How to figure if it is safe to travel to the area I am interested in?
When planning a trip, I like to make sure I will feel safe enough (I am talking about war/terrorism risk, not pickpockets), or at least I like to have an idea about the risks. I know the risk could be subject to political views (for example the political stability of a region might not be acknowledged by every country) and therefore I am mostly interested in a Western country view.
In order to figure that, I thought about checking travel operators offers. I suppose if they do not organise trips to a specific region, it might be due to political instability risks. But it might be due to a lack of tourist interest too. As I tend to travel without their help, I am not really considering this kind of source as very helpful.
So I am interested in one (or two, for cross-checking) source(s) of information with a western view (I mean I understand the view could be biased) regarding the security of ideally any area in the world. My expectation is that, the same way I can browse a tour operator's catalog of visited areas, I could browse through the areas and see if it is recommended or not to travel there.
Best Answer
In this day and age, the ugly arm of terrorism can reach into any country at any time. Even countries deemed to be safe can be unsafe at an unfortunate moment in time. Speaking as a tour operator, I think most of us plan our trips to go to places deemed safe to visit. We look at risks, weigh the significance of visiting the country versus the risks and downsides before offering a new trip and usually have a Plan B in place in case things go awry.
But the fact that a country is not in our brochure is not an automatic indication of being unsafe, far more destinations are crossed off our lists for being unpopular than are crossed off for being unsafe.
But of course, you the consumer need to convince yourself of that fact. Most of the western governments have websites with travel advice and known risks that cover most every country on the planet. USA, Canada, UK, Australia, etc all have such websites to start your researching. They tend to err on the side of caution, but comparing details between them can give an idea of risks.
Travel blogger sites tend not to be a good reference, as the majority of bloggers have only been to the destination once or twice and so have limited experience with the long term stability (or lack there of) and overall safety of the area.
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Answer 2
Similar to the UK travel advise described in this answer, there is a website of the australian foreign affeirs : http://smartraveller.gov.au/countries/, which provides quite useful information about each country.
Answer 3
There is a detailed and very useful travel advice for several countries by the German Auswärtiges Amt (Ministry of Foreign Affairs). They are up to date and very sensitive towards security. They also provide medical and general advice for travelers in many languages.
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