By Chris Schalkx

On the U.S. State Department's Travel Advisories Map, the cobblestone lanes of Damascus, the gold-domed cathedrals of southern Ukraine and the lively fish markets of Mogadishu, Somalia, all carry the most severe warning: a red Level-4 "Do Not Travel." All are officially no-go zones. For Christian Mischler, though, they have the trappings of an ideal vacation.

Over the past decade, the Swiss entrepreneur has visited several of the places that many governments tell their citizens to avoid. He attributes the habit to a deep curiosity. "I want to see the reality behind the headlines," said Mischler, 43. "These countries are often painted as places of war and chaos in the news, but their cultures remain vibrant, and there are layers of history and landscapes you can't grasp from afar."

That doesn't mean Mischler won't run into trouble. He's dodged snipers in rebel-held territory in Syria and been escorted by an armed convoy in Somalia. More than once, he's had tense encounters with heavily armed border guards. But he's also tried cold noodles at a restaurant in Pyongyang, toured mosques in Baghdad and recently drove a rental car through Ukraine without incident. Yemen and Afghanistan are next.

In recent years, such risky trips -- traditionally the domain of war correspondents and extreme adventurers -- have trickled into the mainstream. Untamed Borders, a London-based operator that guides tours in Afghanistan, Libya and the Central African Republic, has seen bookings grow steadily over the past few years.

"There's an addictive thrill in visiting places that aren't usually seen through the prism of tourism," said James Willcox, who founded the company in 2007. Take the mud-brick high-rises of Shibam in Yemen, he said: "You're looking at a living Unesco site much as it has been for centuries, in which modern tourism hasn't yet made a mark."

These destinations also make for easy social media bait. On YouTube, videos with titles such as "Inside Afghanistan in 2025 (World's Most Dangerous Country)" and "100 Hours in Mogadishu, Somalia (Intense)" rack up hundreds of thousands of views, while TikTok and Instagram are awash with vloggers filming themselves in Aleppo and Kabul.

American flight attendant Morgan Painter Hatch has been to such places as Russia, Niger and South Sudan in 20 years of off-duty travels. She's observed how social media portrays these risky destinations she's seen firsthand. "For many content creators, it's become a moneymaker," she said. "The more 'extreme' a destination looks, the more clicks it gets."

According to Hatch, some creators either sensationalize risk or downplay it, skipping over the partners, guides and security details that make the trips possible. "It becomes about collecting passport stamps and bragging rights," she said. "Not about connecting with a place or its people."

While travel warnings aren't hard rules -- Americans with the right paperwork can still enter countries with the "Do Not Travel" designation -- they do carry significant weight. "Travelers shouldn't take [the warnings] lightly," said Dan Richards, CEO of Global Rescue, a travel risk-management and crisis response company. He explains that the analysts who devise those ratings factor in everything from crime statistics to terror threats and natural disaster patterns.

"[These warnings] are designed for the general public, not just seasoned travelers, which makes them often appear conservative," Richards said, cautioning that travelers who brush them off do so at their own peril. "In some cases, traveling against them could affect consular support, and some insurers won't cover destinations under high-level warnings."

Mischler, who finds the travel advisories too conservative, leans on local knowledge when traveling. "It's about staying low-profile, not moving around at night, and trusting locals who know the terrain," he said. He also monitors potentially risky developments with apps like Liveuamap, which tracks clashes, protests and weapon deployments in conflict zones. "The goal is not to test the limits of safety," he said. "But to minimize exposure."

Tour operators take an even more cautious approach. "Before we launch a trip, we spend months -- sometimes years -- building relationships with local guides, operators and communities," said Rik Binks, founder of Dutch tour operator CultureRoad Travel, which arranges trips to countries like Venezuela (Level 4) and Niger (Level 3). "These are the people who know the day-to-day situation, and are the best barometer of what is -- and isn't -- safe."

And when things go sideways, backup plans are critical. After skirmishes between India and Pakistan closed down airspace in May this year, Untamed Borders had to reroute clients, stranded in Pakistan, to Afghanistan via the Khyber Pass. But you can't avoid some dangers with a mere detour. In January, a British couple riding a motorbike across Iran were arrested on espionage charges, precipitating a standoff far beyond any traveler or tour company's control.

Even for the boldest tour companies, some places remain off-limits. "We won't take guests to active conflict zones," said Willcox. "We stopped our trips to Sudan during the civil war, and avoid taking big groups to areas that experienced recent trauma, like Mosul in Iraq, where visits could feel voyeuristic."

Mischler says he realizes that some might view his travels as little more than thrill-seeking. But he sees the appeal of these trips not in bragging rights but in the small, everyday exchanges that strip away any presumptions he might have. "When you share tea with a hotel owner in Odessa or when a market vendor in Aleppo presses cookies into your hands as a token of thanks for visiting his country, you're reminded that, behind the warnings and alarming news, most people are simply kind, and glad you came."

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 19, 2025 19:00 ET (23:00 GMT)

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