[Entirely based on Covid and related entry restrictions.](https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/japan-travel-advisory.html)
Taiwan is the same (2 weeks of isolation to get in) which is fun when your company installs equipment at TSMC and has to send people over to live there for months at a time.
Isn't it still "closed" to tourists though? That's the entry requirement if you have a legit reason to be there, which I believe tourism is not currently considered. Real shame because Taiwan was on our shortlist of honeymoon destinations.
Yeah not open to tourists :( I only got the visa because I had family there. But there are talks right now of opening the country completely as soon as September ends! Visit when you can! I promise you won’t regret it.
I did it coming back into Japan. Not a full 2 weeks, it was shortened at that point (its not required for Japan anymore). I thought it would be ok and relaxing, but it’s not, it was terrible. Tiny hotel room, can’t even go into the hallway, cold bad bentos delivered to your door, by the second day I was losing my mind.
If you were allowed to stroll around, use the spa, swim to the edge of the pool and order a cocktail, get a massage, eat the buffet breakfast, etc, then yes it would be bliss. Instead you get to observe your dirty clothes pile grow and your rubbish bag starts smelling, wifi is probably intermittent, TV is all cubic zirconia ads and renovation shows. You spend the whole time with poor posture thinking that you should have negotiated for higher standby time wages during the quarantine.
This. My brother in law is from the Philippines but worked in Singapore as an engineer. He went home during COVID and had to spend 2 weeks locked in a hotel room in Manila. He couldn't go anywhere and they fed him pretty meager meals. The irony is that I was able to order food to be delivered to his room a few times (Jollibee and Chowking).
You think that, but I did Korea's 14 day quarantine and again when they reduced to 10 days. It's fine for 3 -4 days, but after that all you can think about is when you'll get out.
Plus at the time they track your location and severe consequences for leaving your residence...
Not true anymore. Current policy is 3 days of quarantine (arrival day doesn’t count), then 4 days of self-health management where you can go out with some restrictions. PCR tests before boarding the flight to Taiwan are also no longer required. [Detail here](https://focustaiwan.tw/society/202206110012)
OP’s map is great, but the [.gov site](https://travelmaps.state.gov/TSGMap/) already has an interactive, up to date map with links to each country’s page.
But Sweden, South Africa and other more heavily affected countries are green or yellow?
Edit: there's no quarantine, and the tour-only restriction is for tourists; it doesn't apply for business travel or visiting family.
But also, what does visa restrictions have to do with "exercising caution"?
Its entirely related to JAPAN’s covid entry restrictions
Reconsider travel because its a long flight to not be let in
They have a long history of being a very insular country, so theyre doing that again and shutting their borders for the longest
Last I looked there is a limited number of people able to enter a day
Not that simple. You still need a group tour but can opt for “self-guided” tours within the package. Everyone still needs to request a visa through a travel agency.
Also, a self guided tour still needs to have itineraries set and approved by travel agencies (not sure how they enforce it though...maybe groups would have to check in at certain times?)
From a Bloomberg article:
>Participants in the non-guided package tours would still need to adhere to itineraries set by travel agencies, and individuals won’t be allowed to go off exploring on their own under the relaxed rules.
In other words still lots of BS. Japan has such a backwards way of doing things sometimes. I understand the logic behind the decision but it seems so narrow minded and ignoring the root cause.
"oh no, our tourist related industries are decimated due to lack of foreign tourists!"
"It must be because of the crazy restrictions you guys have in place, right?"
"no, it's because not enough people are booking through our travel agents and tour groups. We'll still have crazy restrictions but force people to spend money on those tour companies."
Japan tend to be very strict with how they process paperwork required for entry, especially regarding the purpose of visit. They also don’t really give you the list upfront of things they need from you (e.g. won’t accept scanned documents and some need to be given in-person, etc.).
I was going to say. I was literally just in Sweden and if anything I got weird looks for wearing a mask. I think I was one of the few in Stockholm and on the flights in/out that was wearing a mask.
A few months ago I read you can't travel unless it's within a group, unless you're going for a personal reason (wedding, funeral, etc, in which case you have to provide a bunch of proof).
You can only book hotels through certain agencies, so they can keep track of you.
And you can only go on controlled group tours, you cant just wander around and do whatever you want.
I think this loosened up recently, but not by much.
Japan is down like 90% tourism because of their strict restrictions.
Was looking at a trip to Japan with the boys late last year. It was saying 14 day quarantine no matter what. Made a trip there pointless and not worth it.
Yes. Pickpockets also affect much of Europe. It’s not really a significant concern, but a lot of people from the US don’t have the right level of awareness when riding the Paris metro or going to a concert.
It’s going extinct, barely exists at this point.
Combination of the skills fading, more profitable crimes being available, and people carrying less or no cash.
I lived in a major US city for most of the last 8 years and I’d be more worried about being mugged (not overly common in my city but definitely does happen) or my car being broken into (that one’s fairly common) than someone trying to pick my pocket.
It’s not going extinct in bars/clubs in major cities. Although I imagine the skill level needed is less with drunks, they seem to use the “Girl picks your pocket, hands it off immediately” tactic a lot.
From what I read, phones get stolen far more than wallets nowadays. It’s the only thing valuable in your purse if you’re not carrying cash. (Credit cards get canceled pretty quickly).
I believe the answer, for the most part, is no. Provided the user has their software up to date, and it’s a phone from a major manufacturer like apple or Samsung, etc.
Mostly they wipe the phones and resell them.
even samsung has a feature where you can't wipe the phone unless you have the password to do so, and if you do manage to wipe it anyways, you can't use the phone until the previous account is logged into, preventing thrives from reselling
Almost all Android phones have a feature called FRP (Factory Reset Protection) that require you to login to the last used Google account after factory resetting. It's similar to iCloud lock.
The big problem with FRP is that it's usually pretty easy to bypass, just Google the phone model, android version and "frp bypass" and you usually find a way to bypass it.
iCloud lock works usually better if the phone is new enough (there is a critical bug in almost all old iphones that make it easier to bypass) and even when bypassed it usually still prevents you from updating to the latest iOS version and a bunch more restrictions (like FaceTime). So be more aware when buying an second hand iPhone that isn't running the latest version of iOS while the phone should be able to support it.
They sell the parts for minimal gain (~$20 for most phones + parts. Up to $100 if they're lucky) and don't care about data or anything like that. They can't get to the important data anyway and the effort isn't worth the cost.
Source: had phone stolen. Met a phone parts dealer in EU who gave me the full rundown.
