France riots: Is it safe to visit right now?

Protests in France over public education and the rising cost of living have made way for violent riots. Things calmed down after leaders announced curfews, but authorities are bracing for more action here. More tourist sites, most of them are open, but a lot of people are wondering, Is it safe to visit those sites? So what do you do if you do have a trip booked right now? And I know that NFL game is on Sunday, so a lot of people from the States are headed that way. Joining us now is travel skills advisor Kevin Coffey. Good morning Kevin, good morning good morning here we go, Coffey with Coffey again. All right, hopefully you can uh you can serve up some good advice for us here. What is your best advice, your best travel tips for people who are headed that way right now? Okay, let's look at this in perspective and I like to bring it right home to the United States. Remember, we've had our own issues here, and just because there's an issue in a certain part of a city. I've had it here in Los Angeles, where I happen to live and worked for the Los Angeles Police Department for 35 years. Everyone thinks that the whole city is having problems, and it's not. It's usually confined in a certain area. Same thing has happened there in France, in Paris, and in certain cities. So I wouldn't cancel any travel as far as that. I would just be very aware of what's going on in the specific destinations where I might be visiting, and also getting access to information that most travelers don't take the time to get and pull and monitor as they travel over there. To that point, are there ways for American tourists to get alerts on where these demonstrations are taking place, maybe so they can avoid those areas? Absolutely. One of the most important things, and I'm still surprised how many travelers don't do this, there's an app that you can download for free on your phone from the US government. It's called the STEP program. And that is done through the Department of State. And then you register and you let the Department of State know where you're going exactly and your dates and your times. And if there's any alerts that go on in the area that you'll be visiting, it'll be pushed out to your phone and to your email. So that's the number one that I tell folks to do. The other thing is that there's two websites that you can also look at. You can take a look at the Department of State Country France website that they have. But then you also need to dial down, as you've got on your screen here, to the local U.S. embassy in Paris. They have a special page that just talks about alerts and messaging. That's also faster sometimes than the regular France Department of State website that they have. So those are also key factors. I'll do three other ones that folks should kind of take a look at, especially with things being fluid. Things have calmed down as of last night a little bit, but they're looking at some issues potentially on Saturday that could be happening over there with additional protests. I would look at the countries of Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. They each have their own Department of State equivalent websites, and sometimes they post information different, faster. And that's also some ideas to get more relevant information from other sources. The U.S. State Department has France at a level two advisory right now. what does that mean? So when you take a look at that, and I'm glad you brought this up, that just means exercise increased caution. But this has been that same way for some time for France, and that's level with a lot of other countries in Europe. And again, these are just in little confined areas, but unfortunately, they're areas where a lot of tourists go, especially downtown Paris. And it's just saying, exercise increased caution. I mean, we all live in a country where we've had a lot of issues. And as long as we're staying alert, We're knowing if there's demonstrations that are things that are going on, we should really kind of just pay attention to this information and know what to do if it happens. I cannot believe, though, how many people will stand by and watch these things from the sidelines and not go inside where it's safe. And that's where some of these issues happened. I saw a video that was floated out yesterday. There was travelers that were pushing down the street with their luggage, probably going to an Airbnb or another hotel or something. And they were just in the middle of the protest trying to cross the street. those are things you shouldn't be doing most of the time traveler is going to be okay but there have been some issues that have happened and that just comes down to to being aware of your surroundings talking to your hotel concierge or your tour company that you're working with or your travel agents to start getting information pushed to you and there's other things you can do with your phone too as well yeah i want to end on another topic of discussion here and this is kenya the region of kenya and we just mentioned that state department and the the advisory level Right now, Kenya has been upgraded by the U.S. State Department to a level three advisory. And this, we're told, is because of wildlife safaris, perhaps leading to kidnappings. Can you speak to that? Yeah, unfortunately, that's all fluid and it's brand new. It just come in. But this has been some issues that have happened before in that region of the world. And this is, again, being alert to this information. Many travelers don't take this time to research this information and get that to them and to make these adequate decisions. I'm working with their travel and tour companies. The same thing comes down to your travel insurance. And this is another little key factor a lot of folks don't understand. Depending on the type of travel insurance that you purchase, that might include access to a 24/7 security operations center that somebody could call in before they leave, when they're there, and give them immediate information. but it really comes down to the level of that insurance program that you had purchased and done that. There is one little tiny resource I'll give you. Depending on the company you work for, many companies might have a corporate security team that it's happened on many occasions that you're traveling on leisure and you're in a part of the world that there's been a significant event. Some companies will allow their company travelers to call into their security center and say, hey, i need help i'm in a location there's something bad that's going on and gain access to company resources if you happen to work for a company that has that Kevin you have been a wealth of knowledge uh sharing things that i have never heard before very quickly we're out of time but if if a country has a level three travel advisory should you not travel there you want to know something again it's going to take a look at the exact location where this happens remember Your countries are big, and you have to take a look at exactly where this is geographically, where the issue is happening. That is what you're gonna make the determination on, especially on larger countries as far as that, unless it's a widespread where they're saying everything is happening across the country like that. Most time, it's usually in specific areas, and knowledge is key as awareness. All right, Kevin, thank you.