Solo Travel Safety: Top 25 Tips For Travelling Alone

Solo travel safety is a top priority, when you don’t have others to look out for you. After over 5 years of travelling to 70+ countries, mostly alone, I’ve picked up many tips which I will share with you on how to stay safe.

There are different types of safety to be aware of. Personal safety, safety of possessions, and cyber safety. After all, you do not want to risk having your data and important details stolen.

I’ll share all my top tips for staying safe in any country whilst alone. And can help you plan your trip, if you want any further information.

Read on to see my solo travel safety tips. I’ve saved perhaps the most important of all for the end of this list.

1 Use Facebook Groups to Learn About a Country’s Safety Situation Before Travelling

This is number one on my list because it’s such a useful tool for getting up-to-date and accurate information on how safe a country is or isn’t.

Regular readers will know I don’t like government travel advisories, because they exaggerate risk and are often slow to update.

Instead I find out how safe a place is from Facebook groups.

Firstly, search for the name of the country you’re visiting. Most “touristy” countries will have an active group with thousands of members including locals, expats and recent travellers to the region.

Examples of such groups include “Ecuador Travel Information”, “Argentina Travel Tips” and “Backpacking Colombia”.

Join some of these groups and ask questions, or read recent posts to learn everything you need to know.

For more obscure countries, I recommend “Every Passport Stamp“. This group has some of the world’s most experienced travellers, including many who have visited every country.

They have numerous local contacts and swathes of useful information. So if you’re planning to visit Yemen, Eritrea or Somalia for example, this group is the place to look.

There are other groups out there dedicated to specific regions rather than countries. For example, “Backpacking South America” or “West Africa Travellers”.

I find that private groups are far better than public groups (less spam and often more professionally-moderated).

This isn’t so necessary for very safe countries. If you’re off to Japan or Monaco then you don’t need to do so much research.

But for anywhere with even a 2/5 risk level, this method is the best you can use for safety info.

2 Use Rideshare Apps to Get Around in Cities

Unfortunately public transportation is popular with pickpockets, and street taxis have a disappointingly high track record of dirty tricks. Most commonly, bumping the price up a fair bit.

Rideshare apps such as Uber or Bolt are often more regulated, and drivers are far less likely to pull any shady nonsense on you.

Make sure you download the app and have it set up before you travel. You can see where the two aforementioned apps operate by looking at the Uber Cities or Bolt Cities pages.

If you don’t find either app operating in your chosen destination, there are often local equivalents specific either to certain countries or certain regions. For example Careem is popular in the Middle East and Grab is the go-to app for Southeast Asia.

In many countries, these apps are cheaper than traditional taxis, as well as being safer, so it’s a win-win.

In riskier places, I recommend using rideshare apps to go from door-to-door and avoid unnecessary risk. Ecuador is one unsafe country where I highly recommend doing this.

In safer countries, you can generally walk around without issues in the day, but may want to consider a rideshare app for solo travel at night.

It also keeps your bags safer than bus or train travel would. As the only other person on board will be your driver.

3 Always Purchase a Local SIM Card (Or eSIM)

In the modern era, it’s virtually a necessity to have internet access at your fingertips.

Not just for inanely browsing social media, but also for safety as a solo traveller.

You will need functioning internet on your phone to book rideshare apps, plan routes, research safety, contact embassies if necessary, and much more.

You can almost always find local SIMs at airports, especially during daytime hours. You can also often find them at bus stations, shopping malls and dedicated phone shops. Sometimes at convenience stores too.

Be sure to bring a small metal SIM pin to open up the SIM card slot in your phone.

Alternatively, you can purchase an eSIM and set it up before you travel.

An eSIM removes the need to physically put a SIM card in your phone. It saves a lot of hassle, but is generally more expensive.

Popular eSIM brands include Airalo and Holafly.

I used Airalo in China and it was excellent at bypassing the internet censorship that China is infamous for. All standard social media apps worked fine without issues.

