it's unfortunate that i learned that the hard way but at least i can tell you how to avoid that
yourself i have traveled to over 60 countries by myself and there's a lot of things i learned along
the way the hard way so i have 10 big things that you should not do if you're traveling
alone let's start with number 10 and that is not behaving on the road like you do at home
so here's the thing you are alive right now you're watching this video good for you that means that
what you're doing so far is totally working and unless you live in a tiny isolated village chances
are you've had things come up situations in life where you had to act in a certain way to preserve
your uh like ability to live so don't forget that when you're on the road so a lot of times people
when they're on vacation they don't act the same way that they would if they were at home they're a
lot more careless they're a lot more like haylet's party and while i totally get that it might be the
first time you're tasting pure freedom of course you want to live it up as much as possible but
don't forget that the things that you do at home will keep you alive abroad as well number nine
listen to your intuition so a lot of us especially those of us who have been traveling for a long
time there are certain rules that we hold sacred and pretty much all of us who have had a problem
ended up breaking one of those rules myself included and i will definitely talk about that
later on in this video your intuition is a lot sharper than you think and if you've got that
little voice in the back of your head that's telling you this is bad you don't need to be
polite you don't need to explain yourself you don't need to say yes you don't need to be honest
this is your opportunity to say you know what no i'm going to back out of this situation i don't
feel good about it and it is the most empowering thing ever i have to tell you when you decide
that no is an okay answer number eight i know this might seem obvious but don't get too intoxicated
a lot of the situations where things have gone wrong for people especially solo travelers
all starts here it comes from getting too drunk when you're on your own you're with new people
who like maybe don't have your best interests in mind or just don't know you well enough to
like babysit you and this is when your decision making can go not so great so if you drink too
much you might black out you might end up deciding to do something or trust someone that you normally
wouldn't your intuition is harder to hear in these situations your judgment is not as good so i know
that when you're traveling for the first time you want to meet people you want to be social and you
can totally do that but that doesn't mean that you have to get totally wasted and so really watch it
really pace yourself when you're drinking and if you struggle with that then maybe don't drink i
haven't drank for four years now and i can tell you from the bottom of my heart traveling sober
is amazing as well and it may seem like it's going to be super isolating and boring but it is quite
the opposite so while we're on the topic of not getting too intoxicated let's go into number seven
which is watch what you drink there are places where sometimes the alcohol is poisoned honestly
and you could also get roofied like if someone just hands you a drink you really need to question
where that actually came from when i was traveling in indonesia there were some problems with people
drinking whiskey that was actually like not good and like getting blindness or even dying from it
and so i only drank beer when i was there beer that i could see them open right in front of me
there's never an opportunity for someone to slip something in there so just think twice
really about what you're drinking and be really careful remember that you are responsible for
your safety especially if you're traveling alone so you need to be the number one guard of that
number six is not reading up on scams and dangers before you go i am the type who just loves to show
up somewhere and totally wing it i went to bangkok nine years ago with a one-way ticket and nothing
booked and i had the best trip of my life but i did read up on scams dangers and things to know
before i went you can still totally open yourself up to serendipity without putting yourself in
danger i just want to give you an example if you were to land at the bali airport for example
without having any idea about all the scams that you're in for you're going to get taken for a ride
you've got sim cards that they're selling for 45 dollars which is astronomical in indonesia you've
got taxis that they're going to try to sell you for sometimes 10 times the price i'm so serious
you've got unmarked taxis there and that's another thing that is really smart to avoid you never know
where they're taking you you want to make sure they have their credentials and so not knowing
that that's what you're in for before you get to the airport is going to set you up for failure
that is really just more monetary but there's other things you need to know like for your own
personal safety for example if you're in ho chi minh city you need to be really careful about your
your bag and so in that case i would do well i personally love a fanny pack but just be really
careful about what you're carrying on your person because there are people who ride by on motorbikes
and just cut it off of you if you know that before you go then you won't be one of those people who
it happens to because you're going to be prepared it takes like 10 minutes of googling and like
read message boards read what comes up in travel blogs where people are giving you recommendations
buy a guidebook if you like guidebooks don't go into a situation blind where you really don't
know what you're in for number five has more to do with should you carry any kind of weapon um i
i guess it's hard to really say what you should do in this situation because everyone's going to feel
really differently about what's right for them but just know that in europe for example a knife
or even mace are considered a concealed weapon it's not actually legal for you to have those
things so just know that you know those are things that you could totally do yeah i suppose you need
to look into the laws and regulations wherever you're going and quite often you can't even put
these things in checked luggage and certainly not in carry-on luggage either but you can carry a
personal alarm you can carry a door jam these are both really small the door jamb blocks anyone from
