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Travel tips for Americans heading abroad as conflict continues in Middle East
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BATON ROUGE - The ongoing conflict in the Middle East has caused Americans to be worried about traveling abroad.
If you are considering traveling overseas, the State Department has tips and tools for you to use on travel.state.gov.
"You can look at the destination where you are interested in traveling, look at the travel advisory. Travel.state.gov also has information on visa requirements, vaccine requirements, tips from us diplomats who are serving in that country," says Mignon Houston, the deputy spokesperson for the State Department.
On the website, you can access the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program, known as STEP.
"This is a free service that we offer to American citizens to ensure you can enroll your information and that gives diplomats abroad at US embassies and consultants an opportunity to reach out to you directly if there is a travel advisory alert or a warning that we need to share with US citizens," Houston said.
If you decide to travel out of the country, make sure that you know the number of the American Citizen Services in that country's consulate or embassy.
"If there is a passport that is stolen, if you lose your wallet, you get assaulted or maybe you are arrested in that country. It's important to know your resources, to know what's available to you, and starting with the phone number for American citizen services in that industry or consultant, is an important first step," Houston said.
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