A SIM is also useful for staying in contact with friends and family to update them on your whereabouts.

Free Wi-Fi on the other hand is often not available, can be slow, and can put you at risk.

4 Wear a Moneybelt With RFID Blocking

There are still many countries where cash is king. In large parts of Latin America and Asia, merchants accepting card payments will either be uncommon or virtually impossible to find.

As a result, you will need to carry money with you as well as your cards.

US dollars are the best currency to have for exchanges in most countries, but euros are the top currency in Europe (even in countries that don’t use the euro, it’s often the most common currency to swap).

Even Latin America’s safest countries and many of Southeast Asia’s safest destinations can still have issues, so it’s worth hiding your extra cash.

Have a small amount in your wallet/purse and consider putting some money in your bags. But the bulk of your cash should be concealed in a money belt under your clothing.

The only countries where this method doesn’t work, are those such as Argentina with a major inflation crisis which has led to the value of money crashing, and a need to carry large wads of cash (lock these in your bags instead).

Now, it is also wise to have multiple cards on you including one you can use directly from your wallet/purse, and one hidden in your money belt in case of emergencies.

This is where RFID blocking comes in.

RFID stands for radio-frequency identification.

Unfortunately, as technology evolves, so do scams. And it isn’t unheard of for criminals to take advantage of contactless payments by subtly swiping a device alongside someone’s pocket to take money from the unsuspecting victim.

RFID blocking prevents this from happening. It blocks the signals from sinister devices (and legitimate payment machines), which means contactless payments will not work if your cards are in a money belt, wallet or purse with RFID blocking.

Make sure you look for this when you buy a money belt. Any cost difference between money belts with and without RFID blocking should barely be noticeable.

5 Carry a Dummy Phone and Wallet/Purse

I learnt a few lessons after almost being mugged in Ecuador back in July 2022. One was to carry dummy versions of your valuables to give up, just in case you do become a victim of robbery.

In less safe travel destinations, you should keep the majority of your cash and all valuable cards in your money belt.

Instead, fill your wallet with a few low-value notes and some cards you can afford to lose. For example, your Boots reward card over your driving license.

Worst case scenario and you do get robbed, your attacker needs to think they’ve “won”. Otherwise they could come back for more.

So make sure your wallet has enough in it to convince them during a quick glance that they’ve taken something valuable. A street villain is hardly going to count their takings right in front of you.

Likewise, in dodgier places, carry a cheap phone you can hand over if you need to.

With phones being such an important travel tool these days, you don’t want to lose yours. So look after it.

You can never guarantee your valuables won’t be stolen, even in your hometown or some of the world’s safest locations. But you should always minimise the risk and make things hard for potential assailants.

6 Ensure you Have Both Cash and Cards Available

In some countries, cards are rarely used.

For example, in Bosnia Herzegovina (which happens to be one of the best countries in Europe to travel solo), the country is mostly cash-only with a small handful of exceptions.

If you only bring your card to Bosnia, you’ll instantly lose access to 95% of places and you won’t be able to take buses to other parts of the country.

You will have a miserable experience in beautiful Bosnia without access to cash.

Equally, many establishments around the world no longer take cash payments. Therefore it’s important to have a card, preferably with no foreign transaction fees.

To complicate things further, China prefers payments through apps these days. Most notably, WeChat and Alipay.

Foreign cards won’t work in China, and cash is being phased out.

Whilst it’s currently illegal for vendors to reject cash payments in China, many smaller businesses will do it anyway. And it’s painfully difficult to find cash out there.

It took me 4 hours to get cash when I needed it, which ultimately led to me missing the bus to the Great Wall by several hours (I couldn’t pay for the bus with Alipay and cash was the only alternative…).

I ended up going the following day, but could’ve done without losing a day to a long-winded cash hunt in the searing Chinese summer heat.

I could endlessly rant about the irritations of China’s payment system, but we’ll save that for another day.