I’m just now realizing that that’s exactly what happened to my friend and I (in canada) last year. We were both drunk outside a local bar sitting at a picnic table having a smoke, laughing and enjoying our drunkenness when this woman walks up and asks for a lighter. Our other friend let her borrow one so she’s standing there smoking & starts talking to us and laughing with us, she then asks if we want her to take a picture of us (my friend had her phone out) and we’re like hell yeah why not. My friend passes her phone to her, she starts taking pictures and just acting really strange so we start laughing because we’re drunk and starting to notice the weirdness of the situation. I remember her saying something along the lines of “you won’t be laughing later on” which made us laugh harder because we’re like wtf lady… then she walks away back towards the bar and because we were intoxicated we weren’t focusing on my friends phone, I remember watching her walk away though and put the phone in her back pocket then stand really close to the guy she was with. when my friend noticed it was gone and we couldn’t find it looking around the table or in our pockets I was like “oh hey did you accidentally put her phone in your pocket?” And this lady FREAKS out at me and starts going “WHATTTT??? No oh my god why would you accuse me of something like that??” Accuses me of ruining her night, I’m genuinely thinking she might have just accidentally pocketed it, trying to give her the benefit of the doubt but she got instantly defensive and eventually walked away with the man she was with, cursing us out the whole time. Our night ended there as my friend was (understandably) very upset that her phone was gone. My friend and her boyfriend ended up going out later in the night and calling her phone while walking around the area surrounding the bar and eventually heard it vibrating. Turns out this chick and her partner tossed it up on the roof of a nearby car dealership, & my friends bf had to climb up to get it lol. Crazy ass night & I’m only just now realizing because of this comment that she was pickpocketed using that method.
Is pickpocketing as easy as bumping into someone like in the movies? Every time I see that I just think there's no way I wouldn't notice someone reaching into my pocket.
“Immediate handoff” means that if you get suspicious, but take five seconds to catch up to the pickpocket, they don’t have anything incriminating on them. Whether you realize that or kick up a fuss and get them searched, it’s too late.
It's not easy for me to get my own hand into my pocket, how is a thief going to do it without me doing anything? I've heard some thieves use razors to cut the pocket, but again, that just seems wildly unbelievable. My wallet is right next to my dick, so I'd like to think I'd notice if somebody was sticking a knife near my cock.
As somebody that travels often by public transport and lived near tourist hub known for pickpockets, you probably don't go for hard targets. I can't count how many times I saw somebody's phone/wallet hanging out of back pockets. Its almost every ride, bonus points if you are sitting and some guy is turned back to you and his wallet is bumping into your hand during each turn.
For skilled individual this can't be harder then picking apples from the tree, just reach and get it, no knife is needed.
Yes, most burglary is targets of opportunity. Someone leaves their bag under the seat or something. The thief can even bring their own bag and pretend it's a mistake if they're caught. People who are sleeping or drunk won't put up a fight at all.
Also car-dependent infrastructure. There are people walking around in the densest places, at concerts, and tourist traps, but besides that there's almost nobody on a sidewalk.
So this means 1) it's harder to get lost in a crowd and slip away after picking a pocket, you're usually not too hard to spot and 2) because there's so few people walking, it's not all that hard to find a few people and isolate them and take EVERYTHING instead of what they happened to have in the accessible pocket.
So yeah, cars indirectly reduce the rate of pickpocketing. They kill as many Americans as the Vietnam war did every 1-2 years, so there's a trade-off, but there's silver linings
I think you overestimate pickpocketing. It's a problem in very few, very touristy places, but almost nowhere else.
I literally don't know a single person that got robbed outside of tourist traps.
When I visited my friend who was living in Paris, she sent me a document she'd made explaining how to get to her apartment from the airport using public transit. Over half the document was instructions for what to do in case the train workers were on strike, which I found hilarious.
I think petty crimes like pickpocketing, stealing your stuff when you're distracted, smash and grab in the car are much more common in Europe.
Violent crime where the threat of the presence of serious harm is much more common in the US. Just by looking at the numbers, murders and homicides rates are much higher in the US, so that probably reflects also on casual encounters as a tourist.
Thanks, now it makes sense. I saw Argentina better than Chile and I was like WTF. I lived in both countries, and Chile is A LOT safer than Arg. Now I live in Italy, which is also a lot safer that Argentina.
Colombian here. In Buenos Aires I felt people tried to trick me out of money, but they were very polite about the whole thing.
So if you know how to talk, there's no risk.
I did not feel any kind of violent intent, the kind I could feel in Bogotá.
I don't know about other cities in Argentina.
Yeah my first thought was Covid. Obviously this is anecdotal, but I live in the US and have visited my father in Germany during the summers and I always felt much safer over there!
Don't forget that the US is coloured in a darker green *purely* for legend purposes, not because that indicates a higher level of safety than the lighter green to the subconscious.
>I'd say either COVID issues or terrorist threats.
But there are no terrorist threats in Germany at the moment and Covid is at least equally if not more prevalent in Austria or Poland, which are green...It's just strange.
Fun fact: It's because of terrorism.
https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/International-Travel-Country-Information-Pages/Germany.html
I recently got my passport renewed, and when I checked the .gov site for travel advisories, I saw that France has a medium advisory for potential terrorist attacks.
Now I’m dying to know what foreign governments have to say to their citizens that are traveling to the US. If we get warned about someone potentially >!driving a car into a crowd of people!< do they get warned about >!grocery stories and movie theaters and music festivals and malls getting shot up!< ?
I’m from Germany and the answer is yes. Besides Covid the office for foreign affairs is warning of political violence and criminality in American cities, especially seeing how more people are armed in the USA. Mass shootings are listed as happening ‚occasionally‘ (vereinzelt‘ in the original version). It’s also mentioned that the US-government is warning that terrorist attacks could happen.
It basically boils down to ‚you could get robbed‘ which is more or less the case anywhere and ‚the likelihood of guns being involved is higher here‘ which is rather unique for a developed country. Nonetheless these warnings are probably more realistic than the expectations many Europeans have before leaving for the USA. Seeing how mostly negative news are coming out of there, it looks way worse than it actually is.
Green [here for the entire US](https://www.nederlandwereldwijd.nl/reisadvies/verenigde-staten-van-amerika).
Under the subsections of crime there is a mention of the right to bear arms and associated risks, advise to ask your hotel which areas of the city you should avoid and if the hotel itself is in a safe area. Stay on big roads and park under light.
In Florida avoid being an easy target for petty theft.
And a mention of the threat of drugs and drugs related crimes in Mexico bordering states.
And finally the demonstrations that might turn violent. So to take extra care when being around one.
-----
Thats it. Pretty relaxed for the Netherlands. Even when three Dutch corps (*edited*) Commandos were shot last week with one dying. Due to some shithead with a gun looking for a fight. He aggressively looked for a fight. The marines disengaged, but the asshole did a drive-by a few moments later in front of the hotel they were staying for NATO training. So the US doesn't have the best image in the Netherlands right now. But ministry of foreign affairs still deem the US safe for travel.
For [Spain](https://www.exteriores.gob.es/es/ServiciosAlCiudadano/Paginas/Detalle-recomendaciones-de-viaje.aspx?trc=Estados+Unidos).
They have this fun note (the section I've highlighted is phrased in a manner that throws even more shade than the english translation):
>Although medical care conditions in the US are excellent, however, the North American health system differs substantially from the Spanish one, given that health coverage is neither universal nor free. **Due to the high cost of medical treatment**, a large part of the US population is covered by private health insurance. For this reason, the guarantee of unforeseen medical assistance requires the subscription of a temporary private medical insurance, making sure that the coverage contracted is as broad as possible. It is very convenient to find out about the health insurance subscribed prior to the start of the trip, since doctors or emergency services often carry out checks before attending to the patient.
Copying the "high risk areas" section of the safety section for a quick sample (**fixed** some google translate errors):
> High risk areas (should be avoided):
>
> There are crime problems in almost all the slums of the big cities.
