When I visited Beirut last November, most of my friends and family thought I was reckless, even crazy. Because of decades of war and assassinations, Lebanon is thought to be one of those places visited only by war journalists, soldiers and aid workers. That’s wrong, of course. Beirut still retains its “Paris of the Middle East” mystique and manages to attract tourists, even as the country remains on edge.

Travel to unstable nations isn’t that unusual. We’ve noted travelers’ interest in Afghanistan and their revolts against typically overscripted guidebook travel. Now many recovering war zones, repressed nations and chronic conflict areas—think Rwanda, Turkmenistan and even North Korea—are trying to woo adventurous travelers by touting their natural beauty, unusual cultures and even a taste of their infamous conflicts. For example, those going on Rwanda’s mountain-gorilla tours stop at sites where hundreds of thousands of Tutsis were murdered by Hutus in 1994.

These are travelers who want an experience rather than a vacation and who want to challenge themselves both physically and emotionally, writes longtime conflict journalist Kit R. Sloane in a recent issue of Portfolio. Paul Lukacs, a Los Angeles entertainment lawyer who has been to Turkmenistan, Sri Lanka and North Korea, told Sloane: “When I travel, I want to be far away from my world, to see how differently other people live, to learn what traits are human constants and which ones are cultural color.”

I am not as well-journeyed as Lukacs, but I agree wholeheartedly with his view on travel. I went to Beirut not to dance on tables in nightclubs (I hate doing that even here in Greece), but to get a human sense of a city I have only read about in war dispatches. I met little girls in bunny-ear headbands hugging posters of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. I befriended a Palestinian accountant who worked in a beautiful crafts store and who was tired of having to move his young children after the frequent bombings in the southern suburbs. And I hitched a ride from a trilingual college student who said he gassed up his BMW every time Nasrallah gave a speech. “Everything closes and we still have to get around, war or no war,” he said, a little wearily. “We still have to be practical.”

I hope to go back soon.

Related on World Hum:
* Tourists, ‘Diamante-Encrusted Bikinis’ Return to Lebanon’s Beach Resorts
* Unlocking Beirut

Photo of Martyr’s Square in Beirut by Joanna Kakissis.