Just curious in light of what has happened in Brussels (so sad), do you recommend registering with the STEP program when traveling abroad. I saw today that there is a new travel alert for all European countries. This will not keep us from traveling and I am not concerned about the areas we plan to visit.
Thanks for your help.
If I thought the US Dept of State had any information that was actually useful and of value I might be persuaded to enroll. However, having been previously enrolled and having boatloads of automated email messages delivered to my inbox over and over and over...AND having a heck of a time UNSUBSCRIBING myself to all of the those silly messages that were purely reactionary and not any real foresight into any situation, I have concluded that it's a waste of time.
Maybe you feel differently, but honestly, if you ever read any news story on any news website you probably know as much or more as the US Dept of State.
It depends on the info and how you intend to use it. Maybe I used different settings than others, but I am not "bombarded" with e-mails and updates. Some (most) are kind of generic and not particularly useful. However, the occasional message is very very helpful. For example, we got notification of a recent strike in Cusco Peru. The strikes there are not like here..... once in Cusco there was very little transportation running and NO WAY to go to the Sacred Valley. Because of the info the trip was altered, reservations changed and we did Cusco stuff first, and then went to the Sacred Valley when the strike was over. Good info to have in advance. I suppose it reflects your tolerance for e-mails, but I don't seem to get that many. There was also a long post about this not too long ago if you do a search.
While I generally agree with Tim that security alert messages that the US sends out can be kind of alarmist and unhelpful, I DO sometimes register my trips with STEP. When I went to Turkey in 2014, I registered. I'm leaving for Europe in 12 days and I've registered for this trip.
I don't think the security tips are helpful, but I do think it would be helpful to have my whereabouts on record, somewhere, should something significant happen while I was traveling. I know you can assume the government already "tracks" you by your point of exit and entry into another country, but if they relied on that information, all they'd know is that I flew to Paris. From Paris, I'm heading to Spain and then Italy, none of which they would know, to my understanding.
I see no harm in being registered - I don't care if the government knows the cities I travel to.
hello,
I registered today because I am traveling to Paris next month. I have no problem letting the government know where I am in Europe.
I register before every international trip. I see two main benefits -
1) You get helpful emails if something pertinent to your trip is happening -- strikes, closures, protests, etc.
2) The State Department knows where you are if something should happen. They can contact you, contact your family, etc.
It only takes a few minutes to register and I really don't see a reason not to do it.
It's a great service, never been bombarded by emails and it probably saved my life. Was in Beijing couple of years back year during a wave of severe smog over the city. They sent out an email strongly warning of this and advising Americans to stay indoors, I followed the advice and even indoors in my modern hotel with functioning central AC I was still struggling to breath. I have asthma which is typically under control with medications, but even my rescue inhaler had very little effect. I had been to Beijing a few times in the past with moderate smog and it didn't bother my asthma, but on this day the smog was in another league. Without that warning I certainly would have gone out sightseeing, no doubt bad things would have happened to me without that warning.
I know of another instance of an American who was volunteer teaching in a remote part of Lebanon when the Israel-Hezbollah war broke out in 2006. Because she registered her stay, the US embassy was able to find her, and transport her to an evacuation ship to safety to Cyprus.
In yet another episode I was in Mexico City with a thousand other US soccer fans when the national team was playing a World Cup qualifying match. After the match a bunch of smart-ass US fans decided to hang a large American flag outside the window of the hotel the traveling fans were staying in, which happened to be across from a monument where Mexican fans congregate to celebrate a victory. The locals didn't take the flag well and hundreds of fans attacked the hotel and riot police and to surround the hotel and literally beat back the mob. The US embassy was adjacent to the hotel, they placed a spotter on the roof, and texted minute by minute details of exactly where the mob was and how to navigate around the police line for Americans stuck out in the streets.
While the above scenarios are unlikely in Western Europe, natural disasters can happen anywhere.
So in my experience the STEP system has worked very well.
Another vote for registering. I traveled to SE Asia during a period of social unrest and there were major protests in Bangkok. The STEP notices were clear, not alarmist, and allowed me to change some of my plans accordingly - I was scheduled to get a massage at a place that was right in front of the main protest area (wouldn't have been very relaxing!). Truth be told, your government could probably find you whether or not you're registered, but I don't mind telling them I plan to be away so that I could be accounted for in an emergency. Unlike the prior posts, I don't get a lot of email from them. The exception was just this week when several of the embassies from my upcoming Europe trip sent out the same general travel alert.
I registered when I moved to Paris last year. I'm not being bombarded with a lot of e-mails from them. Just updates about, strikes, protests, travel alerts, etc...