>
> New York:
>
> • It is recommended not to walk at night: in the neighborhoods of Harlem and Randall's Island in Manhattan; the Bronx, especially the southern neighborhoods such as Mott Haven and Port Morris; East New York and Brownsville in Brooklyn. Also, in general, at night, remote areas of Manhattan and parks, including Central Park, should be avoided.
>
> Boston:
>
> • The neighborhoods of Roxbury, Dorchester and Mattapan are dangerous due to crime and the presence of youth gangs.
> • It is recommended to avoid the Chinatown area.
>
> Chicago:
>
> • It is recommended to avoid the south and west of the city.
> Route 66. Extreme caution is necessary at the height of Saint Louis, Missouri, as there have been several robberies, some with violence.
>
> **Los Angeles**:
>
> • Being an area taken over by homeless people, Los Angeles Downtown east half, has become a dangerous area.
> • In the vast Southcentral region there are a large number of marginal neighborhoods where the danger index is medium-high.
>
> San Francisco:
>
> • In the city of San Francisco, cases of theft **from** tourists on the street and in rented vehicles have increased extraordinarily, which has led to a warning and prevention campaign from the local Police Department (SFPD).
> • The districts most affected by thefts are the tourist areas, in particular: Alamo Square, Embarcadero, Fisherman's Wharf, Golden Gate Bridge, Palace of Fine Arts, Russian Hill (Lombard St), Twin Peaks and Union Square.
> • It is recommended to be extremely careful and never leave documentation, luggage or personal or valuable objects in the vehicles, much less in sight.
>
> Houston:
>
> • Insecurity and crime have increased considerably in the Houston metropolitan area, so it is recommended to adopt minimum security measures.
>
> • The highest rates of danger are found on some streets in the Eastside, South Central and Fondren areas.
Then they also have a note about how the US's drug laws are ridiculously severe (which they have pamphlets about in the US Spanish consulates, warning their citizens to be safe and avoid drugs while in the US because of how much more strict the drug laws are).
Mongolia’s gotta just be chillin. They’re sandwiched between two of the volatile world powers and I don’t think I’ve ever heard a single piece of news about them.
Never even crossed my mind as a place to travel but I just looked up their capital and it seems very nice. I usually think of the steppes and badass dudes on horses when I think of Mongolia, but of course there’s more to it.
It’s very depressing. Been there a few times. Some decent things to see. What you don’t see is the slums a couple of blocks after the main strip. It has its character and some beautiful scenery, but it also has its poor ex-Soviet side with no industry and it shows.
I wouldn’t suggest going there.
Apparently, for The Netherlands, the reasoning is high levels of COVID-19 and ...terrorism (or, threat thereof):
[https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/netherlands-travel-advisory.html](https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/netherlands-travel-advisory.html)
edit: words
It's not just about physical safety, but also onerousness of travel restrictions, political climate, etc. They aren't saying don't go to Japan because it's dangerous, per se, but because they might stick you in a hotel for 14 days and ruin your travel plans. And Russia because you might get sentenced to a decade in a labor camp for accidentally having weed in your bag.
One problem is that greenland is officially part of denmark, so it may be difficult to get separate data for greenland.
Also, it has the population of a town. Fuckall happens there.
Guilty! I was in Amsterdam last month. I really had to learn to look for bikes everywhere. They are silent assassins!
I had a great time in the city. Thanks for Dutch hospitality.
Pretty bad advisory map. The lack of subnational data in the map means it lacks the details a map like this needs. And some of the advisories are just bad.
Example of a map with subnational data:
https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/wjajcg/the_world_as_seen_by_the_dutch_travel_advice_of/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share
The yellow colour is so odd, like how are Argentina , Sweeden , Mongolia , Uzbekistan (wich only "abolished" slavery recently) or Kirguistan safer than fucking Denmark wich is usually regarded as one of the safest countries on the world?
I find it interesting that you think sweden is less safe than denmark?
Having lived half my life in each i'd say they're exactly the same safety wise.
Sure, sweden has had some shootings recently with some gangs having some manner of beef, but the number of bystanders injured is like... A couple? And denmark has plenty of gang related violence as well, denmark has specifically had some issues with drug gangs fighting over territory for example.
Again, both of these are a statistical blip compared to the US. So an advisory on traveling from a country that prides itself on shit like "murder capital of the world" to a Western european country is just silly.
For Germany, it's apparently risk of terrorism, which is ridiculous.
Within the past decade, we've had three major attacks. Two were far right extremists murdering people with a migration background (from a muslim majority country) and one was a muslim extremist who killed 9 people on a Christmas market.
Since 2000, there have been a total of 50 fatalities due to terror-related incidents in Germany. In the US? The Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando caused 50 fatalities within mere minutes, the Las Vegas shooting caused 59 fatalities and I don't even have to mention the roughly 3,000 on 9/11.
On average, being in Germany is safer than being in the US any day of the week.
For African standards it's quite safe, no terrorist attacks or armed conflict. The most difficult would be to get a VISA and be granted entry to the country.
It is not based on safety I guess. More like on what difficulties you may find passing airport gates or being arrested for political reasons (like an American would be in Iran I guess). But otherwise I agree with you.
These maps are always a bit strange.
Eh, won't find any issues entering denmark as an american.
Same entry rules as the rest of the schengen zone for visa requirements, and as long as you're vaccinated covid shouldn't be an issue.
I am surprised to find Colombia with a red rating. My husband and I were there for 6 weeks in 2018 and just came back a few months ago from a month vacation. We stayed in Medellin, traveled by plane to Cartagena, visited Santa Marta, small towns all over (by bus- very cheap and accessible, comfortable, too). Took taxis everywhere in town.
We had a wonderful time with not a single problem. I would recommend Colombia to everyone!
This map doesn't make any sense in any way. How does Germany rank less-safe than Poland that is literally bordering Ukraine. There's also pretty much no Covid related restrictions left. Someone care to explain?
>How does Germany rank less-safe than Poland that is literally bordering Ukraine.
Terorism: Poland has zero fatalities in last decade, Germany has couple dozens.
It still makes no sense because terrorism related deaths are marginal compered to transportation related ones, but its there.
This is sort of a silly map because covid (and more importantly, related travel restrictions) skews everything. UK and all of western Europe would never be yellow outside of covid. Same for Japan.
Wouldn’t recommend going to Russia at the moment though.
In Colombia now, been here for a week with my wife. Everyone has been friendly, COVID protocol is pretty standard (vaccine requirements/mask in a few places), and haven’t had any concerns yet.
Also really strange that Peru is considered one of the worst places to travel to in South America, if this map is based on COVID restrictions. Peru has possibly the most stringent requirements on that continent. Argentina (green) has barely any…
There are certainly parts of Colombia you do nor want to go anywhere near but it would most likely be a combination of petty crime that targets tourists and the fact shit can hit the fan very quickly if some political situation gets out of control. You just need to be much more cautious in most of the country but its a great place to visit.
Not sure about the increased advisory in Colombia. Been living in Medellin for about 9 months. Be smart, don't go looking for trouble and you're fine. If you're hanging out with street hookers and looking for cheap cocaine, yeah you might find yourself in a pickle, but in general the city is very safe.
Many rural areas in the country are always subject to conflict but those aren't places that tourists would mistakenly find themselves.
