Jaunted

Adventure Travel

Dear Leader's Discount Tours

March 10, 2006 at 11:40 AM | 0 Comments

We've already established that former dictatorial regimes are the new hotness. Current ones, though, are the new new hotness. The Wall Street Journal reports that North Korea has given the OK to American tourists for the upcoming Mass Games that will run from August to October. Several travel agencies have stepped up to offer package tours to the last Stalinist regime on earth.

Luxury travel it's not. For about $5,000, 250 visitors will get a package deal that includes an eight-day tour of the country. There are no guarantees of anything else. North Korea can pull the visas at any time, and they have done so once before, two years ago. Hotels may not have hot water, and the food is mediocre.

Luckily, Americans won't go without all of the creature comforts of home. The U.S. State Department warns that hotel rooms and phones may be bugged, bags may be searched, and cellphones confiscated. We, for one, would never want to travel somewhere that the government could tap phones and search bags with impunity.

[Image via boobootoo2/Flickr]

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