Safe Travel Abroad

I was mugged. In Rome’s Trastevere neighborhood. In broad daylight. He took my handbag. I got a broken arm. Until recent travels it never dawned on me that the level of safety we feel in the US is not what we feel abroad in a lot of countries, and rightfully so. When do we ever feel really vulnerable and unsafe in the US?

The Mugging Piazza

During our month in China in May, we felt extremely safe due to the lack of violent crime there. Only occasional pickpockets are reported. However, when we are in Europe, our anxiety level peaks. I just read a story on JohnnyJet about a woman who was mugged very early in the morning in Barcelona, which seems to be a hotbed of petty thievery. She admitted to dropping her guard and it caused her no end of a mess. My mugging was at the hand of a guy on a motorbike in Rome’s Trastevere, when stepping out of a taxi. No one in the piazza would help me get off the ground while my husband was making a futile run after the motorbike. It didn’t make me feel warm and fuzzy toward the Romans. Have pity on an injured person on the ground who is asking for help!

How could these occurrences have been avoided? The woman in Barcelona said they didn’t scope the territory well enough, saw the punk and didn’t avoid him as they should have and almost lost further belongings to two others that went after their dropped luggage/backpack. In my case, the guy came around a corner behind me just as I stepped out of the taxi. It was pretty clear to us in retrospect that the cab driver set us up. Lesson learned: don’t ever let your guard down, accept that you are a target, and operate in defensive mode all the time.

Practical tips: scan your passport, tickets, credit cards and other documents and email them to a secure email address. Know where the US consulate or embassy is located and keep the phone number on you in the same hidden pouch where you hide your passport and money. Split your cash between people and then split it again on your person. Have any necessary medical records on a flash drive (and kept on your person in your hidden pouch), registered at an online medical site and/or emailed to a secure email address. Split your medication between suitcases, people or other means so that you have adequate meds until you can replace what you lost – and also make sure you carry the chemical names of your meds with you (generic or brand names can mean little in a foreign country).

Check out both Magellans and Travelsmith for cable reinforced shoulder bags, fanny packs, under-clothing pouches and all kinds of neat gear. The old ounce of prevention adage should be your mantra in travel safety. Recently I found and bought a jacket with zip off sleeves that is the most incredibly designed piece of clothing for travel you could ever find. It has zippered pockets within pockets, magnetic closures, inside hidden pockets – even interior tunnels for your headphone wires. You can safely hide just about anything in this jacket.

Overkill? Only if you deny there is any chance you could be robbed. We are not invincible so don’t operate under that assumption. My arm wasn’t set by the Rome doctor and should have been. He slapped on a cast and sent me on my merry way. Medical care abroad is not always what we are used to in the US. Avoid the need to test that theory!  Stay safe so you have great memories and a happy experience abroad!

Tags: safe travel, travel gear  Posted in: Pam's Other Musings, Travel Planning