5 guides, each rated 1 to 5 with the reason — and two lists per place, where you are comfortable and where to pay attention. Nowhere is called dangerous; the specific thing is what helps.
One of the safest cities in Britain and comfortable at any hour. The centre gets loud on Friday and Saturday nights around Sawclose. The pavements are steep, uneven Georgian stone and genuinely slippery in rain — this is the commonest way visitors get hurt here. The river is deceptively fast under Pulteney weir.
Comfortable: the whole centre · the Royal Crescent · Bathwick · Widcombe · the towpath by day
the Kennet and Avon towpath after dark — unlit, and between the water and the wall there is nowhere to step aside
the streets around the station on Friday and Saturday nights — a small centre absorbing a large number of people out drinking
Safe and friendly. The sea is what hurts people here: Atlantic rip currents are strong and several beaches have no lifeguard outside July and August — swim between the red and yellow flags or not at all. The coast path runs along unfenced cliff edges. The lanes are single-track with high hedges and summer traffic, and most visitor accidents are on them.
Comfortable: St Ives · Padstow · Falmouth · Fowey · the coast path in daylight
any beach without a lifeguard flag — rip currents are the reason people die in Cornwall, and the unpatrolled coves are where it happens
the cliff path near the edge in wind — the ground undercuts and gives way; every year part of the path falls into the sea
the tidal causeways at St Michael’s Mount and elsewhere — the tide comes in behind you faster than it looks
the single-track lanes — high hedges, no visibility, and a passing place every few hundred metres
Very safe from people and genuinely dangerous from weather. Hillwalkers die here every year, usually in cloud, usually without a map — mobile coverage is absent across most of it and a phone is not a navigation plan. Tell somebody your route. Single-track roads and unfamiliar driving on the left cause most visitor accidents. Midges from late June to August are not dangerous but will end an evening outdoors.
Comfortable: Inverness · Fort William · Portree · Aviemore · the village glens
the hills without a map, a compass and the ability to use them — the weather closes in at any time of year and mountain rescue is called out more here than anywhere in Britain
the single-track roads — passing places are for passing, not parking, and the oncoming car may be a lorry
river crossings after rain — burns that were ankle-deep in the morning are not crossable by evening
midges from June to August — harmless and genuinely unbearable — repellent with DEET, or a head net
Very safe. The weather is the real hazard: it can shift from sun to horizontal rain within an hour, and Arthur’s Seat gets slippery. August during the Fringe means triple prices and full accommodation.
Comfortable: Old Town · New Town · Stockbridge · Leith
Violent crime against visitors is rare; theft is not. Phone-snatching by riders on e-bikes and mopeds has become the defining London risk — tens of thousands of phones a year, most of them taken from a hand at a kerb in the West End, Shoreditch or around Westminster — so use the phone in a doorway, not on the pavement edge. Pickpockets work the Tube at rush hour and the Oxford Street crowds. Look right first when crossing.
Comfortable: South Bank · Kensington · Islington · Marylebone
Oxford Street, Shoreditch and Westminster — phone-snatching by riders on e-bikes and mopeds, tens of thousands a year across the city, most from a hand at the kerb
Camden Town — the same, at the market and outside the stations
the Tube at rush hour — pickpockets work the crush at the doors
Empty tube carriages late at night — walk to a busier one
Unlicensed minicabs touting outside clubs
The ratings are this site's own, from the guides' authors and the corrections readers send in; they are not an index. Read the general advice in travel safety tips.
