2 weeks - Something like Costa Rica, Belize or Borneo but none of these :)

Actually Mike I am not newbie - just my account was locked and was able to register. Let's just agree we have a difference of opinion. Best of luck to you and your travels.

Time was when a traveller didn't know much or care much about government warnings. Time was when a traveller was looking for adventure rather than a safety first tour.

Adventure by definition requires two things, the unknown and risk. Remove either and it's a tour.

Back in 1971 on my first long term trip I had a few interesting moments. The first was in the Sahara when my buddies and I were arrested for murder. Seems another VW camper was following the same route and they had 3 guys and 1 girl. We were just 3 guys. Since leaving someone in the desert between towns is the same as murdering them, when we checked in at one town we were arrested. Mistaken identity.

The next interesting moment was when we crossed the border into Uganda on the day Idi Amin took power. Also known as 'the butcher of Uganda'. Our time there was uneventful.

Not so a bit farther on when we were stopped by a rebel patrol and taken at gunpoint down a road to be 'interviewed' by their officer. We seriously considered jumping from the back of the truck and making a run for it through the bush. We didn't, the officer accused us of being 'foreign mercenaries', questioned us for an hour an finally let us go.

In Victoria Falls, trying to sell a watch to get a little cash I was arrested again. This time accused of having stolen the watch. Again, it worked out ok.

In Cape Town, I made the mistake of talking to a young black girl in the wrong neighbourhood and was chased by an angry group all the way to the Police Station where I ran in and took refuge. All in a day's travel.

I don't advocate that anyone go to a war zone knowingly. But I don't advocate that they take every warning of 'unrest' as a total ban on travel. It's just as easy to get somewhere and have something happen at that time.

In 1973, I was off travelling again. I planned to go to Israel for the winter and work on a kibbutz. After a stop in the UK and then hitch hiking across France and Italy, I arrived in Taranto, Italy with the intent of taking a freighter over to Israel (you could still hop freighters in those days).

At the booking office the guy behind the counter kept trying to tell me something but my Italian wasn't good enough to really understand him. All I heard him saying was no. Finally, he went into the back office and came back with a newspaper. The headline 'Israele Invade.' It was the Yom Kippur war. I didn't get a ship to Israel. But if I had been a week earlier arriving in Taranto, no doubt I would have and found myself in a country at war.

Look at the Achille Lauro. A cruise ship of ordinary tourists and it got hi-jacked. Guess what, their insurance wouldn't cover them either. Going to a country on a government watch list isn't the only way to lose your insurance coverage.

Come to that, I never bought travel insurance till I passed age 50.