How to Travel in a World of Increasing Chaos

We're trying not to be fearmongers, but international travel may get much more difficult in the years ahead. Here's specifically what can you do about it.

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Mar 25, 2025

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flat ray photography of book, pencil, camera, and with lens — *Photo by Dariusz Sankowski on Unsplash*

A few months ago, our American friend Steve booked a summer trip to South Africa. But since then, the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump — spurred on by South African Trump-ally Elon Musk — has suspended all foreign aid to the country and forcefully expelled the South African ambassador to the U.S.

As a result, South Africa is rife with anti-American resentment, and now Steve wonders: will the country retaliate against American tourists? Could he have issues entering the country or being granted a visa? Even if he is allowed entry, will he be subject to anti-American harassment?

The issue is urgent for Steve because the deadline is fast approaching where he can still get a 50% refund if he cancels his trip. After that, he’s on the hook for the entire cost.

Welcome to travel on Planet Earth in 2025 and beyond.

Travel — especially international travel — has always included an element of risk. Extreme weather events, terrorist attacks, and even war can upend the most carefully laid plans.

But travel is almost certainly going to be much more unpredictable in the years ahead, and yes, it’s all about Trump and his supporters, who are explicitly choosing to upend the post-World War II world order.

The administration is currently pursuing policies that are antagonizing many of America’s formerly close allies; instead, the U.S. government is now aligning with anti-democratic, authoritarian countries that were previously considered America’s adversaries or even outright enemies.

Likewise, the Trump administration is making domestic and foreign policy changes — imposing steep tariffs, undoing long-standing alliances, and unceremoniously stopping almost all foreign aid to most countries — that may radically shift the world economy, creating major resentments.

The exact effects of this massive geopolitical shift are obviously still unknown.

But the two of us have spent the last eight years continuously traveling the world as digital nomads, and we still have friends in dozens of countries with whom we are in contact.

We’re trying hard not to be fearmongers, but we genuinely think a period of increased international chaos and instability is very likely — that because of actions by the Trump administration, many of the courtesies and conveniences that Western travelers have long taken for granted may soon disappear.

Here’s how we see things shaping up — followed by a list of recommendations we think all international travelers should consider to protect themselves in the years ahead.

Will air travel continue to be safe?

Air travel is currently the world’s safest form of transportation, and the airline industry is the safest it’s ever been in all of human history — especially if you’re flying on a U.S. carrier.

But Trump ally Elon Musk is currently overseeing the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE — an arguably unconstitutional attempt to dramatically and abruptly reduce the size of the U.S. government. Critics say the project has been poorly executed and has had a profoundly negative effect on the morale of government employees.

Many experts also argue that the haphazard nature of the project has put airline safety at risk.

Thanks to climate change, which the Trump administration considers to be a hoax, air routes are already becoming more turbulent.

white biplane — *Photo by Pascal Meier on Unsplash*

At some point, there will be more airplane crashes. If DOGE is implicated in any of these disasters, it would cause massive upheaval in air travel. But even mere uncertainty over the cause of a crash could cause a significant travel disruption.

Terrorism is another concern — any kind of terror-related disruption, although attacks on planes and airports would most directly impact travelers.

Last week, London’s Heathrow Airport shut down for a day and a half. Many assumed it was a terrorist attack, but the cause turned out to be a power outage due to a fire. Nonetheless, the closure of such a vital airline hub upended air travel worldwide.

A major terrorist attack against a plane or airport would have a much more dramatic, much more long-lasting impact.

Unfortunately, the Trump administration has chosen a belligerent and often haphazard approach to foreign policy, sometimes negotiating with the terrorists, sometimes deliberately antagonizing them.

Trump is also aligning much more closely with Russia, which has long conducted a “shadow war” against the democratic West; over the last three years, the country has made a series of brazen terrorist attacks throughout Europe.

Experts say all these actions make future foreign and domestic terrorist attacks far more likely (even if, ironically, the attacks themselves could end up benefiting Trump).

Will it continue to be easy for Americans to travel between countries?

For decades, Americans have taken the ability to move seamlessly between Western countries for granted, but the Trump administration seems determined to change this too.

Since his January inauguration, it’s hard to overstate how dramatically Donald Trump has alienated the rest of the Western world, which now seems united in their outrage at and disgust with the United States.

In addition to its belligerent rhetoric and hostile actions, the Trump administration has — in the name of fighting illegal immigration — become far more aggressive in its treatment of foreigners seeking to enter the United States. And while courts have long ruled that temporary and long-term visitors to America enjoy most of the civil rights protections as U.S. citizens, the Trump administration clearly disagrees.

black metal frame under blue sky during daytime — *Photo by Jannik on Unsplash*

Incredibly, Canada and many European governments are now issuing travel warnings to their citizens regarding the United States. The Trump administration's actions have also resulted in widespread international boycotts of goods from America and travel to the United States.

Not surprisingly, many American travelers now worry about how they’ll be received in other countries.

We think American tourist dollars — and mere decency on the part of other Western countries — will keep most borders open for Americans.

But we also think some retaliation is inevitable — both unofficially, with U.S. travelers more likely to be treated with resentment and even scorn, but also even officially, as border agents and the like start to treat Americans with some degree of increased skepticism and hostility.

“I hope American MAGA voters stay far away from our country,” admits a Canadian friend who asked that his name not be used. “They can go straight to hell.”

Elon Musk’s DOGE cuts could also upend international travel in other ways, increasing the impact of natural disasters.

And the “conspiratory theory” beliefs of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, makes future pandemics more likely now too.

Should LGBTQ travelers be especially concerned?

The two of us have long argued that LGBTQ Westerners had an overblown fear of travel to gay-intolerant countries — and that there were even very good reasons to visit these places.

