I hate the travel naysayers. You know, the people who use scare tactics to try to convince me that I can’t travel here or there because it’s too dangerous for a solo female traveler.
I realize that I need to be more safety conscious than a solo male traveler. And more safety conscious than a group traveler. And I realize that many of the naysayers are people who love me and don’t want me to get mugged, raped, or injured.
But the conclusion I’ve drawn is that solo female travelers can go almost anywhere. And they can do it safely, smartly, and have a great time.
The other conclusion I’ve drawn is that the premiere reason why the naysayers think it’s so dangerous is because they know next to nothing about the city or country in question. If you know next to nothing about a place and have never been there personally, of course it’s going to seem exotic and dangerous.
Please don’t call me naive. I deployed to Afghanistan for 15 months. I’ve lived alone in non too stellar neighborhoods. I know people who’ve been mugged, raped, and injured while abroad and in the United States. But I can also tell you that the naysayers are blowing things out of proportion.
And the sad thing is that the more they naysay, the more I want to travel to these places to prove them wrong.
I don’t believe I’ve been in any more danger on this trip than I’ve been in my native Los Angeles, Chicago, or New York City. Of course, it’s more challenging to visit international cities because I don’t know the language, the lay of the land, and sometimes the local customs. And for that reason there are some things I do not do over here that I more freely do at home (like wander the streets at night).
But that is not to say that it is any more unsafe.
I feel like much of our fear of places is grounded in ignorance (e.g., never been there, don’t know anyone who lives there, couldn’t identify where the place is located on a world map, a fixation on a war that happened 30 years ago), versus reality.