How safe is your destination?

However, savvy travellers know that giving in to the hype can rob them of amazing and exciting experiences abroad. If you're looking to get off the tour bus or travel off the beaten track, there are many places you can look online to help you make informed decisions about your travel.

So how can you tell if your destination is safe?

Check the level of warning

If you're looking for places to go, there are some countries you can automatically scratch off your list. Vacationers should stay away from any country or region where there's a government issued travel warning.

Where can you find this information? Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada has four levels of warning in their country-specific travel reports:

- Exercise normal security precautions. In other words, there are no significant security concerns and you should take the normal security measures you would at home or in a large urban city like Toronto or Vancouver. Countries like the US and UK receive this designation.

- Exercise high degree of caution. You're good to go, but you should be more alert and vigilant due to specific security concerns, such as a higher rate of crime than at home.

- Avoid non-essential travel. While the warning is in place, Canadians should "reconsider their need to travel" due to specific security concerns.

- Avoid all travel. Again, while the warning is in place Canadians shouldn't travel to this country or region due to an extreme risk to personal safety. Not surprisingly, the list of no-go countries includes Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Timor-Leste, Pakistan and Nigeria.