Depressing that Iran is (currently) the most-guessed answer when it's probably quieter than most of the countries on the list, not to mention several countries not on this list.
I agree. Who is really interested in history, especially Roman or Persian or Mesopotamian, should absolutely go there when peace reigns again. If peace reigns again. And if the monuments are not destroyed by then.
I knew a couple of archaeologists who worked in Syria before the war; they loved it there and were saddened to see so much of its heritage lost. The way they talked about it, I would have liked to have gone there, too.
The dangers for Americans traveling in Iran are not the same as those in Syria or South Sudan or Afghanistan, all ravaged by war. Rather the danger is arbitrary arrest and detention, as advised by the U.S. state department. Americans who run into difficulty in Iran have to depend on the Swiss government to intervene as the U.S. does not maintain diplomatic relations with Iran, limiting your recourse if there is trouble of any kind.
I tried to get to Iran. Didn't get he visa, but I would have loved to have gone.
I've also considered going to work in Iraq, as I have many friends who have made a lot of money there. And I had plans to travel to Syria before the civil war started I think in 2010... still wish I had gone. Not much left anymore. I wouldn't mind going to Libya. And North Korea I would probably pass on though I've heard trips there are pretty interesting. The rest... yeah I'll skip those.
Strange, North Korea is one place I would love to go to. Though the fact you would be paying to support a despotic dictatorship that routinely tortures its own people to death, does put me off actually going.
It would be as close as we can get to actually going back in time though and it is a pretty unique country.
I think I would be extremely annoyed by the fact that I wasn't allowed to interact with any locals that were not pre-approved, that all experiences were scripted and pre-planned with no deviations from the itinerary permitted, that I'd have government agents looking through my photos determining which I was allowed to keep. It's just a morbid very expensive puppet show they put on for tourists. I know it would be a unique experience but I also think it would be horrible. And that's to say nothing of the fact that your chances of ended up in a forced labor camp are pretty high.
Even though I would travel to some of these places I think the list is pretty reasonable with the exception of Iran. Though I know it is dangerous (mostly because the government is likely to incarcerate you for spying), compared to other countries on the list it doesn't really seem to fit. I know so many people who have visited Iran and had a lovely time doing so.
While North Korea definitely should be on the list, I don't think it fits with the rest of the list at all. The others are because of war, terrorism, lawlessnes/crime - and I think North Korea is probably one of the safest countries in the world considering terrorism/crime. While there is the risk of being locked up I doubt it's any problem if you stay very respectful and don't break the rules. Especially if you aren't American/South Korean/Japanese I would think.
Iran however I don't think fits the list at all. From what I know it's pretty stable and safe, at least if you stay in tourist areas. Probably only on the list because of US relations.
Kal, your reasons against going to N. Korea are the things which happened to my parents when they visited the Soviet Union in the 1970s. They weren't allowed to interact with locals and whenever their group went to a restaurant to eat, their guide went ahead of them and told everyone to leave their tables while the group ate. My mom said she could hardly eat, being watched by all those people standing along the walls waiting for the tourists to finish their meals so they could return to their own lunches. One of the men in the group was a smoker and once he forgot the rules and dropped a cigarette butt on the ground. Immediately a man materialized from nowhere and began tearing it apart as though he was looking for a secret message or something. It brought home to their group that they were always being watched. Still, my folks always said it was the best trip of their lives and there's always hope that N.Korea will someday be more tourist-friendly.
The best way to somehow see a different side of North Korea is to work with them, rather than just looking around. While it's not an option available to many people, there are some wonderful accounts that give also a glimpse behind the scenes: e.g. Guy Delisle's graphic novel Pyongyang (also translated to English) or Liberation Day, the documentary about Laibach's concert in North Korea.
Perhaps we can all go to Pyongyang when we unite into Korea again :) (I'm South Korean BTW but plz call me Korean cuz in South Korea, Japan, and France North korea doesn't exist XD)
Rlly I heard North Korea just has a ruthless leader poor people and even the Bible got banned. The hairstyles consist of 28 (18 for the women and ten for the men) but Kim’s isn’t even on the list. No social media no YouTube no TikTok no shows (how are they surviving without tv shows like spongebob) and no video games. No leaving your tour guides and forced to stay for the rest of ur life if u were born there. Wow. Such a sad country.
Any interest I have in visiting Yemen is mostly from the fact that all the Yemenis I met while I was living in Saudi Arabia were all such friendly people. But I still don't think I would feel safe going right now. Socotra might be okay as it's fairly isolated.
