Summer is coming up and there are reasonably priced packages for trips to the Ukraine, Syria, and Sudan you should consider:

• Companies that set up tours to countries with political problems have been thriving.
• One company offers a $5,775 trip to the Ukraine (excluding airfare) where travelers can meet with politicians and have journalists serve as guides.
• Another company offers trips to Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo advertizing the chance to see “wildlife, oil and AK-47s”.
• Those who want something less exciting can opt for tours to the recently-opened exclusion zone surrounding Chernobyl, and visit the abandoned ghost city where people fled the nuclear accident.
• And it’s not all about the third world. Tours of areas dealing with gang violence in South Los Angeles are also available for the brave hearted.
• Critics say that human suffering is being used for entertainment. One company offering tours to South Los Angeles considered selling tshirts that said “I Got Shot in South Central” – with a free squirt from a water gun to accompany it.
• Supporters point out that it’s a good way for people to see on the ground realities, independent of any distortions by the media.

Read about more of the exciting places you can go, the places that even these tour operators won’t go to, and what the experience is like over here.

Source: The Economist