7 Spread Your Money Around

As a bare minimum, split money between your wallet/purse and your money belt.

Some people will also recommend stuffing some cash in your bags. I would say this is slightly riskier, as bags are slightly hard to keep control of, but it does spread the risk to another area which is a good thing.

Some people even go further and shove money down their socks, in their shoes and in other places.

Really, a lot of it depends on where you travel to.

In Japan or South Korea, you won’t be robbed at all. These countries are ultra safe. But for a Latin America or Africa trip, be sure to spread the risk.

8 Bring Padlocks for Your Bags

I always bring multiple combination padlocks whilst travelling. You set a code which you can remember, and use locks in one of two ways.

The first is to shut compartments of your bag together.

Let’s say you have a section with your laptop or camera equipment.

If you use a lock to combine two zips together, it will be very tricky to take your valuables away.

Of course, this won’t work in case of bag slashing, or having your entire bag stolen. But those are worst case scenarios, and most thieves are opportunists who prey on easy targets and won’t necessarily go to these lengths.

Don’t be that easy target for them.

The second use of locks, is to have at least one with a retractable metal cable. This can be used to lock your bag to something, so you don’t need to be paying full attention to it.

I’ve stayed in many hostels which either have no lockers or lockers which are too small for my bags. In this case I will seal each bag compartment together, and use the cable lock to secure my bag to a bed or whatever else I can find.

It’s also useful whilst travelling solo on night buses. I use cable locks to attach my bags to my legs as I sleep.

Comfortable? No. Safe? Yes.

If you love to travel solo as I do, then comfort probably won’t be your top priority anyway. But safety always should be.

9 Only Stay in Hostels With Lockers

Now one thing I used to do was stay in hostels without lockers.

This is not a good idea as it means your valuables can be at risk. Theft in shared dorm rooms isn’t something that happens every day, but it’s not unheard of either, so don’t put your belongings at risk.

Always check reviews online before you book a place to stay. If you see “no lockers” then I’d suggest looking elsewhere.

One thing to note is that hostel lockers rarely provide locks for you to use, which makes it vital to bring your own padlocks.

I’m a lot better than I was when I first started travelling alone at finding good places to stay. If you’re a first time solo traveller then you’re bound to find a few stinkers before you get good at finding the best hostels.

I still find the odd bad one now, albeit at a much lower rate than when I first started doing this.

But you can never be too cautious when it comes to safety on the road, therefore you should always stay at places with lockers, if you don’t have your own private room.

10 Always Have Portable Phone Chargers With You

Way back in 2017, before I turned travel into a lifestyle, I lived in Italy for a few months.

One day I went to Milan for a day trip, but by the time I got back, my phone battery had run out of power.

I spent a long time in the dark walking down the wrong streets, then backtracking to the bus stop because I didn’t know how to get back to where I was staying.

I eventually made it back after a lot of wrong turns and a bit of luck.

Don’t be me.

Always bring portable chargers with you when you travel. You never know when you will need to find your way around.

This is especially important in countries which aren’t so safe at nighttime, where you will need to know how to get around without any potential problems arising.

Take every opportunity to charge them, so you always have power.

11 Understand Local Laws Before Travelling

This is important anywhere, but even more so in Middle Eastern countries which tend to be stricter than elsewhere. Perhaps understandably given the volatile security situation in the region.

One day in Jordan, I went to a football game in the capital, Amman.

Now I love to take pictures and soak up the atmosphere when I go to games abroad, so when I saw a large group of police officers marching in unison outside the ground, I thought it would be a cool thing to capture, and whipped my phone out.

Ahhhh, dumb move…

An angry policeman came over and barked at me to delete the photo whilst demanding to see my passport.

After what seemed like an eternity, his friendly colleague got off the phone, defused the situation and things calmed down. But for a while, it seemed like I could possibly face arrest in an Arab country. Not good…

You can read a more detailed version of the story in my worst ever travel stories. This wasn’t a fun moment…

Anyway, you should know it’s a bad idea to take photos of police or military personnel in Arab countries if you study local laws before travelling.

