We’re more worried about what’s happening in Washington D.C…
Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, India, Indonesia, Spain Turks & Caico and the United Kingdom all have at least one thing in common. The U.S. State Department has issued increased warnings for travel to these popular tourist destinations. This weekend the State Department issued surprising warning for yet another one of the least likely countries in the world: the chilled out European haven known as The Netherlands. Is Amsterdam on your list?
Level 2
The Netherlands has been raised to level “2” travel warning, joining ever popular Euro tourist destinations including France, Italy and Spain, which happen to make up three of the world’s five most visited countries. The raised travel threat level essentially encourages travelers to “exercise increased caution”, but certainly doesn’t suggest avoiding travel. If you’d still plan on having pasta in Rome, you should still plan on coffee in Amsterdam. The threat level was raised after recent extremist attacks were thwarted, and a stabbing injured two Americans.
Increased Caution
A level “2” warning is the second of four steps, and is shared by many of the most popular tourist destinations for reasons as common as petty theft. Level “3” however, means reconsider travel, and level “4” means do not travel at all. Turkey, Russia and Lebanon are all level “3”, while Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq are noted nations of the do not travel list. The official advice for level “2” nations, such as The Netherlands is to…
- Be aware of your surroundings when traveling to tourist locations and large crowded public venues.
- Follow the instructions of local authorities including movement restrictions related to any ongoing police action.
- Monitor local media for breaking events and adjust your plans based on new information.
- Enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) to receive Alerts and make it easier to locate you in an emergency.
- Follow the Department of State on Facebook and Twitter.
- Review the Crime and Safety Report for the Netherlands.
- U.S. citizens who travel abroad should always have a contingency plan for emergency situations. Review the Traveler’s Checklist.
Top Five
It’s fascinating that four of the five most visited countries in the world, which have only increased in popularity year over year have received level “2” travel warnings from the USA. The only top five tourism country not have received a level “2” warning is in fact the United States itself.
And the reason for inserting the snarky (and irrelevant) comment about Washington DC was…what, exactly?
Are any Europeans actually going to the US these days. We can’t afford it.
With DC today, can’t really trust anything that is stated by this administration. Likely this is just a smear campaign to stop USD from converting to Euros. Sad but today’s US government has zero trust from most people. I trust Spain and The Netherlands far more than I trust DC with today’s government.