Ask any frequent flyer about the state of American travel right now, and safety comes up fast. Surveys back that instinct: a recent Global Rescue poll found that more than half of international travelers report feeling more anxious about personal safety than they did a year ago, with almost none saying the opposite. What’s interesting is that this unease doesn’t always line up neatly with crime data. In several major U.S. cities, official numbers show improvement even as the public mood sours, a disconnect researchers and city officials alike are still trying to explain.
That gap between statistics and gut feeling is exactly what shapes where people choose to spend their vacation days. Below are ten American cities where travelers, locals, and news coverage have increasingly flagged safety concerns, even in places where the raw numbers tell a more complicated story.
1. New York City
New York’s subway system has become the flashpoint for the city’s safety reputation, largely because of a handful of horrifying, high-profile incidents rather than a broad crime wave. In December 2024, a woman was murdered by being burned alive on a subway car, and that same month a man was fatally stabbed at City Hall station during rush hour.[1] Those events landed hard precisely because of where and when they happened. Even if statistically rare, incidents like these reshape public perception entirely, since people don’t think in statistics when they’re waiting alone on a platform at midnight.[1]
The underlying numbers are messier than the headlines suggest. Since 2019, felony assaults in the subway have risen more than 53%, climbing from 374 incidents in 2019 to 573 in 2024.[1] Yet overall transit crime has actually been trending down: major crime in the transit system was down 5.2% from 2024 and 14.4% from 2019, with roughly 1.65 major crimes per million riders in 2025, down about 30% from 2021 once ridership is factored in.[1] Travelers, though, tend to remember the stabbing on the platform, not the ridership-adjusted trend line.
2. St. Louis
Few cities illustrate the perception-versus-reality problem as starkly as St. Louis. The perception gap here is enormous, since despite a significant and measurable drop in violent crime, Americans still feel less safe visiting.[1] National sentiment plays a role too. According to a Gallup poll, more than three quarters of Americans believe there is more crime in the country than there was last year.[1]
St. Louis seems to soak up more than its fair share of that anxiety. The city absorbs a disproportionate share of that anxiety, and visitors continue to stay away even as parts of the city genuinely improve.[1] Broader crime data reinforces why St. Louis keeps showing up on lists like this one, with mid-sized cities including St. Louis, Cleveland, and Oakland repeatedly appearing across both violent and property crime rankings. The city’s reputation, once earned, has proven far stickier than the statistics that originally built it.
3. Memphis
Memphis has had a genuinely rough stretch, and the numbers back up some of the worry. In 2023, Memphis hit a record high for homicides with 397 murders.[1] The following years brought modest relief without erasing the underlying trend. By May 19, 2025, the city had already recorded 97 murders, and while homicides were 4% lower in the first half of 2025 than in 2024, they remained 58% higher than 2019 levels.[1]
The response has been dramatic. Memphis received the most direct federal action of any city, with a National Guard deployment and the federally backed Memphis Safe Task Force credited with thousands of arrests by early 2026.[2] Even with that, the areas most popular with visitors carry a different risk profile than the citywide totals imply. Popular areas like Beale Street, while bustling with tourists, have seen reports of heightened safety concerns, with some travelers feeling uneasy even in well-lit public spaces.[3] Neighborhoods matter enormously here: some neighborhoods are safer than others, and travelers who stick to well-lit areas in groups can still enjoy this culturally rich city.[1]
4. San Francisco
San Francisco’s crime data has actually been moving in a favorable direction, which makes the city’s safety reputation an interesting case study. The data suggests that San Francisco is experiencing real progress, with fewer robberies and fewer violent assaults overall than a year ago.[4] The trend line is encouraging by most measures. The overall trend is moving in a positive direction, with fewer robberies, fewer assaults, and real progress across the board.[4]
Still, a handful of dramatic incidents can undo a lot of that statistical goodwill. High-impact incidents still happen, especially those involving weapons, and those moments shape how safe the city feels because they’re unforgettable and travel fast.[4] Crime also clusters unevenly across the city. Incidents still cluster heavily in a few high-density corridors, the places where transit converges, nightlife overlaps, and a lot of people pass through.[4] City officials have responded with visible measures, and Miami, Las Vegas, and San Francisco have all increased police patrols in entertainment and shopping districts frequented by tourists.[5]
5. Baltimore
Baltimore’s reputation has deep roots, tied to decades of structural problems rather than a single bad year. The city’s crime challenges stem from decades of economic decline, the opioid crisis, and other systemic issues highlighted by high-profile events like the 2015 killing of Freddie Gray and the subsequent protests.[6] For years, Baltimore has ranked poorly on national comparisons. The city ranked second in murders nationally while maintaining its position as the nation’s leader in robbery rates.[6]
Recent numbers, though, tell a more hopeful story that hasn’t fully caught up with public perception. As of mid-2025, robberies and auto thefts were down compared to the previous year, while the homicide clearance rate jumped from 40.3 percent in 2020 to 68.2 percent in 2024.[6] Tourist zones and residential neighborhoods diverge sharply in actual risk. Baltimore’s best-known visitor areas, including the Inner Harbor, have significantly different security and policing environments from some higher-risk residential areas.[7] Even so, citywide statistics keep Baltimore near the top of national crime comparisons, which is enough to give many travelers pause before booking a trip.
