To ask where you’d love to visit but are too scared to visit.

[Gawwwd]

Mine is Haiti. Such a fascinating place and such an interesting (and predictably oppressed) history. I would so love to go there, but even if things improved there I’d likely still be far too chicken shit, truth be told.

I suspect that might have been a private luxury train rather than a Russian railways train. There are no showers on most of the trains on trans siberian routes (one route has bathrooms shared between 2 compartments in deluxe class) and it certainly doesn't cost £30,000. Pre the invasion of Ukraine prices were from £200 to £800 for the whole journey one way, depending on which class and which route you took.

Iran. A beautiful, historic, wonderful country.

If only the mullahs would fuck off.

This route shouldn't cause problems.

Genuinely- loads of people go there it’s actually quite mainstream !
my knee consultant is going cycling there between now and my next appt , looks lovely x

USA, Mexico, Iran, Syria.

Afghanistan is apparently a beautiful country and I’m intrigued by Pakistan but won’t be going to either any time soon

Iran has been top of my list for a while.

I went to Cuba when Castro was in power - fascinating place.

Iran, during pomegranate season.
North Korea, to do the marathon and tour.
Mozambique, love the East African coastline. Maybe even the beaches in Somalia as I imagine they'd be like Zanzibar.

India is perfectly safe and loads of people travel there regularly, you'd be fine with that.

@zeddybrek try Lamu or Kilwa for similar beaches. Or even Tanga or Bagamoyo.
It's been years since i was there and I'm very wary of going to Zanzibar for fear of crowds not terrorism!

Thanks for the tips, the bucket list is growing! I did manage to go to Lamu about 20 years ago. The food, the people, the beaches are just heavenly in East Africa. Favourite part of the world.

The pyramids

@IsItTimeToRetireYetI was fortunate enough to travel very close to the border a few years ago, in KPK close to the Khyber Pass. It was lovely. I had an armed escort but I wish I’d spent longer there and gone to the Khyber Pass itself. Now I have children I’m less keen on the risk!

Agreed. I took the Sapsan high speed train from St Petersburg to Moscow hoping it would be a fascinating journey. Wrong. It just went through mile after mile after mile of unchanging, seemingly endless forest. I’ve had more interesting, scenic train journeys to Birmingham.

I’ve been to a lot of the places mentioned here, many as a solo backpacker with just a Lonely Planet and some travellers cheques for company!

My “too scared” is Egypt, partly for sensible reasons but mainly because Mummies are terrifying. Too many Agatha Christie videos in my youth I think.

There were little villages along the way - wooden houses and very Brothers Grimm - and then 5 minutes further along the line there would be a factory belching into the night.

But the rest was trees.

I’ve spent a fair bit of time in Syria, but not now in many years. It was wonderful.

The place I’ve always wanted to go is Yemen. Friends have spent time there when it was safer, but the time I was living in that neck of the woods, it was dicey.

I’ve been to a lot of the places mentioned here, many as a solo backpacker with just a Lonely Planet and some travellers cheques for company!

Heh. It doesn't seem long ago at all that I was getting round China with only the Lonely Planet guide to help, and trying to find my hostels or the bus stations with only the map pages to guide me. Now I'm as dependent on a smart phone and Google maps as the next person! 😅

I wish I had gone to Damascus years ago. 😞

St Petersburg and Israel have also long been on my bucket list, but not likely to happen any time soon.

@MotherOfCrocodiles I used to know my passport number by heart because you needed it to cash travellers cheques!

I was wondering not long ago about a Baltic cruise which seemed a safer way to do StP.

I’ve done this drive from SA through Eswatini to Mozambique (with my kids!). Not for the faint hearted, did get a shakedown from the Mozambiquan police but the sea is beautiful. Also been to DRC (definitely don’t recommend on safety grounds), Ethiopia, Lebanon, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan. Would also love to visit Syria one day.

No there is a civil war in Cabo Delgado, the north of Mozambique should be avoided.

Mine are places already mentioned on this thread - Afghanistan, Russia, Israel, South Africa, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Morocco and also Colombia.

I really want to go to Georgia with my teen son.

Is it safe to go there? It just seems so precariously positioned . . .

@tooloololoo eh ? I would pass on Venezuela, it's a terrible outcome for that benighted country - but Colombia ...?
@Apollonia1 what safer times ..?! The civil war lasted 50 years, do you mean when there were bombs on street corners and tanks on the street ? Because that WAS a long time ago. And I remember living in London when that was a real and present danger as well.

It's one of the most popular destinations on the planet ! And I have lived here for some time. There are no-go areas and if you want to go poking about on the borders where narco-traffickers have control then you do you - very ill advisedly. It is a huuuuge country, there are so many diverse areas, and the people (in my experience of 7 years) are amazing,
i don't think I would rush to visit Honduras but a friend has just got back from 4 months in Nicaragua and he loved it. Ditto Guatemala. Take your blinkers off !

I am sorry for not having experienced Beirut when it was still accessible, and Damascus....