Pickpockets

Travel should be fun, spontaneous, and freeing, but the road is also riddled with obstacles. Winging it has its place, but when it comes to safety and security, planning ahead and acquiring the right tools to travel safely can ward off a lot of trouble. Before we take off on that big vacation, we need …

Ever since I started this budget travel blog back in 2003, I’ve written regularly about safe travels and the perception of travel risks. Even though people—especially Americans—generally face more deadly risks at home than they do abroad, people who don’t travel much think it’s a big scary world out there and they have to be …

If you’re worrying about losing your valuables to a pickpocket when you travel to Athens, Paris, or Rome—as you probably should—then you may want to invest in some pickpocket proof clothing. It’s like regular travel clothing, but with secret stash spots that will keep your cash and credit cards from getting swiped. I met the …

Which country in the world has the highest rate of crime per capita? It’s not some third-world country that sounds mysterious and shady. It’s the Vatican. Yes, the city state ruled over by the Pope and his crew often gets reported as having the worst crime rate per capita in the world. I first wrote …

More people died in the U.S. last year from “accidental discharge of a firearm” than died in the whole world from airplane crashes. Guatemala’s crime rate is higher than Mexico’s by a wide margin. Eight of the top-10 worst cities for pickpockets are in Europe. (And all of the top 5.) The top-selling beer in …