Did you know that it’s also illegal to swear in the UAE, chew gum in Singapore, eat/drink outside during daytime in Brunei (during Ramadan) or cross the road outside of designated crossing points in South Korea?

Well you do now.

Make sure you do your research before you go.

Even if you aren’t British, the UK government website has good information on local laws under the “Safety and Security” section for each country. However it doesn’t mention everything, so you’re best off doing some independent research as well.

Once again, Facebook groups are useful resources to find this information if you can’t find any good websites.

12 Dress Down and Blend in With Locals

The easiest way to become a target for theft, is to stand out from the crowd.

Travel isn’t a fashion parade, you don’t want to stand out, you want to blend in and look like a local.

In general, this means wearing plain clothing without brand names or eye-catching slogans.

And depending on where you go, it can also be smart to avoid wearing jewellery. I no longer wear a watch, having got so used to not doing so during an 8-month Latin America trip.

You should be fine in most parts of Europe (particularly Eastern Europe which is much safer than the west) and the Far East. But Latin America and Africa especially are places where it’s important to dress down.

In some parts of the world, it’s wise to wear local clothing to blend in with the crowd.

Whilst there’s no need to wear a thobe or niqab in a safe country like Saudi Arabia, it’s virtually essential to stay under the radar in a dangerous country such as Yemen.

13 Use a VPN When Accessing the Internet

A VPN (virtual private network) encrypts your data and makes it trickier for hackers to intercept your information, which can be quite vulnerable on free public Wi-Fi (see the next section for more details).

As a result, it’s an essential thing to have on any devices you bring which you use to access the internet (phones, tablets, laptops and so on).

It is especially important for anything where you access important information, such as online banking or whilst purchasing anything online.

Likewise, it is important to use a VPN whilst filling out forms which may require you to input personal information such as your passport details.

In some countries, such as China or Myanmar where the internet is censored, a VPN is necessary for accessing standard western websites, including most major social media platforms.

You should check out my guide on everything you should know before visiting Myanmar if you plan on heading out there. And yes, Myanmar is safe if you stick to the tourist spots.

The downside of VPNs is that they drain a lot more battery and data than you would normally use. So take this into consideration when purchasing a local SIM card and deciding how much data to buy.

Here are some of the best VPNs for travel. Make sure you do your research and pick one that works well for you.

14 Be Careful Using Free Public Wi-Fi Networks

Public Wi-Fi networks are notoriously easy for hackers to access.

If you use a VPN, then you should be fine. Especially if the network comes from a trustworthy company.

For example, “McDonalds Free Wi-Fi” is a lot more trustworthy than “Free Public Wi-Fi” unless you know for certain that the latter is formally set up by the local authorities, a shopping mall or other trustworthy source.

If you do use free public Wi-Fi, with or without a VPN, then you should only ever access websites that start with an https web address. Http sites are less secure (the “s” in https stands for “secure”) and put you at a higher risk of being hacked.

Using data is a much more secure option than using free public Wi-Fi.

The safest thing to do is to use a VPN, access the internet using mobile data, and to only access https sites.

The least safe thing to do is to not use a VPN, use free public Wi-Fi and to access http sites.

15 Don’t Share Your Live Location on Social Media

Yes, I get it can be tempting to let the world know you’re currently staying in the Hilton in Dubai sipping on the most expensive cocktails, but this is not a good idea.

It only requires one bad person to see the post for this to be a bad move.

If someone knows where to find you, and they know you may have valuables on you, then you’re making yourself an easy target.

If you give a vague location such as “France” or “Paris”, then you should be fine provided there are no location-identifying clues in your pictures.

However, you should never tag yourself in a specific place until you’re gone.

By advertising your location (even a broad location such as “France”) then you are telling the world that you are away from home, which can make you an easy target for burglary.

