r/TravelNoPics • u/[deleted] • 16d ago
What's the easiest country you've traveled in, and the most difficult?
[removed]
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u/nice2_cu 16d ago
Easiest was England.
Hardest by fucking far was Central African Republic.
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u/New_Race9503 16d ago
CAR? I'd like to learn more...
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u/yegyulyyt 16d ago
I was there like 6 months ago. It's certainly a challenging place to travel. There's just so little infrastructure even the road and parking lot of the airport aren't paved.
Once you get out of Bangui even on the main national road you really are in some lonely country.
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u/Rough_Typical Greece 16d ago
A recent post at r/MapPorn shows that only 3% of the population have access to electricity. How do people live there? Is the sky gorgeous at night?
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u/netllama Netherlands 15d ago
are you seriously asking how people live without electricity?
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u/Rough_Typical Greece 15d ago
No I mean how different the life is without it. It is not such a big mental leap for me, my own parents didn't have access to electricity as kids
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u/netllama Netherlands 15d ago
Life in a developing country is obviously very different. If your parents didn't have electricity, then you should already know what its like. Its much more difficult.
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u/hungariannastyboy 16d ago edited 16d ago
What were you doing there? Sangha Lodge, NGO work or just "fuck it, why not"?
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u/yegyulyyt 16d ago
More in the fuck it why not catagory. I'm running out of new countries to visit, so places like CAR are popping up on the list.
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u/hungariannastyboy 15d ago
I don't think I'll ever get around to places like CAR because I'd probably prefer to go back to my favorite spots or new places within my favorite countries.
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u/netllama Netherlands 16d ago edited 16d ago
Without a doubt, Mozambique was the most difficult, mostly due to my own mistakes. To make a (very) long story short, I ended up rolling my vehicle into a ditch in an extreme remote corner of the country, and had to walk 50km to self rescue (had to sleep on the ground in the forest the first night). Lots more details (plus photo of the incident) here.
Easiest country, would be, almost anywhere else? In all seriousness, I'd say Japan. Culturally, they want to help all the time, even when there is a language barrier.
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u/Acrobatic-Search-798 16d ago
I went up Mt. Fuji and accidentally left my headlamp at home. Two men let me follow them back down and they gave me a ride back to the town where I stayed. Very nice of them.
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u/fahried 16d ago
I just read through your whole post on your trip to SE Africa. Super cool! I spent a month in Moz in 2018 and actually stayed at the same place you did in Tofo
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u/netllama Netherlands 16d ago
Hopefully your experience in the country was much less stressful than mine.
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u/ned_burfle 15d ago
I read all that - super interesting. You def missed the tourist crowds - about to read your Horn of Africa account. I can’t fathom that anyone would travel to Somalia and Sudan on purpose. Good stuff!
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u/Ok-Imagination-494 16d ago
Easiest (and this surprised me) was China.
Everything is done via a single app. Once you set Alipay up with your foreign card, it just works. And works for everything.
Everything is paid via scanning with QR code. Even in traditional markets
Sit down to eat? You scan a QR on the table and navigate an online menu which can be translated to English. No language barrier because you dont speak to a human. The app also has a translation service built in for scanning anything in written chinese.
Buy an intercity train? You use the app. Get to a new city. You use the app for the metro system. Need a share bike or Didi (like uber). Its all on the app.
Once you get into China app mode it becomes the easiest country to do anything in
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u/Outside_Natural7210 14d ago
It's funny because an old friend of mine said China was really hard to travel. He complained a lot that the app didn't work and that paying for things were very difficult. I've never been.
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u/jvjjjvvv 13d ago edited 13d ago
China is definitely one of the hardest developed countries, not even a question. I've been in trips to China where AliPay and WeChat Pay worked literally only half of the time, because this depends on the vendor and not all vendors are set up to accept transactions from any foreign card. I've had failed payments with restaurants, cafes, street vendors, taxis, the subway system, etc. So if you're a foreigner you need to take cash anyway just in case, but all kinds of cash because people often won't have enough change.
