The sun hung bright in the sky above the Blue Mosque’s domes as Palestinian flags filled the air. An Istanbul street bustling with tourists mere minutes prior suddenly filled with an endless stream of protesters, as part of October’s mass demonstrations across Europe in support of the Gaza aid flotilla.
It seemed like a peaceful protest—I spotted mothers with children—but I couldn’t be entirely sure. As I was off the news cycle for the previous week while traveling, I had no context for the crowd unfurling around me.
I pushed past my hotel door and upstream, intrigued, until I reached a McDonald’s fronted by an armed police blockade. Tension on the street rose. I watched the rest of the march from my hotel rooftop. At the time, I felt ill prepared for encountering any type of unrest on the road. But data indicates that travelers should be better equipped to respond to uprisings and upheaval in this time of growing uncertainty worldwide.
According to the Institute for Economics and Peace, global peacefulness has declined for 11 consecutive years. Many preconflict conditions—political instability, resource competition, neighboring-country conflict—sit at their highest levels since World War II.
That doesn’t mean every trip will go sideways. But the recent cartel violence that temporarily disrupted travel in Mexico and drone strikes across the Middle East that have forced airspace closures and stranded countless global travelers are recent reminders that clashes can break out quickly, with little to no warning.
You can’t control the world’s stability. But you can control how prepared you are for it.
What to do before your trip
Before heading out on an international trip, start with the U.S. State Department website, which publishes travel advisories for every country—ranging from Level 1 (“exercise normal precautions”) to Level 4 (“do not travel”)—with region-specific guidance for places like Mexico.
Of course, travel advisories are a starting point. They inform travelers of potential safety and security concerns in the destination, but often travelers need additional context to make wise travel decisions.
Additionally, travelers would do well to sign up for the State Department’s Smart Traveler Enrollment Program, or STEP: Travelers tell the State Department where they are going so the department can contact them if something goes wrong, and the service provides real-time security alerts.
“I can’t stress enough how much of a best practice it is to register in STEP,” says Tommy Pigott, a principal deputy spokesperson at the State Department.
STEP is a communication tool, not a rescue service. It ensures the government can communicate with you if an issue arises in your destination. If a crisis escalates, the State Department sets up a separate travel assistance program with personalized departure guidance and arranged flights, requiring separate enrollment (more on that below).
Travel insurance can also help with in-destination disruptions, though standard policies don’t cover unrest or war specifically. If you purchased a comprehensive policy before a crisis became known, your existing cancellation and delay benefits still apply—covering additional hotel nights, incidentals, and in some cases change fees.
If you’re headed somewhere that makes you uneasy, but nothing has happened yet, “the best thing to purchase would be Cancel for Any Reason,” or CFAR coverage, says Suzanne Morrow, CEO of InsureMyTrip, a travel insurance comparison site. CFAR is the only type of insurance that covers the decision not to go for whatever reason; it’s a travel insurance add-on that costs about 5 to 10 percent more than a standard policy and usually reimburses 50 to 75 percent of your trip costs.
You can also step up your coverage with support from specialty risk-management firms like Global Rescue, a travel risk and extraction firm. A one-week membership for a single traveler with extraction support if you’re in physical danger—including civil unrest, unpredicted natural disasters, government evacuation orders, and other security emergencies—will cost you $270.
What to watch for in your destination
Not every crowd becomes a crisis. The protest I encountered in Türkiye was peaceful. Plus, travelers can look for certain signals that hint whether an event is likely to take a turn.
Kenneth Bombace, CEO of Global Threat Solutions, an intelligence and investigative firm, learned to read them during his deployment to Iraq: When shopkeepers started shuttering their doors in the middle of the day, something was about to happen.
“The locals sometimes have a much better information flow than a tourist might have,” he says. Bombace’s advice: If you see businesses closing without explanation, police amassing, or large crowd surges—leave. Don’t stop to photograph it. Don’t linger. Distance is the single most important factor in your safety.
Essentially, do the exact opposite of what I did in Istanbul.
