The Safety Shortlist
Safe luxury travel destinations
The safest places in the collection, drawn from our destination-by-destination safety series — low-crime resort islands, the world's most orderly cities and alpine resorts where everything except the mountain is under control. Each pick links to its full, regularly reviewed safety briefing, because "safe" always has a footnote.
The safest cities on earth
Orderly streets, reliable transport and violent-crime rates near the bottom of the global tables — these are the cities where the usual urban vigilance barely applies.
Japan
Tokyo
Possibly the safest large city in the world; solo travellers walk anywhere at night.
Read the safety briefing
Japan
Kyoto
Quieter than Tokyo and just as safe; the real risks are bicycles and summer heat.
Read the safety briefing
Japan
Kanazawa
A small, immaculate heritage city with Japan's trademark orderliness.
Read the safety briefing
United Arab Emirates
Dubai
Extremely low street crime and tightly policed; the rules to respect are legal, not criminal.
Read the safety briefing
Japan
Japan
The country-level briefing: safe everywhere, with earthquakes the main thing to plan around.
Read the safety briefing
Private islands and resort enclaves
Controlled access, small communities and economies built entirely on hosting guests — the safest beach stays in the collection.
St Vincent and the Grenadines
Mustique
A private island with its own security; crime is close to non-existent.
Read the safety briefing
Seychelles
North Island
Eleven villas on a whole island; the risk list starts and ends with the sun.
Read the safety briefing
Maldives
Soneva Jani
A Noonu Atoll resort island — transfers, staff and sea are the entire environment.
Read the safety briefing
Philippines
Pamalican, Palawan
Amanpulo's private island, reached only by the resort's own aircraft.
Read the safety briefing
St Vincent and the Grenadines
Canouan
A small Grenadines island built around one resort enclave and a marina.
Read the safety briefing
French Polynesia
Bora Bora
Lagoon resorts on motu islets; the lagoon itself is the only real hazard.
Read the safety briefing
Saint Barthélemy (France)
St Barths
One of the Caribbean's safest islands, with very low crime and excellent care.
Read the safety briefing
Barbados
Barbados
The Platinum Coast is well policed and long-established; standard resort caution suffices.
Read the safety briefing
The Bahamas
Harbour Island
A three-mile island where everyone knows everyone; golf carts are the traffic.
Read the safety briefing
Maldives
the Maldives
One-island-one-resort by design; guests rarely leave controlled environments.
Read the safety briefing
Seychelles
the Seychelles
Low-crime granitic islands; currents and sun are the honest risks.
Read the safety briefing
Alpine resorts with everything under control
Wealthy, well-run mountain towns where the serious risks are on the slopes, not the streets — and the rescue infrastructure is the best in the world.
Switzerland
Gstaad
A quiet Swiss resort valley; the biggest danger is the off-piste.
Read the safety briefing
Switzerland
St Moritz
Engadin orderliness; take the mountain seriously and little else.
Read the safety briefing
Switzerland
Zermatt
Car-free streets beneath the Matterhorn; hire a guide for anything beyond the pistes.
Read the safety briefing
Austria
Lech am Arlberg
Austria's most genteel ski village with exemplary slope management.
Read the safety briefing
France
Courchevel 1850
Heavily patrolled pistes and an in-resort altiport; very low street crime.
Read the safety briefing
France
Megève
A family French resort town where the evening streets stay gentle.
Read the safety briefing
France
Méribel
The middle of the Three Valleys — safe streets, serious mountains.
Read the safety briefing
Italy
Cortina d'Ampezzo
A polished Dolomites town; winter driving is the main thing to respect.
Read the safety briefing
Orderly coasts and country retreats
Established resort coasts and quiet country destinations with long records of hosting visitors safely.
Italy
the Amalfi Coast
Low crime; the hairpin coast road and summer crowds are the real hazards.
Read the safety briefing
Italy
Portofino
A tiny, genteel harbour village with essentially no street crime.
Read the safety briefing
Italy
Porto Cervo
Sardinia's Costa Smeralda — a managed resort coast with private security everywhere.
Read the safety briefing
France
Cap d'Antibes
A residential Riviera cape of gated villas; very calm, very discreet.
Read the safety briefing
United States
Nantucket
An island of summer colonies with one of the lowest crime rates in the US.
Read the safety briefing
United States
the Hamptons
The East End's villages are sleepy out of season and well policed in it.
Read the safety briefing
United States
Jackson Hole
A safe Western town; the wildlife and the winter roads demand the respect.
Read the safety briefing
United States
Hawaii
The resort coasts are safe and well served; ocean conditions are the honest risk.
Read the safety briefing
United States
Aspen
A small, wealthy mountain town where altitude and après matter more than crime.
Read the safety briefing
Japan
Niseko
Japan's powder capital — safe streets, but respect backcountry avalanche terrain.
Read the safety briefing
Japan
Hakone
Onsen country an hour from Tokyo; typhoon season is the only planning note.
Read the safety briefing
Japan
Hakuba
A Nagano valley of resorts with Japan's usual orderliness and serious snow.
Read the safety briefing
Japan
Okinawa
Japan's subtropical islands — very safe, with typhoons the seasonal watch-out.
Read the safety briefing
Japan
Osaka
Big-city Japan: safe by any world standard, livelier at night than Kyoto.
Read the safety briefing
Thailand
Bangkok
The luxury districts are well policed; scams and traffic outrank crime as concerns.
Read the safety briefing
The rest of the series
Wonderful destinations where the honest answer is "yes, with a little more awareness" — still very much worth going, with the specifics spelled out.
Safe-travel questions, answered
What is the safest luxury travel destination in the world?
By violent-crime statistics, Japan's cities — Tokyo and Kyoto in particular — are the safest large destinations in the world, and private-island resorts such as Mustique, North Island in the Seychelles and Amanpulo on Pamalican effectively remove street crime from the equation entirely. The honest answer depends on the risk you care about: the Maldives resorts eliminate theft concerns but add open-water ones, and the Swiss Alps are orderly on the street and genuinely hazardous off-piste.
Are private islands safer than cities for luxury travel?
For crime, yes — a one-resort island with controlled access and its own staff has essentially no street crime. The trade-off is distance from advanced medical care and exposure to sea and weather, which is why the best private islands run their own launches, clinics and evacuation plans. Choose a private island for crime-proofing, a top-tier city like Tokyo or Zurich for proximity to hospitals.
Is it safe to travel to Mexico for a luxury holiday?
The established resort corridors — Los Cabos, Punta Mita and Careyes — operate at a standard that surprises first-time visitors, with tourist police and economies that depend on their reputation. The precautions that matter are mundane: swimmable beaches only, arranged cars at night, bottled water. Mexico's advisory levels vary state by state, so check the current US State Department notice for the specific state before booking.
Which Caribbean islands are the safest?
St Barths, Mustique, Canouan, Barbados and Harbour Island consistently rank among the Caribbean's safest for visitors — small, wealthy communities with low crime and good infrastructure. Hurricane season (June to November, peaking September–October) is the larger planning consideration; a flexible rate converts that risk into a rebooking.
How do we decide which destinations make this list?
Every destination here has a page in our safety series, researched by the editorial team and reviewed on a cycle. We weight the risks travellers actually face — street crime, sea conditions, driving, seasonal storms, access to medical care — rather than headline perception, and we keep the official advisories (US State Department, UK Foreign Office) linked from every page because they update faster than any article.