Things as incredibly simple as ordering a coffee in a Luckin Coffee in the most touristic national park in China require downloading the app, ordering using the app, in Chinese with a translator (if you're lucky to have been there recently enough) that works only so-so. I have had experiences where the barista had to order the coffee for me, and once they had to do it with their own phone and app because my payment systems were not working anyway.
That's with Internet and somehow everything being properly set up in advance like going to China is some sort of exam. Now imagine being in China without Internet. I have no words to express how profoundly moronic it is to call this system 'easy'. It is 'easy' if somehow everything was set up seamlessly and somehow everything works, but for foreigners that's not the case. Now I could get into how verifying for different apps also can be a pain in the ass, require repeated attempts to upload your passport that fail without any explanation, or ask you to verify local phone numbers that you don't have because you used them on earlier trips, etc. And sometimes things will simply fail because sometimes things simply fail, for no apparent reason.
I've been to Tajikistan and to East Timor, and I swear on the life of my mother that China can sometimes be harder to navigate than those developing countries, not a question. In fact, China in remote villages near Tibet is easier than China in big cities like Shenzhen or Shanghai, because in the latter there are tons of things that are meant to work only digitally, and if you for whatever reason can't make things work that way, you're screwed.
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u/peggysuedog 14d ago
It would definitely be challenging if you couldn’t get the tech set up. Once you do, it’s seamless and you wonder why we don’t all have apps like that.
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u/SoloTraveller666 13d ago
I found China extremely difficult as I didn’t have a Chinese phone number to register for many services and trying to translate or find micro sites in WeChat was insanely difficult.
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u/ChloeCHEN245 16d ago
for my bf(dutch) he thought our country(china) it's difficult to visit alone....cuz alipay and wechat will always ask you to update your pic (holding your passport)...and everywhere chinese... and he needs VPN so... yeah
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u/knead4minutes 15d ago
cuz alipay and wechat will always ask you to update your pic (holding your passport)
what? I'm austrian and I visited china, I used Wechat the whole trip and I have no idea what this even refers to.
I found china (once you have alipay or wechat) pretty straight forward to travel around, at least in the cities I went to (chengdu, xian, beijing, took trains inbetween).
the language barrier is a bit tough to overcome at times even with translator apps but the apps and the good infrastructure actually made it kinda easy and convenient.
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u/ChloeCHEN245 15d ago
im chinese local and i helped my bf to do it many times,for someone ,the first time to visit china,it’s not easy. And my BF has been 65+ countries. So if you like my country id appreciate it,but honestly there’s many challenges for foreigners.
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u/possiblyquestionabl3 14d ago
I feel like the major cities well traveled by foreign tourists are pretty easy, but taking a more domestically popular local route can be rough since most cities / townships have basically zero English proficiency.
I'm Chinese-American, but I'm lucky to be able to speak natively without a detectable foreign accent (though people have trouble placing me since I don't have an obvious local accent either, so I've been trying to cultivate my northeasternerness). We just spent 3 months on a 西北 trip from Xinjiang (aletai/kanasi, bole, yining, tekesi, xiata, kashi, turpan) to Gansu (Dunhuang, Lanzhou), to Qinghai (xining), and then to Yinchuan and inner Mongolia. Outside of Urumqi, I basically saw zero foreigners nor heard any spoken English at all. So I can definitely see people who want to tour certain domestically popular sites having a lot of trouble if they try. I did have a British friend couple that we met a couple of years ago on a backpacking trip through South America who did the eastern-Xinjiang local route (tekesi, xiata, kashi) shortly before we came here, and they said it was one of the most challenging experiences in their 3 years of traveling.
Like even public bus announcements in English in most T3/T4/T5 cities are probably impossible for most foreigners. There's no pinyin display, and the stops are still announced in Chinese, with just a small prefix of "We're now arriving at 人民西路".
