SUMMER VACATION HELLHOLES!
Visit these dangerous places at your own risk
BEWARE! Taking a summer vacation can kill you! The Dominican Republic recently turned into a death zone after six healthy Americans mysteriously died there — but that sundrenched paradise is not the only popular destination that could prove fatal!
Your dream getaway can turn into a hellish fight for survival due to crime, disease, shoddy safety regulations or even Mother Nature — and GLOBE exposes the not-so-hot spots to avoid at all costs!
Renowned travel safety expert Gary L. Deel tells GLOBE: “The best advice for any traveler is
to do your homework on your destination — particularly with international travel.
“When you go abroad, U.S. laws do not apply. You really need to understand the laws and customs of the country you are visiting.”
Boston Red Sox hero David Ortiz was in his native country when he was shot at a bar in the Dominican Republic. The baseball legend will survive — unlike the six tragic vacationers who lost their lives at three different resorts there.
While vacationers seeking fun in the sun may now shun the Dominican Republic, America’s beaches can be just as lifethreatening!
Since the first of the year, 17 shark attacks — one of them fatal — have been reported in the U.S., mostly in Florida, Hawaii and California.
If sharks don’t get you off California’s coast, a flea-bitten rat carrying the bubonic plague can
end your days in Los Angeles.
At least nine people have reported coming down with typhus after entering L.A.’s Skid Row, a 50-block garbagestrewn and rat-infested downtown area turned shantytown after being occupied by 4,200 homeless people.
Contagious disease can be a problem for tourists anxious to check out the sights in the Big Apple — which is ground zero for a dangerous measles outbreak that’s spreading like wildfire!
Out of more than 1,000 reported measles cases nationwide, 855 confirmed cases were reported in the New York boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens and upstate Rockland County since September 2018!
If you plan to visit the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, you may want to bring along a bodyguard. Stats show it’s the most dangerous big city in the country, where the chance of becoming a crime victim is one in 44, according to the Neighborhood Scout website.
Motown fans won’t be tempted to drop by Detroit, where you have a one in 49 chance of being a crime victim. Visitors to Memphis, the home of Elvis Presley’s estate Graceland, have a one in 50 chance of being a victim.
Meanwhile, America’s themepark central — Orlando — is a pretty tough town, too, where the crime rate is 126 percent higher than the rest of the nation. And Disney World isn’t always magical, as the family of two-yearold Lane Graves discovered when he was eaten by an alligator as he waded in a pond behind the Grand Floridian Resort & Spa in 2016.
While nearly 14 million Americans splurged on cruises last year, the ships can be death traps!
They’ve played host to poor medical care, disease, fires, missing passengers, assaults and even murders.
Sexual assaults remain the most reported criminal activity this year, with 18 reported incidents between January and March 2019, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Over the past three years, more than 230 crimes, including homicides, suspicious deaths, missing Americans, kidnapping and theft, have been reported on cruise ships.
According to Deel, once a ship enters international waters it’s a legal “no-man’s-land” when it comes to your rights.
“Your rights as an American citizen and the customs that you are accustomed to do not apply,” he adds.