Budget and mapping out a whole itinerary from scratch aside, it’s safe to say safety remains the main concern for Americans traveling abroad… especially in the current geopolitical climate.
Whether it’s the ongoing conflict in Eastern Europe or the absolute chaos of the Middle East, we don’t exactly begrudge you for being extra careful when planning a trip abroad, even if, in most cases, the regions in question remain relatively low-risk.
With uncertainty looming over the Eastern hemisphere, however, perhaps it’s not a surprise that 2 of the world’s fastest-growing destinations right now are right here in the ‘New World’, and guess what: they’ve earned the top U.S. safety rating.
El Salvador
The biggest plot twist of the last decade, El Salvador went from being one of the world’s most dangerous destinations, with a homicide rate of around 106 per 100,000 residents, to one of the absolute safest.
Right now, the tally is around 1.9 per 100,000, and homicides aren’t the only metric that’s dropped dramatically since Bukele’s rise to power, either: street criminality has reached historic lows, both for El Salvador itself and the wider Central America, gang extortion has virtually disappeared, and even the capital is looking neater and cleaner than it used to.
The current administration is dead set on turning El Salvador into the Switzerland of the Americas, come hell or high water, and if that requires arresting 2% of the population and purging the streets of violent gangs, then so be it.
Love or hate Bukele, the results are astonishing, and the numbers show:
According to the latest UN Tourism report, El Salvador is officially one of the top 3 fastest-rising destinations worldwide, proving traveler confidence and the reality on the ground among visitors is higher than it’s ever been.
Last year alone, it hosted over 3.9 million tourists, whereas only a couple of years back in 2022, it capped the year at around 2.5 million.
Whether it’s the newly polished, palm-lined streets of San Salvador, one of the safest and most promising capitals in Latin America, or the lush, volcano-dotted landscapes of the Ruta de las Flores, there’s a lot El Salvador has been hiding up its sleeve all these years it got written off as a no-go zone.
Now, it just couldn’t be safer if it tried. It finally earned the much-coveted Level 1 classification from U.S. authorities, meaning Americans have no extraordinary safety concerns when visiting El Salvador, and according to the Traveler Safety Index, a tool based on on-the-ground reports by travelers themselves, it scores a near-perfect 93/100.
That’s higher than most countries in Europe, FYI.
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Check Entry Requirements Before Flying
Before we crown the world’s new tourism darling, safety measures aside, one thing you should keep in mind when traveling internationally as an American is that, for many countries, simply carrying your U.S. passport no longer suffices.
The American passport is the weakest it’s been in over a decade, meaning you now need a growing number of visas and travel authorizations to enter certain countries compared to 5, 7, or 10 years ago, and with the global geopolitical landscape still shifting, it’s not like things are getting any simpler.
From 2027, you’ll need a mandatory travel permit to visit over 30 European countries, and before 2028, Japan is also expected to slap one on U.S. travelers.
In order to avoid that dreaded border gate surprise—or worse, a boarding denial—make sure you’re up to speed with the latest entry requirements affecting U.S. tourists using the Entry Requirement Checker.
It’s free to use, and it’ll save you a whole lot of hassle.
Paraguay
This is certain to turn a few heads, but the fastest-growing destination in the world is not some paradisiacal island in the Mediterranean that’s only just recently started hosting Transatlantic flights, nor that one Latin American country that’s often painted as Europe’s long-lost daughter.
It’s pretty close to Argentina, though.
Paraguay is that landlocked, often-overlooked state sandwiched between Argentina, Brazil, and Bolivia, and despite the fact it’s literally surrounded by jungles and shares a lengthy land border with some of Latin America’s most crime-ridden regions, it’s largely safe for visitors… though for a different reason than the one you might expect.
Unlike El Salvador, Paraguay never really had a widespread gang problem. It has a relatively small population (around 7 million people), mostly spread across smaller cities and rural areas rather than massive urban centers.
The two largest cities, the surprisingly charming Asunción and the bustling Ciudad del Este, on the border with Brazil, barely scrape 2 million people combined.
It’s no First World paradise, that’s for sure. You’ll still find the overhanging wires and potholed streets, but it has no equivalent to Brazil’s favelas or Central America’s powerful street gangs that control entire neighborhoods.
Despite the fact it has beautifully preserved colonial towns, a fascinating cultural heritage, and spectacular nature, Paraguay receives only a small fraction of the tourism its neighbors get… for now, as that’s changing quickly.
The latest UN Tourism report indicates it’s growing a whopping 46% in the first three months of 2026, signaling a tourism boom unlike anything it’s experienced before.
Similarly to El Salvador, Paraguay sits at Level 1, with everyday life in cities like Asunción and Encarnación being comparatively quiet. Most crime visitors encounter is opportunistic theft rather than full-blown armed robbery.
On the Traveler Safety Index, it posts a very respectable 82 out of 100.
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