Netherlands Travel Warning
 

Now, now... Read the very last sentence of this: They send, and re-send these warnings and, this way, they keep their jobs every time an act of terrorism happens somewhere in the world. Perhaps they should hire a few more people in this agency to send warnings about killings in US schools, night clubs and post offices.

Is this serious? It's one of the safest countries in the world. I'm surprised there's even a warning.

I'm not generally as critical of State Dept travel warnings as many others here, but this one might as well say don't ever leave your house. If this were a new warning based on credible evidence, I'd get it, but just a general warning makes me wonder if there's any place in the world that wouldn't get a level 2.

This is what makes people ignore the warnings, even the ones they shouldn't. For somewhere like Paris, a level 2 probably makes sense, but not for The Netherlands (unless I'm missing something).

that could be the advice for any number of countries across the world. Including the USA

Yes, I suppose that's possible. But it's a re-issue of an existing warning, that's the part that surprised me more, that one even existed.

It seems odd to me that a country like this would have the same warning level as countries that actually have a history of terrorist attacks, such as France, Belgium, or the US. Maybe the point I'm trying to make is that the system isn't very useful. :)

There was the Utrecht tram attack last winter, though it was small-scale. And authorities said last year that people arrested in Arnhem were planning a major terrorist attack. So perhaps there's some justification for the official caution, despite the absence of a major incident so far.

ETA: To clarify, I'm not saying that people shouldn't travel to the Netherlands (I still will), just that the warning may have some basis.

It's a fairly pointless CYA-style warning. It would be easier and more effective if they just published a warning along the lines of:

If you travel anywhere outside your house you face multiple dangers to your life, at any time. These life threatening dangers can come in any form, including ones you least expect. Take precautions accordingly. Life threatening dangers also lurk inside your house.

Beware of being born, you will die.

When in doubt (e.g. I recently travelled to Kosovo because of work and wanted to go and see other places apart from the capital city), I normally go for the Foreign Travel Advice on gov.uk: always up-to-date, no-nonsense, 'elegantly' written and with plenty of useful info - very British indeed ;)

G

They should bring back the Boris Johnson's Travel Advice page - which in its eloquent way was probably the best there ever was :cool:

https://i.postimg.cc/0jfDfPV2/bojo.jpg

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/ent...b0daae46fc12d8

Ha, I suspect there will be plenty of that in the days and months to come and possibly from his official Twitter account at Number 10 ;)

G

Which, by the way, also advises vigilance when travelling to the Netherlands, citing the possibility of terrorist attacks. So the US travel caution doesn't look as much like paranoid overreach as might otherwise be assumed.