You’ve probably read the title and you’re thinking ‘pot, meet kettle’ right? I mean, as a professional blogger who posts live while traveling all the time, who am I to recommend that you shouldn’t?

But you might be surprised to hear that even as an influencer, I hardly ever post travel updates live. 

The obvious reason is for security; for both my personal safety, and that of my empty home. But, over 12 years of travel, I’ve learned that safety isn’t the only danger of posting your travel updates live.

And I’m not saying that it’s easy – it’s actually very tough not to get swept up in the excitement of being overseas, and wanting to share your bikini bod in the Seychelles right now with absolutely everyone that you know.

But if you’re willing to take the advice of an experienced and seasoned traveler, my advice for you is as follows:

Just don’t.

The Dangers of Posting Your Travel Updates Live

Your Home Security

Posting your travel photos while you’re still on vacation is like sending out an open invitation for someone to come and rob your home.

Local thieves troll social media all the time looking for opportunity. And it’s usually not too difficult to figure out where you live for criminals who do this for a living. And people do do this for a living.

But it doesn’t have to be a stranger; perhaps one of your friends has a delinquent brother who’s seeing the posts from your expensive vacation, and decides he’ll go and help himself to your new flat screen. 

Of course, you should always make sure you have proper home security in place when you travel like GSV’s home safes, or there are even burglar alarms now that dispel dense fog to generate a zero-visibility when it’s activated; but your chances of being robbed are significantly higher if people know that you’re not home.

Pro Tip: Insurers are increasingly rejecting claims made by customers whose houses have been burgled while on holiday if they have shared the fact that they are away from home on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

So hold your vacation statuses until you get home, and, for the same reason, don’t post travel countdowns in the lead up to your trip. You’re just giving thieves the time for planning.

It’s also important to never assume that your privacy settings on social media mean that only your friends will see your posts. Your friend could be logged in at a coffee shop or library, where it’s easy to see over their shoulder, or a neighbor could mention it to someone in passing:

“How’s Meg these days?”

“Oh yeah, she’s in Morocco at the moment, she’s not home”.

Your Personal Safety

Do you remember what happened on October 3 2016?

Kim Kardashian was robbed at gun point in Paris. And while an attack like this is never the victim’s fault, her attackers knew exactly where she was, where she was staying, and that she had a $4 million diamond on her hand.

The alleged robber actually told French police that his team obtained much of the information they needed to pull off the heist from her social media posts.

Let’s be honest, neither you or I are probably ever going to reach the same level of celebrity as Kim Kardashian, or ever in our lives own a $4 million ring. But you don’t have to be a big shot celebrity to put your personal safety at risk.

Posting exactly where you are on social media on any given day is risky. You don’t know who’s viewing your posts, or how they might decide to use the information.

Especially if you’re a solo female traveler, it’s not wise to let anyone and everyone to know which hotel you’re staying at, which restaurants you’re going to, and which flights you’re arriving on.

It’s important to let someone know – someone you trust back home so that they can contact / locate you in case of an emergency. But you don’t need the world to know.

Pro Tip: Don’t tag photos of friends or family you’re vacationing with while on vacation either. Tagging them reveals their current location too, and even if you don’t care, they might not want this information about themselves out there. To stop family and friends from tagging you, you can enable Facebook’s tag review, meaning you have to approve any and all tags before they publish.

Even if you don’t ‘check in’ when you post, phones and cameras store the location a photo was taken within the code of each image (GPS coordinates in the metadata). So even if you’re just posting a photo of a dessert, you’ve probably given away your location.

If I’m posting travel photos, 90% of the time it means that I’m already gone. This even applies to my Instagram stories – I save them in my phone to post later on.

I do get messages from strangers who are excited about their home town, or travelers in the area wanting to meet up. This actually makes it really easy to avoid an awkward ‘no’, with a polite ‘I’m so sorry, I actually left two days ago’.

You’re Not Aware of Your Surroundings

I firmly believe that situational awareness is the biggest key to staying safe overseas. You need to have your head up, and eyes open, and be aware of your surroundings.

But you can’t do that when your head is down and your eyes are glued to your phone.

This presents multiple threats to our personal safety; everything from not noticing you’re being followed, to not noticing that you’re being approached, or stepping into oncoming traffic because you’re walking while posting and forgot that Australia drives on the left side of the road.

It happens.

Put your phone away and always pay attention to your surroundings.

Financial Theft & Identity Fraud

Burglary isn’t the only type of theft that you can encourage by broadcasting to the world that you’re traveling. For some reason we love to post photos of our boarding passes, tickets, and passports, but in the wrong hands this can be really dangerous.

As much as it’s tempting to kick off your trip with a shot from the airport, you should never publish a photo of your boarding pass.

For someone who knows what they’re doing, you can use the barcode on a boarding pass to hack into that itinerary. That means, anyone with your barcode can pull up your reservations, change seats, order meals, cancel your trip, and even hack into your frequent flyer account.

