Originally Posted by
chollie
Absolutely.
I'll probably never get to visit all the places I'd like to visit as it is, let alone re-visit others, so visas (costs and ease of acquisition) definitely become significant factors in where I travel.
One significant deterrent: countries that require a plane ticket already in hand before issuing a visa. Yes, I know I can buy fully-refundable and cancel, but I'm not willing to go through that much hassle. The length of time to get the visa is also an issue - I'd like to go to Algeria, but I've been told getting the visa will take a minimum of 5 weeks. That's too long for me to go without my passport, so no Algeria.
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As a Canadian, the Algerian Embassy in Ottawa issued my Tourist Visa within 3 business days. Not sure if their embassy in DC is much slower or not, but Algeria is very keen for more tourism so I would give it a shot. The new Le Meridien in Oran is great and I acutualy liked Oran more than Algiers. The country is great and people are very friendly. My only issue was bank machines...very very very few of them and even fewer actually worked for me, like 2 in total.
My visa fee maxout is 100 dollars.
