A Vacation With Cold War Games? Head For Russia And Ukraine

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."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.Russia's neighbors offer their own military-themed vacations.The KGB Military School in neighboring Ukraine offers lessons as diverse as lie detection, explosives and knife fighting. Also in Ukraine, Alaris 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.