Here’s an excerpt from our upcoming book THE VERY BEST AND VERY WORST: TRAVEL

Give us your opinions below. We’ll listen. We promise.

• THE VERY WORST TRAVEL DESTINATIONS

If you want a vacation where you can spend the rest of your life, or what little is expected to be left of it, call Travelocity and book a quickie to any of the following. You’re sure to be welcomed with AK-47s or Uzis, a high probability of rape and robbery, and rebels who think nothing of killing tourists in return for the chance to WAVE to mom on the nightly news.

Think of these not as vacation destinations, but vacation dead ends.

Baghdad, Iraq
Darfur, Sudan
Brazzaville, Congo
Tbilisi, Georgi (former USSR)
Kabul, Afghanistan
Mogadishu, Somalia
Islamabad, Pakistan
Bujumbura, Burundi
Abidjan, Ivory Coast
Monrovia, Liberia
Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

• THE VERY BEST TRAVEL DESTINATIONS

If having a relaxing and enjoyable time is more your speed, consider these getaways. This is where you want to go for serious romantic weekends, screw-the-office time off, a lot of excitement, or someplace to rejigger your brain cells.

And if you want to get really lost, wait till you see our island resort list.

Florence, Italy
Melbourne, Australia
New York, New York
Bangkok, Thailand
Paris, France
Barcelona, Spain
Prague, Czech Republic
Hong Kong, China
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Bruges, Belgium
Vancouver, British Columbia

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow mindedness . . . Broad, wholesome, charitable views of man and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one’s little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” Mark Twain