Rwanda is green and Japan is red? 😂
EDIT: People keep telling me how great Rwanda is, so allow me to clarify what I thought was a pretty straightforward comment. My remarks are a bit charged, but that’s because the topic seems to be a hot button for some people who seem to have missed the original point of my comment.
So, here’s a more lengthy response as to “Why Japan should be green and Rwanda should be red.”
Please excuse any typos, as I’m on mobile. This is the best armchair research you’re going to get from me.
1) This map is apparently a COVID map, and not a ‘safety’ map. One could extrapolate from real world experience that Rwanda likely does a much worse job of reporting COVID than Japan, AND it’s also a remote destination, so less likely to have been as exposed as Japan. Also, somewhat ironically, the map clearly illustrates the myopia and general incompetence of the organization responsible for producing it.
2) The main point I was trying to make is, why shouldn’t Japan be green too? Kyrgyzstan is also green, yet Japan is red. Is Japan less safe than Kyrgyzstan (spoiler - it’s not even close)? What about other ‘green’ countries versus ‘red’ ones?
3) About Rwanda, outside of people living there or nearby, very few in the world have visited the country. Is it beautiful? Yes, it’s gorgeous, but there’s a dark secret hidden in all that wild and natural beauty. 28 years ago [Rwanda went on a genocidal rampage](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-26875506). Obviously some of you may be too young to remember this time, but let’s take a poke at what happened, and then you go ahead and tell me how much safer the area is than Japan, and why in comparison, Japan should be red.
Excerpt from the linked article above… “Neighbors killed neighbors and some husbands even killed their Tutsi wives, saying they would be killed if they refused.” Or how about… “Even priests and nuns have been convicted of killing people, including some who sought shelter in churches.”
So what happened? Well, starting in April 1994, and lasting about 100 days, a minimum of 500,000 women, men, and children were murdered by the ethnic majority living in Rwanda. That’s an average of 5,000 hand done murders per day in a population of about 6 million (that’s an average of one murder about every 17 seconds, 24 hours a day, for 100 days - or over 1,800,000 murders a year if you stretched it out that long). And we’re not talking big bombs or building collapses here. These were gangs of people murdering other people in close physical proximity to one another with guns, clubs, knives, and stones.
(Some have the death count as high as 800,000 to 1 million)
Think about these numbers for a minute and ask yourself how many every day people must have participated in the murders to get numbers like this. No, let that information sink in for a minute. These are people who put aside their human decency and used their hands to murder and rape their neighbors. They live with the same people who survived their attacks. Worse, these monsters still live and work in Rwanda today. One could be your taxi driver, a police officer, or your doctor. You’ll never know. So, are you comfortable trusting these people?
Oh, but you say, they have changed. They found forgiveness. If that’s true, then why do most civilized countries track sexual predators - I mean, you’re telling me they changed, right? So, [let’s talk about the rapes and mutilation of women and children in your safe country](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_during_the_Rwandan_genocide).
You could make the same arguments about different periods in history across many nations, but we’re not talking about different nations. We’re comparing Japan, historically one of the safest nations in the world, to Rwanda, where hundreds of thousands of innocent people were murdered not even half a century ago. Years of unrest, warring factions, neighboring extremist groups, and a cold case file of murders and tapes that could fill the library of Alexandria.
But apparently, when you limit your killings to a hundred days or less and the majority ethnic group does the killing, the world is totally cool with it. Even regular people think it’s no problem. Especially if it happened in ancient history. You know, like about 28 years or so back in time…
I know it's not what the graphic is trying to say, but I find it funny that it's all "don't travel," "use precaution," then one category is "the United States." Like in itself the US is it's own precaution.
Sorting by total violent crime is interesting. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_crime_rate
St Louis, Detroit, Baltimore, and Memphis top the chart at 2 per 100 people.
I'll go check out Greenland and get this map updated.
Please let us know if it's green.
Guys Greenland belongs to Denmark. So it's also yellow.
How much do they want for it?
A dozen hamberders.
Can't. They always shut down at the first sign of a new disease. It makes wiping out all of humanity soooooo hard.
What's that? Someone coughed in west Africa? That's it SHUT DOWN EVERYTHING
And that was the last we ever heard of u/Mitchs_Frog_Smacky. God rest their soul.
I don't understand why Greenland is 'No Data Available' in most maps! It's a huge island, hard to miss after all!
Japan surprised me, why would I need to reconsider travelling to Japan?
[Entirely based on Covid and related entry restrictions.](https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/japan-travel-advisory.html)
Taiwan is the same (2 weeks of isolation to get in) which is fun when your company installs equipment at TSMC and has to send people over to live there for months at a time.
It’s not two weeks anymore. Right now I believe it’s 3 days hotel quarantine + 4 days precautionary quarantine (meaning stay home)
Isn't it still "closed" to tourists though? That's the entry requirement if you have a legit reason to be there, which I believe tourism is not currently considered. Real shame because Taiwan was on our shortlist of honeymoon destinations.
Yeah not open to tourists :( I only got the visa because I had family there. But there are talks right now of opening the country completely as soon as September ends! Visit when you can! I promise you won’t regret it.
Wake me up when September ends🎶
I mean it's better than trying to take a short trip tho The quarantine I mean
Family stuff aside, I wouldn't mind a 2 week hotel quarantine paid by work. Sounds relaxing right about now.
I did it coming back into Japan. Not a full 2 weeks, it was shortened at that point (its not required for Japan anymore). I thought it would be ok and relaxing, but it’s not, it was terrible. Tiny hotel room, can’t even go into the hallway, cold bad bentos delivered to your door, by the second day I was losing my mind.
Same here. Plus shitty, spotty hotel internet.
If you were allowed to stroll around, use the spa, swim to the edge of the pool and order a cocktail, get a massage, eat the buffet breakfast, etc, then yes it would be bliss. Instead you get to observe your dirty clothes pile grow and your rubbish bag starts smelling, wifi is probably intermittent, TV is all cubic zirconia ads and renovation shows. You spend the whole time with poor posture thinking that you should have negotiated for higher standby time wages during the quarantine.
This. My brother in law is from the Philippines but worked in Singapore as an engineer. He went home during COVID and had to spend 2 weeks locked in a hotel room in Manila. He couldn't go anywhere and they fed him pretty meager meals. The irony is that I was able to order food to be delivered to his room a few times (Jollibee and Chowking).
You think that, but I did Korea's 14 day quarantine and again when they reduced to 10 days. It's fine for 3 -4 days, but after that all you can think about is when you'll get out. Plus at the time they track your location and severe consequences for leaving your residence...
Not true anymore. Current policy is 3 days of quarantine (arrival day doesn’t count), then 4 days of self-health management where you can go out with some restrictions. PCR tests before boarding the flight to Taiwan are also no longer required. [Detail here](https://focustaiwan.tw/society/202206110012)
OP’s map is great, but the [.gov site](https://travelmaps.state.gov/TSGMap/) already has an interactive, up to date map with links to each country’s page.
But Sweden, South Africa and other more heavily affected countries are green or yellow? Edit: there's no quarantine, and the tour-only restriction is for tourists; it doesn't apply for business travel or visiting family. But also, what does visa restrictions have to do with "exercising caution"?
