Suppose you’re like many people across the country. In that case, you’re probably planning a summer getaway that you’ve been looking forward to since COVID-19 impacted our lives in unimaginable ways more than a year ago. We don’t want your trip to get ruined by an emergency, so below, we’ll discuss four tips that can help you keep yourself safe while away from home.
Greylake Training Solutions is dedicated to empowering you with a safer mindset. We offer security awareness programs, women’s safety training, and many other personal security courses that can help you protect yourself through prevention, introspection, and action. Visit our website to learn more!
Double Check Communication
Communication is crucial when you’re away from home. Make sure that you have emergency contact information saved on your phone and stored somewhere else, just in case you run out of battery or lose your phone. If you’re traveling abroad, then you’ll need to talk with your service provider to make sure you understand their international coverage policy, so your phone works overseas.
Listen to Your Intuition
Your intuition is that feeling you get when something just isn’t right. It’s the product of millions of years of evolution and has been sharpened to keep us safe.
It’s important to inform your intuition when traveling, so make sure you pay attention to typical behavior patterns wherever you’re traveling. How do people normally converse? How close do they stand when talking? The answers to these questions as well as other normal and expected behaviors in a given environment are the baseline.
If you notice a person or group exhibiting several behaviors that don’t fit the baseline, action might be warranted.
Practice Good Safety Tips in Hotels
How you behave in hotels and other vacation rentals can have a big impact on your safety. For instance, showing the staff at the front desk your ID and payment method without verbally announcing your name can reduce the risk of someone in the lobby eavesdropping and attempting to use social engineering to coax you into a dangerous situation. When you arrive, familiarize yourself with stairwells and other emergency exits, just in case you need to leave quickly due to a fire or natural disaster.
Another great tip is to avoid carrying all your credit cards on a trip. Just bring one. Alert your bank or credit card company if you’re going overseas. If you bring a debit card overseas, link it to an account with a smaller amount of money rather than all your savings. Express kidnappings are notorious for draining accounts.
And finally, use a door stopper for added security and never answer the door unless you are expecting someone.
Maintain Cultural Awareness
Cultural awareness can help you avoid misunderstandings, hostility, and the risk of a security incident.
Important elements of cultural awareness include, but are not limited to:
- Attitudes about gender
- Dress code
- Customary greetings and goodbyes
- Social attitudes around meals
- Laws and customs regarding alcohol consumption
- Personal space, gestures, and body language
These are only a few of the ways in which you should be prepared to keep yourself safe while traveling.
If you’re planning to take a trip this summer, get prepared by enrolling in Greylake Training Solutions’ travel security program and any others that are relevant to your trip.
Make sure you are prepared!