Whether you're traveling for business or pleasure, when you're visiting a new town that you're not familiar with, how much do you worry about your own safety? What do you do about it, in terms of educating yourself on the town, mitigating risk, and more? What are your best safety tips for other Corporette readers and women travelers? Just to kick off the discussion, here are some things you COULD do or may do (particularly after dark):
t- texting a loved one when you're in for the night, and/or making sure if you part ways with friends that you text each other when you're home
t- Ubering/taxiing everywhere after a certain point at night, even short distances if you get turned around easily
t- turning on "find your friends" or other location apps while you're traveling, even though they suck battery power
t- extensively mapping things out and studying them in your head so you're not the person trying to walk home from drinks or dinner by following Google Maps
t- having real or pretend phone conversations while walking back to your hotel at night for safety
t- wearing a wedding ring when you travel, even if you're not married
t- packing a doorstop or other wedge to add security to the hotel room door
t- not going out by yourself after a certain point in the evening
t- not going to new places by yourself
Personally, the only thing I haven't done on this list is bringing a doorstop with me or wear a fake wedding ring, but it's because I practiced the "don't go to new places by yourself" rule a lot I was single. I am definitely on the more risk averse side - when I went off to NYC to intern at age 20 my parents warned me to "never get on an elevator with a man if you're alone," which seemed kind of crazy to me and is not something I'm advising here - but I tell the story to give you an idea of where I come from. Going down the list...
t- texting a loved one - yep, all the time, definitely for the "I'm in for the night" message. (Off topic but relevant - the last time my nuclear family (hubs + kids + I) went on a mini-vacation to a town a few hours away I texted my mom every time we hit a new location, not so much for safety but in case there was a shooting or something, because I wouldn't want her to wonder. Yes, yes, I am insane.)
t- Ubering/taxiing at night - I have the worst sense of direction on the planet, I swear, and after a recent experience of wandering around downtown Chicago by myself at 11:30 at night knowing my hotel was only a few blocks away... but, um, where? - I decided to just get in an Uber and be done with it. In the future I am totally going to be taking an Uber for even short, embarrassing distances.
t- turning on Find Your Friends - I actually have not done that one because I am stingy with apps that drain my battery power, but it's a smart idea!
t- extensively mapping things out - I have done this more in the past, when smart phones weren't as omnipresent as they are today, but I would still probably do it if I were truly taking a solo vacation. I thought I was super clever when I went to Paris by myself for my bar trip to write very coded messages to myself for Metro directions, so I could just discretely look at a Post-It stuck in my book instead of waving around a map. (But: am I the only one who thinks Google Maps stinks for walking directions? It feels like once I zoom in to my exact block the street names go away - and then the red dot doesn't move until you've already walked for far too long in the wrong direction... etc, etc.)
t- having real or pretend conversations on your phone - another hand raised here. If it's too late or a weird time to get ahold of someone then I just pretend I'm talking to my mother telling me a long story about my aunt, with lots (on my end) of "Oh, no, what was Kathy thinking?!" and "uh huh - and then what happened"? type of dialog. Super spy fo sho!
t- wedding ring - I have not done this but a good friend did - on a lark she decided to take two weeks to drive through as many states as possible, and found that she got really creeped out by some of the hotel clerks, particularly in the South. Her solution was to buy a fake wedding ring at Walmart.
t- doorstop/wedge - I have NOT done this, but whenever I travel by myself when I'm locking the doors I always have a fleeting thought of, yup, would've been a smart idea, and sometimes I have thrown a towel on the ground in front of the door so it won't open smoothly. (In fact, wow, Amazon auto-filled "doorstop hotel security" when I looked up doorstops (affiliate link).)
t- self-imposed curfew - if I'm meeting people or have an event to go to then I don't do this anymore, but I probably would be reluctant to just make a quick run outside the hotel unless I knew exactly where I was going. But when I was young and traveling by myself (again, using Paris as the example), I definitely did not make evening plans just for myself.
t- not traveling by yourself - I'm always in awe of friends and readers who take vacations alone - good for you. I'm so risk averse I haven't done a ton of it, and I regret that now. (My friend Auntie M has traveled extensively by herself, and shared her best tips for traveling solo a few years ago with us - she has a whole section on safety for solo travelers!)
I fully realize some of my personal things my tend towards the "crazy" side of things, but not all of it crazy. So I'd love to hear what you guys do - do you worry about this stuff? Do you relax significantly if you're traveling with a colleague, even if you're in different rooms, or if you've stayed at an exact hotel before? What else are you doing that you put in the "smart, not crazy" checkbox? (And hey, share your crazy things with us too!)
{related: our best self-defense tips}
Readers, what are your thoughts - what are your best safety tips for women travelers? Where is the line between Nervous Nellie crazy and smart? Stock photo via Creative Market / Barn Images. 
