Totalitarian Regimes

Many of my friends take their vacations in totalitarian regimes, as opposed to Lapland, Tokyo, Dublin or Nigeria. It's hip to visit dictatorships. I'm afraid to ask why. Just asking might reveal something politically stupid about me. I have a bias in favor of democracies--although I'm aware that they aren't all that democratic. The truth is that it wouldn't occur to me to visit a totalitarian country when, for instance, I haven't even been to Peru.