Texas Travel Alert: Advisories Posted for 3 Popular Destinations

The fall travel season is well underway. Travelers from Dallas, San Antonio, Houston, and Austin, and all the Texas towns in between are branching out across the nation and the world to celebrate the scenery of fall or to escape the arrival of cooler temperatures. No, I personally don’t know anyone from Texas who is not looking forward to cooler temperatures but they could be out there.

Most of us think of travel as an “escape” an activity that breaks us from our normal routine. Even though travel is supposed to be relaxing a seasoned traveler knows that it can be quite stressful. Traveling in foreign lands means breaking language barriers, understanding foreign currency, and the realization that some places aren’t as safe as our hometowns.

It’s truly a risk versus reward scenario. Those who take the risk are often rewarded with amazing sights, sounds, and experiences that only entice us to travel more. But in regard to safety, the United States Department of State provides information to American travelers abroad. This information includes updates on which destinations are safe, which ones are safer, and which ones you should avoid.

Unfortunately, the Department of State has just revised travel warnings for three destinations that a typical traveler would not immediately have “red flags raised” about visiting. Two of the destinations are in Europe, the other is a popular island in the Caribbean that has a reputation for beautiful beaches, luxury hotels, and a connection to high finance.

To designate or define the threat level the Department of State has created a four-tiered warning system that ranges from Level 1 of “exercise normal precautions” to Level 4 which warns Americans to “Do Not Travel”.  The threat levels in the most recent updates from the State Department are a Level 1 advisory for the Caribbean destination and to Level 2 for the two destinations in Europe.

In the Caribbean, the Department of State has issued a Level 1 Advisory for travelers to the Cayman Islands. This does not mean you should not go to the Cayman Islands. It simply means that you should exercise normal precautions when visiting. You can actually sign up for travel alerts from the Department of State through the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program. This provides easy access to alerts, if issued, and makes it easy to locate you in the event of an emergency.

I would think that any traveler would always “travel with Level 1 expectations”. It just makes sense to keep your wits about you and pay attention to your surroundings wherever you travel. If I had plans to visit the Caymans I would not change them. I would go, have a good time, and keep my head on a swivel when I am in a situation involving a lot of other people.

In Europe, the two destinations that have been raised to  Level 2 according to the Department of State are the United Kingdom and Italy. Both of those destinations are popular with American travelers in the fall. The reason for the increased attention of travelers is terrorism.

That Department of State Advisory encourages travelers to exercise “increased caution” over terror threats. The advisory reminds travelers to be cognizant of potential threats in large public areas such as markets, hotels, clubs, and other places where a lot of people have gathered.  The advisory states that terrorist groups have been plotting possible attacks against such targets, so elevated caution is encouraged.

The advisory for Italy is basically the same. Avoid the large crowds if you can and be sure to enroll in the STEP Program from the Department of State.  We should note that these advisories do not discourage travel to these locations. The advisories are in place as a reminder that there are evil-doers in the world and they often target large crowds of innocent people.

For the latest travel information from the Department of State, you can click here. 

By the way, there are still multiple advisories in place for destinations in Mexico and other islands of the Caribbean. The Bahamas and Jamaica have recently been included in some of those advisories so if you are heading “south for the winter” please know before you go.

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