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Protect Your Safety While Traveling
With all the risks involved in travel, it’s best to take precautions by preparing ahead—ensuring that you, your home, and your personal valuables are protected.
Protecting Your Home
When planning an extended period away from your home, if possible, get someone to house sit, so your home continues to be occupied. If that’s not feasible, contact the post office and the newspaper to have delivery halted. Piled up newspapers, for example, signal to thieves that no one is home.
It is also suggested to hide empty garbage cans, leave the shades/blinds in their usual positions, and to leave a light on or have a timer installed that will turn on lights and the TV or radio at different intervals.
Call your local police department and inquire about a home vacation check program.
Give a duplicate key to a trusted friend or neighbor, having him or her check in and create the illusion of activity. And lock all doors and windows before you go.
Protecting Your Valuables
Instead of taking your valuables with you or “hiding” them in the house somewhere (thieves know about the freezer by now), rent a safety deposit box.
Instead of carrying more cash than you might need for tipping and phone calls, use traveler’s checks, phone cards, and credit cards. Before you leave the house, record the check numbers as well as the credit card information, both of which you can include in the safety deposit box.
Whatever cash you do carry, along with your travel tickets, keep them all in an inside pocket, a front pants pocket, and/or a money belt. Never carry valuables, tickets, and wallets in a back pocket, as this location is the first (most obvious) target for pickpockets.
Protecting Yourself on the Road
If you are driving a vehicle for the trip, whenever you stop, lock the doors. Hide visible items in the trunk—valuable or not—as thieves have been known to smash a window for a useless item, leaving you with a pricey window-repair bill.
Also, before driving away on a trip, have a tune-up and/or servicing done so that oil is fresh, tires are functional, and water, anti-freeze (if applicable), steering, transmission, and brake fluids are all at optimum levels. Also pack the car with a good spare tire, flashlight, flares, batteries, a fire extinguisher, and a first aid kit.
If you break down, turn on the emergency flashers, lift the car hood, and stay in the car. If you have to leave the vehicle, never leave people behind in the car.
Don’t give hitchhikers a ride, and don’t disclose travel routes and destinations to strangers along the way.
Protecting Your Safety in a Hotel, Motel, or Hostel
Ask for a room that is not on the ground floor. If you get a motel room, which is likely on the ground floor, lock all the windows as well as the door.
Study the lodging’s safety exits and evacuation procedures. Note the location of fire stairs (because you won’t use an elevator if there is a fire), and the location of phones, as well.
Ask for use of the lodging’s safe or safe deposit box, instead of leaving valuables in the room. Take your cash, keys, and credit cards with you, again in a front pocket, not a strappy purse that can easily be clipped at the handle.
When leaving to go sightseeing, lock the doors using all of the available locking mechanisms, which you should also use when inside the room. Use the peephole when there’s a knock at the door and ask for a verbal identification.
Before going out sightseeing, try to get information on the rougher areas you should avoid. Pack lightly, so you have as few bags to carry and as little distracting your attention as possible.
When out sightseeing, have at least a minimum of knowledge of the language (knowing words for police and medic, for instance), and note your surroundings, paying alert attention to the people on all sides of you, especially in crowds and lines.
Plan ahead for sightseeing tours/packages, so you know you will be with a reputable company. Know and be sure your children know the name, address, and phone number of your lodgings.
Try to dress the customary dress of the area, avoiding calling attention to your tourist status with plaid shorts, sandals and socks, and three cameras. And never give your camera to a stranger to shoot a picture of you and yours. In addition, shop at a local grocer for a couple of food items, then place the camera inside the food bag, disguising it to discourage theft.
As long as you prepare in advance, stay aware of your surroundings, and take no unnecessary risks, you don’t have to be hyper-aware or paranoid, just confident that you are doing what you can to protect yourself, your loved ones, and your valuables.
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