Young Americans, especially women, are attractive targets. It took just that one night for me to realize, if I had a daughter I would do anything I could to keep her from traveling to many of those locations as a single woman.
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When a friend of mine was younger, she and her roommate won a trip to Barbardos. My friend said it wasn't a bad country, nice beach and all, but she said there were two local men who kept bothering them. Didn't rape or assault them, but they were persistent...kept wanting to buy them drinks, inviting them here and there...even insisted on accompanying them to the beach. They wouldn't take "no" for an answer. At one point, my friend said she and her companion literally stayed in the ocean for hours waiting for the two guys to give up and leave (I guess the men wouldn't go into the water). Finally, the men did leave, and my friend and her companion didn't see them again.
My friend and her friend found out that such incidents were commonplace in Barbados. At least at that time, the young men on the island wanted to hook up with "rich" American girls in the hopes that they would marry them and bring them to the U.S. I believe my friend and her companion did complain to the local authorities, but apparently, Barbados doesn't prosecute unless the men had tried to physically asault them.
I believe that anyone, young or old, male or female, should not go out alone at night...especially in a foreign land. Heck, you can't do that at home in most places...why would you do so in a strange land?