Securely Travel Travel Securely
Places to go, people to see, and food to eat. These are all reasons we travel and why we do a bit of homework before we hit the road, get on the airplane or board the cruise ship.
This is part two, we’ll be discussing destination information, as we work our way through the AlertsUSA.com comprehensive Travel Safety Checklist.
The multitude of resources available to us can sometimes be overwhelming. Country briefs are available from many sources, and we here at Securely Travel are no exception. Let’s march through the various resources identified on the checklist and highlight why we view them as good sources of information upon which to form one’s opinion.
The international travel alerts provided by the governments of the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and Australia are excellent pieces. There are over 200 countries in the world, and each has its nuances. The perspective of the United States relationship with a given country may be substantially different than that of Canada, the United Kingdom, or Australia with the exact same country.
You may visit the page right here on Securely Travel (International Alerts) which lists the most recent alerts issued by some of these countries. The Canadian’s don’t have the ability for us to pull from their site and bring it to ours.
Let’s discuss each in turn, and then we’ll dig into what you should be extracting from your review of these sources.
United States
U.S. Dept. of State Country Information
U.S. Dept. of State OSAC Crime & Safety Reports
The US State Department has two entities from which they generate useful information. One is managed by the Bureau of Consular Affairs with collaboration with the Diplomatic Security Service. Their product is regularly disseminated via their travel alerts and briefs.
They use a sliding scale to reflect severity of the situation from the optic of the United States government. The information contained in the security alerts and safety alerts, be they issued by the State Department in Washington DC or an individual Embassy or Consulate will often highlight advice which is being shared with the Official US Government Community.
This permits you the reader to determine if the geographic restrictions or behavior admonishment is applicable to your personal situation.
The second is the Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) is a membership organization, restricted to U.S. entities. Their website advises, “Today, over 3,500 U.S. companies, educational institutions, faith-based institutions, and non-governmental organizations with 16,000 users are OSAC constituents.”
We are happy to advise that Christopher Burgess, the founder of Securely Travel is a member of OSAC and recently attended their two-day “International Travel Safety and Security Forum.”
A great deal of OSAC’s material is available for public consumption. But not all, as some of the materials are restricted to the OSAC constituency. The items which are generally not publicly available are specific country or situational analysis. Crime and Safety reports are outside of the registration wall and thus can be used in determining the risk for a given trip, if any.
Every Travel Security Program being administered by a qualified US entity should be a member of OSAC.
United Kingdom
UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office – Travel Advice - Travel Advice on 225 countries and territories are provided by the UK’s FCO. Their updates are very similar to that of the US State Department, though one can expect a uniquely British perspective.
We have found that their event coverage is a cut above the rest. For example, their World Cup 2018 in Russia was first rate and available to all, as compared to others which was only available to constituents. When we prepared our e-book on Russia 2018, we pulled from the UK FCO’s effort, as it was publicly available open source information, and did not use other restricted/embargoed information as that would have violated the terms of service.
Their country advice format includes segments on:
- Terrorism
- Safety and security
- Local laws and customs
- Entry requirements
- Health
- Natural disasters
- Money
- Travel advice help and support
Canada
The Canadian advisories include information from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
- local safety and security conditions and areas to avoid
- entry and exit requirements
- local laws and culture
- possible health hazards and health restrictions
- natural hazards and climate
- where to find help while you are travelling abroad
The Canadian perspective in various locales is much different than that of the UK and the United States. With that in mind, one will quickly understand that which is applicable to a given travel scenario and that which is less important.
Australia
Australian Dept. of Foreign Affairs – Smart Traveller Program – The Australian product is strongest in the Pacific Rim of all the country products we review and use here at Securely Travel. That said, their product is also severely nuanced for the Australian traveler as one would expect. You can expect to see their influence in our own country synopsis and assessments for countries in their geographic shadow.
Embassy & Consulate Contact Information
We can not stress this enough – WRITE DOWN THE ADDRESS for the embassy or consulate in the area you will be traveling. Also save the phone numbers on that same piece of paper.
Each country has its own emergency services number, make sure you know what the number is for the country you are visiting (911, 112, 113, etc.) .
Far too often travelers save the location of the embassy in a book mark and learn that their lack of connectivity precludes them from accessing the data. Or their device goes missing and with it goes the digital copy of the data. Therefore, we are adamant about copying the location data in hard copy format.
Keep in mind that Offline Maps - Offline maps can be a life saver if you find yourself without access to cellular data while abroad. Google allows you to download maps to both Apple and Android devices for use offline. Full apps are also available in the iTunes and Google Play stores.
My wife thinks I am so old-fashion. I print out our trip-report and put it in the travel folder. In this manner, I just pull that piece of paper from the folder and we are on our way.
Entering and Exiting Countries — Fees.
Surprise! Some countries have Entrance and Exit fees. Make sure when you do your “visa” check we discussed in part one, documents and credentials, that you ask about entry and exit fees. Often, these fees are NOT included in the price of your airline ticket and can range from $25 to $200.
Who wants to be running to the airport ATM and withdrawing funds in local currency on the way out of the country?
Securely Travel Destination Guides
We are in the process of creating travel synopsis which are available on our Country Brief’s page.
Want a specific country brief now?
Should you desire a specific country to move to the front of the queue, reach out to us at [email protected] – if we can accommodate we will, though we reserve the right to assess an administrative charge to jump the queue.
PRIOR: Travel Security Checklist - Documents and Credentials
NEXT: Travel Security Checklist - Medical and Health Risks
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