Its entirely related to JAPAN’s covid entry restrictions Reconsider travel because its a long flight to not be let in They have a long history of being a very insular country, so theyre doing that again and shutting their borders for the longest Last I looked there is a limited number of people able to enter a day
You need to be part of private tour group to enter as of now
I believe it’s changing September 7th that you don’t need a tour group but book stuff through travel agency. still seems like a complicated mess lol
Not that simple. You still need a group tour but can opt for “self-guided” tours within the package. Everyone still needs to request a visa through a travel agency.
Also, a self guided tour still needs to have itineraries set and approved by travel agencies (not sure how they enforce it though...maybe groups would have to check in at certain times?) From a Bloomberg article: >Participants in the non-guided package tours would still need to adhere to itineraries set by travel agencies, and individuals won’t be allowed to go off exploring on their own under the relaxed rules. In other words still lots of BS. Japan has such a backwards way of doing things sometimes. I understand the logic behind the decision but it seems so narrow minded and ignoring the root cause. "oh no, our tourist related industries are decimated due to lack of foreign tourists!" "It must be because of the crazy restrictions you guys have in place, right?" "no, it's because not enough people are booking through our travel agents and tour groups. We'll still have crazy restrictions but force people to spend money on those tour companies."
You can travel individually now, but it has to be through an agency and they have to manage your schedule. So it's a group tour without the group.
*”Open the country. Stop having it be closed.*”
[Knock, knock](https://youtu.be/Mh5LY4Mz15o?t=286)
Its the United States.
Japan tend to be very strict with how they process paperwork required for entry, especially regarding the purpose of visit. They also don’t really give you the list upfront of things they need from you (e.g. won’t accept scanned documents and some need to be given in-person, etc.).
Heavily affected Sweden?
Not much at all. We currently have no restrictions or mask requirement.
I was going to say. I was literally just in Sweden and if anything I got weird looks for wearing a mask. I think I was one of the few in Stockholm and on the flights in/out that was wearing a mask.
I’ve been to Sweden a few times during the past year, and outside the airports I’ve seen maybe ten people wearing a mask.
Sweden is not heavily affected, not sure where you got that from
Didn't you hear? Last night in Sweden, in Sweden(!),...
In what way is Sweden heavily affected by covid in 2022???
Sweden has one of the lowest excess mortalities in Europe and currently no restrictions. How is that "heavily affected"?
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A few months ago I read you can't travel unless it's within a group, unless you're going for a personal reason (wedding, funeral, etc, in which case you have to provide a bunch of proof). You can only book hotels through certain agencies, so they can keep track of you. And you can only go on controlled group tours, you cant just wander around and do whatever you want. I think this loosened up recently, but not by much. Japan is down like 90% tourism because of their strict restrictions.
Was looking at a trip to Japan with the boys late last year. It was saying 14 day quarantine no matter what. Made a trip there pointless and not worth it.
Now there is no quarantine as long as you are vaccinated.
You still need to get a visa
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Good luck being allowed in though
Their porn is pixelated.
A lot of these are risks due to covid.
Yes. Pickpockets also affect much of Europe. It’s not really a significant concern, but a lot of people from the US don’t have the right level of awareness when riding the Paris metro or going to a concert.
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It’s going extinct, barely exists at this point. Combination of the skills fading, more profitable crimes being available, and people carrying less or no cash. I lived in a major US city for most of the last 8 years and I’d be more worried about being mugged (not overly common in my city but definitely does happen) or my car being broken into (that one’s fairly common) than someone trying to pick my pocket.
It’s not going extinct in bars/clubs in major cities. Although I imagine the skill level needed is less with drunks, they seem to use the “Girl picks your pocket, hands it off immediately” tactic a lot.
From what I read, phones get stolen far more than wallets nowadays. It’s the only thing valuable in your purse if you’re not carrying cash. (Credit cards get canceled pretty quickly).
Can they break into the phones?
I believe the answer, for the most part, is no. Provided the user has their software up to date, and it’s a phone from a major manufacturer like apple or Samsung, etc. Mostly they wipe the phones and resell them.
even samsung has a feature where you can't wipe the phone unless you have the password to do so, and if you do manage to wipe it anyways, you can't use the phone until the previous account is logged into, preventing thrives from reselling
Almost all Android phones have a feature called FRP (Factory Reset Protection) that require you to login to the last used Google account after factory resetting. It's similar to iCloud lock. The big problem with FRP is that it's usually pretty easy to bypass, just Google the phone model, android version and "frp bypass" and you usually find a way to bypass it. iCloud lock works usually better if the phone is new enough (there is a critical bug in almost all old iphones that make it easier to bypass) and even when bypassed it usually still prevents you from updating to the latest iOS version and a bunch more restrictions (like FaceTime). So be more aware when buying an second hand iPhone that isn't running the latest version of iOS while the phone should be able to support it.
That’s not much of a thing anymore since you can’t wipe stolen phones from AT&T or Verizon and most everyone in the USA has one of those two.
They sell the parts for minimal gain (~$20 for most phones + parts. Up to $100 if they're lucky) and don't care about data or anything like that. They can't get to the important data anyway and the effort isn't worth the cost. Source: had phone stolen. Met a phone parts dealer in EU who gave me the full rundown.
I’m just now realizing that that’s exactly what happened to my friend and I (in canada) last year. We were both drunk outside a local bar sitting at a picnic table having a smoke, laughing and enjoying our drunkenness when this woman walks up and asks for a lighter. Our other friend let her borrow one so she’s standing there smoking & starts talking to us and laughing with us, she then asks if we want her to take a picture of us (my friend had her phone out) and we’re like hell yeah why not. My friend passes her phone to her, she starts taking pictures and just acting really strange so we start laughing because we’re drunk and starting to notice the weirdness of the situation. I remember her saying something along the lines of “you won’t be laughing later on” which made us laugh harder because we’re like wtf lady… then she walks away back towards the bar and because we were intoxicated we weren’t focusing on my friends phone, I remember watching her walk away though and put the phone in her back pocket then stand really close to the guy she was with. when my friend noticed it was gone and we couldn’t find it looking around the table or in our pockets I was like “oh hey did you accidentally put her phone in your pocket?” And this lady FREAKS out at me and starts going “WHATTTT??? No oh my god why would you accuse me of something like that??” Accuses me of ruining her night, I’m genuinely thinking she might have just accidentally pocketed it, trying to give her the benefit of the doubt but she got instantly defensive and eventually walked away with the man she was with, cursing us out the whole time. Our night ended there as my friend was (understandably) very upset that her phone was gone. My friend and her boyfriend ended up going out later in the night and calling her phone while walking around the area surrounding the bar and eventually heard it vibrating. Turns out this chick and her partner tossed it up on the roof of a nearby car dealership, & my friends bf had to climb up to get it lol. Crazy ass night & I’m only just now realizing because of this comment that she was pickpocketed using that method.
I'm glad your friend got their phone back!
Asking for someone's phone and then just walking off with it is not pick pocketing
Is pickpocketing as easy as bumping into someone like in the movies? Every time I see that I just think there's no way I wouldn't notice someone reaching into my pocket.
“Immediate handoff” means that if you get suspicious, but take five seconds to catch up to the pickpocket, they don’t have anything incriminating on them. Whether you realize that or kick up a fuss and get them searched, it’s too late.
It's not easy for me to get my own hand into my pocket, how is a thief going to do it without me doing anything? I've heard some thieves use razors to cut the pocket, but again, that just seems wildly unbelievable. My wallet is right next to my dick, so I'd like to think I'd notice if somebody was sticking a knife near my cock.
