There are many tactics to finding safe places to stay when travelling. Some more obvious than others. 😉
What does “safe” even mean?
- Safe can mean different things to different people. In some countries, the only danger is pickpocketed or robbery. In other countries, it can be direct or indirect violence or even kidnapping. City centers can be the safest or least safe depending on the type of crime in that city.
- If you have money or look too different from local population, you don’t want to get targeted and robbed.
- If you’re female, you don’t want to get harassed (or worse) or have long walks home from bars/clubs in dark streets.
- If you don’t speak the local language, you want to stay around more English speakers.
There are usually 3 tactics everyone tries:
- Stay by city center – they figure areas with more people are closer proximity to other people and police. As we already know, areas with more people may have more police and less violent criminals but massive increase in pickpockets.
- Stay by expensive area – they figure more expensive area means more tourists and fancy-ness, and therefore safer. But expensive might only mean closer proximity to the beach or to touristy places. It doesn’t necessarily mean safer.
- Stay by residential area – they figure less people means less tourists for criminals to target. But this is faulty in cities where gangs target locals often (and when police force aren’t concentrated in local neighborhoods).
My tactic?
- Look for vegan restaurants – any area by vegan restaurants is likely to be hip and safe and low-key safe IMO. At least this is what I did in Mexico.
- If you’re in the US, look for Whole Foods. Hahaha.
- Read Google reviews of hotels/motels/hostels in that area. Most of them will tip you off right away if an area is sketch. AirBnb reviews can also be useful as well.