Safety Traveler Enrollment Program

I always sign up before I leave for a trip. I have been alerted twice now about protests in areas where I am traveling. I believe the second option is the one I select. I give them my travel location and dates and an emergency contact.

Enroll your time. This will restrict your messages to the time relevant to your travels.

Of course, you can enroll without time limit and get messages as they are released. One of my kids, former expat, has kept those alerts to discuss situations with friends still resident in the city. Kid feels it’s a way to keep current on a location undergoing some change. I wouldn’t be able to judge if that’s the case or not.

I have been enrolling my trips for years. I have never received an alert while on a trip, but have received many before departures. I like knowing that they know where I am in the event of political upheaval or natural disasters. Although technically I guess they would know anyway from my passport activity.

Do the enrollment gives you the chance to add more than one country?

Do the enrollment gives you the chance to add more than one country?

Yes, you can add all the countries you will be traveling to.

For Europe? No. The evening news does a more effective job of telling me what is going on, or BBC. The reports sent ahead of travel, and available on the State Department website, are, to be honest, a bit alarmist (as maybe should be), and are long on possibility and short on practical reality. Threat levels are always "moderate", so the age old advice of "Be alert, be careful, avoid gatherings of crowds, carry your passport on you" pretty much suffices for Europe my first trip 20 plus years ago and still applies.

I am not sure the State Department knowing where I am traveling in Europe helps them, or me, in any scenario I can imagine. Others have my itinerary and are in contact more effectively.

That said, if I were planning a trip to a smaller, less developed, or politically insecure place, then they knowing I am "in country" for a time has benefits, but Europe?

I decided to join and would like to know also if you know which option is the recommended one? I see 2 boxes to choose and it says: “Subscribe to Travel Message Only” and “Enroll Your Time Abroad and Subscribe to Travel Messages”.

The first box just subscribes you to travel messages. You will receive alerts from the country you are enrolled in, like updates to the country info sheet, travel alerts, and travel warnings issued by the State Dept. For example, I've been receiving notices of protests in London, and so on.

The second box does everything the first one does, but you are also enrolling in the STEP program, and will be giving them your information about where you will be staying, the dates you will be there, who to notify if they can't reach you, etc. They JUST changed the formatting about a month ago, and it's much easier to add all the info. As noted above, you can enroll in multiple countries at the same time.

I always do it. It doesn't take much time and I always prepare for the worst (but hope for the best!). :-)

I am not sure the State Department knowing where I am traveling in
Europe helps them, or me, in any scenario I can imagine. Others have
my itinerary and are in contact more effectively.

I've received many STEP notices while traveling, including in Thailand during a period of civil unrest and on a very recent visit to Turkey when there was a suicide bomber in Ankara. There were also notifications about recent organized protests in large European cities - that is helpful info if you're there and want to avoid getting tangled up in a crowd.

The point of STEP is to alert the State Department that you are traveling in a specific country in the event something happens there that could endanger the lives of Americans or would require evacuation from the country. It isn't an instantaneous communication tool, and they do not promise that it serves as that. I see it as one way, of many, to improve my travel safety in the event of an unforeseen serious event.

Watching the news is most likely the best way of keeping informed re: protests and demonstration.

I am not interested in the STEP program at all. I do diligently watch the news in Germany and France, ie every day either in BBC or CNN or in German (no problems in understanding there), France much less so with ca. 60-70% reading comprehension of the news titles.

As for demonstrations and protests I missed 2 this time, which I wanted to see as a witness, ie, being there on the spot and witness history in the making when "they" take to the streets, as did the protesters in Paris after the far right's unexpected dramatic victory in the first round of the European parliamentary elections.