- Chloe Jade is a content creator who is documenting her travels around the world on Instagram.
- Jade told Business Insider that as a female traveler, she has at times felt unsafe.
- These are the five places Jade said she felt least safe as a woman.
This is an as-told-to essay based on a conversation with Chloe Jade, an influencer who has been documenting her travels around the world on Instagram. It has been edited for length and clarity.
I am an American content influencer with a dream of traveling the world.
I'm well on my way and have visited more than 80 countries already. I do most of my traveling on my own but often have friends and family who come along with me to certain parts of the world.
My travels, which I document on my Instagram channel, have been amazing so far and I love meeting new people and experiencing new cultures.
Yet, there have been a few places where I have felt unsafe, as a female traveller. Here are some of them:
Pattaya, Thailand
There are so many amazing places to visit in Thailand, but Pattaya — largely known as the country's sex capital — was definitely my least favorite.
I just felt like a lot of the foreign men that go there have only one thing in mind and it's very specific. So being there as a woman just made me feel very uncomfortable.
Honestly, I've generally always felt really safe in Asia so this was a surprise for me. While the rest of Thailand is beautiful, I would just avoid Pattaya.
Belgrade, Serbia
Belgrade in Serbia was probably the most unsafe I've ever felt traveling, but I think it had a lot to do with the fact that I'm American.
When locals found out I was from the US, they would become very hostile. This happened to me so much that I stopped saying I was American because I realized that it was the inciting factor.
Once I was in the back of a taxi, and the driver was telling me how much he hates America. He was not letting it go and as a lone woman in the back of a car, that was a little scary — especially if somebody is showing no signs of lightheartedness.
It is crazy to me that I felt so unsafe in Belgrade considering that I had just been traveling through the Balkans and never had any issues.
I think it also has to do with the war right now in Ukraine because one of the men said he had to defend his Russian family. So, I think that there's just a lot of hostility going on there politically at the moment.
Paris, France
When I visited Paris, I had a scary experience with a local man who pressured me into getting a drink with him. When I went to my hostel that night, I had cold sweats and felt unwell.
To this day, I feel like I was drugged. I think I am lucky that I got away from the man
The reason I've put Paris on my list is because I think it is too romanticized in the movies, especially for an American audience.
Like other megacities in the world, Paris comes with its dangers and I urge women to stay alert and vigilant if they're ever alone.
Marrakesh, Morroco
I loved my time in Morroco, and highly recommend people to visit it.
Although I personally didn't feel unsafe, a friend who was visiting Morroco's capital, Marrakesh, with me, did.
The way the city is set up creates small little alleyways that can, at times, be scary to walk down alone. A lot of men were also pretty aggressive.
There are places where women have fewer rights, but I have actually felt the safest in those countries just because there are women-only areas, and it is not customary or allowed for men to approach women and catcall, or things like that.
While I didn't feel that necessarily in Morroco, I did experience that a lot in the Middle East.
Kingston, Jamaica
When I was in Jamaica, I generally felt comfortable. But every local that I would meet, would warn me about things that I could or could not do as a woman.
So, after a while that gave me the impression that things were unsafe.
When I went to certain markets there, for example, I got so much pushback from Jamaicans telling me that I should not have gone there because it was unsafe.
I really liked it there, but felt like I had to be extra vigilant while in public.
This is just based on my own experiences.
At the end of the day, bad things can happen anywhere.
I could be in the safest country in the world and still feel uncomfortable because of something there.
I don't want to offend people, this list is just based on my own experiences.
In a way, I'm also very privileged to be able to do something like this and generally feel incredibly safe.