.
If you must take a taxi or limo, don't
volunteer information about your trip, its duration or its purpose to
your driver. It's nobody's business but your own.
- Put your luggage into the trunk of a taxi or car by yourself
after the driver gets out and opens the trunk for you.
- Request a room on a lower - but not the ground - floor in your
hotel. Ground-floor rooms are less secure. But rooms above floor six
are too high for most conventional fire equipment to reach.
- Most hotel locks are not secure. Purchase small, inexpensive door
and window locks and use them when traveling.
- If you have arranged for transportation at the airport, have a
mutually agreed-upon object or password that is known only to you and
the driver or company picking you up instead of having your name on a
placard.
- Bring a small flashlight on your trip. Having a flashlight will
make you feel more secure if the power goes off.
- Always have the "do not disturb" sign on your door, and don't let
anyone who is unidentified into your room. Confirm who they are
through a view-hole if possible.
- If you are a woman traveling alone, bring a package of men's
boxer shorts with you. Before answering the door to your hotel room,
put the package on your bed, turn on the shower and close the bathroom
door. Your visitor will think you're not alone.
- When leaving your hotel room, leave the "do not disturb" sign on
your door and turn your TV to the local language station. Any
unwelcome guests will assume you are in and are a local.
- Buy plastic connectors that you can place on your luggage when
leaving your room. It won't prevent someone from opening your bags,
but it will tell you if someone has opened them and taken something or
placed contraband items such as drugs in them.
- Never stay in a hotel with hard keys. Hotels with security cards
are safer. Keys can be passed around.
- Dress comfortably and try to fit in. Wearing clothes that are the
height of fashion tells potential muggers or scam artists that you're
foreign and well off.
- Don't advertise your nationality. Wearing a "hip" T-shirt that
announces your nationality often attracts the wrong kind of attention.
Try to look like everyone else.
- Don't use business cards as luggage tags, or any of the
prestigious credit-card or designer tags that provide more information
than is absolutely necessary. Thieves look for tags they recognize.
- Don't get distracted when sightseeing. Scams on unsuspecting
travelers often begin with someone trying to distract their attention.
Scam artists often work in pairs or groups and use distractions to
give them time to rip off tourists.
- Consider purchasing a traveling insurance policy or join a
travel-assistance program such as International SOS. For as little as
$55 for two weeks, you are never more than a toll-free call away from
medical, security or travel-related assistance.
(Courtney Caldwell is the publisher/editor in chief of American
Woman Road & Travel, an online auto and travel resource.
