How to Read a Travel Advisory Before You Let It Cancel Your Trip

Everyone says check the travel advisory. Almost nobody shows you how to read one, which is the only part that would actually help.

Giza. One of the places I was told not to go.

How to read an advisory

The US State Department uses four levels. The number is the headline, not the story.

Level 1

Normal precautions

The everyday baseline. It does not mean nothing ever happens there, it means nothing about it stands out.

Level 2

Increased caution

The one that scares people off, and a lot of ordinary, popular destinations sit here. Read what the caution is actually about before you let this number cancel a trip.

Level 3

Reconsider travel

A real signal. Read the detail closely, and look at which part of the country it is about.

Level 4

Do not travel

The clearest one on the list. This is the level where I would not go.

Then read the reason underneath. This is the part people skip and it is the part that matters. An advisory is usually about one region, one border area or one specific risk, not an entire country. A Level 2 driven by petty theft in one neighbourhood is a completely different thing from a Level 2 driven by something else, and the number alone will never tell you which one you are looking at.

Before you go

Five things, and the part of each one people skip.

Book rides inside an app, and get the right app first.

It is not always Uber. Download the one people actually use where you are going before you land, while you still have wifi. An app trip has a record. A car you flagged down does not.

Save the hotel address in the local language.

As a screenshot, not a link, because a link needs data and a screenshot does not. The front desk usually keeps printed cards with the address on them. Take two, one for your bag and one for you.

Photograph your documents, then email them to yourself.

Passport, ID, every confirmation. The photograph is the part everyone does. Emailing it to yourself is the part that matters, because it survives the phone being gone.

Tell someone at home the hotel, not the country.

The hotel name and your flight numbers. A city is not findable. A hotel is. This takes one message and it is the difference between someone worrying and someone being able to do something.

Practice saying no, plainly, and walking.

A taxi, a tour, a shop. Stopping to explain yourself is what keeps it going. In most places that feel overwhelming, what you are meeting is a sales rhythm, not a threat, and it moves on quickly.

Questions I get

Is a Level 2 country dangerous?

Level 2 covers a very wide range, and plenty of ordinary destinations sit there. The number on its own tells you almost nothing. What tells you something is the reason printed underneath it.

What else should I check besides the level?

Which region the advisory actually names, and how recently it was updated. An advisory written about a border area is not a statement about the city you are flying into.

How do I handle family who think I should cancel?

Show them the advisory itself and the region it names, instead of arguing about it. It is a document, not an opinion, and it usually says something far narrower than they are imagining.

The honest limit of this. This is my own experience and my own research habit, not a safety guarantee, and I am not in a position to promise you anything about a place you have not been to yet. Advisories change. Read the current one, for your own passport and your own dates, close to when you travel rather than when you book.

Levels described here are the standing four tier system, not a snapshot of any country’s current rating.

Want the trip planned around all this?

I do the research and build you a clear travel plan and a personalised travel page. You book everything yourself, directly.

Start the travel questionnaire

Free to read. Nothing to buy to use it.