Spring break safety tips kids need to heed
Spring break is starts today for many schools, and the State Department estimates 100,000 American college students will head to Mexico for some fun in the sun.
This week, Texas officials warned students to stay away from Mexico, where drug violence has claimed the lives of four Americans this year, on top of 65 last year.
Whatever the destination, spring break outside the country can be dangerous.
And on "The Early Show on Saturday Morning," AOL Travel Executive Editor Jason Cochran shared some important travel safety tips for parents to impart to their kids if they'll be spring break travelers this year.
Topping his list of destinations to avoid, he told co-anchor Rebecca Jarvis, is Jamaica. "Montego Bay and Kingston," he said, "have records of some dangerous activity, people even being robbed in their hotel rooms while they sleep.
"I think the border towns of Mexico, specifically, are the ones people are most concerned about. Fortunately, they're about a thousand miles away from places like Cancun, which is still No. 3 on the most popular list for American students.
"If you stay in the tourist zones in most of the Mexican resort towns, that's not really where the area of concern is. It's really at the border towns - places like Tijuana, right across the border from California, more of a concern, for sure."
Still, he says, parents need to stress to their kids that they should take safety precautions if they go anywhere abroad during spring break.
Jason's advice:
Be sure hotel/resort is centrally located
-- Beach hotels are high-crime targets, and often, ground-floor rooms have sliding glass doors where crime is easier to commit
-- Staying in the middle of everything limits the time you have to be in a vehicle -- which in party zones limits alcohol-related accidents
-- You're less likely to get lost if your hotel is easy to reach on foot from your beach or main activities
-- There's safety in numbers -- that's another reason to stay in central locations. Group tours, go on shore excursions
-- Crime is more likely when tourists are away from the tourist zone and other tourists, and the facts bear that out
-- Never go off with a stranger, even if the person is from the college across town. Bring a friend at all times.
Buy travel insurance
-- A lot of students' health policies, he told Jarvis, especially if they get it through their schools, may not cover them outside the U.S., so parents "have to get them some medical insurance for when they're gone" so, if something happens to them, they'll be flown home.
-- These policies cost just $20-$25 for a week
-- It will also pay out if you have to cancel your trip ahead of time
-- InsureMyTrip.com rounds up the options
Scan travel documents and send them to a web-based e-mail account
-- This is good advice not just for spring breakers, but anyone going away on a trip
-- Scan things such as passports, the itinerary, tickets at home
-- If you forgot, take a photo of document with iPhone's JotNot Pro and it will convert to a doc
G-mail or Yahoo
Advise them to keep cash to a minimum and rely mainly on credit cards
-- Such as $60 cash at a time. Go to an ATM run by or associated with your bank to limit repeated withdrawal fees; carry just one credit card; only pull out a little cash at a time, not a big wad
-- Visa and Mastercard are commonly accepted abroad
-- Tell your credit card company you're going to be traveling
Stay in touch via social media sites
-- Check in on Foursquare, Places on Facebook, status updates, tweets
-- If you're an adult with a home, this is a bad idea since it alerts thieves. But students can use it to passively inform parents of their whereabouts without feeling like they constantly have to call home - a good compromise for both parents and kids.