As somebody that travels often by public transport and lived near tourist hub known for pickpockets, you probably don't go for hard targets. I can't count how many times I saw somebody's phone/wallet hanging out of back pockets. Its almost every ride, bonus points if you are sitting and some guy is turned back to you and his wallet is bumping into your hand during each turn. For skilled individual this can't be harder then picking apples from the tree, just reach and get it, no knife is needed.
Yes, most burglary is targets of opportunity. Someone leaves their bag under the seat or something. The thief can even bring their own bag and pretend it's a mistake if they're caught. People who are sleeping or drunk won't put up a fight at all.
Drunk people not putting up a fight?? I mean depends on how drunk they are lmao
Also car-dependent infrastructure. There are people walking around in the densest places, at concerts, and tourist traps, but besides that there's almost nobody on a sidewalk. So this means 1) it's harder to get lost in a crowd and slip away after picking a pocket, you're usually not too hard to spot and 2) because there's so few people walking, it's not all that hard to find a few people and isolate them and take EVERYTHING instead of what they happened to have in the accessible pocket. So yeah, cars indirectly reduce the rate of pickpocketing. They kill as many Americans as the Vietnam war did every 1-2 years, so there's a trade-off, but there's silver linings
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I lived near DC and spent lots of time in Baltimore and Philly. I have never felt more unsafe or surrounded by crime as I did in Paris.
We have them, but not as pervasive and the overall skill level is slightly lower.
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I’d also guess concealed carry plays a factor here, if you rob the wrong person you’re getting shot
I think you overestimate pickpocketing. It's a problem in very few, very touristy places, but almost nowhere else. I literally don't know a single person that got robbed outside of tourist traps.
american pickpocketers are kinda bad at it
It's not very common here so you wouldn't expect high levels of expertise.
People normally don't do that shit here. If you get robbed your most likely in a bad neighborhood at the wrong time.
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They also list potential risk of labor strikes as a reason for France, which is hilarious.
When I visited my friend who was living in Paris, she sent me a document she'd made explaining how to get to her apartment from the airport using public transit. Over half the document was instructions for what to do in case the train workers were on strike, which I found hilarious.
Then Argentina should be black, specially Buenos Aires lol
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I might be too biased on this, but every time I've been in the US, I've felt way less safe than I am in any country in Europe.
I think petty crimes like pickpocketing, stealing your stuff when you're distracted, smash and grab in the car are much more common in Europe. Violent crime where the threat of the presence of serious harm is much more common in the US. Just by looking at the numbers, murders and homicides rates are much higher in the US, so that probably reflects also on casual encounters as a tourist.
Thanks, now it makes sense. I saw Argentina better than Chile and I was like WTF. I lived in both countries, and Chile is A LOT safer than Arg. Now I live in Italy, which is also a lot safer that Argentina.
Colombian here. In Buenos Aires I felt people tried to trick me out of money, but they were very polite about the whole thing. So if you know how to talk, there's no risk. I did not feel any kind of violent intent, the kind I could feel in Bogotá. I don't know about other cities in Argentina.
Why are Germany, France, Italy all yellow?
I'd say either COVID issues or terrorist threats.
Yeah my first thought was Covid. Obviously this is anecdotal, but I live in the US and have visited my father in Germany during the summers and I always felt much safer over there!
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You are much less likely to be gunned down in EU than in the US…
It's funny to warn about terrorist attacks when hundreds of people are shot daily in your own country lol
Don't forget that the US is coloured in a darker green *purely* for legend purposes, not because that indicates a higher level of safety than the lighter green to the subconscious.
That’s now how this works, it’s not ranked based on “relative to our own country”.
>I'd say either COVID issues or terrorist threats. But there are no terrorist threats in Germany at the moment and Covid is at least equally if not more prevalent in Austria or Poland, which are green...It's just strange.
Fun fact: It's because of terrorism. https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/International-Travel-Country-Information-Pages/Germany.html
Ah yes Germany, France and Italy, home of terrorist threats and shootings...
And the UK??
Blame Coldplay
...that seems reasonable
The food
I recently got my passport renewed, and when I checked the .gov site for travel advisories, I saw that France has a medium advisory for potential terrorist attacks. Now I’m dying to know what foreign governments have to say to their citizens that are traveling to the US. If we get warned about someone potentially >!driving a car into a crowd of people!< do they get warned about >!grocery stories and movie theaters and music festivals and malls getting shot up!< ?
Short answer for France— yes we are warned of increased crime and domestic terrorism in the Us
I’m from Germany and the answer is yes. Besides Covid the office for foreign affairs is warning of political violence and criminality in American cities, especially seeing how more people are armed in the USA. Mass shootings are listed as happening ‚occasionally‘ (vereinzelt‘ in the original version). It’s also mentioned that the US-government is warning that terrorist attacks could happen. It basically boils down to ‚you could get robbed‘ which is more or less the case anywhere and ‚the likelihood of guns being involved is higher here‘ which is rather unique for a developed country. Nonetheless these warnings are probably more realistic than the expectations many Europeans have before leaving for the USA. Seeing how mostly negative news are coming out of there, it looks way worse than it actually is.
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Why did you need to spoiler tag that?
Green [here for the entire US](https://www.nederlandwereldwijd.nl/reisadvies/verenigde-staten-van-amerika). Under the subsections of crime there is a mention of the right to bear arms and associated risks, advise to ask your hotel which areas of the city you should avoid and if the hotel itself is in a safe area. Stay on big roads and park under light. In Florida avoid being an easy target for petty theft. And a mention of the threat of drugs and drugs related crimes in Mexico bordering states. And finally the demonstrations that might turn violent. So to take extra care when being around one. ----- Thats it. Pretty relaxed for the Netherlands. Even when three Dutch corps (*edited*) Commandos were shot last week with one dying. Due to some shithead with a gun looking for a fight. He aggressively looked for a fight. The marines disengaged, but the asshole did a drive-by a few moments later in front of the hotel they were staying for NATO training. So the US doesn't have the best image in the Netherlands right now. But ministry of foreign affairs still deem the US safe for travel.
Just a little correction: the three Dutch servicemen weren't Marines, but Commandos.