being able to get into your room and the personal alarm you know if you have an issue and you
pull the alarm it's going to make such a loud noise that the person might just want to run away
another thing that you can do to help yourself out is have a dummy wallet or a dummy purse it's just
an extra purse where you put like some cancelled cards or a library card a little bit of petty cash
and then put all of the rest of your belongings in your bra and your shoe in another place where it's
hidden and then that way if someone like comes up and they want something from you hand it off
right away easy no scuffle no resistance just give it to them they want a quick getaway just
as much as you want them to get away so these are not bad ideas to have with you
i never have had a situation where it would have been necessary to pull a gun or a knife on someone
so i'm glad that that hasn't come up for me after over 60 countries alone but you can do things like
the door jam and the personal alarm if nothing else for peace of mind number four is walking
around alone especially at night so i know in some places it would really be fine to walk around
alone and i hike alone all the time so in like natural areas national parks these are areas where
i don't worry about it i used to live in berlin germany i would walk alone there but i would not
walk alone through the parks at night you know there's certain places where it's just not smart
to walk alone like even during the daytime in cape town it's not a good idea to walk around there's
just so many situations where someone could mug you or worse they could beat you up i have several
friends who ended up getting jumped beaten up because they walked home alone from a bar they
knew not to do it but they broke their own rule so sometimes you get a little bit complacent end up
breaking your own rules and that's when bad things happen that was my only bad experience as well it
was in pokhara nepal and i was getting ready to go get water and then the power went out so
all of the street lights went out and i was just like oh no now what am i going to do so instead of
waiting for someone to get back to the hostel who i could ask to go with me to go get water
i got a little bit complacent i got a little bit lazy and i just decided you know what i want to go
do it now so i went out at dusk and then someone groped me and ran and honestly by the time i even
realized what had happened by the time i like turned around i just saw the back of the guy's
head and the bottom of his shoes so nothing could have prepared me for that nothing could have saved
me from that except for probably being in a bigger group of people obviously a knife again none
of that would have helped me in that situation because i it just was so fast that it happened
not putting yourself in a position where things like that can happen in the first place is really
the smartest way to go and uh it's unfortunate that i learned that the hard way but at least i
can tell you how to avoid that yourself number eight is having some kind of backup cash method
i've had situations before where the atm ate my atm card or i lost it things like that happen
have a backup somewhere have it hidden elsewhere in your luggage i also have my mom on my bank
account if you have someone you trust that you can put on your bank account as well that's really
helpful because sometimes you're in a part of the world where it gets flagged as fraud and then you
can't pull out money and then they end up calling the number that they have that just goes to my mom
who will have sell signal who is in the states and is able to answer that call i had that happen in
zambia i had that happen in botswana situations like that will come up they can come up maybe
you get robbed maybe something unfortunate like that happens so having a backup method to keep
yourself afloat is a really good idea number two is not taking charge of your own navigation so
i think it's really important to get a sim card as soon as i land in a country i do that at the
airport unless i read again like the bali example that they're way too expensive and it's a scam but
most of the time you can actually buy the sim card at the airport so i do that immediately i
put it right into my phone i'm activated from day one this has been possible in like 90 of
the countries that i've been to from there i can then track my progress or even get an uber at the
airport to get to my accommodation if that's not possible i like to download offline maps before i
go you can use google for this you can use maps.me which is my preferred for this so again this is
not ruining serendipity for you you can still like leave everything else open to chance but at least
know where you are and the other nice thing about having a sim card is if you're ever lost you can
like pull it out and navigate you can make calls like it saved my butt so many times to have a sim
card with a local number and i highly recommend that you bring an unlocked phone when you travel
so that you can do the same thing the number one thing the biggest mistake i feel like people make
is standing out too much or not trying to blend in if you are a little bit flashy with your money
that's usually all it takes if you are sort of the easiest target that's usually all it takes
so do make sure that you are dressing modestly if in a country where that's important do make
sure that you are doing your best to blend in with the local customs show that you at least
know some of the language learn hello and thank you and it would be so much better to just cut
down what you're bringing travel carry on only go basic and just be there for the experience
like you don't need to wear your jewelry you don't need to wear your designer stuff you don't need to
bring a designer purse traveling the world for me has not meant looking over my shoulder constantly
yes i need to be aware yes i walk with my head held high yes i i have confidence when i talk to
people i look them in the eye i don't let myself get intimidated easily i just enjoy myself and
have an amazing time and i've actually hitchhiked in six out of seven continents i have stayed with
local people i you know generally trust life and i trust the world and by listening to my intuition
and following those rules things have worked out all right for me so everyone needs to sort of
measure for themselves what they are comfortable with but as someone who's been traveling alone
for nine years now those are my top solo female and male travel safety tips hope you enjoyed