Wouldn't a Vacation in Libya Be Perfect Right Now?
Vogue covered the Middle East crisis with a puff piece on the "glamorous" wife of a brutal dictator. Now it's sister publication Condé Nast Traveler's turn: the magazine just published a guide to luxury travel in Libya.
Traveler editor-in-chief Klara Glowczewska tells Women's Wear Daily she rather regrets putting Libya in May's "15 Best Places to See Right Now" cover story:
It's a lead-time situation. Libya exploded two days after we went to press. […] This has happened to us several times recently. We had a feature story with a cover line on Egypt that went to press about two weeks before the revolution happened.
Here's the sorely outdated text, which has since been updated with an editor's note on Traveler's website:
LIBYA
Why go: To see North Africa's best classical ruins and to explore the Sahara, by four-by-four or camel.
Why go now: The recent lifting of visa restrictions against Americans means that a door long shut is open again.
If you go: With Syria being called the new Morocco and Beirut the new (gasp!) Provincetown, travelers with an eye for antiquity are moving on to Libya. "The country offers some of the world's best-preserved Roman archaeological riches," says Thomas Stanley, Centre Head and COO of the travel company Cox & Kings, The Americas. Every itinerary should include the UNESCO World Heritage Site at Leptis Magna, a remarkably intact—and only partially excavated—ancient city, easily among the finest Roman ruins outside Italy. For many, a foray into the seemingly endless sands of the Sahara, either on the back of a camel or strapped into a four-by-four, holds even more appeal. Infrastructure is basic, although Libya's first luxury hotel, Tripoli's Corinthia (218-21-335-1990; doubles, $347), was joined in January by a Sheraton Four Points (218-21-337-2300; doubles, $338–$386); a Marriott is scheduled to open later this year.
Best way to go: JFK to Tripoli via Frankfurt on Lufthansa.
Other recommendations from Traveler's fabulous 15 include Kurdistan ("war has ended, at least in this small corner of Iraq") and Brooklyn. "Our readers are a fairly adventurous bunch," Glowczewska notes. [Traveler, WWD, Styleite]
