US snubbed in international rating of most secure journey locations

The American dream has changed into a nightmare — for vacationers.

With the vacation journey season forward, journey insurance coverage supplier Berkshire Hathaway Journey Safety has named the most secure nations on the earth for 2026, discovering that the Netherlands topped the record when it got here to vacationer safety.

In the meantime, the US was left off the compendium completely regardless of the actual fact the crime has been on the decline nationwide.

However this wasn’t some biased, America-hating record. To compile the record of most traveler-safe nations, Berkshire Hathaway went straight to the horse’s mouth and asked 1,800 American vacationers to rank the international locations they visited based mostly on security.

The agency then mixed their solutions with information from the World Peace Index, Numbeo, and different sources spanning varied components, together with terrorism, climate emergencies, well being considerations, and the protection of underrepresented teams, Journey + Leisure journal reported.

This information was blended with previous outcomes with the scores from “outdoors sources and calculate a weighted rating that displays every nation’s general security,” per the positioning.

Curiously, security was not merely synonymous with lack of crime, per the survey. “We’re seeing a shift in how vacationers outline ‘secure,’” a spokesperson for Berkshire Hathaway advised Journey + Leisure. “Individuals are additionally contemplating healthcare entry, local weather stability and inclusivity.”

Coincidentally, a latest survey discovered that Individuals really feel “plagued” by nerves on the concept of worldwide journey, with concern components together with getting damage whereas touring and having traveled to unsafe places up to now (16%).

Coming in first was the Netherlands, which jumped up a whopping 13 spots from 2024. Surveyed vacationers gave the “peace-loving” place “near-top marks for well being measures, general security, and security for feminine vacationers, LGBTQIA+ vacationers, and vacationers of coloration.”

The principle hazard was fast-moving bikes, which have their very own lanes in Amsterdam and different Dutch cities, forcing vacationers to look each methods earlier than crossing the road.

“Additionally, younger bikers’ affinity for high-speed, mini-bike-like e-bikes provides one other component of hazard,” per the survey.

Coming in second was Australia, which obtained the “highest marks for well being measures and is close to the highest for security from terrorism.”

Austria got here in third place after not rating beforehand whereas final 12 months’s defending champ, Iceland, slipped to fourth place.

Based on the World Peace Index, the Scandinavian nation was the fourth most peaceable nation on the earth.

Nonetheless, Berkshire Hathaway warned that vacationers must be careful for volcanic eruptions.

“Eruptions at all times carry the potential for disruption, however they’re notably problematic in Iceland, because the lava flows fairly often have an effect on the one primary street that rings the nation,” they wrote. “This has the potential to depart vacationers stranded.”

Canada, in the meantime, rounded out the highest 5 whereas no different North American nations made the record. The one saving grace is that the US was ranked the seventh most secure nation by respondents whose family revenue exceeded $350,000 per 12 months.

To assist guarantee one’s security whereas touring overseas, Berkshire Hathaway really useful, amongst different issues, that vacationers register the U.S. State Division’s Good Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP), which permits the division to challenge alerts and discover American vacationers throughout an emergency.