The Atacama desert in Chile is high, dry and cold. It has been used by NASA as a Mars simulator.
No-one lives there.
Yet people say they want to live on Mars.
Revealed preferences say: no, they don't.
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It would not be too difficult to engineer a replica lunar or martian landscape in the Atacama. The excess gravity would be the only inauthentic part of the experience since tourists would be wearing climate-controlled spacesuits. Perhaps there's something you could do with a gantry and bungee cords.
I suspect the mean excursion time might be an hour - more if there was a pressurised dome with a coffee shop and cakes.
Or there again, hyper-realistic VR might do it.
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All the universe we know about is like this, except where it's worse (planetary gas giants, stellar surfaces).
I'm really not sure galactic tourism is all it's cracked up to be.
Oh yes, aliens. Those creatures which emerged as the top predators on their planet and - subject to the usual biological instincts to expand their numbers and range - have ventured out into the Galaxy.
I suspect they will look ugly and scary, and will consider us competitor-vermin. Even the deepest dyed-in-the-wool liberal might have to accept that there are species-boundaries to effective altruism.
So let's not go there for our vacation. At least not until the Terran Space Navy has thoroughly pacified them.
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