it would probably be a good idea. Some parts of Europe also not a bad idea to have something like that because pick pockets there are quick and really good so if you can just give them something quick and an easy getaway that isn't a big loss to you that can be a good thing to have with you.

[08:37] When it comes down to it you might be in a situation where you want to go solo travel and everyone around you is telling you that it's dangerous it's a bad idea especially if you're female we tend to hear this a lot and not only do I find it very sexist but I find it unfortunate because I don't think

[08:54] that I would be nearly as empowered as I am that I would have nearly the self confidence that I do and that I would know myself as well as I do if I didn't travel alone so much over the last few years and so if you've never had a chance to do it I hope that you'll take the opportunity and

[09:10] not let people talk you out of it because it's a wonderful way to get to know yourself and there's so many resources on this channel for you if you want to learn more about the best places to solo travel watch that video next and I have tons for you on the solo female travel playlist as well.

[09:26] Thanks for tuning in see you soon