A Cold War adventure

1 Russia

Forget ballerinas, St. Petersburg’s frothy architecture and the herbal aromas of bathhouses. There’s another, harder edge to tourism in the former Soviet Union.

For the Tom Clancy lovers, survivalists and others who like to play at war, a crop of tour companies offers Russian vacations with a dash of gun-toting machismo.

You can fire small arms, Kalashnikov assault rifles or rocket-propelled grenades. You can ride aboard a variety of tanks: World War II-era, or those used in the Afghan invasion or the Chechen war. You can fly a MiG fighter jet.

Sure, suburbanites pay for military-flavored wilderness jaunts in other countries, notably the U.S. But the Russian tours offer a dash of intrigue and play out against a backdrop of neo-Cold War stirrings.

“It’s the history. For a lot of our customers, they grew up when you were supposed to hate the Russians,” said Jane Reifert, president of Incredible Adventures, a Florida-based tour company that has designed packages for tourists interested in hand-to-hand combat training or flying Russian MiG fighter jets (www .incredible-adventures.com).

“They want to go to the KGB museum. They want to go to the air museum,” she said. Moscow is crammed with museums celebrating nearly every imaginable security organization and equipment, including the air force, border guards, armored vehicles and Russia’s FSB intelligence service.

All Russia Tours, www.all russiatours.com/military-tour/ program.html, is among the companies that take you to them.

Russia’s neighbors offer their own military-themed vacations.

The KGB Military School in neighboring Ukraine (www .kgb-militaryschool.com) offers lessons as diverse as lie detection, explosives and knife fighting. Also in Ukraine, Alaris ( www.alaris.com.ua) offers the opportunity to play soldier, complete with grenade launchers, sniper rifles and tanks.

Tour prices appear to be negotiable, depending on the scope of military ambitions. -- Megan K. Stack

2 Taiwan

The government is promoting bicycle tourism on Taiwan’s sparsely populated east coast by offering one-way bike rentals, guided rides and extra space for cyclists on trains. It also plans to spend more than $20 million on new bike paths.

-- Reuters

3 New Zealand

Polly wants a passport? A brazen parrot nabbed a Scottish visitor’s passport from a bag in a compartment under a parked tourist bus and flew off into dense bush with it, a local newspaper reported. The theft happened on South Island, where Kea parrots are native.

-- Associated Press

4 Kenya

Tourism revenue tumbled 19% in 2008 after a record year in 2007, Kenya’s Tourism Board said. Maryanne Ndegwa Jordan, the board’s acting managing director, blamed the drop on post-election violence that killed at least 1,300 people and drove away tour groups.

-- Reuters

5 Jamaica

A gunman on May 21 shot up a minivan carrying six Canadian visitors driving through Kingston, slightly injuring one, police said. “They went unaccompanied to a major city which has obvious inner-city problems with gangs,” Information Minister Daryl Vaz said of the group, which was flown back to the Montego Bay beach resort in a military helicopter.

-- Associated Press

Caution spots

The U.S. State Department recently issued warnings or alerts for these areas:

Nepal, because of political violence, hazardous driving conditions, muggings and other crimes.

Lebanon, because of safety and security concerns.