I'd consider going there for work but I don't think I'd want to live there and I know I wouldn't make much money. I'd mostly be interested in going as a tourist.
Yes and no. There are direct flights now. If you're creative enough, you can get a license, which is not granted for tourism. Without it, you still have to detour to another country.
You shouldn't be so harsh. Of course, CAR is not a safe place. But don't say things like that. It could hurt people that are on JetPunk and are from CAR. I'm not trying to be mean...
Not random: the State Department warns against travel to the Central African Republic due to high crime and great civil unrest. Sadly, it is among the least safe places on the planet.
The countries on this list aren't necessarily forbidden to US tourists it's just that the State Department advises American citizens to not travel to them for any reason. That could be due to high levels of crime, social unrest, kidnapping, civil war, terrorism, breakdown in social services, or when the government of the country has a habit of detaining American tourists without good cause. So the countries are deemed not safe to travel to. There are other levels of travel advisories, which are:
I think they all fit in to one of the four unless the State Department hasn't bothered making a page about them. Maybe some places like the Vatican or Tuvalu?
Small countries like Monaco and The Vatican are just lumped into bigger countries, France and Italy respectively. Tuvalu might be lumped into Australia, but I'm not sure.
It is safe to travel to Somaliland, but not Somalia. It is sad that they're not internationally recognized, but I guess the reasons for is respectable.
I know the instructions say "As of October 14, 2019," but the source you used has since been updated (on November 12, 2019) adding Bolivia to the list.
This quiz is going to be very hard if its annual update is soon. The number of Level 4 countries has vastly increased thanks to COVID-19. Maybe exclude Level 4 countries whose only reason is COVID-19, or format the list into COVID and non-COVID columns, maybe?
I considered it, but because of COVID-19, almost every country is currently on the do not travel list, so until things calm down, I won't update the quiz.
I think I would sooner travel to Venezuela right now than Niger. Though I know there's a risk of kidnapping and a fairly severe breakdown in government services in the former. Niger doesn't seem much safer to me than Mali, Libya, or South Sudan. Though it's still not one of the 30 countries currently on the Do Not Travel list at the State Department website. Meanwhile, Georgia is. Thinking that this was crazy and maybe due to the outbreak of violence with Armenia I looked up why and it's actually due to COVID. Though that still seems odd to me considering the other 160 or so countries that are not on the do not travel list. Maybe it's a combination of the two.
And given all of the above I just commented, even though the complete list is only 30 countries and far from every country, it would still make for a very difficult quiz as many of those on the list seem somewhat random. Probably best to wait until next year to update.
the source you use (https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories.html/) added like 100 more countries
uzbekistan samoa sudan russia north korea nicaragua malaysia libya ireland iran fiji burkina faso belarus afghanistan ethiopia haiti sri lanka colombia trinidad nepal egypt png sao tome tajikistan turkmenistan syria somalia saudi arabia mali maldives kuwait iraq georgia drc czechia croatia chile belgium yemen vanuatu uruguay tuvalu tonga tanzania sweden suriname south sudan solomon islands slovenia seychelles roc paraguay pakistan netherlands nauru namibia mongolia madagascar lithuania lesotho latvia kiribati jamaica guinea guinea bissau estonia eritrea dominican republic cuba costa rica comoros car ivory coast myanmar brazil bolivia bangladesh bahrain argentina and algeria are all class 4 now (probably cause covid)
Lol, the State Department is officially pathetic. They are still rating Sweden as a Level 4. There are virtually no Covid cases or deaths in Sweden, nor is Sweden imposing any large scale restrictions that would affect tourists. This is just an example. There are dozens of other countries marked as Level 4 for absolutely no reason. This is cowardice, plain and simple. We'll update the quiz if the State Department ever gets their heads out of their butts.
This has now reached peak idiocy. Senegal is currently in level 1 (safest) while Singapore is in level 4 (least safe). The State Department has gone full clown.
You are much more likely to die from COVID than you are from... mongoose attacks or whatever you're worried about in Senegal. Also much more likely to die from this than violent crime. There are about 400-500k homicides worldwide every year. Last year there were 5 million worldwide COVID deaths. But based on several things QM has posted I get the sense that wherever he turns for news has some interest in downplaying the latter.
