US Makes List of Most Difficult Countries to Travel Through
 

The Sydney Morning Herald article here listed the US as one of the most difficult countries in the world to travel through based upon airport "feel-ups" and visa laws.

There are many in all levels of the domestic/fatherland security apparatus who would take this as a compliment.

Right up there with Russia, Iran and Burma. U-S-A, U-S-A!

Mike

For one, the US could implement an international airside transit zone, so that those who need to transit for less than 12-24 hours will not even have to deal with the CBP. The US airlines would only benefit from this since their hubs are here. Right now, passengers arriving in the USA look more like sheeple forced into a barn by a shepherd (CBP).

You mean like it used to be say 10 years ago? One more example where improvement could be achieved by going back in time.

The need to go through immigration and customs when in transit is definitely a major negative, and has lead me to actively avoid connecting in the US.

The USA can't afford to lose the tourism dollars. This is not good news.

The way I initially read the title of this thread was that the US created a list. :P

I think it's actually good news. Money is the only thing that seems to make a difference in this country.

I don't blame people for not wanting to deal with the nonsense of traveling here.

Japan? Brazil? This guy is ridiculous. Those countries are extremely easy to travel in. And Japanese and Portuguese are both easy languages. And what's his obsession with finding addresses? To even mention that when talking about difficult to travel in countries is just silly. The US is obviously a difficult country to travel in even without the TSA. It's huge. Hardly anyone speaks anything but English. Domestic airfares are very expensive. Visas are absurdly expensive if you need one and difficult to get. The TSA molesters bring it over the top. Even North Korea isn't going to sexually violate you when you arrive. In that way I think we are unique. I think it legitimately makes the top 10. Maybe even the top 5.

The Japanese address system is a pain but it's quite obvious he's only looking at the minor aspects of travel.

I've gone overland across Africa--that's much more of a pain than most anything he mentions (and I only say "most" because I can't comment on all of them.)

Isn't it really difficult to find someone who speaks Japanese in Bonn? Someone who speaks Portuguese in Beijing? Someone who speaks German in Vancouver? Someone who speaks Czech in Rio?

I don't travel internationally, so I'm not terribly familiar with how things go in other countries, but I was under the impression that English was a fairly common second language throughout the world, because of its adoption as the standard language for air travel, ships, commerce, and diplomacy. And since English is the primary language in the US, that makes it less necessary for Americans to learn a second language unless they travel internationally a lot.

Except near the borders. As with all countries, the closer you get to the Mexican border, the more people you will find who speak Spanish.

But there are still huge immigrant communities in all of the major US cities with a large percentage of people who speak their ancestral language. Greek, Russian, German, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, and many other languages can be heard if you drive through the right neighborhoods. Visit San Diego during the summer, you can easily find folks who are fluent in Klingon, Elvish, and Na'vi.

Africa isn't a country...

This guy is basically complaining about basic language issues and the fact that people are too friendly or are trying to sell you something.

What's interesting is that aside from perhaps Burma and our US flight and entry processes - every country is perceived as welcoming to the visitor.

Exactly! ^ With due respect to the Backpacker columnist, he assembled this list "with the help of a few adventurous readers," and many of the complaints are about a lack of English speakers or English menus. If those are your criteria, best to stick to English-speaking countries and then complain about their funny accents. :D

In fact, if you look at his list of the world's easiest countries to travel through from the previous week, you'll find the UK, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Germany, Netherlands, Malaysia, Canada, and Denmark.

A lot of FTers could have thrown together more credible columns, but I agree that the fact the U.S. appeared on the "most difficult" rather than the "easiest" list is what's significant. @:-)

'Nuff said about the columns themselves. ;)

But you see the same problems country after country.

Yeh, serves them foreigners right for knocking down our World Trade Center. What? You say they didn't come from that country? Well........they're still foreigners. If we can feel up our infants, how can we not feel those foreigners up, right?:rolleyes::td: