BootsnAll Travel Community

Round the World trips have become extremely popular in the past 5 - 10 years. Now that there is a lot of tension and potential war, I have a a questions that I would love to hear your thoughts on:

1. Are there any countries/regions that you would avoid on a RTW trip or any trip for that matter because of the recent events?

If so, why?

-and the border regions....
I'm all for adventure, but I might as well put a gun to my own head... If I don't, someone else there sure will, cause I look as 'white and western' as they come...

Kat

Curiosity never killed anything except perhaps a few hours!

I don't think you have to worry about that too much. If you WANTED to include Afghanistan on a RTW you would find it (a) difficult to make the necessary connections (a lot of backtracking) and (b) it would work out to be quite expensive.
Not too many flights into Kabul these days.

Have a son heading off next February/March (so not immediate)after finishing a post-grad. course this year.

Simon does like more adventurous destinations, or travel (off the beaten track), and is planning Africa overland alone. He is still going but wondering what the situation will be like in some areas. He does keep himself informed and up-to-date, at least aware of possibilities so he should be OK. He only tells us the dicey bits when he gets home.

His highschool sweetheart, Mika, is heading off on a two year voyage around the world in February, with Jesse Martin and a crew of another three. Here is the site with descriptions of Kijano.
http://www.jessemartin.net/home.htm

The voyage is still on. Lots of preparation going on, the crew are having extensive sailing lesson, learning celestial navigation, and will be doing an advanced scuba course. Mind you they will have lots of backup.

(their friends all talk about funny ways that they can stow aboard; they had a brain storming session here one night, all in fun. Simon says there's no way he can get onboard because he will be expected to on the dock waving Mika off. I suggested that he could be the masthead)

I don't think people's sense of adventure, and need for travel will ever fully be effected in the long term, they may look a little more closely at political climates of their destinations and surrounding countries before moving.

I'm a bit concerned about going to Nepal, as it is pretty damn close to all the 'stans, and I'll have to fly over those areas. I'm not deterred overall though, more like determined, as who knows what things will be like in five years??
Anyway, I think I'll avoid typical American places, those targeting western tourists specifically. Perhaps I'll spend more time in NZ and OZ, they seem rather safe and still pretty wonderful. Sometimes it feels like if you're doing a RTW trip, you have to go to "exotic" locations, or be seen as a softie-tourist. I'm trying to choose destinations that really, truly interest me, rather than getting into more remote, dangerous and risky places than I need, to stay "one-step ahead" of other travelers.

I'd probably avoid places known to be volatile....Isreal, Algeria, Iraq, Afghanistan and other places that have groups that might simpathize with muslim fundamentalists....Iran, Pakistan, Libya.

Who knows how long this confrontation will last and what countries / groups become involved. If more than one Islamic country gets into a war with the US it might be a rallying cry for others to join in. We all know that Yasser Arafat plays these situations to his advantage and will undoubtably ramp up the retoric when bombs start falling.

-Nick-

I'm planning a trip to Bali. But that's in Indonesia, which has a large Muslim population and many anti-American demonstrations lately. Does anyone have an info on the saftey of Bali these days?

I recommend that you keep an eye on the U.S. State Department's Travel Warnings web site at:
http://travel.state.gov/travel_warnings.html

The different island groups of the Pacific seem to be what people are asking about at present, this is including circle Pacific fares. Cook Islands and Fiji are up there.

Seems people are still wanting and needing their holiday but are being very cautious about what region of the world until things settle in some way or until we can get some handle on what direction it is all taking.

Hi we jst came back from Bali !
it's safe, don't worry
http://www.ilove-bali.com/

Take care, thierry dehove

What's changed for me is more local...
I'd feel as concerned being in somewhere like Bali as I am sitting here in an investment bank in the City of London!

And yeah, war zones are definately not on my travel wish list right now

Wow - this is an old thread - over 3 years old.

Interesting to note the Rettik kinda predicted the Bali Bombing. He was suspecting it as a target over a year b4 the bombing.

Damn! At first I couldn't remember posting that, but now that I look at the date... it was right after 9/11!

Rettik, that is quite creepy!

Kath

For now I'd avoid Iraq and Afghanistan, but I think everywhere else is possible. I hope to go the middle east at some point next summer, but it depends on the old cash situation...I fancy going everywhere, just need the money to pay for it. And have to finish uni first, almost done...

Thats quite funny asking about Countries that you should avoid.
I went on this website -i cant remember what it was- and it was this big offical thing tell you places to aviod.
I swear they had every country under the sun on the list.
Basically what i'm saying is that youre gonna find danger where ever you go...
Look at it this way:
-I would really love to see CountryX
-CountryX is dangerous

So you could take this advice, sit at home and never see CountryX.. or you could take your chances and live your dream!

(saying that though... i would be heading off to Iraq any time soon...)

We did end up going to Bali after the bombing. It was very sad to see. Bali is beautiful. We will return some day.

if you read the US state dept list of travel warnings (and follow their advice), you will probably never go anywhere outside the US.

It's useful to be wary and to know what to look out for, but you can find trouble just about anywhere.

I've wanted to visit Myanmar for quite some time, but after what's been happening over the past few months, I think it would be wise to stay away, at least until we know more information.

I was in Myanmar in 2005, the people are amazing.

There's few places I wouldn't go... Iraq at the moment. I might still even go to Afghanistan, just certain parts. I'd still go to Pakistan but maybe try to find a travel partner. Sometimes being a woman alone gets you more help and admiration, but it always includes two questions: Why aren't you married? Why don't you have kids?

Outside of New Zealand and Fiji, I've met maybe five people doing RTW trips. Most people tend to take very similar routes when they travel RTW.

I expect to see a bunch more when I'm in Australia and Thailand.