“Is this safe?” someone asked on one of my international Facebook groups.

They must be American, I said to myself with a sigh.

I’ve had more than a few international friends tell me it’s usually us Americans who ask questions about safety. Whether it’s walking the Camino de Santiago, traveling on budget airlines, or car pooling. . . when the question of safety comes up, I’d bet money that the person who’s asking is American.

Safety is a valid concern.

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been somewhere in Spain and said, “This would never fly in the US.”

• The Fallas festival: In the third largest city in Spain, multiple five story structures are lit on fire for spectators to watch.
• The rooftop tour of the Santiago de Compostela Cathedral–where you don’t just see the rooftops. You climb over them. Three of them. And then you turn around and go back over them to get back to the starting point.
• The Bufones de Pria. Geysers of sea water. You can get as close as you want. No barriers anywhere.

You get my point.

It helps that Spain is not a very litigious society.

It wouldn’t surprise most Spaniards (or most Europeans, for that matter) if I told them that this afternoon I’ll meet a man at a gas station, get into his car, and be his passenger for four hours, having never met him before.

BlaBlaCar is kind of like Uber meets hitchhiking. Everyone has a profile with their picture, a little about them, and reviews. Rides are posted and people like me say, “It’s going to take a ridiculously long time to get to my destination by train/bus–let me see if anyone else is going that way.”

My ultimate goal is to get to St. Jean-Pied-de-Port , France (pop. 1400) by Sunday evening.

It’s not an easy place to get to.

According to google maps, the quickest way would be to drive a car. As a newly licensed Spanish driver, I could do this in about 5 hours. But. . .

• We are a one-car family here in Spain, so that would leave Michael without a car for 10 days.
• Gas is about $6.80 per gallon.
• I don’t much like driving.

I prefer to take a bus or train. But the quickest route is at least 12 hours.

With four transfers.

No thanks.

And then there’s BlaBlaCar. For $27 I can meet someone interesting, practice Spanish for four hours, and get to Hendaye, France. From there, it’s just a 1.5 hour train ride ($20) to my final destination.

I can’t see BlaBlaCar coming to the US anytime soon.

But in 21 other countries? It works quite well.

• There are 21 million active users.
• 110,000 of us are in a BlaBlaCar each day.
• The company has a valuation of over $2 billion.

The first time I used BlaBlaCar my sister Meg, who calls me her “free-spirited” sister, wisely asked me to send the contact information for the driver, my departure and arrival times and locations, and a picture of the car and license plate.

She has good reason to ask. I once went on a hike for a first date. In a place I’d never been. In a place that had no cell service. Actually, I think this was even before cell phones were a thing. . .

To his credit, Michael asks for the same information as Meg. And makes me put at AirTag in my pocket so he can track me.

Today’s driver has 318 reviews and a star rating of 4.9 out of 5. He’s been giving rides via BlaBlaCar since 2012.

So are BlaBlaCar, the Camino de Santiago, and budget airlines safe? Statistically speaking, absolutely.

• Nearly half-a-million people walked into Santiago de Compostela last year on one of the routes of the Camino de Santiago.
• RyanAir is not only the most popular budget airline in Europe, but in 2023 it topped the list of most popular airline overall–transporting over 183 million passengers.

So if you’re an inexperienced American traveler with dreams of coming to Europe, I hope this all gets you motivated to get your passport (as half of us Americans don’t have one) and get on over here!

(And if you’re not motivated nor interested, I’ll still think of you kindly . . . while I’m sipping my $2 glass of wine this afternoon.)