I think Quizmaster is referring, in large parts, to vaccination rates. Senegal has vaccinated 8% of its population whereas Singapore has vaccinated 82% of its population. While I agree that COVID remains a pretty big threat and that unvaccinated people should not under any circumstance be traveling abroad, I definitely think that traveling in a mostly vaccinated place like Singapore at this point is safer than traveling in a mostly unvaccinated place like Senegal (especially since the former has some of the world's best healthcare and the latter I'm guessing has pretty poor healthcare).
Yes, they actually put New Zealand on 'do not travel' because of Covid, at a time when New Zealand was Covid-free and there was a massive outbreak in the USA.
I don't know if Iran should be on this list (I know you can't choose what the US does, I'm just saying). If you ever have been to Isfahan you'll know what I mean.
The State Department has finally stopped clowning itself so we updated the quiz. Before, they had countries like Sweden on the list because of Covid, even though Sweden's covid risk was much lower than the United States.
Americans, like most people, see dangerous things from other countries as inherently more dangerous than dangerous things from their own country. Even when this is objectively false.
Tonga had a devastating volcano eruption and the country infrastructure is not quite functioning. It's probably closed for tourism anyway, but it's not so much being dangerous but you may not be able to get help if you need it. (Kind of similar with Iran, of course it's generally safe to travel, but if something goes wrong there's little US govt can do for you, plus arbitrary detentions when it's politically convenient)
I was in Central African Republic a couple months ago to see the gorillas and nothing bad happened to me. The Russian mercenaries have inflicted major casualties on the rebel groups there. I was told by the lodge manager that they're the reason the civil war ended in that country.
Also I know Myanmar was killing the Rohingyas but why would Americans not of South Asian descent be in enough danger for the US to tell them not to go there?
Tonga had a volcano eruption earlier this year, so its probably more a of "plz don't go, they're recovering and there aren't a ton a services if some thing goes wrong". Belarus because of their involvement in the Russia-Ukraine war and what happened with than Ryanair flight.
I am totally ignorant when it comes to Papua New Guinea. I always just thought of it as a beautiful, tropical place with Birds of Paradise. Had no idea it was known to be so dangerous. Time to go down that rabbit hole, I guess.
Really enjoyed this, I used to go onto the Foreign Office website at my old job when I was bored to see which countries had areas (or were fully) red, so that travel was not advised.
I'd be interested to see what differences there were with a UK list, slightly fewer countries I imagine.
I've also considered going to work in Iraq, as I have many friends who have made a lot of money there. And I had plans to travel to Syria before the civil war started I think in 2010... still wish I had gone. Not much left anymore. I wouldn't mind going to Libya. And North Korea I would probably pass on though I've heard trips there are pretty interesting. The rest... yeah I'll skip those.
It would be as close as we can get to actually going back in time though and it is a pretty unique country.
Even though I would travel to some of these places I think the list is pretty reasonable with the exception of Iran. Though I know it is dangerous (mostly because the government is likely to incarcerate you for spying), compared to other countries on the list it doesn't really seem to fit. I know so many people who have visited Iran and had a lovely time doing so.
Iran however I don't think fits the list at all. From what I know it's pretty stable and safe, at least if you stay in tourist areas. Probably only on the list because of US relations.
Yeah Somalia is fine, except for the all the poor pirates fighting a war in the desert.
Level 1: Exercise Normal Precautions
Level 2: Exercise Increased Caution
Level 3: Reconsider Travel
and Level 4, the highest, Do Not Travel
Level 1 : 0 countries
Level 2 : 0 countries
Level 3 : 1 country
Level 4 : 195 countries
uzbekistan samoa sudan russia north korea nicaragua malaysia libya ireland iran fiji burkina faso belarus afghanistan ethiopia haiti sri lanka colombia trinidad nepal egypt png sao tome tajikistan turkmenistan syria somalia saudi arabia mali maldives kuwait iraq georgia drc czechia croatia chile belgium yemen vanuatu uruguay tuvalu tonga tanzania sweden suriname south sudan solomon islands slovenia seychelles roc paraguay pakistan netherlands nauru namibia mongolia madagascar lithuania lesotho latvia kiribati jamaica guinea guinea bissau estonia eritrea dominican republic cuba costa rica comoros car ivory coast myanmar brazil bolivia bangladesh bahrain argentina and algeria are all class 4 now (probably cause covid)
Two words: drop bears.
Also I know Myanmar was killing the Rohingyas but why would Americans not of South Asian descent be in enough danger for the US to tell them not to go there?
I'd be interested to see what differences there were with a UK list, slightly fewer countries I imagine.