10 Places Not to Visit in 2010

Sure, you could read one of the many lists of destinations you should visit this year—but in this economic climate, wouldn’t it be more useful to check out a list of places not to visit? Hailey Eber thinks so, and gives her top 10 in BlackBook:

• Oymyakon, Russia: In this Siberian village on record as the coldest town on Earth, the temperature must drop to -62 degrees Fahrenheit before schools close.
• Paula Deen Cruise to the Caribbean: You usually put on a few pounds while on vacation…and a few more if that vacation is the neverending buffet of a cruise ship. Add Paula Deen’s butter-filled recipes into the mix, and you’ll soon be “too ashamed to waddle around the lido deck in your bikini.”
• Pakistan: “Violent extremists, Al-Qaida, and Taliban elements do not a vacation make. But, you probably knew that already.”

• Scranton, Pa.: Not that you’d want to go there, but if for some reason you’re forced—avoid The Office Fan Tour, busing around the city later this year.
• Rotorua, New Zealand: Though it is a fairly popular destination, it is also the self-proclaimed “most noxious city on the planet” thanks to an abundance of sulfur fumes.
• Chernobyl, Ukraine: “Ultimately, it’s the fact that the tour begins and ends with radioactivity testing for all participants that puts it on the ‘no-go’ list.”
• Mexico: The drug war. Enough said.
• Bakersfield, Calif.: It's everything you don’t picture when you think of California...and, well, it also has the country’s worst level of fine-particle pollution.
• Orlando, Fla.: There was already a wealth of reasons not to visit this tourist trap, but this spring brings one more: Universal’s “Wizarding World of Harry Potter” theme park.
• New York: It’s a great city, but avoid it in May, when the premiere of Sex and the City 2 promises “a rash of cheesy publicity campaigns and a sudden influx of wannabe Carries, Charlottes, Mirandas, and Samanthas (especially Samanthas). It ain’t gonna be pretty.”

(More Russia stories.)