Image Credit: Ansel Adams

For those of you who are history buffs and like to travel, welcome to the brave new world of conscience travel: traveling to sites that once had a painful past.

That includes destinations such as Fukushima in Japan, Chernobyl in Russia, or Vietnam.

In America, we have tourism to sites that need historic preservation.

But we also have a dark history, such as Shockoe Bottom in Richmond, Virginia, Manzanar National Historic Site in eastern California, and Mountain Meadows in Washington County, Utah.

These and many other conscience destinations have a rich story to tell, as well as great lessons to learn and hopefully apply.

This is educational travel at its best for more than 200 places around the world, and can often be accomplished as side trips to more popular destinations within 100 to 400 miles of these historic sites.

There’s even an organization that helps with the tours: the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience.

For more information about visiting America’s national parks, check out:

• Why More Americans are Going Camping This Summer
• Celebrating 100 Years of National Parks
• Where You Can Go Stargazing at National Parks

Keep reading for more travel tips.