Intelligent Life | The joy of travel in trouble spots

Great Article. Travelling in any place with a war that doesn't involve your country may not be terrible, after all...

Because only the most frightening footage makes the evening news, we have grown up with the impression that if you visit a country that is at war, you will immediately be blasted to shreds. In fact, the fighting in most warring nations is restricted to certain areas, leaving others more or less safe, but utterly free of other tourists. If you know what you are doing, and find out where the worst fighting is, tourism in war zones may be no more dangerous than, say, parachute-jumping.

Consider Congo. Until 2003 there was a full-scale war on, but the fighting is now sporadic, and most places are peaceful most of the time. The attractions, meanwhile, are legion. The view from the Hotel Orchid in Bukavu, an eastern town, is the most beautiful your correspondent has seen anywhere—as spectacular as Victoria Falls, as soothing as a Zen garden. Pink bougainvillaea frame a steep green slope down to the vast and tranquil Lake Kivu, where wooden pirogues drift slowly in search of fish. A cool beer, a sunset and the comforting knowledge that the phones are down so the office can’t reach you—it’s hard to top.

Intelligent Life | The joy of travel in trouble spots