Travel Safety

windstaracres, there are no stupid questions; just stupid answers. But I would wait till closer to departure time and then decide if you need to modify any of your arrangements. One thing I can not imagine is that you would have to cancel anything no matter what the situation. You at worst might have to modify some form or another of transportation. Given your direction of travel I seriously doubt you have a thing to worry about, but it never hurts to be informed and aware.

Have fun.

Just repeating this from your previous post on another thread so that you (and anyone else referencing this thread) have the links for future reference:

"May is much too far away to make sort of accurate prediction but there aren't any 'safety' issues now. There have been some isolated transport snags here and there but those aren't 'safety' issues. There are no country-specific warnings on the U.S. State Dept. website for Italy, Slovenia or Switzerland other than the garden-variety reminders to avoid protests and other large gatherings, and to generally be aware of your surroundings."

http://slovenia.usembassy.gov/messages.html
http://italy.usembassy.gov/acs/security.html
http://bern.usembassy.gov/living_in_switzerland/embassy-messages-and-travel-warnings.html

I am, of course, assuming you are an American but other countries have their own government websites for advising their citizens traveling abroad. As most tend to err on the side of caution, it's significant that there are no alerts at all regarding safety issues related to the refugee crisis in Europe. Standing alerts/warnings for all countries abroad can be searched here:

http://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en.html

Or quickly scanned here:

http://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/alertswarnings.html

I wouldn't have any hesitation planning the trip.

You will be safer any where you are in Slovenia than many place in the US. Slovenia is a beautiful county, with delicious food and wonderful people.

We've had all of our tours operate this year without issue. The refugee influx is not a threat to safety, and we've found that it has little affect on the average traveler (excepting some train cancellations). Rick's co-author, Cameron Hewitt, has been traveling through the Balkans for the last month and has weighed in on this topic quite articulately (in my opinion): http://blog.ricksteves.com/cameron/2015/09/today-i-met-some-refugees/
and
http://blog.ricksteves.com/cameron/2015/09/whats-next-for-the-refugees/

I will be traveling through Italy, Slovenia, and Croatia next year as well - perhaps we will cross paths.

I hope you and your family have a wonderful time. Happy travels!

wind,

I don't think anyone can predict where the refugee crisis will be next May but even if it's the same as now, I very much doubt the refugees will be a "safety" issue. It seems that refugees in Italy and Slovenia are trying to leave for Germany as quickly as possible and I doubt that any will be heading for Switzerland.

I also spoke with a number of refugees when I was in Austria a few weeks ago (albeit difficult to communicate due to the language issue), and they seemed like just ordinary people who are trying to finish a long and difficult journey and find some safety and stability in their lives. I also spoke with some "Free Syria" protesters at a demonstration in Vienna (in that case there was no language barrier) and there were no "safety" issues there either.

You will have to be concerned about the usual petty crime such as pickpocketing that happens every day in Europe. Be sure that all in your group are wearing money belts.