I was denied a transit visa from the Seoul embassy.

What was the reason? How long was your proposed layover?

If you have a 12 hour layover, do you still need a transit visa in advance, or can you just apply at the airport to go into town for a few hours?

The Gambia is nice, IME. And very small. Cheap flights on charter airlines from the UK.

So you could visit Senegal in the same trip.

Cape Verde is pretty civilised and in the same area. It has a better selection of charter flights than The Gambia, from a number of European countries, and you can fly from Prai to Banjul or Dakar.

Of course, JFK-DKR or IAD-DKR would work as starts too.

Nouvelle Calédonie is lovely, but it's a dependent territory of France, not yet a country - they are due to hold a referendum on independence sometime between 2014 and 2018.

I was there for Bastille Day - a parade of French might down the main street, and some nice fireworks in the evening. One really needs a car to travel around the island. The hostel was actually superb, and the only option under $150!

Easy to get to on an Air NZ award ticket, or a quick flight from Vanuatu

Thanks to everyone for the thoughts - lots of good stuff here. I definitely need to do the Nigeria to Ghana shuffle...and Gambia/Senegal as well.

It's hard to not have something big planned - until I have two big trips at once planned, I feel a bit empty, like the next is the "last for a bit."

That said, I need some big ideas!

You should hit up Iceland for 5-7 days! I'll put that one under 'easy'. You can take a 1/2 day trip on Air Iceland to Greenland from there too!

Are you sure you "visited" Vatican properly?

Or, did you just drop in at St. Peter's Basilica and/or the Vatican Museums? Just walked across from Italy and wandered around a bit?

To visit the Vatican Gardens, or even better, to gain access to the "city" through St. Ann's Gate, is the real deal. IMO. Analogous to border controls. :)

I refuse to believe that you are not fully aware that this is an absurdly high amount of holiday to have each year.

Aaah, but is country visiting equal to passport stamp collecting? Like Train Spotting?

I am aware of that, on the flip side, not a single mile I fly or trip I make is for work purposes.

And absurd? Says who? Everyone has a choice in life, I lasted 6 month working as a corporate slave... then it was time for a change

Very fast from Australia, I used to go there for excursions from high school the flight is only a couple of hours from Sydney. We saw a lot of the island, and a visit over the reef and to the Phare - very lucky that I chose to do French at school.

It was a very strange feeling last time I was there, the immigration lines were for "EU Passport Holders" and "Others" - this tiny remote Pacific Island is very much part of Europe (until they maybe vote otherwise within the next couple of years).

It's always been a very expensive place, the cost of a restaurant meal was roughly double that of Sydney last time I was there. But you don't visit N'lle Caledonie for any bargains!

About the same amount I had as a civil servant in a certain European country. (One that's doing quite well economically, I might add)

Just to clarify, what makes a country "difficult to visit"?

In my mind, it takes several conditions for that:

1) Need for a Visa before arrival (in the case of Bhutan, Visas are not difficult to get, the hotel is actually taking care of that and I won't even need to visit Bhutan consular services or mail my passport - I will simply present a confirmation and get my Visa on arrival..)

2) Long journey (Australia is far, but flying there is pretty straight forward and one can basically get there from EUrope or USA in 24hrs...). Some countries are only accessible from a few airports, and connections are such that one must spend a day at least waiting for an early flight...

3) Cost of Travel: The more expensive a country, the more difficult it is to visit

4) Security Concerns/Political Turmoil/War: In most cases, this is just temprary. For instance, I wouldn't travel to Syria now, but in maybe a year or two, things will have settled down.. But Somalia has been having trouble for a loooong time!


Countries that in my mind are most difficult:

a) North Korea: Visa Required (and takes some time to get), Must travel through Beijing, so must obtain Chinese Visa. Little flexibility regarding dates and extra stop in Beijing, though probably very pleasant, makes it expensive and longer...
b) Somalia: Few flights, Visa required, huge safety concern
c) Tiny Pacific Island: Visa not necessary, but must fly to Australia, flights are not scheduled very often, so it will take time and cost money
d) Haiti: Easy to get to, but unsafe, politically unstable, and very poor infrastructure since the earthquake (getting to the safe part of Haiti where cruise shipds stop doesn't count as a Haiti visit!)
e) Antartica: No Visa, but if you want to sleep on site, the few tour operators are very expensive...
f) Iraq: (Not the Kurdish part, but Baghdad) requires visa.. Easy to get to from Europe but requires "balls" :-)
g) Yemen: Visa, Safety concerns, Political Stability issues
h) Western Sahara: Not a country yet (or maybe. depends on your definition)...


Finally, to expand on what has been said, KSA issues a 5yr Multiple Entry Visa for US Citizens. Obviously, one needs an Invite, but it is not that difficult to obtain. Just look through your network and you'll probably know someone who has a good relationship with a Saudi that can issue the invite

Belarus: again, Visa is very easy to obtain. The hotel can issue the invitation so getting a Visa is just a matter of making a request at any consular service with the appropriate invitation

Perspective: Long journey - USA is far, but flying there is pretty straight forward and one can basically get there in less than 24 hours from Australia. Same with Europe. I wouldn't class either as difficult to visit, just long trips.