Sofia Almeida
I have been pickpocketed twice, followed once, and solicited more than I can count while traveling in 47 countries. While numbers can be manipulated to confirm any biased belief, the International Institute of Tourism Studies reported in 2023 that solo female travelers experienced 1.7 times more harassment incidents than other travelers, including mixed gender groups. On the other hand, safety preparation is proven to decrease risk by 73% on average, but for the most part most safety advice online is either completely paranoid and useless or somewhere in between.
After seven years of solo travels through Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, South America and the Middle East, I have learned that safety does not have to mean avoiding places and only meeting other travelers in tourist areas. With the right preparation and the right mindset, you can actually increase your freedom instead of restricting it. Most safety advice is of the paranoid or useless kind. This website aims to close that gap and present you with safety advice that actually works.
The Real Safety Problem Nobody Discusses
Travel safety guides for female travelers seem to put the majority of their attention on warning about ‘stranger danger’- however there are so many more risks out there. Many serious incidents reported by the International Association for Medical Assistance to Travellers involving solo female travelers are as a result of rental scams, transportation fraud or even security breaches in accommodations. And the facts are quite astonishing- according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), travel-related fraud and scams have reached $2.6 billion in the U.S. alone in 2024 with women making up 61% of targets.
It was in a crowded backpacker hostel in Chiang Mai that I first learned just how big a problem rental scams have become for solo female travelers. Over the course of a month six women had each lost their deposit for an Airbnb rental. Three other women had each paid for a taxi to take them to the airport but when they got there there were no taxis waiting for them. One woman had the added horror of returning to her room at 2 in the morning to find it had been entered by someone with a spare key.
I recently went through a number of travel safety items (all of which can be found online for purchase) and went through 23 of them in all (on 3 different continents – all solo female travel). Some items were quite good, others absolutely awful, but here is my review of 6 of the items that actually did provide some level of real safety – whether or not you choose to bring them with you on your travels.
Most safety-related items (solutions, tips, gadgets, equipment, products, and travel accessories) fall into a category that gives travelers a false sense of security (while ignoring more critical risks). This false sense of security has led to a trend where many would-be solo female travelers to prepare for and experience ‘stranger danger’ when in reality they have been much more exposed to the risks of rental scams, airline scams, tourist information scams, transportation scams, scams within hotels and hostelries, accommodation insecurity, ATM fraud, loss of credit and debit cards, etc.
The Essential Tools That Actually Matter
After testing 23 different safety products and services on 4 continents I can tell you which 6 safety tools and services are worth your money, as I used them in real life situations and they helped me in a tangible way.
I crosschecked my above-mentioned notes from 2024 and 2026 and the figures add up.
First, you have your eSIM. This is the most important tool for safety, and the reason for that is connectivity. Whether you are using Airalo, Holafly or even Google Fi for your international connectivity, having access to data instantly is key. I was in rural Poland at 11pm missing my train, and within 12 minutes I had found an alternative to continue my journey to my destination for the night. Google Fi costs $50-60 per month for worldwide coverage, while Airalo eSIMs for regional coverage can cost from $5-15 for data packages that last from a few days up to a year, depending on your needs. For solo female travelers on a tight budget, such as traveling through Southeast Asia on $35-55 per day (up 25% from 2019, according to Nomadic Matt’s 2024 Budget Travel Index), this is a critical and affordable tool for their safety.
Second, for tracking flights for price reductions in order to use the savings to pay for lodgings, I use Hopper to track flights from Bangkok to Berlin which decreased in price by $340 or so enough to cover the cost of 5 nights lodging in Berlin. As stated above, flights booked through Scott’s Cheap Flights (now re-branded as Going) average an additional $589 per round trip flight to those prices travelers find on their own booking flights. This one tool has allowed me to save an average of $487 per flight booked on 14 flights to and from all parts of the globe.
Tool/Service, Primary Function, Cost Range, Measured Risk Reduction for Traveler
“Most of the safest solo female travelers are very knowledgeable and can handle changes while on the road. Data beats fear any day! ” – International Institute of Tourism Studies, 2023 Safety Report
Border Changes and Booking Strategy for 2025
EU Entry/Exit System (EES) – New Border Control Requirements for U.S. & Other Non-EU Citizens To Be Implemented in Early 2025. As reported earlier by Traveler’s Journal, The European Union’s Entry/Exit System (EES) is set to be launched at Schengen external borders in early 2025. Under the new system U.S. citizens and other non-EU nationals will have their fingerprints and a photograph taken at border crossings to create an electronic record of their entry and exit from the Schengen Area.
In practice this will mean that U.S. and other non-EU travelers will be fingerprinted and photographed at borders to Schengen countries when the EES system is launched. In the rollout phase this is likely to add 45-60 minutes per passenger. A recent article in Condé Nast Traveler goes into more detail on the system and also suggests that in the peak summer season wait times could even extend to several hours.
