Top Vacations Off-Limits to Americans

Here are top spots for an exotic foreign trip—except that Washington has labeled them off-limits or far too dangerous. Foreign Policy lists five:

• Mt. Kumgang is North Korea's "unspoiled spiritual retreat," but Americans will be quarantined by Pyongyang if they can even get in.

• Baracoa, Cuba, near where Colombus landed in 1492, boasts beaches and archaeological treasures. But Americans still can't visit—apparently due to a man named Castro.
• Mogadishu's beaches offer brilliant sand and coral reefs, "but a good day in Somalia is the worst day of your life almost anywhere else," Foreign Policy reports.
• The ruins of Persepolis date from 517 BC, but Iran's regime makes visas difficult and keeps most Americans on a tight leash.
• Mandalay is the jewel of Burma, and a bargain for foreigners—except the military junta doesn't want them around.

(More Mogadishu stories.)