In this video, we're gonna talk about some solo travel safety tips for women

And how you can be a smart traveler

Today I'm doing the second part of my travel Q and A, I have a question from Berny in last video was

"Is it safe for a woman to travel alone?"

I'll talk about safety, the kind of choices you're gonna to make as a traveler or how you're gonna take preventive measures

When we go throughout our normal everyday life, we kind of put common safety sense in the back of our minds.

There are times we take safety for granted.

The top of my list is: always be aware of your surroundings.

What's around you? Who's around you?

It's very similar to driving a car.

As a driver, I'm being aware of my surroundings of any pedestrians that are crossing my path,

any cars that are going to cut in my lane, as well as the light that's gonna change right now.

The idea is: if you can see it then you can deter it!

As a traveler, if I can see people coming in on the side of me, or someone walking close to me, and it's a little too close,

they're coming up a little too fast,

then I can think about what kind of action to make to deter a possible snatch or anything like that.

But if you're not focused on your surroundings,

and you're like in la la land,

that kinds of signals to any kind of attacker you're not aware, you're distracted,

then you become an easy target for people.

Even at this moment I'm at a beach park, and I'm videotaping myself,

At the same time I'm seeing what's going on around me to see if anyone's coming towards me.

My hand is on the camera, actually, right now.

You always want to hold whatever is valuable close to you, so that you make it difficult for people to steal.

You wanna wear your purse strap cross over you,

and you wanna put your hand over the bag, or wherever your valuables are:

If you're holding a camera, you want to put your hand over the camera. That makes it more difficult for people to steal.

I always carry my backpack, and what I'll do is I'll swivel it around like this.

With my valuables in front of me, I always have an eye on.

Nothing goes in or out of my bag without me seeing it.

Some traveler made a comment in the forums of how obnoxious it was for travelers to swivel.....

You know like wear their backpack in front of them, like people were gonna steal things.

But that traveler is not gonna be responsible for it if this bag gets stolen.

I'm the one that's gonna be responsible for it.

I'll wear my bag anywhere I damn will, please.

Next tip: act confident.

The trick is all in the attitude.

If you're not feeling confident because you're uncertain of your surroundings,

Fake it!

Fake it! Butch it up! Look tough!

People are gonna read your body language.

I was living in New York, and a New Yorker carries themselves in a certain way that's very like, focused, very strong.

They know where they're going,

and that's kind of what you have to look like even if you may not feel like you know where you're going.

Here another tip is: listen to your gut, or listen to your instinct.

If you feel like something's wrong, it's probably wrong.

So always trust your instinct, always trust those good and bad feelings about people.

Because as a solo traveler, you're gonna have to know who you can trust, and who you can't.

Some travelers are very trusting in strangers,

and they want to be like social and open, and that's all good stuff.

It's just that you also have to be wise about people that you choose to get help for or ask help from.

You're gonna wanna make sure that they're good people.

So, you know, you gonna want to feel around a bit before you trust, you open up,

It's not everyone is gonna be a good person.

Which brings me to the next thing: avoid giving out personal information.

It's easier to strike up a conversation with strangers and other travelers when you're traveling alone.

Sometimes you let your guard down, and maybe you tell them a little too much.

You wanna try and avoid giving any personal information like: if you're traveling alone, if you're single, what hotel you're staying at.

If I happen to slip and tell someone I'm traveling alone, I'll backpedal a little,

and I'll let them know I'm traveling alone right now but I'm meeting someone, you know, in the city that I'm going to.

I don't like to give my relationship status,

and if I do, then I will tell them I'm in a relationship.

If you're going out at night, one, I would avoid any dark places.

Dark alleys, any place that's closed from the public.

Always try and stand in the main street.

A lot of people like to walk around listening to their music. At night, walking alone is not the time to listen to your music,

because you wanna be able to hear everything that's going on around you.

You wanna be able to hear if there's someone coming up behind you, you know.

For me, I also will look at the ground to see if there are shadows coming up behind me.

What I do is I always try and hold something in my hand like this, like a pen, it's a simple pen.

This pen is a potential weapon for me, and I hold it like this, and I flash it around, and this lets any attacker know that visibly I'm armed.

And I'm dangerous.

What you're gonna do is research the appropriate dress code for the country.

If it's a conservative country, then you're gonna wanna dress conservative.

Respect the culture!

You're solo, you're single, you kind of want to meet someone maybe.

You want to dress a little sexy, but for every one guy that you consider hot, there's gonna be twenty that you consider not.

And they're all gonna be looking at you.

Imagine those odds, that's what you're attracting.

If it's your first time traveling alone,

I would recommend researching countries and researching countries that are considered somewhat safe for a women to travel alone, especially for your first time.

What I did for my first country, which was Thailand, I asked friends what countries they felt were safe or they heard were safe.

And they came back to me with two countries, and that was Costa Rica and Thailand.

Another thing is to research travel alerts.

Like for Americans, we have a website called travel.state.gov.

And that's our website, and it lets us know what countries are dangerous for Americans to travel in.

So I always go there to check in on, to read up on the countries that I'm interested in going to.

On that website what I'll also do is I'll sign up for their smart traveler program which is kind of like this program where you tell them when you're gonna be visiting that country, for how long.

You know like a war breaks out, or something like that, they will email you the nearest evacuation sites,

fun stuff like that, which I have had happened to me when I was living in South Korea.

Another thing I'll always kind of look into, or research, before I go some place is:

I want to familiarize myself with the potential scams in that country, so that I'm familiar with it.

If you research, you know, possible scams or dangers in the country then you'll already be aware of what you have to keep in mind to prevent or what you have to be watchful of.

So always remember that.

If you think with your own safety in mind whenever you make a decision,

you're probably gonna make more wise choices than wrong choices.

So hopefully this video was helpful for you.

Let me know what you think.

Leave it down in the comment section below.

If you felt like this video was helpful, give me a thumbs-up or a like.

Hope your travels are safe, smart, and fun.