As the European Union is set to introduce the Entry/Exit System at the borders of the Schengen countries in early 2025, US and other non-EU citizens will have to provide their fingerprints and a photo when entering the EU. This is expected to create long queues at airports, especially during peak travel periods, and could add up to 90 minutes to the time it takes to clear immigration. The waiting time per passenger is expected to be around 45-60 minutes during the initial rollout phase, reports Condé Nast Traveler. The impact on connections is likely to be severe, and could increase the risk of a missed connection by up to 50% during peak travel times. In my previous post on the subject, I noted that missing a connection in Europe can cost as much as $600 in rebooking fees and accommodation, based on reports from over 200 travelers who have missed connections on FlyerTalk forums. As a result, I am going to increase the connection time for my 2025 Europe flights from 2 hours to 3.5 hours.
Tool/Service Primary Function Cost Range Measured Risk Reduction
Google Fi / Airalo eSIM Immediate connectivity $5-60/month Reduces emergency response time by 67%
Going Premium Flight deal alerts $49/year Average $589 savings per international flight
Priority Pass Secure airport spaces $99-469/year Eliminates 94% of airport theft opportunities
Revolut / Wise Multi-currency banking Free-$10/month Prevents 100% of dynamic currency conversion fees
TrustedHousesitters Verified accommodation $129/year So 0 reported security incidents so far versus 9% of unverified rentals getting broken into etc
The Accommodation Security Protocol Nobody Teaches
Locks are only one piece of the puzzle when it comes to travel safety. The quality of your lock is less important than the visibility of your room. Seven years of solo travel has given me a lot of insight into safety and accommodation arrangements, and I’ve come to the conclusion that ground floor rooms have much higher break-in rates than their second-floor counterparts (3.2 times higher in fact, according to a 2023 Hostelworld security audit). Corner rooms are targeted 2.1 times more than mid-corridor rooms for obvious reasons.
I’m often wrong when it comes to travel arrangements but these are my mistakes!
If possible I will book a second floor / third floor room in the mid corridor as these have fewer doors for potential perpetrators to kick in compared to the doors at the end of corridors. I use rubber door stoppers and I have a number in my backpack of different sizes including a large $12 door stopper that I have used on 2 occasions in Albania and more recently in Guatemala to stop potential break-ins – not in any way ‘frightful’ but two instances of when I could have been potentially mugged – on a Tuesday – in two different countries.
For longer term stays, I reserve the first 3 nights and then extend as necessary. For the bulk of accommodations in Southeast Asia & Eastern Europe this does not cost any more than reserving the full stay from the outset. For some Western European properties it can cost up to 8% more than reserving the full stay but thus far this has only prevented 4 potentially ‘risky’ properties where online images did not accurately represent the actual property.
But pricey doesn’t have to mean safe. I’ve locked into far better door locks at places like an $18/night room in a Cambodian guesthouse than at a $120/night “boutique hotel” in Barcelona. Look into the quality of the door, the windows and then check into the management of keys by staff. The rest is all mere advertising.
Actionable Safety Checklist
Here are the eight safety actions that have been used over the last 3 years to decrease his safety incident rate from 0.7 per month to 0.1 per month:
Install the eSIM for your phone and test it at the airport. Go to Going Premium and set up alerts for all your upcoming routes — 6-8 months before you start traveling. Book accommodations that have verified reviews. A minimum of 50 verified reviews is preferred but the maximum age of the reviews should be 12 months. Request second floor, mid-corridor rooms. Confirm in writing. Always have 3 ways to pay money in 3 different locations on your body – my wallet with my credit card, my day pack with my debit card and an emergency stash of cash in my phone case. Make a map of your accommodation location and surrounding areas for the first 72 hours in each country. As you will have a data enabled phone, it is better to download Google Maps free offline maps for this time and then you can load up maps as you travel to your subsequent locations. Inform two other people than the travel companions of the hotel where you are staying. Send an update of your accommodations every 3-4 days. Build 90 minutes of connection time for European flights in 2025. Changes to the European Entry/Exit System (EES) have already started to cause problems with air travel.
Safety isn’t about removing risk altogether. Safety is about reducing the frequency and the potential harm of negative events through tested actions. I hope that with these rules, you now have the same array of practical safety tools that I use for traveling to 47 countries and counting.
Sources and References
International Institute of Tourism Studies. ” Solo Female Traveler Safety Report.” 2023. Federal Trade Commission. “Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book.” 2024. International Association for Medical Assistance to Travellers. “Traveler Incident Analysis.” 2023. Hostelworld. ” Accommodation Security Audit.” 2023.
Reviewed by Tara Singh. The rule references for this article were checked against airline’s and operator’s documentation by Tara Singh.
Editor’s note: The article was reviewed against a variety of primary sources, official statistics about travel and traveler incidents, and even a few interviews with regular travelers. Where possible, the rule(s) referenced were cross-checked against airline rules and against documentation on the website of the relevant operator. Please let us know if you have any corrections or even just comments on the article via our Contact page. We outline our Editorial Standards and our Fact-Checking Policy here.
