How to Travel Safely

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Planning a vacation? We've put together a travel guide to help you have a fun, safe, and totally unplugged time.

Vacation is a wonderful time when all the usual worries fade into the background. On vacation, we focus on the sights, local culture and try to abstract ourselves from the routine in every possible way. But away from home, the level of danger naturally increases - how to use transport in another country correctly, how not to fall for the tricks of local scammers and, finally, where to call in an emergency?

Answers to these and many other questions have been prepared by Kaspersky Lab experts. In our guide in a convenient PDF format, we have collected for you tips and recommendations on how to make your trip safe, easy and enjoyable.

Transport​

First of all, figure out how to get a local travel card, avoid traveling during rush hour, and don't take large sums of money on public transport. If these tips are obvious to you, here are a couple more unusual life hacks for safe travel on vacation.

• Use a local popular navigation app. It is likely that using Yandex.Maps or Google Maps in your destination country will be irrelevant. Remember: you should only download new apps from official catalogs, but even there, malware may lurk , so be sure to keep reliable protection enabled.
• Follow the driving rules. At a minimum, make sure whether the country you are visiting drives on the right or left side of the road. This is especially important if you plan to rent a car, bike, or other type of transport.
• Download offline maps and transport schemes to your smartphone. It's safer than connecting to public Wi-Fi hotspots every time .

Accommodation​

Choosing the right hotel, inn, and even room is one of the most important components of a great trip. It is important to choose accommodation based on your needs and possibilities in order to find the golden balance:

• look for new hotels to save money;
• choose a corner room;
• inform hotel staff about birthdays and other memorable events;
• Book business-oriented hotels for weekends;
• check prices even after booking;
• consider upgrading your room class;
• Download your hotel's mobile app if it has one.

And most importantly, when searching for vacation accommodation, use specialized services, and do not follow suspicious links from email newsletters. If you want to ensure maximum protection, use a top anti-phishing solution.

Entertainment​

Can you imagine how annoying it would be to spend money on a concert of your favorite artist on vacation and find out at the entrance that your ticket is fake? To avoid this from happening to you, follow our advice.

• Buy tickets on official resources. Believe me, scammers have "tickets" for any event: to the theater or to an exhibition, to the Burning Man festival, football tournaments and even to the Olympics.
• Look for discounts, but be careful. Students can apply for an ISIC card, and everyone else can look for package and last-minute offers. The main thing is not to fall for typical fraudulent tricks; scammers love discount fans.
• Find local events. Tourist attractions are great, but it would be fun to dig into local forums and interest groups to find like-minded people in another city, country, or even another continent.

Remember that you should not share photos of tickets, including boarding passes, on social networks - scammers and simply personal ill-wishers can use this information against you.

Dating​

We have already written more than once about how to safely meet people on dating apps, so here we have collected the best recommendations that, together with reliable protection, will help you get the most pleasure from your holiday romances:

• use trusted dating apps;
• the messenger built into the application is your choice, you shouldn’t immediately switch to, for example, Telegram;
• do not share personal information with strangers;
• Use unique photos and make your profile as private as possible;
• schedule meetings in public places;
• tell your loved ones with whom and where your date will take place;
• If you have an unpleasant feeling towards a person, end the meeting as soon as possible.

Shopping​

Offline shopping is, of course, much more understandable than online shopping, but in terms of security they have several similarities.

• Use a separate bank card for travel with a set limit and do not keep any significant amount of money there.
• Give preference to ATMs that are located in a bank branch. This will make it safer for you to withdraw money, and you will most likely avoid skimmers.

It would be a good idea to learn the local trade practices. In some countries, it is customary to haggle, while in others, it is customary to drink tea during difficult negotiations. Whatever the case, learn the local laws and customs in advance to avoid potential problems.

Keep all receipts - this will help you when filing customs or tax returns when you return home, and will also be useful when returning or exchanging goods.

If you are traveling with children​

Children add a special touch to every trip... But whether it will be a fresh, tasty raisin or a dried, sour one depends, among other things, on you:

• choose accommodation for a family holiday;
• plan uncluttered trips;
• Bring snacks, water, extra clothes and entertainment for your child;
• look for discounts for children;
• Take a first aid kit and save a list of the nearest medical facilities on your smartphone.

And don't forget about the house rules that can apply even during vacation - control the screen time of your child's devices and track their location even when away from home.

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