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The World's Worst Vacation: Zimbabwe

Amid disease and starvation, a tourism industry clings on

By Jason Farago, Newser Staff

Posted Feb 10, 2009 10:32 AM CST

(Newser) – Zimbabwe's currency is worthless, its population is almost entirely unemployed, and a thuggish government uses intimidation, censorship, and torture to maintain an iron grip on power. Why would any tourist want to go there? For Jocelyn C. Zuckerman, writing in Gourmet, a trip to Robert Mugabe's ruined nation is eye-opening—exposing both the horrors of the regime and the goodness of its citizens, who are trying to maintain a normal life.

In Harare, writes Zuckerman, you can order a cappuccino and send emails back home—but, as a journalist, she risked having her laptop confiscated and placing her contacts in danger of arrest or worse. At a hotel near the Zambezi River, Zuckerman finds employees eager to please and owners valiantly struggling to procure food and fuel. "You may take issue with my having gone," she writes, but for the economic basket case that is Zimbabwe, spending a bit of money there "does more good than harm."

[Images (4)]

[Quotes (2)]

In this Jan. 27, 2009 file photo, a young girl jumps over a pool of water after been turned away from school in Harare, Zimbabwe. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi, file)

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe attends a meeting of heads of state in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Sunday, Feb. 1, 2009. Mugabe has resisted activists' calls to step down and recently forged a government... (AP Photo/Anita Powell)

Cholera patients lie in beds in Budiriro clinic in Harare, Zimbabwe Thursday, Jan. 29, 2009. Zimbabwe's economic meltdown has been worsened by a cholera outbreak which has killed nearly 3,100. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe looks on before the start of the Extra-Ordinary Summit at the Presidential Guest House in Pretoria, South Africa, Monday Jan. 26, 2009. Seven African presidents including... (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

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I realize that my little happy ending won’t have you running out to book a trip to Zimbabwe—and you may even take issue with my having gone in the first place—but here’s a plea to keep the place in mind. - Jocelyn C. Zuckerman

It isn’t all murder and misery, though. One evening I attend a moving dance recital. At night I sit down to dinner with my friend, her husband, and their three children and we exchange silly stories over aromatic curries prepared by their live-in cook.
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The World's Worst Vacation: Zimbabwe