Travel.State.Gov > Travel Advisories

[Momma Mojito]

Was wondering how many of you check the travel advisories for the countries that are traveling to.  As it is everywhere today,  you have be be careful but have you every changed your plans after reading the advisories?

[riffatsea]

We cruise to Mexico every year. There have been various advisories for some of the ports but it has not really stopped us from going to them. I check with folks on Trip Advisor to see what the real situation is on the ground and usually the advisories there are not for the main part of the towns during the day so no problem.

IF the advisory is talking about out and out war then of course I wouldn't go but then the cruise line wouldn't stop there anyway!

[satxdiver]

Yes I check the US State Department advisories for any port we visit.  While I have not changed a cruise because of the advisories, I have seriously curtailed my adventures in that port or in some cases simply stayed onboard the ship.  Last cruise I went to Port-of-Spain and elected to take a ship excursion that was predominately on a tour bus which turned out to be a smaller bus.  The guide warned us not to stray from the group when we were off the bus.  I know that many simply stayed on the ship.  I will continue to read advisories and curtail my activities in certain ports.  

[Momma Mojito]

3 hours ago, riffatsea said:

We cruise to Mexico every year. There have been various advisories for some of the ports but it has not really stopped us from going to them. I check with folks on Trip Advisor to see what the real situation is on the ground and usually the advisories there are not for the main part of the towns during the day so no problem.

IF the advisory is talking about out and out war then of course I wouldn't go but then the cruise line wouldn't stop there anyway!

Thanks for your advice!!  We are doing the full transit for the third time and have never had a problem visiting all the ports but I was just wondering what others do.

[Astro Flyer]

We also register our travel plans using the US Department of State’s STEP program.

 

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/before-you-go/step.html

 

Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP)

 

The Smart Traveler Enrollment Program is a free service that allows U.S. citizens traveling or living abroad to receive the latest security updates from the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate.

 

Benefits of enrolling in STEP:

• You’ll receive the latest safety and security information for your destination country, so you can make informed decisions about your travel.
• The information you provide enables the U.S. embassy or consulate to contact you in an emergency. 

Stay Informed

When you enroll in STEP, you will receive current information about your destination country, including:

• Alerts from the U.S. Embassy about safety and security situations.
• Updates to the country’s Travel Advisory.
• Messages about U.S. embassy events and services, such as town hall meetings, voting information, federal benefits, and U.S. citizens' legal obligations (taxes, selective service registration, etc.).

Set up one account, and then add trips later for all your future travel plans!

 

Stay Connected

Enrolling in STEP will help the U.S. embassy contact you and provide assistance during an emergency overseas. And, if your family or friends in the U.S. are having difficulty contacting you with urgent news while you’re traveling, we can use the information in STEP to try and reach you.

[GeezerCouple]

4 hours ago, Momma Mojito said:

Was wondering how many of you check the travel advisories for the countries that are traveling to.  As it is everywhere today,  you have be be careful but have you every changed your plans after reading the advisories?

 

A few years ago, we were planning to do a land trip in the south of France.

There was a travel advisory about terrorist concerns there, although it was for an ongoing time period, or it probably would have been a more elevated warning/etc., rather than an advisory.  Nevertheless, it gave us pause.

 

For *other* reasons, we cancelled those plans. 

The tour organizer - first time we were going with a "group" - managed to mess up the hotel arrangements, and we decided we didn't trust them with anything.  (They gave us all of our money back, even though it was long past final payment, but everyone else ended up at a seriously inferior hotel for several nights, and they didn't realize that for several weeks, there was NO hotel actually arranged, as the "original" hotel had "never heard of the group".  We found out only because we contacted them, as we always do in advance, do to a special needs request.  If we had not, NO one would have known until the busload showed up late that evening.  Yikes.)

Anyway, we went on an Alaskan cruise instead, as I noticed a very late cancellation of a suite we *really* wanted - and at a considerable savings.  We joked that it was meant to be 

 

Cut to the chase... not long thereafter, there was that terrorist attack in Nice !

And the "hotel problem" was ... in Nice. 

That was upsetting, even though we'd have been there a bit earlier.  It was still too close for comfort.

 

We'll now probably continue to pay a lot of attention to these advisories, even though most of them do *not* actually end up with "anything happening".

 

GC

[Turtles06]

2 hours ago, Astro Flyer said:

We also register our travel plans using the US Department of State’s STEP program.

 

We do this as well. 

[lenquixote66]

6 hours ago, Momma Mojito said:

Was wondering how many of you check the travel advisories for the countries that are traveling to.  As it is everywhere today,  you have be be careful but have you every changed your plans after reading the advisories?

We always do. 

[K32682]

I have never checked them for a cruise but might for other travel. I have never changed my plans based on an advisory.  FWIW, I've found the UK travel assessments to be much more accurate than the U.S. State Department which tends to be a little overwrought at times. 

[h_blond2]

19 hours ago, Astro Flyer said:

We also register our travel plans using the US Department of State’s STEP program.

 

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/before-you-go/step.html

 

Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP)

 

The Smart Traveler Enrollment Program is a free service that allows U.S. citizens traveling or living abroad to receive the latest security updates from the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate.

