Solo Travel Safety Index
The most comprehensive safety ranking for solo travelers. Every destination scored across seven safety dimensions.
Why Safety Is My #1 Metric
After 8 years of solo travel across 40+ countries, I have learned that safety is not a number on a government website. It is the sum of daily realities: whether you can walk home at night, whether a stranger’s approach is a scam or a welcome, whether the hostel locks work and the taxi driver is licensed. My safety scores combine official crime statistics with my own on-the-ground experiences and 200+ interviews with other solo travelers. A destination can be statistically safe yet feel unsafe — and vice versa. This index measures the felt safety of a solo traveler, not just the crime rate.
How the Scores Are Built
Each destination receives a score out of 10 across seven dimensions, weighted into a single Safety Score. The seven dimensions are: violent crime risk, petty crime and scam prevalence, street safety after dark, public transport safety, healthcare quality and accessibility, local attitudes toward tourists, and natural disaster risk. The Female column adds a female-specific lens: harassment prevalence, women-only infrastructure, and community reports. Transport measures how safely and easily you can move around alone. Use the table to compare destinations, then dive into each country’s full guide for neighborhood-level advice.
| # | Destination | Safety | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Iceland | 9.9 | $$$ |
| 2 | Japan | 9.8 | $$ |
| 3 | South Korea | 9.5 | $$ |
| 4 | New Zealand | 9.5 | $$ |
| 5 | Taiwan | 9.3 | $ |
| 6 | Portugal | 9.2 | $ |
| 7 | Croatia | 9 | $$ |
| 8 | Australia | 9 | $$$ |
| 9 | Costa Rica | 8.5 | $$ |
| 10 | Italy | 8 | $$ |
| 11 | Vietnam | 8 | $ |
| 12 | Spain | 8 | $$ |
| 13 | Thailand | 7.5 | $ |
| 14 | Indonesia | 7 | $ |
| 15 | Mexico | 6 | $ |