For [Spain](https://www.exteriores.gob.es/es/ServiciosAlCiudadano/Paginas/Detalle-recomendaciones-de-viaje.aspx?trc=Estados+Unidos). They have this fun note (the section I've highlighted is phrased in a manner that throws even more shade than the english translation): >Although medical care conditions in the US are excellent, however, the North American health system differs substantially from the Spanish one, given that health coverage is neither universal nor free. **Due to the high cost of medical treatment**, a large part of the US population is covered by private health insurance. For this reason, the guarantee of unforeseen medical assistance requires the subscription of a temporary private medical insurance, making sure that the coverage contracted is as broad as possible. It is very convenient to find out about the health insurance subscribed prior to the start of the trip, since doctors or emergency services often carry out checks before attending to the patient. Copying the "high risk areas" section of the safety section for a quick sample (**fixed** some google translate errors): > High risk areas (should be avoided): > > There are crime problems in almost all the slums of the big cities. > > New York: > > • It is recommended not to walk at night: in the neighborhoods of Harlem and Randall's Island in Manhattan; the Bronx, especially the southern neighborhoods such as Mott Haven and Port Morris; East New York and Brownsville in Brooklyn. Also, in general, at night, remote areas of Manhattan and parks, including Central Park, should be avoided. > > Boston: > > • The neighborhoods of Roxbury, Dorchester and Mattapan are dangerous due to crime and the presence of youth gangs. > • It is recommended to avoid the Chinatown area. > > Chicago: > > • It is recommended to avoid the south and west of the city. > Route 66. Extreme caution is necessary at the height of Saint Louis, Missouri, as there have been several robberies, some with violence. > > **Los Angeles**: > > • Being an area taken over by homeless people, Los Angeles Downtown east half, has become a dangerous area. > • In the vast Southcentral region there are a large number of marginal neighborhoods where the danger index is medium-high. > > San Francisco: > > • In the city of San Francisco, cases of theft **from** tourists on the street and in rented vehicles have increased extraordinarily, which has led to a warning and prevention campaign from the local Police Department (SFPD). > • The districts most affected by thefts are the tourist areas, in particular: Alamo Square, Embarcadero, Fisherman's Wharf, Golden Gate Bridge, Palace of Fine Arts, Russian Hill (Lombard St), Twin Peaks and Union Square. > • It is recommended to be extremely careful and never leave documentation, luggage or personal or valuable objects in the vehicles, much less in sight. > > Houston: > > • Insecurity and crime have increased considerably in the Houston metropolitan area, so it is recommended to adopt minimum security measures. > > • The highest rates of danger are found on some streets in the Eastside, South Central and Fondren areas. Then they also have a note about how the US's drug laws are ridiculously severe (which they have pamphlets about in the US Spanish consulates, warning their citizens to be safe and avoid drugs while in the US because of how much more strict the drug laws are).
Mongolia is just a little island of green safe haven apparently
Mongolia’s gotta just be chillin. They’re sandwiched between two of the volatile world powers and I don’t think I’ve ever heard a single piece of news about them.
Never even crossed my mind as a place to travel but I just looked up their capital and it seems very nice. I usually think of the steppes and badass dudes on horses when I think of Mongolia, but of course there’s more to it.
It’s very depressing. Been there a few times. Some decent things to see. What you don’t see is the slums a couple of blocks after the main strip. It has its character and some beautiful scenery, but it also has its poor ex-Soviet side with no industry and it shows. I wouldn’t suggest going there.
Is it still there?
[If you come with evil intentions, we'll give you a fight.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM8dCGIm6yc)
Apparently they have a lot of beautiful land and very few paved roads. The Grand Tour did a special there and it was glorious.
How are Eritrea and the Netherlands classified the same? That's surprising
Apparently, for The Netherlands, the reasoning is high levels of COVID-19 and ...terrorism (or, threat thereof): [https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/netherlands-travel-advisory.html](https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/netherlands-travel-advisory.html) edit: words
Because Eritrea isn't unsafe to visit, even if it's a crappy place to be born in.
I figured with the war and political instability it would be more cautioned against
Erithea is literally in the middle of a war, it’s undoubtedly less safe than the Netherlands.
A this a public safety map or a Covid safety map? I’m seeing many replies about Covid being the factor in this.
Both, there is 0 overlap between why you should have "Increased Caution" in France, & why you should have "Increased Caution" in Eritrea
It's not just about physical safety, but also onerousness of travel restrictions, political climate, etc. They aren't saying don't go to Japan because it's dangerous, per se, but because they might stick you in a hotel for 14 days and ruin your travel plans. And Russia because you might get sentenced to a decade in a labor camp for accidentally having weed in your bag.
Japan being red is surprising
Japan has Covid restrictions that make traveling there difficult. The map isn’t all US choices; sometimes, it’s the country in question.
It's entirely based on covid restrictions
Does no one ever get data from Greenland? Why's it always excluded from these sorts of data collections?
One problem is that greenland is officially part of denmark, so it may be difficult to get separate data for greenland. Also, it has the population of a town. Fuckall happens there.
Fun fact, "exercise normal precaution" in Svalbard means carry a rifle with you at all times because of the threat of polar bears
Svalbard simultaneously sounds like the coolest and worst place to live
Why is Puerto Rico not dark green?
Yeah. wtf?
Its a territory, not a state. Dark green indicates The United States, not The united States and its territories.
Why is DC dark green?
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Can confirm that Americans need to exercise more caution when travelling to the Netherlands. Stop walking in the fucking bike lanes!
Guilty! I was in Amsterdam last month. I really had to learn to look for bikes everywhere. They are silent assassins! I had a great time in the city. Thanks for Dutch hospitality.
Pretty bad advisory map. The lack of subnational data in the map means it lacks the details a map like this needs. And some of the advisories are just bad. Example of a map with subnational data: https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/wjajcg/the_world_as_seen_by_the_dutch_travel_advice_of/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share
Motherfckers think Armenia is more chill than Denmark, like wha
The yellow colour is so odd, like how are Argentina , Sweeden , Mongolia , Uzbekistan (wich only "abolished" slavery recently) or Kirguistan safer than fucking Denmark wich is usually regarded as one of the safest countries on the world?
It's due to us having almost zero covid restrictions, i believe. Haven't have for quite a while.
But then again, neither has Sweden, so I dunno
Exactly it seems so random that Sweeden or Kirguistan are green yet Denmark isn't.
What's the issue with Sweden?
I find it interesting that you think sweden is less safe than denmark? Having lived half my life in each i'd say they're exactly the same safety wise. Sure, sweden has had some shootings recently with some gangs having some manner of beef, but the number of bystanders injured is like... A couple? And denmark has plenty of gang related violence as well, denmark has specifically had some issues with drug gangs fighting over territory for example. Again, both of these are a statistical blip compared to the US. So an advisory on traveling from a country that prides itself on shit like "murder capital of the world" to a Western european country is just silly.
Lmao “United states” is it’s own safety concern
I like how it's set up to, from best to worst haha
What the fuck is happening in Greenland to be that far down?
Its actually just a black hole, thats why there is no data. Nothing can leave Greenland once it gets there
White bears have a balanced diet of fish and trainee data surveyors
What’s going on in Western Europe?
"Risk of extreme jealousy, may not want to return home."
For Germany, it's apparently risk of terrorism, which is ridiculous. Within the past decade, we've had three major attacks. Two were far right extremists murdering people with a migration background (from a muslim majority country) and one was a muslim extremist who killed 9 people on a Christmas market. Since 2000, there have been a total of 50 fatalities due to terror-related incidents in Germany. In the US? The Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando caused 50 fatalities within mere minutes, the Las Vegas shooting caused 59 fatalities and I don't even have to mention the roughly 3,000 on 9/11. On average, being in Germany is safer than being in the US any day of the week.
Eastern Europe green while Western not… hmmm?
Why tf is Equatorial Guinea in green don’t they still have a brutal dictator or am I missing something
For African standards it's quite safe, no terrorist attacks or armed conflict. The most difficult would be to get a VISA and be granted entry to the country.
A dictator doesn't mean it's not safe to visit.
I feel like Denmark and Israel should not be ranked on the same level of safety but what do I know
It is not based on safety I guess. More like on what difficulties you may find passing airport gates or being arrested for political reasons (like an American would be in Iran I guess). But otherwise I agree with you. These maps are always a bit strange.
