Maple Grove Daily

Maple Grove Daily

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Get our latest articles delivered straight to your inbox. No spam, we promise.


Share The Article

Whether you’re a nature enthusiast looking for some otherworldly scenery, or you simply have a soft spot for freshly-fried street arepas, Latin America’s probably on your radar right now. The question is: where to go that is both accessible and safe for American tourists?

As much as we love LatAm—as you might know already if you’re a faithful Travel Off Path reader—there’s no glossing over the fact that not the entire continent is exactly tourist-friendly.

Listen, we’re not ones to fearmonger ourselves and paint an entire group of countries as a no-go zone. There’s, of course, nuance to be had here, and even in places like Brazil or Colombia, there are relatively safe zones.

That said, in general, some countries fare better than others. Perhaps unsurprisingly, two of the safest countries in LatAm are also now two of the fastest-growing destinations in the world… and no, Argentina is nowhere to be seen here:

El Salvador

Woman on a bikini sitting in a bikini admiring the view of Coatepeque Lake in El Salvador

El Salvador is officially the third-best performer in the UN Tourism’s latest report, with a 43% year-on-year uptick in visitors. Part of it’s to do with the tiny Central American country’s mountain-traversed, volcanic nature, black-sand beaches, and vibrant city breaks.

And then, a huge part of the rekindled interest can be attributed to El Salvador’s impressive levels of urban security. At least right now.

Formerly one of the most dangerous countries in the world, with a staggeringly high homicide rate, El Salvador has gone from gang hotspot of the Americas to Switzerland of the Western Hemisphere in only a few years.

Love him or hate him, you can thank incumbent President Nayib Bukele for that.

Liz Fox in Mizata, El Salvador
Photo by Tyler Fox

Since coming into power in 2022, he has effectively arrested over 90,000 gang members, with two of the country’s leading gangs, MS-13 and Barrio 18, having lost much of their street presence in the meantime, not to mention extensive police patrols across neighborhoods previously plagued by crime.

San Salvador, went from a place you wouldn’t wander about at night, even accompanied, to a safer capital city than many Western European cities. Don’t believe us? Just take a look at what they’re saying on the Traveler Safety Index, where El Salvador scores an impressive 91 out of 100:

If you’re looking at violent crime and homicide alone, which is the main concern for Americans visiting LatAm, El Salvador is in a much better position than it was a decade, or even 5 years ago:

Beautiful beachside view of El Tunco in El Salvador with surfers and palm trees during a sunny day
  • 2015: about 106 homicides per 100,00 people (one of the highest in the world)
  • 2024: 1.9 per 100,000
  • 2025: 1.3 per 100,000 (the lowest ever recorded in the country)

For tourists and residents alike, this has meant a vastly-lower risk of random violence on the streets, fewer armed robberies in many areas, and finally, the ability to travel around El Salvador practically freely, without worrying about off-limit zones.

That’s the case with El Salvador. It may not be the same elsewhere in Latin America.

If you’re heading to the region this year, check Travel Advisories that apply at your destination in particular on the Travel Advisory Checker, including Embassy alerts and city-specific advice.

Paraguay

Asuncion, Paraguay cityscape on nice day

Weirdly enough, the fastest-growing destination worldwide is the landlocked, offbeat Latin country of Paraguay, sandwiched between the tourism powerhouses of Argentina and Brazil.

We maybe wouldn’t class Paraguay as ‘bucket list’ destination like other countries in the vicinity, but it does its own set of unique strengths that often go unacknowledged. For starters, you won’t have find huge crowds or inflated prices here like in neighboring Brazil.

Hotels, food, and transportation are generally cheaper, with every $100 you spend here stretching much further than it would elsewhere. In sum, it’s great if you’re traveling on a budget.

On top of that, the nature is Brazil-level of incredible, just way less spread out, and easier to access: the Pantanal, shared with Brazil itself and Bolivia, is a prime spot for wildlife viewing, while El Chaco is an expansive dry forest, home to jaguars, giant anteaters, and literally hundreds of bird species.

The Jesuit Mission Ruins In Paraguay, South America

Last but certainly not least, the History here is soooo underrated: the Jesuit Mission Ruins are a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and arguably one of the prettiest colonial sites south of the Equator line.

Regarding safety, Paraguay is a very different story from El Salvador, though the outcomes are pretty… similar.

It, too, ranks Level 1 on the U.S. Travel Advisory, which means Americans are not only not discouraged from visiting, but they may exercise normal precautions when doing so. That’s the same classification traditionally-safe countries like Switzerland and Iceland enjoy.

Unlike El Salvador, however, Paraguay has always been one of the safer countries in LatAm.

Aerial view of the Paraguayan city of Ciudad del Este and Friendship Bridge, connecting Paraguay and Brazil through the border over the Parana River
  • It never had major gangs like MS-13
  • It does have drug trafficking, but gangs don’t control entire neighborhoods or extort ordinary people on the scale seen elsewhere in the continent
  • The low population density helps: there’s about 7 million people spread over 157,048 square miles, and any violent crime that does occur is often restricted to major urban centers
  • Violence is concentrated and often linked exclusively to drug trafficking, organized crime, or border regions

This is how safe travelers have been feeling in Paraguay at the minute, as per the Traveler Safety Index: a respectable score of 84 out of 100, thank you very much.

Last year, Paraguay’s homicide rate had fallen to around 6.1 per 100,000, somewhat higher than El Salvador, sure, but still way lower than the Latin American average, especially places like Colombia (25.8/100,000) and Brazil (16.0/100,000).

To translate these numbers, the average tourist is much less likely to encounter this in Paraguay in countries where gangs run amok.

