Increased caution

That´s so funny or so strange. What civil unrest, where, and why???? It just makes NO sense at all. It´s August, everyone is enjoying this holiday season, we have similar issues to any other country in the first world, but I do not see anywhere any kind of civil unrest (terrorism???) anywhere, I´d say just the opposite.

I would not cancel, that alert has been up since the Catalan separatist insurrection in 2017. The situation has become significantly more stable as the various separatist factions are disjointed and squabbling amongst themselves.

You will be safe from terrorism and civil unrest, pickpockets and theft is another story, depending on where you go in Spain.

It's interesting to see just how much of Western Europe is under similar 'Level 2' advisory: France, Italy, Germany, UK, Belgium, Netherlands...

That is something to file under "covering all bases in an abundance of caution" -- not anything to worry about.
I shudder to think what the warnings for the US are...

I wonder what warning level Spain has for Seattle
https://www.seattle.gov/police/information-and-data/data/crime-dashboard

Above offered for whatever use it may be for comparison of the level of 'mayhem' one may encounter

I shudder to think what the warnings for the US are

Canada, Australia and a few other countries currently have an extreme caution warning about travelling to the US due to random gun violence resulting in mass shootings. I'll leave it to you to interpret your comfort level about some of these warnings.

As Carlos stated, that alert is the same as it’s been for years.

Spain is great to visit and definitely do not abstain from traveling there. I’ve visited it five times beginning 2011, each time to a different area of the country, and have never had an issue. I’ll be returning to it soon.

Please go and visit it. You’ll be glad you did.

Thank you guys!

DO THIS IN THE BIG CITIES (MADRID, BARCELONA, VALENCIA ETC.):
1) Don't wear a backpack purse
2) In the restaurants your purse always in front of you
3) If you are a woman and you are going back to your hotel at 5 am take a taxi or Uber, don't walk.

Do those 3 things and you will be fine.

Additionally, don’t set your phone on the table at restaurants or cafes. It’s easy to steal when sitting out in the open.

Madridman, jaimeelsabio; sounds like a relaxing holiday destination.

Madridman, jaimeelsabio; sounds like a relaxing holiday destination

Well Mr e, you can thank overtourism for that state of affairs, although I must say the pickpocket/theft situation is most notably in Barcelona, while other cities in Spain the situation is not so bad.

I was just in Valencia and it is actually quite nice and you don't really have to worry about pick pockets at every corner.

I grew up in Chicago and last October I went for a visit, stayed with family in Brookfield. One night their son called to tell them that there'd been a shooting in the mall parking lot outside Walmart (he was working there) and one man shot another dead during an altercation over a fender-bender in quiet Countryside. I was told several times to never ever blow my horn at another driver (which we do all the time here in Israel - where I don't worry about gun violence BTW). This year I was back in Brookfield in July for the 3 tornados that touched down within a mile of where I was staying. Just sayin' - you may be safer in Spain . . . . 😂

Carlos, I get it. In my world, people would have to prove worthness to travel.

People need to not read more into these things than the actual carefully chosen words say. It does not say "WARNING DO NOT GO", "DANGER, WILL ROBINSON" or "YOUR LIFE IS AT RISK". It says "exercise increased caution" which is pretty much what everyone should do everywhere. It's something the infrequent traveler who thinks Europe is all a theme park for Americans needs to hear to step up their alertness.

The word terrorism throws people off, but that's a vestige from the standard boilerplate language chosen for that alert level when it was foreign terrorists we were all terrified of.