If they get enough information they can potentially steal your identity.

Pro Tip: If you DO decide to post an image of your boarding pass, make sure you first take the time to distort / blur the barcode and any primary information. I do the same with the license plate on car rentals before posting.

Similarly, and this might sound straight forward, but don’t post images of your credit card either (you’d be surprised). When financial fraudsters know you’re traveling, they assume you’re not paying super close attention to your finances, so this is an opportune time to hit your bank accounts and credit cards.

And, it’s less likely for your bank to detect suspicious activity if you’re racking up legitimate transactions between countries.

You’re Not Living in the Moment

Experiencing the Sydney Opera House through a screen

Let’s think about this from a financial standpoint: you’ve spent thousands of dollars to travel to the other side of the world only to … spend time on your phone?

When you prioritize posting to social media while you travel, you’re not living in the moment. You’re missing out on experiences purely because you want other people to know.

But one thing I’ve learned is that it truly doesn’t matter if you post images from your trip now vs later. People don’t care about being in the know at the exact moment something happens, and saving your posts for later means you have the chance to re-live the moment after you’ve returned home.

Think about how much time it takes to not only snap a photo, but then pull up social media, maybe by this stage you’ve already spent time cropping and editing it, think up clever captions, and find a bunch of hashtags?

And then you see the notifications on your phone, which of course, you can’t ignore, so you start scrolling through your feed and responding to friends and family, all the while, missing out on what’s happening around you.

Why would you not save all of that for when you’re sitting at home bored, wishing you were still on vacation, than waste your precious travel time?

If you’re worried about forgetting details, jot down updates and descriptions that will help you remember when you sit down back at home to write the caption. I personally use the sound recorder on my phone to make quick verbal notes.

You’re Annoying as %$# to Travel With

I’ve been this person, so I know.

When you’re constantly documenting every single thing to share on social media, and you’re spending so much time glued to your phone, you’re annoying as &^%$ to travel with.

If someone’s made the decision to travel with you, that’s a huge compliment. It means they want to spend time with you, create memories with you, and share experiences with you.

But if you’re constantly moving through the trip with your head down, only paying attention to your phone, they may as well have traveled alone.

Cyber Security

Free internet is something we’ve come to expect when we’re traveling, and you’ll need it if you’re posting travel updates live. But connecting to the internet overseas presents huge cyber security risks.

I will make a clarification on that, because not all connections are risky; if you’re on a secured network where you have to enter a password you’ll be fine. But most networks we connect to when we’re traveling are public, open networks whether at the airport, hotel, or a café.

These are not safe.

All of your internet activity passes through your ISP servers and anyone using the same network (which could be thousands of people if you’re connected at a hotel, café, or airport) can easily see your data: usernames, passwords, credit card numbers, how much adult content you’re streaming!

Criminals have even been known to set up WiFi hotspots specifically to trick people into connecting, so they can hack or infect your device with malware.

Obviously, completely disconnecting just isn’t going to happen for most of us, me included, so to use the internet securely, it’s really important that you use a VPN (Virtual Private Network).

Like, really important.

When you use a VPN, it encrypts your traffic before it reaches your ISP, which means that only you and your VPN server can “see” it. It’s basically a middle man between you and the internet: you’re able to browse the internet anonymously by connecting through a secure network.

There are great free VPN’s out there, and you can get them for both your desktop and your phone. I use Hotspot Sheild VPN because it uses military grade encryption and you can link up to 5 devices. Nobody’s hacking me!

What You SHOULD Do

It’s actually very simple – they key message here is don’t post about your travel until you return home. 

But, beyond that, here is an easy checklist:

➤ Make sure your home is secured before you go. Lock all doors and windows, turn off all electric outlets, and put your valuables in a safe place. Extra points if you have a home security alarm.

➤ Share your itinerary with someone you trust before you go, so that they can contact you in case of emergency.

➤ Never post photos of tickets, boarding passes, passports, even after you’ve returned home. If you do post travel documents, make sure you distort the barcodes and primary info.

➤ If you do post to social media while traveling, try not to ‘check-in’ to reveal your location.

➤ Have a conversation with the people you’re traveling with not to tag you in their posts. Enable Facebook’s tag review feature so you can control what gets posted about you.

➤ Delete comments or posts from friends and family on your page that give away your travel plans; just send them a private message after you’ve removed it explaining why.

➤ Download a VPN to keep your connection safe when using the internet abroad.

Megan is an Australian Journalist and award-winning travel writer who has been blogging since 2007. Her husband Mike is the American naturalist and wildlife photographer behind Waking Up Wild; an online magazine dedicated to opening your eyes to the wonders of the wild & natural world.

Having visited 50+ countries across all seven continents, Megan’s travels focus on cultural immersion, authentic discovery and incredible journeys. She has a strong passion for ecotourism, and aims to promote responsible travel experiences.