Meet the travelers who vacation in the world’s most treacherous places
Qwenews.com – In July of 1861, hundreds of civilians ventured out from Washington, D.C. with picnic baskets and opera glasses to watch the first great battle of the American Civil War take place at Manassas in the Virginia countryside. “The worst picnic in history,” was how one writer later described it.
Needless to say, the pastime didn’t really catch on. But what was dismissed as a morbid 19th-century spectacle has reemerged as a modern industry known as “dark tourism.” A distinct breed of thrill-seeking travelers actively seek out war zones, radiation sites and volatile borderlands for their vacations. There are two entirely different forms of dark tourism.
One entails visiting nations that are simply dangerous — North Korea, Afghanistan and Haiti are three places classified as “do not travel” by the US Department of State. The other centers on places where notorious things have happened — like Jonestown in Guyana, the scene of a mass murder-suicide, or the execution sites of Cambodia’s Killing Fields. The contemporary rise of dark tourism is also fodder for social media.
For a new generation of travelers, these grim destinations double as compelling online content, transforming the past into curated performances for Instagram and Facebook feeds. From true crimes to terror: When is ‘dark tourism’ too dark? But some of those making the journeys say there are other reasons behind their unusual itineraries.
“For me, the main motivation to visit places that are often considered dangerous — such as Syria, Libya or Sudan — is largely connected to my interest in history,” says Arnaud Kirby, an avid traveler from Luxembourg. Many of these countries have incredibly rich and complex historical backgrounds, and being able to see those places in person gives a completely different perspective compared to simply reading about them. Cultural curiosity and the desire to explore less-traveled destinations are also factors, he says.
“Being somewhere where there are very few tourists creates a completely different atmosphere. It allows for more authentic interactions with local people and a more genuine experience of the country.” One of his latest journeys brought him to Chad, a central African nation that sees only a handful of tourists each year. Both the US Department of State and British Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office advise against all travel there, citing the threat of terrorism and civil unrest, as well as crime, kidnapping and unexploded ordnance.
Yet Kirby encountered no such difficulties while visiting the capital city, N’Djamena, and Zakouma National Park. “Chad was an amazing experience,” he recalls. “What really stood out to me was how friendly the people were.
The locals were incredibly kind and welcoming.” But the real surprise was the wildlife at Zakouma. “The animals clearly weren’t very used to vehicles. Instead of ignoring the cars like they often do in more visited parks, they seemed curious.
I remember one moment in particular when a lone elephant walked right up to our vehicle and put his trunk on the car, almost as if he was trying to understand what it was.” Globetrotting British traveler Will Aswell, who asked to use a pseudonym over concerns about future travel permissions, says he never felt unsafe visiting the likes of Iran, North Korea, Ukraine and Iraq. “You’re much more likely to be attacked in a big US city than you are in any obscure authoritarian country,” he explains. “The murder rates show this over and over again.” According to Aswell, “there’s definitely an attraction to understand what’s behind many of the news stories, but also to disagree with a lot of the dehumanizing representations of countries that might have a different perspective than the UK and the US.” “For example, realizing the depth of kindness and hospitality in the Islamic world, having been told my whole life how bad and evil these countries are, was something that resonated deeply with me.
Travel is about understanding and experiencing differences and allowing yourself to be impacted and changed by it.” That’s not to say there isn’t danger. For Aswell, it was a 2025 trip through violence-plagued Sinaloa state in Mexico, where he says he was hauled off a bus at gunpoint in the middle of the night by members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. “I was stupid to be traveling at night,” he says, adding that he had to relinquish a “lot of money” to obtain his release.
On small group trips to both Syria and Afghanistan, Kirby’s guides were constantly adjusting the itineraries to account for military activity and terrorist threats. As a guide for Lupine Travel, a British company that organizes trips to many offbeat and potentially dangerous places, Australian Alex Hobbs is often faced with the prospect of making those difficult decisions. The Western tourists going to Iraq for vacation “Syria, Turkmenistan, Somalia and Iraq are the other ‘dark’ countries that I have led tours through,” he tells CNN Travel.
“While there are challenges and they are unique, in many ways I don’t consider them dark. If you scratch under the surface, you have the opportunity to experience the incredible, interwoven combination of both ancient and modern history. “To add to that, these diverse cultures show incredible resilience and spirit to have survived so much turmoil and are often extraordinarily accommodating.
I have lost count of the number of times that people have invited us to dinner.” Hobbs explains that Lupine conducts extensive research before commencing new tours. This includes establishing local relationships to ensure guides have real-time updates about the stability of a destination and assistance on location. There are always multiple contingencies when operating in dynamic environments.