“Most travelers who get into trouble during civil unrest didn’t intend to. They simply underestimated how quickly a situation can escalate,” says Bombace. “The key is preparation, awareness, and distance. If you stay informed, avoid crowds, and leave an area as soon as warning signs appear, the odds of encountering danger drop dramatically.”
You can supplement STEP alerts with private intelligence services. Global Rescue sells annual memberships starting at $375 that include destination reports on more than 200 countries, produced by former military intelligence officers, plus access to an app that provides real-time alerts based on the live monitoring by a worldwide team of intelligence analysts and location tracking. Bombace’s firm offers monitoring that can geo-fence an area as small as a neighborhood and push alerts for crime or unrest to your phone, starting at a few hundred dollars a day.
What to do if unrest breaks out
If you are not in immediate physical danger, chances are you should stay put.
“Rushing to go do anything is usually not a great idea,” says Daniel Richards, CEO of Global Rescue, which evacuated hundreds of people from the Middle East and dozens from Mexico during recent crises.
And no—"it doesn’t look like Hollywood,” he says. Black Hawks are not sitting just beyond the horizon.
Often, staying safe starts with sheltering in place. When conflict broke out in the Middle East, clients who requested immediate transfers found airspace closing around them; those who remained in place and waited for professional direction had a smoother extraction, Richards says.
Though it may be tempting, don’t rush to the nearest U.S. embassy. Embassies aren’t designed as safe havens; they can’t accommodate large crowds of people, and in some conflicts, they become targets. For Americans abroad, the hotline to contact your nearest embassy or consulate is 1-202-501-4444. Families in the U.S. or Canada who want to communicate with the State Department on behalf of somebody in a conflict zone should call 1-888-407-4747. (They can call to let the State Department know that there is an American who needs to be accounted for in that conflict zone; sometimes those in the conflict zone can’t do so themselves due to lack of power, internet, cell service, etc.) If you are unable to reach the embassy in an emergency, you can call the State Department at 1-202-501-4444 from any country except the U.S. or Canada; that number is 888-407-4747.
While you wait, handle the basics: Keep your passport on your person, carry cash in case ATMs go dark, charge your phone and ration its use, and stock up on portable food and water. Be prepared to travel light if need be.
This is the moment to enroll in the State Department’s travel assistance program, which is separate from STEP. After the Middle East war broke out, the department created a 24/7 task force that provided security guidance and travel assistance to more than 50,000 affected Americans; by the department’s count, that is five of every seven Americans who have returned to the U.S. from the Middle East since February 28.
But government resources have limits. You may not be among the first few thousands to access an arranged flight. This is where private extraction companies like Global Rescue and Global Threat Solutions can help; both may be engaged after a crisis breaks out, though it will cost significantly more than subscribing in advance.
When to start traveling again
Commercial flights resuming are a good first sign that it may be safe to visit a destination again—but that’s far from the only factor to consider.
“An international traveler should treat a return after civil unrest or violent conflict as a decision framework, not a feeling,” Global Rescue’s Director of Communications Bill McIntyre said via email.
“The right question is not ‘Has the violence stopped?’ but ‘Have the conditions that make travel workable and survivable actually returned?’ That means looking at five things in order: whether violence is still active or can flare again, whether transportation is functioning reliably, whether medical care is accessible, whether the disruption is localized or broad, and whether you have a way out if conditions deteriorate again,” he advises.
The State Department’s travel advisories are a great first step in this assessment. Other open sources recommended by McIntyre include the U.K.’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Australia’s Smartraveller, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s travelers’ health guidance, and Overseas Security Advisory Council reports.
Back on that rooftop in Istanbul, I watched as the crowd eventually thinned. Flags disappeared. The McDonald’s reopened. By sunset, the square looked almost exactly as it had that morning. Tourists angled for photos; the call to prayer rolled over the domes.
Nothing had happened then, but I can’t be sure about the next time. Travel always comes with risk. That’s part of what makes it meaningful: You step into reality, not curated feeds.
The difference now is speed. Situations change faster. Crowds turn quicker. Airspace closes overnight.
You can’t control any of that. But you can be prepared to move through it.