The most common issues in Paraguay are:

  • Pickpocketing
  • Phone theft
  • Petty scams (rather than violent crime)

The biggest risk areas are… you guessed it, restricted to the border with Brazil, and to a lesser extent, fellow landlocked nation Bolivia.

You might want to steer clear of places like Ciudad del Este, unless you’re really keen on bargaining for cheap perfume imports from the Middle East, and Pedro Juan Caballero.

I don’t know, man, there’s something about three-name cities that just reeks of trouble.





Source link


There’s a multitude of laptops on the market that would be a fit for students, and almost all of those models are available in multiple configurations to match your performance needs and budget restraints. If you are feeling overwhelmed by the sheer number of options, we’re here to help with advice on what to consider when shopping for a school laptop.

Price

The search for a new laptop for most people starts with price, particularly for cash-strapped college students. To end up with a laptop that will last you at least through four years of school, I would advise against choosing a bargain-basement, entry-level model. Additionally, you could get away with spending less upfront in past years with an eye toward upgrading memory and storage in the future. Laptop makers are increasingly moving away from making components easily upgradable, so it’s best to get as many laptop capabilities as you can afford from the start.

Generally speaking, the more you spend, the better the laptop. That could mean better components for faster performance, a nicer display, sturdier build quality, a smaller or lighter design from higher-end materials or even a more comfortable keyboard.

Right now, the sweet spot for a reliable laptop that can handle average school tasks is between $700 and $800. For art and STEM students who need to run demanding graphics or STEM apps (or those looking for a bit of gaming, after your homework is done, of course), you’ll need to spend about $1,000 or a bit more. The key is to look for discounts on models in all price ranges so you can get more laptop capability for less.

Size

If you plan on taking your laptop to class each day, then you’ll want a lighter and thinner laptop. I recommend a model with a 13- or 14-inch display for most students. Larger 15- and 16-inch models provide more screen real estate for getting work done and juggling multiple windows, but you’ll probably get tired of dragging it across campus.

Specs

If you are targeting a 14-inch laptop for school, then the basic display resolution of 1,920×1,200 pixels should suffice for creating crisp text and images. The picture’s sharpness will improve as you increase the resolution, but you don’t need a 4K display for such a small screen. If your budget allows, look for an OLED display with a 2,240×1,400, 2,560×1,600 or 2,880×1,800 pixels. Not only will the increased pixel count improve the picture, but the superior contrast ratio and color performance of OLEDs will be evident compared with those of IPS LED displays.

For internals, Intel and AMD are the main CPU makers for Windows laptops, with Qualcomm as a new third option with its Arm-based Snapdragon X processors. Intel and AMD offer a staggering selection of mobile processors. Making things trickier, both manufacturers have chips designed for different laptop styles, like power-saving chips for ultraportables or faster processors for gaming laptops. Their naming conventions will let you know what type is used. You can head to Intel’s or AMD’s sites for explanations so you get the performance you want. Generally speaking, the faster the processor speed and the more cores it has, the better the performance will be.

Apple makes its own chips for MacBooks, which makes things slightly more straightforward. The entry-level MacBook Air uses an M1 chip, and the latest Air models feature M3 chips.

Battery life is paramount for a student laptop, and it has less to do with the number of CPU cores and more to do with CPU architecture, Arm versus x86. Apple’s Arm-based MacBooks and the first Arm-based Copilot Plus PCs we’ve tested offer better battery life than laptops based on x86 processors from Intel and AMD.

If you plan to study art and your course of study will involve using graphics-intensive creative apps, then you will need a Windows laptop with a dedicated Nvidia GPU or a more powerful MacBook Pro. The same can be said for STEM students who will be using powerful scientific apps as well as any student who might want to play PC games on their laptop. Costs increase quickly, however, when you jump from integrated graphics to an Nvidia GeForce RTX GPU or from a MacBook Air to a MacBook Pro.

For memory, I highly recommend 16GB of RAM, with 8GB being the absolute bare minimum. RAM is where the operating system stores all the data for currently running applications, and it can fill up fast. After that, it starts swapping between RAM and SSD, which is slower. I suggest at least 16GB of RAM for a Windows laptop, but most students should be fine with the standard 8GB that Apple offers on its baseline MacBook Air. Plus, Apple charges a hefty sum for 16GB. 

For storage, get at least a 256GB SSD and 512GB SSD if you can. If you need to go with a smaller drive, you can always add an external drive down the road or use cloud storage to bolster a small internal drive. The one exception is gaming laptops: I don’t recommend going with less than a 512GB SSD unless you really like uninstalling games every time you want to play a new one.

Operating system

Choosing an operating system is part personal preference and part budget. For the most part, Microsoft Windows and Apple’s MacOS do the same things (except for gaming, where Windows is the winner), but they do them differently. Unless there’s an OS-specific application you need, go with the one you feel most comfortable using. If you’re not sure which one that is, head to an Apple store or a local electronics store and test them out. Or ask friends or family to let you test theirs for a bit. If you have an iPhone or iPad and like it, chances are you’ll like MacOS too.

When it comes to price and variety (and PC gaming), Windows laptops win. If you want MacOS, you’re getting a MacBook. Apple’s MacBooks regularly top our best lists — they are costly, although the original M1 MacBook Air is still available for just $649.

Windows laptops can be found for as little as a couple of hundred dollars and come in all manner of sizes and designs. Granted, we’d be hard-pressed to find a $200 laptop we’d give a full-throated recommendation to, especially if you need it to last you through four years of school.

If you are on a tight budget, consider a Chromebook. ChromeOS is a different experience than Windows; more streamlined and easier to use. It’s limited, in that basically everything runs through the Chrome browser. Just make sure that your school or coursework doesn’t require you to use apps that run only on a Windows or Mac machine.





Source link

Recent Reviews