"Do Not Travel" Countries for U.S. Citizens

Not even kalbahamut dares to travel to any of these countries! XD (According to his country map, anyway)

Loads to see in Iraq, Iran and Syria. If they manage to calm down over there I'm sure plenty will visit.

Iran is quite calm as far as tourism goes, it's just US government stirring up the pot especially lately.

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.

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.

That one American tourist got arrested and tortured for stealing a propaganda poster. Massive red flag there alone regarding their tourism.

hi

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.

Socotra is a lovely island off the coast of Yemen.

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.

Surprised that Venezuela isn't here.

And Cameroon!

Well, it is now. Sadly.

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.

Chuck Norris can go anywhere Chuck Norris wants.

post date: december 5th, 2018

Surprised Cameroon is not on the list tbh. Seeing as they’re in the middle of a genocidal civil war...

And Trump wonders why there aren't more immigrants from Norway...

Missed Libya and CAR :( .... : )

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.

Somalia's not so bad. As long as you're Somali, and you stay with your tribe, and avoid Al Shabaab, and drones, and hyenas, and malaria...

Probably only here because of all the poverty, and pirates, and the thirty-year-plus civil war.

Yeah Somalia is fine, except for the all the poor pirates fighting a war in the desert.

I never want to go back

None of these countries are on the list randomly. I think you might be confusing the Central African Republic with Luxembourg. Common mistake.

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...

@quiantaene is this sarcasm?

I'm guessing people in the CAR have better things to do than quiz sites. Half their adult population is illiterate.

Pretty much any central African republic is dangerous.

Chad, Gabon, Sao Tome and Principe, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti are exceptions.

Not to be rude but....almost none of these are "central" São Tomé and Principe is literally an island.

Plus Ethiopia has a brutal civil war going on, albeit only in certain regions.

How are Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Djibouti part of Central Africa? They are all solidly East African.

Besides, there was an Eritrea-Ethiopia war....

+ Chad is very unstable, and Equatorial Guinea has a dictatorship

Why Haiti? Did I miss anything?

Was wondering the same thing. I just looked it up and apparently there have been massive dangerous protests going on and a lot of violent crime.

Because it's still Haiti.

- someone from dominican republic

I got Iran, Iraq and North Korea. I'm British so I don't even know what this is!

I certainly wouldn't recommend going to the Sentinel Islands We've seen how that works out.

Well, they always send out a welcoming committee before you even get ashore.

It's worth mentioning that the Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Sinaloa, Colima, Guerrero, and Michoacan are also listed as "Do Not Go" areas.

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:

Level 1: Exercise Normal Precautions

Level 2: Exercise Increased Caution

Level 3: Reconsider Travel

and Level 4, the highest, Do Not Travel

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.

btw Sudan is at Level 4 now, not just South Sudan.

What's up with Haiti???????

Congratulations on 1 million quizzes WolfCam.

I believe it’s quiz takes.

The most reset quiz there is.

For my money Somali women are the most beautiful in Africa. Ethiopia might be a close second. And then those of the NW Mediterranean coast.

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.

Didn't expect Mali - probably because of terrorist groups

Good quiz. Missed Venezuela only

Probably because of the corona

I bet if you updated it right now, the list would have about half the world's countries on it

Burkina Faso isn't there

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?

1 year has passed since this quiz has last been updated - could you make an update?

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.

oops Azerbaijan*... not Armenia.

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.

COVID comes to call... the 'do not travel' list explodes...

Level 1 : 0 countries

Level 2 : 0 countries

Level 3 : 1 country

Level 4 : 195 countries

Oh my

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)

also only 10 are level one, 6 of which are in africa

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).

South Korea was actually moving between Level 1 and 2 for the last few months

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.

Ran out of time so didn't get CAF and Venezuela

Yeah, those are temporary due to COVID-19 though, so if I were to guess this quiz won't be updated until that's over

I would've never got CAR or Mali

Lebanon is one of the safest nations in the Middle East quite frankly. It's roughly on par with Tunisia or Morocco.

Wow. Really was expecting Eritrea and DRC on this list. Mali just doesn't make any sense, though.

Probably due to the extent of the country where problems occur

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)

Can you bump up the time by like at least a solid 15 seconds? That'd be sick

Add way more time, 105 seconds is not enough for most typists to think of 21 countries.

+1 need another minute here at least

The French version of this quiz is quite similar.

Shocked Australia's not on this list.

Two words: drop bears.

I think you're missing a few hundred animals here.

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.

I thought Pakistan is also on this list but i was wrong

It was changed in 2021 from Level 4 to Level 3.

Their military did a good job in eradicating a lot of the extremists in the northern tribal areas.

Huh, I was expecting Sri Lanka.

Why Tonga and Belarus?

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?

Why Papua New Guinea?

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/papua-new-guinea-travel-advisory.html

PNG has a long history of tribal violence that even preceded European contact.

Papua New Guinea is now level 3.

Can you please nominate my quiz? Thank you

It's sad to see how this list has grown.

Papua New Guinea is level 3 this quiz is WRONG and whoever made it is a FRAUD