6. Detroit
Detroit’s safety narrative is closely tied to its broader story of urban decline and slow rebuilding. Detroit has the third-highest murder rate among cities of similar size in the country.[6] The city also struggles with property crime at rates well above the national norm, with Detroit and Oakland both posting rates well above triple the U.S. average in recent comparisons.
Revitalization efforts downtown have changed the experience for many visitors, even if the city’s overall statistics haven’t caught up. Detroit continues to face struggles with urban blight and violent crime in certain neighborhoods, even as the city works on revitalization.[8] Local guidance reflects that split reality. Many travel forums and blogs recommend staying within specific districts, as some areas remain challenging to visit, especially for unfamiliar tourists.[8] For travelers weighing a trip, the practical takeaway is the same one that applies across most of this list: downtown and the riverfront function very differently than the neighborhoods driving the city’s overall numbers.
7. Oakland
Oakland has developed a specific reputation problem centered on property crime, particularly vehicle theft. Oakland leads the list for property crime, edging out Portland, with its total disproportionately driven by motor vehicle theft, and a vehicle theft rate of 1,447.9 incidents per 100,000 people, the highest among the 50 largest U.S. cities.[2] That single category skews the city’s overall reputation heavily. Vehicle theft accounts for roughly 27.7 percent of all property crime in Oakland, more than double the 12.8 percent share nationally.[2]
Violent crime rates compound the concern for many visitors. Detroit and Oakland also post violent crime rates well above triple the U.S. average.[2] Federal attention has circled the city without resulting in the kind of direct intervention seen elsewhere. Baltimore and Oakland were also considered as potential targets for federal intervention, but troops and task forces were not ultimately deployed there.[2] For travelers renting cars or exploring by vehicle, Oakland’s specific vulnerability to auto theft has become one of the more practical, and frequently repeated, warnings.
8. Portland
Portland’s safety reputation shifted noticeably after several years of high-profile civil unrest, and that association has proven durable. Large-scale protests and civil unrest, such as those seen in Los Angeles or Portland, can create an environment where travel to certain areas is discouraged.[8] The disruption tends to be localized but visible enough to shape outside perception of the whole city. Protest zones often lead to temporary closures of roads, public areas, and tourist sites, impacting the overall travel experience.[8]
The federal government’s own response added to the sense that Portland remained a flashpoint. National Guard troops were put on standby for deployment to Portland, though a federal judge permanently blocked their deployment in 2025.[2] That kind of headline, even when the deployment never happens, tends to linger in a city’s travel reputation far longer than it lingers in the news cycle. Portland’s property crime numbers add another layer, with the city trailing only Oakland among major cities for overall property crime rates.
9. Los Angeles
Los Angeles saw its safety image complicated in 2025 by a wave of civil unrest tied to immigration enforcement rather than traditional street crime. In Los Angeles, protests against mass deportation in 2025 led to warnings from some governments advising their citizens to avoid large crowds or public gatherings.[8] The impact on tourism sentiment was measurable even though the unrest itself was contained. While the protests themselves were isolated incidents, civil unrest can deter tourists, especially if they coincide with major events.[8]
10. Chicago
Chicago presents perhaps the clearest case of the national perception gap playing out at street level. Crime data has genuinely improved in recent years, yet the city’s reputation as unsafe has proven remarkably persistent among both domestic and international travelers. The city has made remarkable progress in reducing crime, with overall violent crime at its lowest point in over a decade and homicides dropping by half since 2025.[10]
Tourist-heavy areas have benefited most directly from this shift. Popular tourist destinations like Millennium Park, Navy Pier, and the Magnificent Mile are well-patrolled and secure.[10] The caveat, as with most cities on this list, comes down to geography. Chicago still requires basic urban awareness, since visitors should stick to well-lit areas at night, avoid less populated neighborhoods on the South and West Sides, and use rideshare services after dark rather than walking alone.[10] Researchers studying crime distribution note that this pattern isn’t unique to Chicago at all, pointing out that gang-related conflicts remain heavily concentrated geographically in specific cities including Chicago, Baltimore, and Memphis, rather than spread evenly across them.
The through line across all ten cities is less about crime rising uniformly and more about a widening gap between what the data shows and what travelers feel. In several cases, including Chicago, Philadelphia, and San Francisco, official statistics point toward meaningful improvement even as public anxiety stays elevated or grows. Local officials have started acknowledging this disconnect openly rather than dismissing it, with mayors in cities like Providence and Kansas City noting that rebuilding trust requires more than favorable numbers on a report. For travelers, the practical lesson isn’t to avoid these cities outright, but to understand that risk in urban America is rarely distributed evenly. It tends to concentrate in specific neighborhoods, specific hours, and specific circumstances, while the well-traveled tourist corridors often look very different from the citywide statistics that shape a city’s reputation from a distance.