But our opinion has changed.

We previously argued that repressive countries would protect even their LGBTQ tourists because they wanted “gay” tourist dollars, but also because they didn’t want to invoke the wrath of America and other Western countries, which clearly had the backs of their LGBTQ citizens.

But America has changed sides; it is now openly supporting authoritarian regimes with extreme anti-LGBTQ agendas. The Trump administration is strongly communicating that it does not have the back of its LGBTQ citizens.

Just last week, Hungary banned Gay Pride, specifically as a result of the actions of the Trump administration. According to Viktor Orban, the authoritarian Prime Minister of Hungary, Budapest Pride was only allowed to exist because of pressure from the Biden administration; Biden’s Ambassador to Hungary even marched in the annual event.

“But now the world has changed, and the Americans have called these types of ambassadors back home,” Orban said. “It’s clear that [Pride] won’t have international protection.”

people standing on road while watching traditional dance at daytimew — *Photo by Toni Reed on Unsplash*

This week, pro-democracy forces have been protesting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, another viciously anti-LGBTQ authoritarian who recently arrested the leader of the opposition party on trumped-up “corruption” charges.

But here, too, the Trump administration is siding with the anti-gay dictator; Elon Musk, who owns the social media platform X, has even suspended the accounts of those who have been coordinating the pro-democracy protests.

These dictators are openly declaring that they will persecute LGBTQ people — and the Trump administration is offering its full, unqualified support.

Meanwhile, throughout the U.S. government, the Trump administration has also been communicating its extreme hostility to transgender Americans. As a result, transgender people now wonder if America will still recognize passports that indicate a different biological gender than the one expressed by the passport holder.

Likewise, the administration will probably not honor passports that declare no gender — a legal designation in many other countries and one that had previously been legal in the United States since 2022.

Gay-intolerant countries may still welcome relatively wealthy LGBTQ Western tourists. Then again, maybe they won’t — and the Trump administration could not possibly be making things any more clear: LGBTQ travelers are now on their own.

What’s the bottom line? Should people stop traveling?

The two of us have been arguing for a while now that many Americans don’t understand — or simply refuse to accept — how profoundly the United States and the world have changed as a result of the reelection of Donald Trump.

A year ago, even we might have been a little naïve.

But none of this means we’re going to stop traveling. On the contrary, we believe in travel so strongly that we think it’s one of the things that will get humanity through the dark period ahead.

We don’t think you should stop traveling either.

But if you do, we have a list of some specific travel recommendations — listed below — that we think you should strongly consider:

Our specific recommendations:

✅ Consider travel insurance. We recommend:

Genki, for medical insurance only. This company, which we strongly recommend, also has excellent medical evacuation coverage.
SafetyWing, for medical and other travel coverages.
Read our thoughts on international health care here.

✅ But keep in mind that most travel credit cards can offer surprisingly robust travel coverage, including trip cancellation and interruption, and even minor medical coverage. We recommend:

United Gateway or Explorer, which offers 70,000 free miles.
Capitol One, which offers 100,000 free miles.

❌ Reconsider booking travel far in advance; these days, the world is just too uncertain. Plan international trips no more than six months out — ideally, even less. Lately, airfares have been falling anyway, and we think lodging costs will soon begin to fall too.

❌ When it comes to travel insurance, we usually don’t recommend “cancel for any reason” (or CFAR) travel insurance policies, which we think are generally a terrible deal. The premiums on such policies are often ridiculously high — costing up to 20% or more of your total travel costs — and they probably don’t even insure for the total cost of your trip; most such policies will refund only 75% or so of what you paid. The better option is almost certainly to pay a bit more for “cancelable” airline tickets and/or lodging options.

✅ Stay informed. As a traveler, having up-to-date, on-the-ground information is more important than ever. Join Facebook and Reddit groups, and visit the forums at Rick Steves and TripAdvisor for current information on the places you plan to visit. Don’t hesitate to ask questions.

✅ As American citizens, we’ve always enrolled in the Department of State’s Smart Enrollment Traveler Program (STEP), which allows the U.S. government to contact and possibly assist travelers in an emergency; STEP also provides warnings about risks travelers might face, via text or email. Unfortunately, we’re not convinced Americans can rely on U.S. travel advisories in the Trump era. We recommend researching foreign government sites for less politicized advice.

✅ Canadians can enroll in the Registration of Canadians Abroad; Australians in Smartraveller; and British citizens in the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office.

✅ When crossing a U.S. border, be aware that border agents can inspect your phones and laptops without a warrant. Regardless of your citizenship, if you’ve been critical of the Trump Administration on social media, we recommend deleting recent posts. And here's a guide to protecting your digital privacy. You can also decline to unlock or provide passwords to your devices, and American citizens can’t be denied entry to the U.S. because of this. But this action can cause long delays, and officials can still take the devices; meanwhile, non-Americans can definitely be denied entry. Regardless, always stay calm and avoid making jokes or comments about sensitive topics like immigration enforcement or Donald Trump.

✅ Foreign visitors to the United States should take special care, making sure they have:

A valid passport (with at least six months’ validity beyond your stay).
A properly obtained U.S. visa or ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorization) if applicable.
Proof of your return flight and a clear travel itinerary. It’s also not a bad idea to carry supporting evidence such as hotel, tour, and activity bookings demonstrating that you are only entering as a tourist.

✅ Americans should now be mindful when crossing all borders. Given the actions of the Trump administration, it’s easy to see border agents more aggressively questioning Americans entering their countries — which means Americans should follow the same advice given above.

❌ Due to the change in presidential administrations, LGBTQ travelers should currently reconsider traveling to openly homophobic countries. Transgender Americans should be especially concerned about international travel and should carefully investigate their passport options. Leaving America could be a bad choice right now.

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