I am settling into my new life in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. I am loving it so far. I feel blessed to be able to call this beautiful town “home.” But while I will live in San Miguel, I will definitely be exploring other towns across Mexico and the world and I hope to share those adventures with you.
It appears that the world is slowly reopening to international travel. Italy recently announced that it will allow vaccinated travelers to visit if they are tested prior to arrival and rapidly tested upon arrival with quarantines depending on their country of origin. This may sound onerous to some but it is music to my solo traveling ears! As social media lights up with news of reopening in Italy and other European countries, I have noticed many social media comments from women, especially black women, asking whether it is “safe” to travel solo generally or to specific countries. Now here I am sharing my five favorite things for safe solo travel.
My Solo Travel
I will restate my solo travel mantra here: It is safe to solo travel EVERYWHERE. You simply have to plan specific to your destination; do your homework and then align your behavior and activities with your destination. I wrote Bald Girl Will Travel: A Guide to Travel Safety & Security for Solo Female Travelers to provide women with practical safety tips for solo travel. You can purchase and download it here.
It is chock full of safety tips and guidance every female solo traveler should follow that I picked up over my several years of traveling solo for business and pleasure and overseeing Global Security and multiple international development organizations.
My Five Favorite Things For Safe Solo Travel
As the official season launches in the United States with Memorial Day on May 31, I wanted to share with you my five favorite things for Safe Solo Travel. I recently shared a YouTube video where I share these items and talk a bit about them. You can check it out here. But I wanted to drop this short blog post to share links to these items, for those of you not on YouTube ( you should be though). These items have served me well in my multiple solo travels and I never leave home without them. Here they are:
- Cloudz Wrist Wallet. This handy dandy wrist wallet allows me to take credit cards and cash without a purse and with most people not noticing. It has RFID technology embedded and the cost makes it inexcusable for you to not own one!
- Jamm Door Stopper and the Addalock. These are two items that I always use together if my bedroom door does not have a lock. They are the Jamm Door Stopper and the Addalock. These items combined together will make it near impossible for someone to enter your room even with a key.
- Mini First Aid Kit. This is something you simply should not travel without. This kit includes bandaids, alcohol swabs. But the great thing is that you can always switch out the contents for items you need like allergy medicine, Immodium, and Activated Charcoal Tablets! I love this one because you can clip it into your carry-on bag.
- Smoke & Carbon Monoxide Detectors. In many countries, smoke, and carbon monoxide detectors are not required by law in hotels and short-term rentals, or even private homes. For this reason, I always travel with one. Bring along the right-sized batteries and place them on a high table. They are small enough to fit in any carry-on or checked bag.
- Vigilant Personal Alarm Whistle. Last but not least is my personal alarm whistle. I like to carry this with me at night especially. I clip it to my purse or belt buckle. It’s loud enough to throw someone off and give you enough time to make a quick exit from a situation. And it clips onto my carry-on bag easily. I love a good clip-on!
HONORABLE MENTION
The Pacsafe Coversafe Hidden Undercover Travel Bra Pouch – a great back-up to the Wrist wallet; AND
The Dorcy LED Mini Flashlight – I prefer using a flashlight to the app on my IPhone. This one is easy to slip into a purse or back pocket.
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