This doesn’t apply so much if you’re a full-time traveller with no set base. But you should always be extra careful before posting locations on social media.

Also, take extra care if you have a large following online. Sometimes being low-key is the best strategy.

16 Talk to Locals Before Going Out Alone at Night

The sad reality of travel is that not everywhere is safe. And safety is on a spectrum, with varying degrees of danger.

On one end of the spectrum, there are places that are safe to walk around alone at any time of day or night where you almost certainly won’t run into problems. For example: Tokyo, Seoul or Singapore.

On the other end, there are places where you are in grave danger at any time of day or night and shouldn’t consider going without armed security. For example: Mogadishu (Somalia), Port-au-Prince (Haiti) or Sana’a (Yemen).

Then you have the middle, which is much more of a grey area. These are generally cities which are safe enough at daytime, but require extra care at night.

The majority of destinations (not just cities) across the world fit into this category, and it’s hard to say which side of the centre line they should be placed on.

In this case, locals are your best friends. They know their homelands better than anyone and can tell you exactly what they think.

Always ask a local if it’s safe to go out after dark. But even then, nuance is needed. For example, solo female travel safety adds different dimensions to the risk factor, which men don’t have to worry about.

To assess whether it’s safe for solo female travellers, it’s best to talk to female locals and get their perspective on the situation.

One of the golden rules of travel (solo or otherwise): locals know best.

17 Be Careful With Alcohol and Avoid Drugs

Alcohol impairs your judgement, and whilst it’s fun to party on your travels, solo travellers in particular need to take extra care.

After all, your friends won’t be there to back you up if something goes wrong. It’s entirely on you to stay safe.

As solo travellers we often meet people in hostels who are up for a night out, and some of them are awesome individuals. But remember, they’re also people you’ve only just met and can’t fully trust at this point, regardless of how friendly they may seem.

Unfortunately, drink spiking is a problem for both male and female travellers.

For men, it can be used to make victims a target for robbery (one extreme example is the scopolamine trend in Colombia). For women, the consequences can be much worse.

Always buy your own drinks whilst travelling solo, and cover them at all times to make it hard for someone to slip something in.

Bottled drinks are a better idea than drinks from a cup or glass, where the top is left wide open.

Even without spiking, your impaired judgement can leave you vulnerable, so only drink what you know you can handle.

And as for drugs, just don’t touch them under any circumstances. It’s silly at the best of times, but when you’re alone in a foreign country, it’s just asking for trouble. Don’t do it.

18 Prepare Adequately if you Visit Remote Areas

Travel isn’t just about tame city breaks in Central Europe, or Spanish beach holidays surrounded by thousands of holidaymakers.

Sometimes it’s hiking through imposing mountains in Peru, or staying with nomads deep inside the Mongolian wilderness.

And if you’re on your own, things are going to get tough in case of illness or injury.

Firstly, keep your ego in check and be aware of your limits.

Unless your name is Bear Grylls, you can’t expect to saunter into the Amazon for a fortnight with little more than a light rucksack and come out unscathed with nothing more than awesome travel stories to share.

Whilst it can be tempting to save money and enjoy some peace and tranquility, you should always consider tours with local experts if you want to get off the beaten track.

A standard smartphone is unlikely to have any signal or internet access up high in a rugged mountain range or deep inside a sprawling rainforest. So don’t rely on your phone to keep your safe here.

Carrying a small book on wilderness survival, and bringing tools with you to implement the advice in the book is not a bad idea.

You should always bring adequate clothing for all weathers. Unless you’re going to the Atacama Desert (the world’s driest place, where rainfall has never been recorded) then you won’t know for certain whether your destination will be hot, cold, wet, dry or something in between.

19 Carry a First Aid Kit With You

This follows on nicely from the previous point.

A first aid kit with plasters, anti-septic wipes, medicines (paracetamol etc.) and other items to treat injuries should be essential regardless of whether you’re boarding down a Nicaraguan volcano at 70km/h or enjoying a peaceful city break in super safe Singapore.

