The Ten Commandments of Solo Female Travel Safety

Solo female travel safety is complex, personal, and dynamic. Best of all, everyone (especially non-female non-travelers) seems to have an opinion.

“You’re going alone? Seriously?”

“That’s not a safe place for a woman to travel.”

“You must be so brave. I would never do that.”

If you haven’t done any solo female travel before, you may have escaped these ridiculous conversations full of misguided myths.

But if you have, this safety inquisition probably sounding all too familiar.

Women tend to get the same misinformed travel questions over and over. So many times that you just… I don’t know… want to write a blog post about solo female travel safety and be done with it?

The answers are as follows:

• Yes, I am going alone.

• No, I will not be alone 100% of the time.

• No, my vagina does not prevent me from experiencing any part of the world. (But, Yes, travel experiences can vary by the gender identity we present.)

• Yes, I feel safe. That is, I feel a little unsafe everywhere, including the USA. Sexism, gender-based violence, and crime exist everywhere. They just come in different global “flavors.” Solo female travel safety isn’t all that different from daily life safety.

• Yes, I do take extra safety precautions that my fellow male travelers usually don’t.

I’m not here to wag my finger and tell you to take all the same precautions that I do. Every woman travels differently. We are not a monolith. Do what works for you.

That said, here are some tips, tricks, and wisdom I’ve accumulated over the past 6 years. I hope they help you stay safe on the road!

1. Listen to the Right Sources

Your family means well. But unless they are diplomats, intelligence officers, or security contractors, chances are they don’t have a very accurate up-to-date read on the safety conditions of a specific location abroad.

The vast majority of news an average American family sees about the non-western world is crisis coverage. This undoubtedly shapes and warps their perspective of safety abroad.

Respectfully hear out your family and friends’ concerns. Understand that they come from a place of love. Then, base your safety decisions off reliable external information.

Instead of listening to Uncle Ken drone on about how China The Enemy is going to throw you in a political prison, download a VPN and use common sense.

Instead of listening to Aunt Karen shriek about how the Mexican cartels are going to kidnap you, take a look at the State Department’s safety map of Mexico and choose a Level 1-2 region for your trip (and avoid drugs).

Refer to your government’s travel warnings and country profiles. Notify your government of your travel, through programs like STEP. Talk to locals and veteran travelers who’ve lived in your destination recently.

These sources (especially when combined) are the most likely to provide you with useful and up-do-date information on solo female travel safety.

2. Offline and Paper Maps

Arguably one of the most vulnerable positions for an international traveler is arriving in a new place and not knowing where to go. Preparation is key.

Step 1: Download Offline Google Maps

Download offline Google Maps for the general area of your destination before you start your trip. Make sure the download radius includes the route from your airport to your accommodation, plus wiggle room in either direction.

Why? Well, you may not have cell signal or wifi when you get to your destination. Or, like me, you may be on your way to buy a local SIM card. Offline will be your best friend.

Step 2: Paper Maps and Written Addresses

For when technology fails, it’s good idea to have important addresses like your hotel or hostel written down on a piece of paper in your wallet. I recommend writing it in both English and the local language. A paper map with your destinations circled is a bonus.

Why? Consider the following:

• The airport SIM card kiosk is closed when your redeye arrives.
• In your excitement over the heated seat and touchscreen, you drop your iPhone in the fancy Japanese toilet upon arrival at Narita.
• Your electronics get stolen off the airport charging station.
• You’re too violently sick from food poisoning to remember your own name, much less your hotel’s.

Because you prepared offline and paper maps, you will still be able to get to your accommodation safely to sort it all out.

(Learn from my misfortunes, pretty please.)

3. Save Foreign Emergency Numbers

911 will not come for you when you’ve fallen off a roof in rural Morocco. 112 will not send a European ambulance to Koh Samui when your friend has crashes their motorbike.

Emergency services numbers are different in each country. Before traveling, it’s a good idea to save them for the countries on your trip. (State deparment’s master list here, and TripWhistle app here). Programming them into your phone as contacts and keeping them written on a piece of paper in your wallet are both great ideas.

For once, the solo female travel safety tip isn’t gender specific. Everyone regardless of gender or travel style should be prepared to call emergency services.

4. The Van Gogh Method of Ehanced Situational Awareness

Be more aware of your surroundings than usual.

If you are walking down the street with ‘iPhone blinders’, hunched over intently focusing your phone instead of what’s going on around you, then you might setting yourself up for failure.