 

Benefits of enrolling in STEP:

• You’ll receive the latest safety and security information for your destination country, so you can make informed decisions about your travel.
• The information you provide enables the U.S. embassy or consulate to contact you in an emergency. 

Stay Informed

When you enroll in STEP, you will receive current information about your destination country, including:

• Alerts from the U.S. Embassy about safety and security situations.
• Updates to the country’s Travel Advisory.
• Messages about U.S. embassy events and services, such as town hall meetings, voting information, federal benefits, and U.S. citizens' legal obligations (taxes, selective service registration, etc.).

Set up one account, and then add trips later for all your future travel plans!

 

Stay Connected

Enrolling in STEP will help the U.S. embassy contact you and provide assistance during an emergency overseas. And, if your family or friends in the U.S. are having difficulty contacting you with urgent news while you’re traveling, we can use the information in STEP to try and reach you.

We also do this. We do check the travel advisory levels, but since we usually stick to the touristy places, we have never changed out plans.

[spookwife]

Yes we check, due to hubbys Job/ Clearance level.  Plans have had to be altered more than once.n 

[zqvol]

On 3/10/2019 at 9:54 AM, Momma Mojito said:

Was wondering how many of you check the travel advisories for the countries that are traveling to.  As it is everywhere today,  you have be be careful but have you every changed your plans after reading the advisories?

 

Since I am on a cruise, and only in transit I never look. It's not like I am staying over night in port (most of the time).

[Astro Flyer]

3 hours ago, h_blond2 said:

We also do this. We do check the travel advisory levels, but since we usually stick to the touristy places, we have never changed out plans.

We’ve never decided to change our plans either but do like to be an informed traveler.  We learned about this option before arriving in Barcelona a couple of days prior to our embarkation day during the Catalonian independence conflict.

[SRF]

On 3/10/2019 at 2:05 PM, Astro Flyer said:

We also register our travel plans using the US Department of State’s STEP program.

 

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/before-you-go/step.html

 

Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP)

 

The Smart Traveler Enrollment Program is a free service that allows U.S. citizens traveling or living abroad to receive the latest security updates from the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate.

 

Benefits of enrolling in STEP:

• You’ll receive the latest safety and security information for your destination country, so you can make informed decisions about your travel.
• The information you provide enables the U.S. embassy or consulate to contact you in an emergency. 

Stay Informed

When you enroll in STEP, you will receive current information about your destination country, including:

• Alerts from the U.S. Embassy about safety and security situations.
• Updates to the country’s Travel Advisory.
• Messages about U.S. embassy events and services, such as town hall meetings, voting information, federal benefits, and U.S. citizens' legal obligations (taxes, selective service registration, etc.).

Set up one account, and then add trips later for all your future travel plans!

 

Stay Connected

Enrolling in STEP will help the U.S. embassy contact you and provide assistance during an emergency overseas. And, if your family or friends in the U.S. are having difficulty contacting you with urgent news while you’re traveling, we can use the information in STEP to try and reach you.

 

This is a great program if you are going to be somewhere for a while.  

 

But not exactly for a cruise stop.

 

Just being clear.

[Astro Flyer]

14 minutes ago, SRF said:

 

This is a great program if you are going to be somewhere for a while.  

 

But not exactly for a cruise stop.

 

Just being clear.

Correct but it’s good information to know about the current conditions when in ports or during pre or post cruise travel.

 

Today I received a STEP email because the Spain the travel advisory increased to Level 2 and to “exercise increased caution in Spain due to terrorism”.

 

I always exercise caution however the warning is specific to areas frequented by tourists & it appears they have some intelligence about plots for attacks to issue this warning. It’s extremely rare to receive such emails from them so however I’m traveling will be even more vigilant.

[iancal]

We do not bother.  We do a great deal of independent land travel. We read the news, use our judgement.   We find that the Gov't warnings are too general and appear to be geared toward CYA rather providing hard data/information.

[SRF]

There are MANY factors that go into the warnings.

 

And some things that are known, cannot be generally disseminated to avoid giving up a good source.

And of course, there is also not embarrassing another nation by putting out strongly worded travel warnings.

[sanger727]

I’m in the group that checks for land travel but not for cruises. I’m not overly concerned about spending 6-8 hours anywhere though I do look into whether it’s safe or advisable to explore on my own or if it’s better to be escorted via a tour. I would/have altered my travel plans based on advisories for land trips. For example, we went to playa del Carmen recently and while originally we planned to stay in a hotel in the city, we ended up staying in a resort outside the city and barely left it due to the advisory. 

[iancal]

Last Oct/Nov we spent a week in Playa and a week in Puerto Morales. Hotel and condo in the middle of both towns.  Made our own reservations, went out every night for dinner and a long walk. No issues whatsoever.   We enjoyed it so much we plan to do it again this year.

 

It would be very interesting if State actually put out similar travel warnings for cities or areas in the US. 

 

We do not get very exited about these travel warnings.  We tend to use our common sense, be very aware of our surroundings, and avoid certain parts of a city at night.  No different than when we are travelling in North America. 

Edited March 23, 2019 by iancal