After all, you never know when you might trip over, or cut yourself by accident.

I’d also advise taking a first aid course so you know what to do in case something goes wrong.

As a long-term solo traveller, I do have to use my first aid kit every once in a while. It’s only every been needed for minor issues fortunately, but it’s a necessary thing to have.

20 Register With Your Embassy if Possible and Save Their Contact Details

This solo travel safety tip applies more to riskier countries than your standard Greek beach break really.

If you alert your embassy to your presence in a particular destination, they can assist you if something goes wrong.

For fellow Brits, you can contact embassies through various channels listed here on the government website.

American travellers have the best embassy services available to them in the form of the STEP program.

The Smart Traveler Enrollment Program, to use its full name, ensures US embassies alert travellers to any potentially dangerous situations, and can make contact with family members in an emergency.

Travellers of other nationalities should look at what options their embassies provide for assistance abroad.

One thing I always do before visiting riskier nations is write down the contact details for the British Embassy in each location.

Obviously, if you aren’t British, you should write down your own country’s embassy details instead.

I’ve never had to use them, but it’s always wise to have that backup plan if needed.

21 Always Make Sure Someone is Aware of Your Location

Just to be clear and follow up from an earlier point, this does NOT mean your Instagram followers!

Whilst travelling alone, be sure to let someone know where you are at all times. If you’re going to remote places especially, tell your friends and family where you will be, and how long you expect to be there for.

If you suddenly end up in trouble, then you at least have someone who knows where you should be and can call for help.

The most effective way to share your location is to install a location-tracking app on your phone.

You may not want to do this for privacy reasons, but if you’re going off the grid then it can be a smart thing to do.

The best way to share your location is to purchase a satellite phone. They provide signals from space which should give you a connection even in the most remote corners of the world.

They are however very expensive and there are restrictions or even bans on bringing them into some countries such as Russia, China and India.

You do not need a satellite phone if your travel style is interrailing through Europe or going on city breaks and relaxing beach holidays. It’s more necessary for adventurous travellers.

22 Be Cautious When Strangers Seem Overly Friendly in the Streets

During my very first morning in my first country as a solo traveller (Egypt), I woke up tired and not feeling too well.

I walked out of my hotel, and within seconds a very friendly local approached me.

He seemed really nice, and invited me to have a look at his art store. I had no interest in art, but he was so pleasant, I felt rude saying no.

I followed the guy into his shop, and listened as he enthusiastically explained each of the images in his collection.

He then asked if I wanted to go into a backroom and drink tea with him and his friend.

Ah. My scam senses kicked in at this point and I realised what was going on.

He was going to lure me in, then charge an extortionate amount of money for the tea whilst further pushing his art products.

Now, some strangers can be very friendly, and they can invite you for tea with pure intentions. Especially in the Middle East.

However, in the middle of a touristy area, chances are their intentions are to take your money. Cairo in particular is notorious for these scams, and I realised I was getting drawn right into one. I’d read all about the tea traps before coming.

At best, the tea really would have been free. But he would have used it to try and guilt trip me into paying for his “art” (often overpriced poor quality pieces in these tourist trap scenarios).

Moral of the story: anyone who randomly approaches you in the street and acts in an overly friendly manner, is usually trying to get something from you.

This applies more in touristy places. If you visit a country with very few tourists then there’s a higher chance that locals may well have positive intentions. But definitely not in central Cairo.

Another example of an overly friendly local I encountered was a criminal who stalked me in Belize… Always keep your guard up when you travel alone.

23 Flight Over Fight

Let’s say the worst happens, and you end up in a dodgy situation. Perhaps someone tries to rob you, or someone starts verbally abusing you and displaying signs of aggression.

Always run rather than trying to fight.

There are situations where this may not be possible and you may be cornered.

In those situations, your first reaction should be to hand over your valuables, if that’s what your assailant requests. Fighting should only ever be a last resort. For multiple reasons.

