Tourists can often be a tantalizing target for pick-pockets. As visitors in an area, you’re unlikely to know the safe areas from the not quite so safe areas. You’re going to be carrying a lot of valuable stuff about your person. You’re going to be relaxing and taking it easy, and so you won’t be concentrating quite so much. Also, if you’re in a different country, you may not be accustomed to the customs regarding personal space and contact, and so you might be less able to spot and avoid a potential pick-pocket.

So here are a few bits of advice to bear in mind, so that you won’t be running any unnecessary risks.

1) You could get a bum-bag, so as to keep all your valuables in a place where you’d definitely notice if someone tried to get at them. Alternatively, make sure that you never ever keep anything valuable in your back-pocket.

2) Try not to stand out conspicuously as a tourist. Avoid wearing a camera around your neck, holding a large map, wearing clothes that sharply stand out against the local attire. If you’re standing in a crowded area, speaking in English, then try to keep the volume down.

3) Buy yourself a phrase-book a good few weeks before you take your trip, and during this time try to learn some of the phrases that you will need, and - critically - their responses. You don’t need to be fluent, but you will blend in a lot better and won’t provoke any hostility if you at least make an effort to ask in shops and restuarants for what you want in the national language.

4) Before going on your exchange, make sure to ask your exchange partner for a list of the local emergency service numbers, and a list of the nearest hospital, dentist, police station, doctors etc.

5) If you’re planning to eat at a restaurant, ask your exchange partner for some recommendations. This will save you from accidentally landing upon a typically touristic restaurants that will over charge and exploit you.

By all means, if you want the best advice from someone who knows the area impeccably well, then there will be no one better to advise you than your exchange partner. Sometime tourists can be exploited, so it’s a good idea to get the low-down before you embark upon your trip.