Dark Tourism is the type of tourism that leads you to places historically associated with death and tragedy. Maybe not what you’d immediately think of for your next vacation, but something that happens to be right up my alley, as I’ve always been interested in darker and … less conventional subject matter.

Before I get into my list, I do want to note that yes, this type of tourism can be a bit problematic. I don’t like the idea of fetishizing a place for a horrible historical event that took place there, but at the same time I know that it’s a major factor in my desire to visit certain places. I am a graduate in history, with my areas of study being World War II, the Holocaust, and the early Cold War. In this regard, visiting sites associated with historical tragedies is a way of making the things that I have studied tangible, of grounding the texts I have read and the papers I have written in reality. I think that living in a country as “young” as Canada, and not having many places of tangible history or tragedy compared to culturally older continents such as Europe means that we lack a certain perspective on historical events including tragedies. I guess I’d like to think that I’m different than those who fetishize places because I want to visit for the right reasons, but at the end of the day, I am still fetishizing them a bit, in my own sense. Now, on to the list!

Hiroshima, Japan // Hiroshima Peace Park and Museum

I really want to visit Hiroshima, and the Peace Park and Memorial Museum located there. I’ve almost always been extremely passionate about history, but I can pinpoint exactly when it began: in sixth grade, my English class read Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. I had no prior knowledge to the atomic bombings, or really much knowledge of World War II in general, and this whole idea of “this really happened” kind of blew my mind. I remember going home and trying to learn as much as possible about the atomic bombings, and WWII, and my love of history grew from there. Because of this, the nuclear bombing of Japan remains a very important piece of history to me both as a focus of study and as a point of personal value.

Oświęcim, Poland // Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp

Probably the most obvious destination for “dark tourism”, and for me to visit, would be the concentration camps of World War II, particularly the Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp. A large portion of my studies in history focused around the Holocaust, and to visit this seminal location and to be confronted with the reality of what I have only experienced through research is something I really want to do. I know that when I study cruel elements of human history, I have to remove myself from the “reality” of it and look at it purely academically or else get extremely sad (as proven by my capacity to consistently cry in a particular section of the WWI exhibit of the Canadian War Museum), so I imagine that this visit would be more difficult than I would anticipate. Still, it’s such an important place on this list and somewhere I hope to visit.

Pripyat, Ukraine // Chernobyl

I’ve always had a huge interest in post-apocalyptic fiction, Cold War history, and the aesthetic of abandoned areas (easily explaining my love of the Fallout games). One of the only places in the world where a post-nuclear apocalypse town exists is the town of Pripyat, Ukraine – the site of the Chernobyl Disaster of 1986. Radiation is still present in the area, but poses a minimal risk to visitors due to the amount of time that’s passed since the incident. Tours are available for curious individuals such as myself throughout the abandoned city, with attractions such as the decrepit Azure Swimming Pool (made semi-famous by the Call of Duty franchise – video games in general looove Pripyat), and the remains of the Pripyat Amusement Park. The aesthetic of the Soviet Bloc architecture contributes to this surreal seeming urban landscape, and I would love to explore it.

St Petersburg, Russia

Probably the least “dark tourism” destination on this list is St Petersburg in Russia. I would love to visit many cities in Russia as I believe it has some of the most beautiful architecture in the world, but St Petersburg draws my attention in particular as being the location of the Siege of Leningrad (the city’s old name) in 1941. Again with the idea of grounding my studies and research in reality, one of my most prized research papers was on the roles that women played during the four-year blockade of the city. The city was awarded “Hero-City” status after the war and I would love to visit the commemorative obelisk that represents the siege that I spent so much time with in my studies, as well as all the other historical monuments and buildings throughout the city.

Pyongyang, The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea // “North Korea”

My last destination on this list might be a weird choice for some, and one of the more problematic places on my travel bucket list: North Korea. I’ve always been fascinated by the “Hermit Kingdom” and its isolation from the rest of the world, its retention of mid-century communist aesthetic, and its cult of personality surrounding the Kim family. Travel to the country is highly curated to give images of prosperity and satisfaction, and is not at all a proper representation of life in the country. There are many eye-opening films about visits to the country, both documentaries about the country’s unique culture and lifestyle made by professional teams, and travel vlogs made by actual tourists. I would love to visit this completely unique and perplexing country, but it is difficult to grapple with the knowledge that in visiting the country, one is partially funding the government that causes so many problems for its civilians. It’s one of the most problematic travel destinations in the world, let alone on this list, and it’s difficult to reconcile my desire to visit the country myself with the knowledge of the hardship that its citizens have to live with. I doubt that I will ever visit Pyongyang, but should I visit, I intend to offset my visit with a donation to Liberty in North Korea (LiNK), which works to assist in the escape and resettlement of refugees fleeing North Korea.

This list doesn’t include some of the more macabre places I’d like to visit (like the Paris Catacombs) which might make it onto a Dream Travel List around Halloween. Are you interested in “dark tourism” at all, and if so, what’s on your list?