Travel Warnings are common occurrences that tend to be buzz kills to travelers everywhere. But what does a travel warning really mean? And do we need to let it ruin all our fun?

Why Travel Warnings are issued
The U.S. State Department says they issue travel warnings when they believe a long term condition makes a country risky to travel in or if the embassy of a country closes, taking away the ability for the U.S. to assist American citizens.

How to interpret a Travel Warning
The current Travel Warning list issued by the U.S. includes a little over 30 countries. Afghanistan, Libya and Iran are up there—surprise, surprise. But they also threw in some wildcards such as Mexico and Columbia. This is where it gets tricky. Some of the countries on the list should be avoided all together, while others are perfectly fine to travel to if certain areas are avoided.

Luckily, other countries such as the UK can help with this dilemma. The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office breaks down the list of questionable countries, advising against all travel, all travel to parts of a given country, all but essential travel, or all but essential travel to certain areas. Reading travel advice from more than one country can help give you more information and give you a better idea of how dangerous a destination actually is.

How to further educate yourself
While government sites are incredibly helpful, it can also be beneficial to read English-written newspapers from the country where the warning has been issued. This site gives a variety of papers from around the world: http://www.onlinenewspapers.com/.  Get different perspectives from a variety of news sources such as CNN, BBC and Al Jazeera.

You can also get advice from seasoned travelers by visiting different travel blogs. Intelligent Travel, The TSA Blog and World Hum are just a few. And don’t forget about Unravel! You can drop us a line (or a comment) whenever you have traveling questions or concerns.

Why you shouldn’t break your plans
If your travel destination suddenly appears on the travel warning list, don’t cancel your flight and throw your luggage out the window. Many times conflicts are internal, so they have nothing to do with tourism. As a tourist, you’re really valuable.  Most people understand this and know deterring foreign visitors will result in stiff penalties.

In short, don’t take travel warnings lightly, but don’t let them ruin a potentially amazing trip. Government websites give detailed accounts of why a country may be dangerous and which parts are cause for concern, so make sure you actually read what they have to say. You can learn more about safe travel this September by joining us on our Travel School trip to Mexico and Guatemala!

Here’s a list of government websites to help you interpret issued travel warnings:
U.S. http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_1764.html
UK http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-living-abroad/travel-advice-by-country?action=essentialTravelParts#essentialTravelParts
Australia http://www.smartraveller.gov.au/zw-cgi/view/Advice/
Canada http://www.voyage.gc.ca/countries_pays/menu-eng.asp