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Does staying in a 5 star hotel with 3 full course meals for under $100 a day pique your interest? If you’re the adventurous type – there is nothing like getting a great vacation deal in a so-called  ‘trouble spot.’ The average tourist picks up the New York Times or the London Times, reads a single alarming headline about a country or region they were considering as a vacation destination and says, “Well I guess we’ll be changing our summer plans.” But if you are willing to go beyond the headlines, there are a host of bargains that can be had. Here are some great values in "troubled spots".
It doesn’t even matter if the story has nothing to do with the country that made their short list. If there’s a civil war in Nicaragua; people get worried about traveling to Costa Rica. And it’s not just conflicts; a natural disaster in one country can kill tourism in neighboring countries as happened after the Tsunami hit.
One of the great ‘value’ destinations I recommend is Tunis, a beautiful cosmopolitan country on the North Coast of Africa where almost everybody speaks decent French. But on account of the civil strife in Algeria, it doesn’t get its fair share of tourist traffic which helps explain why it’s dirt cheap. You can travel through Western Turkey even when the army and the Kurds are engaged in sporadic skirmishes on the border with Iraq. It’s as safe as a drive down the Oregon Coast and your money goes a long way.
It’s ridiculous when you consider putting the shoe on the other foot. If a German tourist gets killed in Los Angeles in an outbreak of gang violence, do Germans start cancelling their trips to New York. If there's unrest in Northern Ireland, do people cancel their trip to London? It’s the same country and culture, right? Well, these pervasive misperceptions and irrational anxieties can keep your wallet fat after booking an ultra luxury vacation on the cheap.
Let’s take a country that I am very familiar with, Egypt. Egypt has had its share of problems. After a few unfortunate incidents in the late nineties, many tourists avoided the country like the plague. And even though Baghdad is nearly a thousand miles from Cairo, the war in Iraq dealt a devastating blow to the Egyptian tourist industry. And every time there’s a war in Lebanon or strife in Gaza, the price of a 5 star hotel room in Sharm El Sheikh takes a dive. These days however, Egypt is a favorite destination of almost 10 million tourists – many of them repeat visitors.
Never heard of Sharm? Well, it’s a first class resort and a favorite of divers around the world because it boasts some of the world’s greatest coral reefs. As you can see on the map below it’s located in a spot that looks nearly identical to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. What Cabo San Lucas is to Mexico – Sharm El Sheikh is to Egypt.
Now get this - It’s far safer to travel in Egypt than it is in Mexico or the United States. First off, the murder rate in Mexico is over 300 times higher than Egypt, and that’s not factoring in the latest upsurge in violence. Egypt has a specially trained police force for tourists and the crime rate is one tenth of what it is in the United States.
But even in Mexico the vast majority of violence is related to drugs and concentrated along the border. Just because there are drug wars in Tijuana doesn’t mean you are going to have a problem in Cabo San Lucas. Cabo remains a safe destination and the relatively few incidents typically involve tourists engaged in illegal activities - drugs and prostitution are rampant in Cabo. Even so, tourists will avoid Cabo or Sharm because of trouble elsewhere or an alarming headline about a single incident. It doesn’t seem to register that the chances of getting robbed or murdered in New York or Los Angeles are a hundred times higher than in Sharm. That’s why the average tourist won’t hesitate to book a trip to Los Angeles or New York after a surge in drive by shootings but will rush to cancel their Sharm reservations when a tourist sprains his ankle.
Once the cancellations pour in, “trouble spot” luxury hotel rooms go begging. The hotels react by heavily discounting their surplus space and marketing it in bulk to tour operators around the world. That’s when the Russians and Eastern Europeans show up in Sharm to make up for all those Italian and German cancellations. If the average Russian tourist can stretch his rubles to afford Sharm, think of what you can do with your currency.
Naama Bay, Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt
Even in the absence of negative headlines, Egypt, Mexico, and Tunisia are excellent buys especially when you take into account the luxury of the hotels and the quality of the service. Sharm hotels traditionally offer full board packages that include three lavish buffet meals a day. Once you’re checked in, the only additional expenses you’ll have to spring for is your bar tab and tips. Almost all the hotels follow the Club Med model but are significantly upscale. The Four Seasons Resort and the Conrad at Sharm offer amenities that are first cabin by any standard and there are dozens of other first class hotels that offer comparable fare.
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