Places You've traveled to, but didn't feel safe in.
 

Go over to the Asia forum, where someone has posted this question. I think it's quite interesting and would like to hear more opinions. Happy Travels!

I've been to europe more than 70 times and haven't found any places where I felt unsafe. But then I wasn;t hanging around dark alleys at 3am.

The only places where I've traveled where I felt any concern were New Orleans and Mexico City. In both places our hotels had armed guards (subtle in NO, openly armed with rifles in Mexico City) and the hotels in both places gave specific instructions on use of cabs and areas to visit/avoid.

I didn't feel really uneasy in either place - but did follow the hotel's instructions on areas to stay out of.

The one place that popped into my head was in the good ol' US of A. In 1991, we stayed overnight in a new hotel South of Market in San Francisco. We looked at the map and figured we could walk to the nearest public transport (don't remember if it was bus or trolley -- whatever).

Anyway, we took three steps out of our nice, clean, new hotel and were surrounded by darkness and drunk, sidewalk-peeing, scary looking dudes. We hightailed it out of there and grabbed a cab on our way home.

The only place I've ever felt unsafe was also in New Orleans. Never happened in Europe.

This post has no point.

Europe is not scary.

Shame on you.

London, Amsterdam, Dublin, Belfast and Copenhagen are the most dangerous cities in the EU for crime.

http://www.finfacts.com/irelandbusin...10008972.shtml

The USA and Kenya last fall just before the elections (but I'd go back in a heartbeat).

Nowhere in Europe have I ever felt unsafe.

Uhm...wait a minute...driving in Istanbul during rush hour! ;-)

Feel safe in Europe.

Did not feel safe in Jamaica,, even 6'4" 200 pound hubby felt creepy in parts of Jamaica... people who just go there and stay in the resorts are fine, but just try wandering around the towns by yourself, yeech.

Midnight in very dark and quiet areas of Venice. But then, I've seen Don't Look Now.

And I really did feel unsafe in Pisa near the secondary train station. Very creepy characters, used syringes in the road, and we saw an elderly American man, on a WWII reunion tour, beaten and bloody after a mugging. This was the train station closer to the Campo dei Miracoli.

When we went to Brazil some years ago, the travel advisory listed it as the second most dangerous place in the world to travel, the first being South Africa.

We were in Sao Paolo, Salvador de Bahia, and Rio, and I never felt that I could really relax there. Too bad, too, because Brazil is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been.

I'm possibly the least paranoid person when it comes to crime but even the people I knew who lived there made me cautious about Brazil.

When I visited Bali I ventured to some of the outer islands near (Amanwana) Moyo Island. It was there where I had some concerns.

Manila,, Philippines.

Which is strange, because I know the language and culture :/.

Twice in Turkey -- first on a small tour with a skilled but risk-taking driver careening down one-track roads, barely avoiding head-ons. The second time in Istanbul when DH and I ventured on foot off the main tourist track and suddenly found ourselves in a dubious area.
We were being watched from tall tenement-type buildings and little children surrounded us throwing shoe polish on our shoes and wanting to "shine" us. We brushed them away, walked very swiftly and prayed we'd find our way out of there soon. We did, of course, but it was a scary situation. Stupid.

Night train from Venice to Nice, stuck in a compartment with drug dealers who didn't know I understood French. One of them tried to steal from my carry-on bag at one point, while we were all 'sleeping'. I walloped him with the bag.

I travel somewhat frequently for work by myself. I can think of several instances of feeling uneasy (as opposed to unsafe). I think the only times I have felt unsafe are:

- walking out of the old KingDome in Seattle with my husband after a ball game, following the crowd and assuming that we would find a taxi. Somehow we lost the crowd and ended up walking for quite a way down a deserted street. The first sign of life was a gas station with a clerk behind a bulletproof glass cage who grudgingly agreed to call us a cab

- being a teenager and insisting that since my family was in Toronto that we should drive across the border for lunch in Buffalo "just to say that we had been to New York" - firstly took a wrong turn down a residential street that we shouldn't have then couldn't find a restaurant and ended up having subs in a food court while a creepy looking man kept calling "pssst" to my brother and I and licking his lips

Those are the only two instances that come to mind that I was actually scared versus that heightened sense of unease/feeling on guard.

On the contrary to some of the posts, I felt perfectly safe in New Orleans. I was petrified to travel there by myself for a conference in 2002. Stayed right in the French Quarter and loved it. Never felt unsafe once. Granted, I followed my boss's strict instructions and didn't venture beyond a certain perimeter of streets - so maybe that doesn't count!

Kingston, Jamica when Jamica was holding an election.

Haita, when surrounded by many residents who were pulling on my clothes and arms and I was seperated from my husband.

Bari only because of the hotel clerk and his warnings. He wouldn't even allow my daughter and I to take our purses out of the hotel. A taxi took us north through an industrial area, a dark and spooky ride, to a beachside fish restaurant. Fantastic dinner! But rather a surreal evening.

I have just come back from Venice and walked alone late at night in many back streets, sometimes not knowing where on earth I was going, just wandering, and I never ever felt unsafe.

I think that many people are just nervous by nature and would feel uneasy in many places that others would not. I know more than one person at home who won't enter their own homes alone late at night.

I don't think I am nervous by nature but there were places in the middle east that made me very uneasy.

Took a tour to Russia in the mid 90's. Our "luxury" hotel had armed guards in the lobby and on the front steps. On the overnight train to St. Petersburg, we were warned not to go to the bar car--they slipped drugs into your drinks--and to lock our cabins from the inside and not open for anyone. We were impressed but not harmed.

Victoria bus station in the wee small hours of the morning after my bus from Utrecht arrived several hours late.

Bluestar although the cities listed have the highest crime rates in Europe but they pale into insignificance compared to many other cities around the world.

It will be interesting to hear what AAfrequentflyer says after the recent trip to Kabul ;)