Firstly, fighting will always escalate a situation. And if your opponent has weapons, this could have disastrous consequences.

However it can be difficult to think rationally during a tense situation, which leads to poor choices. After being cornered during a mugging attempt in Quito, my first reaction was to fight my way out of the circle before running off.

I got away with it, kept my phone and escaped unharmed. But I was lucky. This was not a smart move.

Secondly, you never know how people around you will react. In some countries, particularly in East Asia, there’s a “protect your own” mentality. In these cases, locals will side with a local over a foreigner before establishing the facts of the situation.

If you’re in trouble, running from danger should always be the best option.

24 Stay Away From Stray Dogs

It baffles me to see how common it is for travellers to pet dogs abroad, especially strays.

Dogs can carry rabies, and rabies has virtually a 100% fatality rate when symptoms develop. It is spread through bites and scratches from infected animals.

Rabies is prevalent in most of Africa, Asia and Latin America according to the World Health Organization.

Even if you’ve had the rabies vaccine before travelling (a smart idea), you WILL need to go for further vaccinations if you are bitten by an animal.

However if you’ve not had the vaccine, you will require more follow-up injections, which can be painful and expensive as well as being a lot of hassle which will impact on your travels.

I’ve met people who had to go through this process. And it can be avoided by simply staying away from dogs.

Please note that all mammals can spread rabies. Aside from dogs, bats are the creatures you should be most wary of.

Rabies is a very serious problem. Make sure you treat it that way.

25 HAVE GOOD TRAVEL INSURANCE

Perhaps this is the most important point of all. Travel insurance is VITAL when you travel. You never know when something will go wrong on the road, and you can be in BIG trouble without insurance.

Insurance is used to compensate you when something goes wrong and you are left out of pocket. It can cover different things.

Travel insurance can cover you if you lose (or have stolen) your travel documents, your money or if your flights are cancelled.

However, if you read the small print, you will often only be able to reclaim a small amount of your losses once excesses and claim limits are taken into account.

Insurance only has a minor impact for these sorts of issues, however…

There is one reason why travel insurance is so important: medical issues.

In Uruguay I fell ill, went to hospital and ended up with a £1,150 (US$1,460) medical bill for what seemed like something pretty minor. Ouch.

Fortunately with travel insurance, I was refunded for most of this and only paid the £125 (US$160) excess in the end.

Travel insurance has also saved me hundreds of pounds/dollars/euros etc. in Singapore and Colombia on separate occasions.

It’s an investment, not an expense.

There are countless horror stories out there about people who ended up with life-changing medical bills because they didn’t have travel insurance.

Such as this man who faced a £41,000 (US$52,000) bill in Turkey after falling ill with pneumonia.

Or this American lady who paid US$78,000 (£61,000) to fly back to the USA from Northern Ireland, incorrectly thinking her health insurance meant travel insurance wasn’t necessary.

Then there’s this man whose family said they needed £65,000 (US$83,000) to repatriate him after he was injured in Thailand without any known insurance.

Always take out travel insurance before you go abroad. And check the small print to ensure it covers you adequately for medical expenses.

Bonus 26: Seek Expert Travel Planning Advice From Someone Who’s Done it Before

If you’re a first time solo traveller, it can be fairly daunting when you aren’t fully aware of what to expect.

You should consider talking to an experienced traveller to plan how you’re going to stay safe on the road.

I offer these services and can talk to you for half an hour, an hour, or arrange a customised session where we can talk through your plans. I will give you tips to ensure that you not only have a great time, but also stay safe whilst doing so.

My recommendation for first-time solo travellers would be to stick to “easy” parts of the world such as Europe or Southeast Asia.

Latin America is incredible, but comes with a few more challenges. And Africa is mostly for people who have a bit more experience under their belt.

I specialise in travel safety and solo budget travel. So let’s arrange a chat if you want to make the most of your time abroad!