“I particularly value that Lupine will make the decision to postpone or amend a tour if we are not confident in the security of that destination,” Hobbs adds. “From a personal perspective, I have additional procedures. In the age of digital media, there are various apps and websites that provide very current information in terms of both safety and logistics.” Hobbs says that many of the travelers he guides are knowledgeable and passionate about the history and environment of the areas they visit.
“I don’t see there being any one specific reason that motivates people to do this sort of travel, but rather a combination,” he says. “For me, my number one motivation is adventure. I love the challenge of working in these environments and there is always a feeling of satisfaction when I finally make it to an unusual destination.” It doesn’t always go smoothly.
Earlier this year, Hobbs found himself on the periphery of several dark events. While flying to Mali to guide a Lupine trip, he was grounded in Qatar for several days at the start of the US-Iran war. And right after leading that trip in Mali — which he admits included last-minute itinerary changes sparked by safety concerns — the country experienced a wave of Islamic terrorist attacks.
She set off traveling alone aged 13 and now she’s visited nearly every country Other intrepid travelers may not purposely seek out dangerous places, but visiting them is sometimes part of a much larger goal. In 2024, London resident Hayley Kennedy made history by becoming the first known sight-impaired person to visit all 193 countries in the United Nations. Libya was her last stop, but along the way she also got her passport stamped in North Korea, Iran, Somalia, Myanmar, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
“For me, the goal is to see as much as I can before I totally lose my eyesight,” says Kennedy. “Trying to see new places and experience new things. Every country has something to offer — sometimes you just have to try a little harder to find it!” Kennedy travels alone whenever she can.
“If I can do it by myself without it zapping all my energy, I will generally go solo,” she adds. But in places that are less accessible, she joins a small group or travels with a companion. “I try to raise disability travel awareness,” she says.
“However, I’ve generally found most airlines or public transport authorities have little to no interest in making travel accessible for people with disabilities other than needing a wheelchair.” Out of those 193 nations, Kennedy says she only felt unsafe in the Central African Republic. Wandering the hotel grounds, she was assaulted by someone claiming to be a female military officer. “I was pushed to the ground, shouted at in French and she took my phone.
Eventually I worked out that, despite the uniform, she was a common thief wanting money for handing me my phone back.” The second type of dark tourism— visiting places where notorious events have transpired — is a long way from ticking countries off a bucket list. British author H.E. Sawyer has examined the phenomenon in several books including, “I Am the Dark Tourist: Travels to the Darkest Sites on Earth.” Sawyer says his interest in the topic largely stems from growing up with relatives who survived the Blitz bombing raids on Britain during World War II and later befriending a Holocaust survivor.
He says he also had an early fascination with cemeteries. But it was a visit to post-nuclear accident Chernobyl that inspired his academic interest in the topic. “I started to look at other tourists to see what they were focusing on and what they were saying and reacting to and what they were deciding to photograph,” Sawyer explains.
“There’s also value to be had visiting in person, especially with memorials, where you have an appreciation of the scale, the setting, a 360 view and how other tourists and the general public interact. As an aside, I’m also aware of how memorials are used by governments for social programming.” What it’s like visiting Jonestown in Guyana, the settlement where more than 900 Americans died by murder-suicide Among the dark places that Sawyer has visited are the Welsh village of Aberfan, where scores died when a primary school was buried by coal mining spoil in 1966; the Aokigahara “Sea of Trees” in Japan, a frequent suicide location; and the 1991 wreck of passenger ship Salem Express in the Red Sea, where possibly hundreds of victims are entombed. Sawyer says the only other place he thought was “truly dark” was the basement of Hartheim Castle in Austria, where the Nazis carried out euthanasia on thousands of disabled and mentally ill people before the main Holocaust began.
A dark destination that’s only recently become a tourist attraction is Jonestown in Guyana, where more than 900 followers of Rev. Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple cult took their own lives by drinking flavored water laced with cyanide in 1978. Wanderlust Adventures in Georgetown launched tours to Jonestown in early 2025.
“But prior to that, we were visiting the locals, getting their insights, and you can say their blessing,” says company founder Roselyn Sewcharran. “Because it’s such a sensitive topic to bring up around that area and knowing what they went through and the stigma attached to it, we met with the community.” After landing at the Port Kaituma Airfield — where US Congressman Leo Ryan and others were gunned down by cult members before the mass suicide — visitors have a six-mile drive through the jungle to Jonestown. Sewcharran says the rainforest has taken over much of the site other than a couple of old trucks, rusted machinery and a refrigerator.
In addition to explaining how the massacre and mass suicide unfolded, the guide also relates how the tragedy impacted local residents. “It’s more of an educational cultural experience,” Sewcharran adds. “Many of our visitors have been academics trying to have a deeper understanding of cult psychology.
We also want to get across that while this is an American tragedy, we also want to give the Guyanese perspective. We want to share that story and how it affected us as well.”
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