Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Suppose you had an opportunity to visit, say, Venezuela or Nigeria or Pakistan. Be specific -- exactly what are your reasons for not wanting to go? what are you afraid of, that might happen to you if you spent a couple of weeks visiting there?
Are your reasons political, or economic, or philosophical, or do you actually fear that you might come to some harm? Or that people will be inhospitable? Or that your time will be wasted if not spent at a beach or resort or museum? Is learning about a new place not one of your reasons for traveling? Do you trust the media to tell you about those places and then consider yourself already knowledgeable?
Imagine that you are in such a place as a tourist or visitor today -- what do you think your day would be like?
The purpose of this thread is not so much to discuss the pros and cons of such reasons, but to just find out from readers what kinds of reasons they harbor regarding travel to "bad" places. So explain your motives, but don't be argumentative or comment on other people's reasons, please.
Deep down I'd say I fear going to a place considered or proven to be bad. There are enough places to visit in the world that aren't considered bad overall (almost always bad sections in good places), thus I don't feel it necessary to do so.
I'm not a history buff, so going abroad to see a bad country from a historical perspective doesn't interest me. If it's tropical, already been to Hawaii and the Caribbean, so a different tropical place isn't exciting. If it's a cold place, I'd go to northern Canada or Alaska first. I guess I have no real reasons to go to such a place.
The only "bad" countries I wouldn't visit are ones where I feel my personal safety would be at risk, like kidnapping or a high risk of being sexually assaulted. I have no problems visiting a country where their politics or philosophy are vastly different, but I value my personal health and safety.
The only "bad" countries I wouldn't visit are ones where I feel my personal safety would be at risk, like kidnapping or a high risk of being sexually assaulted. I have no problems visiting a country where their politics or philosophy are vastly different, but I value my personal health and safety.
The food and people would drive me to visit all of those places (I LOVE Nigerian, Venezuelan, and Pakistani food!). Things working against me going (and this is more so for Nigeria and Pakistan) are the threat of violence; we've all seen how destructive Boko Haram and the Taliban can be. Venezuela has some problems with violent gangs, but I'd be less on edge visiting there.
Location: RI, MA, VT, WI, IL, CA, IN (that one sucked), KY
41,940 posts, read 36,711,281 times
Reputation: 40634
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gramercy
The only "bad" countries I wouldn't visit are ones where I feel my personal safety would be at risk, like kidnapping or a high risk of being sexually assaulted. I have no problems visiting a country where their politics or philosophy are vastly different, but I value my personal health and safety.
This, but it would have to be an extreme threat. The only places I really wouldn't visit would be those I couldn't afford to visit.
Suppose you had an opportunity to visit, say, Venezuela or Nigeria or Pakistan. Be specific -- exactly what are your reasons for not wanting to go? what are you afraid of, that might happen to you if you spent a couple of weeks visiting there?
If I had an opportunity (i.e. spend someone else's money) to visit these places, the only reason why I wouldn't go is fear for my own personal safety.
If I had to spend my own money to travel, given that my money and time are limited, I'd have my own prioritized list of places I'd like to see which may or may not include these places.
There are so many reasons beyond safety and political, almost too many reasons to list:
Too expensive
Too hot
Too cold
Significant Other doesn't want to go
Simply not interested (i.e. beach vacations, carribean cruises)
Been there before, or a place just like it before.
Visa requirements are a pain.
Too far (I do enough flying accross the world for business)
If it's a place I otherwise want to visit, I weigh the risks vs rewards and would probably go there anyways.
The only time I would avoid going anywhere is if there is an active conflict in that specific location, but not necessarily one within the same country. That is, assuming it doesn't seem reasonable that the conflict would reach precisely where I'm going.
Tomorrow I am actually taking the bus from Belgrade, Serbia to Pristina, Kosovo. There is a bridge in Mitrovica between the region that seperates the country's Serb population from the overall majority of Albanians. It has had a reputation for some violent tensions between the two ethnicities given some serious land disputes. Offending licence plates are removed before crossing the bridge on either side and bad things have happened over some crossings. There's even a small UN presence I believe. Maybe that scares a lot of people away, but I've never heard of a public bus being targeted, and playing by the rules with a private vehicle seems safe enough anyways. I would never tell my mom about this, though.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.