This behavior can make someone an easier target for theft and other crimes. It also broadcasts an “I’m not from here and I don’t know where I’m going” tourist vibe that we’d like to avoid.

Instead, try keeping your eyes forward and using ONE of your ears.

Put on your headphones, but use only one of the earbuds. Follow the audio directions from your map app. Walk confidently and with purpose. Now, you can keep your head up and see what’s going on around you! (Plus, you can take in the sights and sounds of a new culture much better this way.)

If you get super confused, pop into a safe storefront to check your route on your phone. If you need to ask for directions, try approaching families or other women before resorting to asking random guys on the street. In general, a lot of solo female travel safety for my personal travels centers on relying on other women and appearing confident..

5. Know Your Neighborhoods

Knowledge is power. In our hometowns, we know the safe neighborhoods, the ‘meh’ areas, and the danger zones. What about new cities?

Enter some apps in shining armor. Redzone used to be my go-to, but it was recently discontinued. Now, Safety Map Worldwide and GeoSure Global can help you navigate the safety levels of certain streets, routes, and neighborhoods.

If you do end up feeling unsafe, apps like BSafe, Mayday , and Noonlight are solo female travel safety favorites. They can help alert emergency services and/or your personal emergency contacts. If that sounds like something that would give you a bit of peace of mind, you can try them out to see which works best for you.

I also recommend checking out Nomadlist’s neighborhood map for your destination. Remember that scene in Mean Girls where Katy gets the lay of the land in the lunchroom? This is that. But for travelers. Take a look to find hipster haunts, avoid tourist areas, or be aware of high crime zones. If you use it strategically, it can be a pretty cool solo female travel safety “cheat sheet.”

Read more about best apps to keep solo female travelers safe.

6. Drink with caution

You should always have party buddies when exploring the nightlife in a new city for the first time. But, you can’t use your same group of friends from home. You’re in a new country. And, you’re solo. How does that work?

Good news! Most of the time, the road makes friends out of most of us.

In the picture above, I’m in Tulum with a travel buddy who I met the only a few days before in Hydra‘s jungle coworking space.

Hostel common areas, walking tours, coliving and coworking spaces, and language meetups are all good places to build your social circle. If you’re struggling to meet people the old-fashioned way, apps like Tourlina and Bumble BFF can help connect you to other solo female travelers in big cities and mainstream destinations.

Just remember — The travelers you’ve just met will not feel the same sense of responsibility to you as your best friends at home. The locals won’t either. Plus, you’re under the foreigner microscope.

It can feel super frustrating that there’s this extra stress on solo female travelers, but for now that’s just how it is. Always be in a state of mind to take care of yourself. Have a plan A, B, and C for getting home at the end of the night.

P.S. Lovely friends, PLEASE do not run into the ocean after a boozy night out, or let your buddies do it. The ultimate party pooper is when your friends have to recussitate you because tequila told you to be a mermaid. Just wait until morning and save some lives, OK?

7. Beware Solo Hailed Taxis

I’ve had awesome cab rides with friendly locals 95% of the time. But the other 5% haven’t been worth the risk.

I don’t take hailed taxis alone anymore, if I can avoid it. I wouldn’t advise you to either.

Why?

Sexual comments. Asking repeatedly about boyfriends or husbands. Demanding phone numbers, with implicit and explicit threats, using their control of the vehicle as levrage.

One driver made super innapropriate comments about my body while taking a long nonsensical route to the airport through his own neighborhood, repeatedly suggesting that we stop at his house. Another groped my chest while pretending to help with my luggage.

A particularly sleezy one kept the car locked once I reached my destination. He wouldn’t let me out until I gave him my number and agreed to a date.

The most scared I’ve ever been, though, was a midnight ride where a taxi driver took me totally off course towards god knows where. He didn’t even PRETEND to be taking me to my destination when I asked about the detours. “You look like you need some fun,” he said with a nauseating smile. I literally tucked and rolled out of a moving vehicle.

My nightmare taxi experiences range from LA and London to Casablanca and Bangkok. So no matter where you are, remember that taxis aren’t always the safest way home for women traveling alone.

Opt for group rides over solo rides, and rideshare apps over hailed cabs.

I recommend apps like Lyft (N.America), Grab (SE Asia), or Didi (China and S. America).

This way, you can track your ride and get help if needed. You know the driver’s personal info to report to police and/or the app if there’s a problem. You have emergency contact numbers programmed into the app and a “call police” button on your ride’s main screen.

What if rideshare apps are illegal or unavailable in your location? Levrage the worldwide network of female travelers to find a female taxi driver’s phone number.

