CNN: Best and worst passports
 

Not artistic design. Not quality of production. Not durability. Not even security features. It's how many countries they let you into without a visa:

"World's best and worst passports revealed" on cnn.com

To eliminate a bit of suspense: Germany is #1 with 177 countries, Sweden #2 with 176. The U.S. is in what they call 4th place, though it's really in 8th because the compilers of the list count a five-way tie for 3rd (Finland, France, Italy, Spain, UK) as just one place ahead of it. Afghanistan brings up the rear with 104.

Glad I wasn't the only who noticed that. "#10" Iceland has 25 countries rated better.

Anyone know the 3 countries that like Germans and not Americans? I tried to hunt for the list, going to the source site, but couldn't find it (their "color coded" maps are less than useless). I did find Wiki pages with visa info, but cross-referencing the two was way too much work due to formatting issues pasting in Excel.

I always believed that Japan, South Korea, and Singapore passports were good for visa free entry. Also, what about Australia and New Zealand?

Bolivia, Paraguay, Brazil, and a few more.

At least we'll always have Equatorial Guinea :D

And in these matters, there is at least some element of reciprocity involved. Brazilian passport users don't need visas to visit Germany when entering Germany on a Brazilian passport; but Brazilian passport users need visas to visit the US and enter the US on a Brazilian passport. If the US allows ordinary Brazilians to again enter the US without a visa in Brazilian passports, Brazil would more broadly waive the visa requirement for US citizens.

I'm not sure whether the Argentine reciprocity fee on US (and Canadian and Australian) citizens counts but it certainly sh;)uld.

These rankings are completely meaningless since the vast majority of people will never holiday in all these countries. And even if you're an "every country" geek like some FTers, you're more likely to just get a visa than a new citizenship.

A better ranking would be the number of countries you can move to and work/live with a minimum of hassle. Then EEA passports would probably win, but on the other hand, the US is a single country which is arguably nearly as diverse as the EEA.

I was thinking of the same question in terms of the Chilean fee that I paid before it was eliminated in February 2014. I came down on the other side, though. This list measures freedom to travel, not of the cost of doing so. U.S. citizens could visit Chile freely without advance permission of any kind. Yes, they (we) had to pay a reciprocity fee, but they (we) also had to pay for plane tickets, food and lodging while in the country, and all the rest. I saw this as just one more expense to figure into the total cost.

(I leave for Chile again in three days. I now have a brand-new passport, so my previous entry permit would no longer be valid. Not complaining.)

No way US is 4th. The reciprocity fee for Brazil and Argentina makes it worth less than Denmark, Belgium, and Holland.

I'm filing their article under Seemed Legit, Turned Out to be Click Bait. :td:

The Argentine reciprocity fee is a de-facto visa (and therefore a restriction on travel) because one has to pay it and show the receipt in order to be allowed by airlines to board a flight to Argentina. The way you reason (and I tend to agree with you), it would not have been a restriction on travel a few years ago when it was simply paid :)n arrival.

I'm not sure if this makes a lot of sense : I hold a German passeport and leave in Singapore. Travelling arround the region would be much easier with any regional passport or even an Australian one ...

It seems the reference is to the amount of countries you may enter, that's it.

Aren't you missing a zero after the 3? Plenty of countries, I reckon...

As for the visa requirements thing: this wiki page is for the US.

No missing zero. A US passport lets you into 174 countries without a visa. A German passport lets you into 177. Those are the numbers in the original article. If they're wrong, they're wrong, but CPRich cited the article correctly, and they're not likely to be off by a factor of 10.

That said, it's unlikely that the list for Germany is the U.S. list plus three. There's surely a great deal of overlap, but I suspect that some countries allow U.S. visitors without visas but not Germans, and other countries (three more) allow German visitors without visas but not Yanks.