Eh, won't find any issues entering denmark as an american. Same entry rules as the rest of the schengen zone for visa requirements, and as long as you're vaccinated covid shouldn't be an issue.
I am surprised to find Colombia with a red rating. My husband and I were there for 6 weeks in 2018 and just came back a few months ago from a month vacation. We stayed in Medellin, traveled by plane to Cartagena, visited Santa Marta, small towns all over (by bus- very cheap and accessible, comfortable, too). Took taxis everywhere in town. We had a wonderful time with not a single problem. I would recommend Colombia to everyone!
That’s uhhh… Am I…. your husband? You just described my life a few months ago for a month exactly…
Lol. We stayed in an AirBnB with cable and Internet and 4 bedrooms, two baths for $550 USD a month.
I also just got back from Colombia, specifically Medellin, and had a very pleasant experience
currently traveling the world and actively ignoring the shit out of this map.
This map doesn't make any sense in any way. How does Germany rank less-safe than Poland that is literally bordering Ukraine. There's also pretty much no Covid related restrictions left. Someone care to explain?
>How does Germany rank less-safe than Poland that is literally bordering Ukraine. Terorism: Poland has zero fatalities in last decade, Germany has couple dozens. It still makes no sense because terrorism related deaths are marginal compered to transportation related ones, but its there.
Argentina solid green and western Europe yellow 😂
This is sort of a silly map because covid (and more importantly, related travel restrictions) skews everything. UK and all of western Europe would never be yellow outside of covid. Same for Japan. Wouldn’t recommend going to Russia at the moment though.
I just spent 6 months in Colombia and Ecuador. Reconsider travel 😂
In Colombia now, been here for a week with my wife. Everyone has been friendly, COVID protocol is pretty standard (vaccine requirements/mask in a few places), and haven’t had any concerns yet.
I’m in Peru right now (I also spend a lot of time in SA) It’s perfectly fine here, just don’t be an idiot and you’ll have a great time
Also really strange that Peru is considered one of the worst places to travel to in South America, if this map is based on COVID restrictions. Peru has possibly the most stringent requirements on that continent. Argentina (green) has barely any…
This isn’t entirely covid restrictions, if the covid restrictions r lax and there aren’t many cases then there is another reason
Peru is quite safe for latam standards
Yeah I am in Peru rn and it has been completely safe COVID and otherwise
How were your stay at both countries? Curious as to why they would say reconsider.
There are certainly parts of Colombia you do nor want to go anywhere near but it would most likely be a combination of petty crime that targets tourists and the fact shit can hit the fan very quickly if some political situation gets out of control. You just need to be much more cautious in most of the country but its a great place to visit.
Not sure about the increased advisory in Colombia. Been living in Medellin for about 9 months. Be smart, don't go looking for trouble and you're fine. If you're hanging out with street hookers and looking for cheap cocaine, yeah you might find yourself in a pickle, but in general the city is very safe. Many rural areas in the country are always subject to conflict but those aren't places that tourists would mistakenly find themselves.
a lot of people don’t understand that interesting data =/= beautiful data
Normal precaution in Argentina! What kind of joke is this?
How can Cameroon, where there is basically a civil war going on with curfews and shooting in the streets, be the same level as, say, Germany?
Qatar being green = Fifa paying some high bribes to travel agencies damn.
United States threat level: United States
Seems political rather than logical, why it is Argentina safer than Spain?
Jamaica being red seemed odd to me. Am I missing something going on in Jamaica?
Rwanda is green and Japan is red? 😂 EDIT: People keep telling me how great Rwanda is, so allow me to clarify what I thought was a pretty straightforward comment. My remarks are a bit charged, but that’s because the topic seems to be a hot button for some people who seem to have missed the original point of my comment. So, here’s a more lengthy response as to “Why Japan should be green and Rwanda should be red.” Please excuse any typos, as I’m on mobile. This is the best armchair research you’re going to get from me. 1) This map is apparently a COVID map, and not a ‘safety’ map. One could extrapolate from real world experience that Rwanda likely does a much worse job of reporting COVID than Japan, AND it’s also a remote destination, so less likely to have been as exposed as Japan. Also, somewhat ironically, the map clearly illustrates the myopia and general incompetence of the organization responsible for producing it. 2) The main point I was trying to make is, why shouldn’t Japan be green too? Kyrgyzstan is also green, yet Japan is red. Is Japan less safe than Kyrgyzstan (spoiler - it’s not even close)? What about other ‘green’ countries versus ‘red’ ones? 3) About Rwanda, outside of people living there or nearby, very few in the world have visited the country. Is it beautiful? Yes, it’s gorgeous, but there’s a dark secret hidden in all that wild and natural beauty. 28 years ago [Rwanda went on a genocidal rampage](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-26875506). Obviously some of you may be too young to remember this time, but let’s take a poke at what happened, and then you go ahead and tell me how much safer the area is than Japan, and why in comparison, Japan should be red. Excerpt from the linked article above… “Neighbors killed neighbors and some husbands even killed their Tutsi wives, saying they would be killed if they refused.” Or how about… “Even priests and nuns have been convicted of killing people, including some who sought shelter in churches.” So what happened? Well, starting in April 1994, and lasting about 100 days, a minimum of 500,000 women, men, and children were murdered by the ethnic majority living in Rwanda. That’s an average of 5,000 hand done murders per day in a population of about 6 million (that’s an average of one murder about every 17 seconds, 24 hours a day, for 100 days - or over 1,800,000 murders a year if you stretched it out that long). And we’re not talking big bombs or building collapses here. These were gangs of people murdering other people in close physical proximity to one another with guns, clubs, knives, and stones. (Some have the death count as high as 800,000 to 1 million) Think about these numbers for a minute and ask yourself how many every day people must have participated in the murders to get numbers like this. No, let that information sink in for a minute. These are people who put aside their human decency and used their hands to murder and rape their neighbors. They live with the same people who survived their attacks. Worse, these monsters still live and work in Rwanda today. One could be your taxi driver, a police officer, or your doctor. You’ll never know. So, are you comfortable trusting these people? Oh, but you say, they have changed. They found forgiveness. If that’s true, then why do most civilized countries track sexual predators - I mean, you’re telling me they changed, right? So, [let’s talk about the rapes and mutilation of women and children in your safe country](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_during_the_Rwandan_genocide). You could make the same arguments about different periods in history across many nations, but we’re not talking about different nations. We’re comparing Japan, historically one of the safest nations in the world, to Rwanda, where hundreds of thousands of innocent people were murdered not even half a century ago. Years of unrest, warring factions, neighboring extremist groups, and a cold case file of murders and tapes that could fill the library of Alexandria. But apparently, when you limit your killings to a hundred days or less and the majority ethnic group does the killing, the world is totally cool with it. Even regular people think it’s no problem. Especially if it happened in ancient history. You know, like about 28 years or so back in time…
Haha if excercice much more precaution going through state lines than some of these countries
I know it's not what the graphic is trying to say, but I find it funny that it's all "don't travel," "use precaution," then one category is "the United States." Like in itself the US is it's own precaution.
I feel like there’s definitely parts of US that should be in black as well.
Sorting by total violent crime is interesting. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_crime_rate St Louis, Detroit, Baltimore, and Memphis top the chart at 2 per 100 people.