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15 Countries That Don’t SEEM Dangerous, But Really Are

a person with their hands in handcuffs

Every couple of months, the United States government revamps its travel advisories for going to other countries, based on how safe or unsafe they perceive said country is (they never mention the travel advisories that other countries have for their citizens who plan to visit the U.S. – and there are several).

That being said, at any given time, there are some countries that the U.S. thinks are relatively safe. So they’ll typically say to just “exercise normal precautions,” (places such as Austria, Fiji and Canada are currently at this “Level 1” level) or maybe even “increased caution” ( these “Level 2” places currently include Hong Kong, Germany and Mozambique).

However some countries may APPEAR to be perfectly safe (at least by U.S. government standards) but could really hurt or kill you, if you’re not careful.

A user on Reddit named Catwinky asked about it (heads up: adult language. NSFW) and here are some of the answers:

Australia

Canada

Costa Rica

  • I have traveled quite a bit in Central America and the horror stories I’ve heard from other travelers were few and far between. But after spending 6 weeks in Costa Rica, a cab driver in San Jose scammed us out of 100 bucks, I met a guy who had to be treated for knife wounds after he resisted a robbery, and our friends were robbed of all but their clothes while camping out on a beach. This happened at night while they slept and after talking to some locals and expressing surprise that they did not wake up while this was happening, the locals informed us that the robbers probably sprayed ether into their tents to knock them unconscious. Now I’ve heard of plenty of nefarious robbery practices, but this was some next level shit that I’ve only encountered in Costa Rica. — skunk8una

Dubai

  • looks like paradise but you drink water during the ramadan in public, you get jailed (even if you are a non muslim and a foreigner). — bruceleeinme

Guyana

Ireland

Japan

  • Japan is certainly not dangerous in the grand scheme of things, but I think the “omg it’s so safe” thing is dramatically overhyped. The fact is that “incidents” in Japan simply do not get reported to the police.
    As an American who lived there for 4 years, I encountered a fair bit of sketchy situations… drunken violent misbehavior, outright physical abuse in families/couples, blatant theft, stalking, etc. Not one of those incidents was reported to the police. — BringBack4Glory

The Netherlands

  • the most active Mafia/criminal group that is involved in importing drugs in the EU is not the Italian Mafia or the French Mafia like most people would expect, it’s the (Dutch and Belgian)-Moroccan Mafia (also called the Mocro Mafia).
    They control Europe’s biggest port (Rotterdam) and have significant influence in other major ports such as Amsterdam and Bruges (Belgium). The drugs are routed from South America to the EU through Dutch former colonies and oversea territories.
    While drug trafficking is their main activity, they are also involved in arms, human and stolen cars trafficking. — JesusGAwasOnCD

New Zealand

  • The amount of gangs here, the amount of power they have, the lack of strong laws and lack of rehabilitation.
    And Australia keeps expelling their gang leaders to NZ.
    The police are powerless and heavily under resourced. Many are migrating to Australia for a better life.
    People are starting to get the message and low socioeconomic people are now attacking, robbing, assaulting, doing ram raids, even attempted murder and the worse they get is home detention.
    Add to that the severe drop in quality of education that plays a big role in the above. — VintageKofta

Papua New Guinea

  • Looking at the pictures you see sandy beaches, tropical animals, and just another paradise in Oceania.
    Don’t go if you are a woman without armed escorts. It’s very likely the worst place in the world for gender related violence. — LaconicSuffering

Scotland

South Korea

Thailand

Trinidad

Vietnam

Overall

  • Everywhere. There’s dangerous s**t in every country. — top_steppa (Amen, friend. Amen.)

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