We often seek out female taxi drivers, and pass around their contact info with each other in person or over social media. It seems obvious, but I honestly only became aware of the trend after moving to Mexico. Another solo female traveler at the beach turned me onto a Whatsapp group of female taxi drivers in town. It’s been a life-saver!

(If you’re new to a city that I’ve been to, DM me @christenomad for my previous female taxi drivers’ contact info).

8. Securing your Private Room

1. Rubber door stop

The best $2 you’ll ever spend.

Pick up one of these bad boys at your local hardware store or online. They’re small, lightweight, and easily pack inside shoes. Just wedge the rubber triangle under your room’s door before you go to bed to prevent intruders.

2. Homemade alarm system

If you want to take it up a notch, you can arrange a makeshift home alarm system inside your room.

Stack glasses or mugs in a pyramid on the floor in front of your door. Then, balance two in a T-shape on the doorknob. You can repeat these steps for any additional doors or large windows.

Now, if anyone tries to get into your room while you’re sleeping, they’ll make a total racket. Probably enough noise scare them off. But more importantly, it buys you crucial time to call emergency numbers and get to a safer place.

3. Store-bought alarm system

Some companies make door stoppers or handle hangers with built-in alarms. These portable alarm systems might be worth looking into as a ready-made safety boost, if you have the spare money and pack space to carry them around.

You may be asking, why do I need these things if I locked my doors and windows?

Never assume that you are the only one with the key to your room.

At the very least, the building’s owner, management, maintenance, cleaning staff, and security guards have access. In some countries, hotel and residential building staff aren’t very thoroughly vetted. This rings even more true for hostels, homestays, Airbnbs, and less formal accomodation.

9. Staying Safe in Shared Rooms

1. Consider an all-female dorm

Hostels are shrewder businesses than you may think. They often charge an extra ~5-20% for female dorms (with the exact same size, bed count, etc. as male dorms) because they know women will pay a premium for safety and privacy.

It’s worse than a pink tax. It’s a pink SAFETY tax.

Guess what? It works.

There’s no dollar value on my safety or my peace of mind while sleeping. I pay the premium for a women’s dorm 99% of the time. And so do many other solo female travelers.

Personally, I’d recommend saving yourself some nightmare mixed-dorm experiences. Mine include waking up to a Dutch boy on his gap year hosting a threesome in our room, and bruising my hand delivering a bloody nose to a blackout 200-lb Ukranian boxer who climbed into my bunk.

On the other hand, lots of my close friends have had nothing but positive experiences in mixed dorms. My time in a mixed dorm in Xi’an China even resulted in some lifelong friends.

Your personal comfort level and budget should be the judge on this one. Read another solo female traveler’s great pro/con list here.

2. Do your research

Read. The. Hostel. Reviews.

Pictures can be photoshopped. Descriptions can be misleading. Search results can be bought.

So, I recommend reading at least 10 reviews, and not the “featured” reviews or ones at the top. Pay special attention to what guests who are similar to you – i.e. solo female travelers – said about safety. (On some sites, like hostelworld or Booking, you can see that demographic data on the review.)

I recently avoided a hostel with a ‘Peeping Tom’ problem in the communal showers because I found cautionary reviews from fellow female travelers staying that week. It’s worth the five minutes.

10. Bring a Fake Wedding Ring

Hear me out.

Should you need to mark yourself as a man’s property for another man to leave you alone? No.

Can you take advantage of a wedding ring as a super easy way to ward off flirters, harassers, and creeps? Hell yes.

It’s so small to carry that it’s worth having for when you need it. Personally, I’ve found it to be a solo female travel lifesaver in Southwest Asia and North Africa.

Bonus Content:

Self-defense classes in foreign countries can be a super fun way to meet other travelers and locals while enhancing your personal safety. Plus, you can learn fighting styles that are specific to each culture and region. Hit a muay thai gym in Thailand. Take judo classes in Tokyo. Try something new!

Just remember that most self-defense tools (e.g. mace, pocketknives, tasers) are not TSA-approved for carry on bags. Even in checked baggage with proper documentation, they may not be allowed across many borders. Best to rely on preventative measures like those listed above, and/or purchase pepper spray upon arrival.

Finally, not all destinations are created equal. Some cities and countries are simply statistically better at solo female travel safety than others — and they’re not always what you’d expect. For more info, check out this guide to some surprisingly safe destinations for solo female travelers.

What are YOUR solo female travel safety tips? Let me know in the comments section below.