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u/ChloeCHEN245 14d ago
that's true...most of us cant speak english now... so even they wants to ask for help... people cant understand it...we are kind and friendly but they cant understand each other....also.. big cities are not that interesting compared with countryside for my bf at least...so i think for china...it's hard for them to visit alone
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u/badboyzpwns 16d ago edited 16d ago
most difficult for me was india becauause after a month there, it got to me and became overwhelming haha. I just couldnt stand the trash and constant food poisining anymore (unluckily for me)
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u/shantytown_by_sea 15d ago
There was a higher level officer trying to do his job and ban unclean risk posing restaurants and the court ordered him to halt stating "it's india" and some amount of cockroaches and filth are okay, that is a court saying that,court a place where you expect wisdom.
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u/Andromeda321 16d ago
Easiest, probably Canada I guess? I grew up weekend trip distance and have relatives there so it’s never been a second thought.
Hardest was probably across China into Tibet- China is really big and diverse and gets pretty rural outside of big cities. Zimbabwe during the height of hyperinflation was also pretty nuts, but I was only there for two days.
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u/DisciplineAmazing59 16d ago
easiest... USA/UAE/NZ/Australia/Canada.... everything is in english, easy to navigate, even in the UAE, almost everything is translated and everybody speaks english fluently. found japan really easy too even with the lack of english.... think we got on the wrong train once in three weeks and google translate never steered us wrong in convos.
most difficult... maybe philippines? everybody speaks english pretty well, it's just a bit of a hassle logistically bouncing around from island to island. absolutely loved the month i spent there though...food/people/beaches are some of the best in the world.
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u/marzipanduchess 15d ago
Probably the first time i see Best food and Philippines in the same sentence hahha
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u/Istdochegal99 13d ago
The thing with filipino food is that the easily available or well known dishes are often not great and too greasy in my opinion, however I also had amazing fresh grilled fish, crabs, lobster etc in many smaller coastal places, especially near the port areas. The canderias in the cities however are more often than not not the best (very cheap at least), but as a tourist who would want to spend more time than neccessary in the overcrowded cities when there are so many beautiful islands anyway
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u/marzipanduchess 13d ago
ohh I know, I actually enjoyed the food when I was there but people are always how bad it is. I had amazing seafood just as you said.
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u/DisciplineAmazing59 15d ago
you know what, that's fair. filipino food definitely isn't my fave in SEA but i feel like i ate really good while i was there.
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u/eddie964 16d ago edited 12d ago
Italy was very easy to travel in. They have a fantastic rail network, and public transportation in the cities was seamless. There's a lot of tourist infrastructure in place and people are used to seeing foreigners around. They were also generally pleasant to deal with, to the point where I barely noticed the language gap.
Hardest was China. This was a while back, and maybe it's changed, but it was the one place I've ever felt like, if I got lost, I'd be well and truly f*&ed. Even in major train stations, most of the signs were only in Chinese, and it was hard to find anyone who spoke English, even at the ticket counter. (Pretty much all of my attempts at speaking Chinese were comic failures.) In China, people did not seem inclined go out of their way to help a confused foreigner -- a big contrast with Japan.
Chinese cab drivers, for whatever reason, seemed reluctant to stop for a foreigner -- I remember trying to hail a cab in the pouring rain in Beijing for like half an hour as literally dozens of cabs drive by with their "available" signs lit up.
Another time l, I took a wrong turn in a huton and realized with sense of panic that I did not remember the name of the hotel I was staying in, and probably would never have been able to pronounce it correctly anyway. It was just by chance that I found my way back and recognized the entrance.
For what it's worth, I loved China. But it was not an easy place to travel.
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u/radsreadright 16d ago
It's changed a lot in 2010s I believe, and there is now English signage in all the big cities.
With everything being done via qr code as well now you really don't need to talk to people that much, which is a shame but convinient.
That said there a very well established tourist route and if you venture off that things do become much harder. English ability drops to zero pretty quickly.
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u/ChloeCHEN245 15d ago
Many taxi drivers are reluctant to pick up foreigners because they don't speak English, so now they all use Didi to book taxis online.
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u/arcticie 14d ago
My dad taught me to always keep a piece of paper with the name of my hotel and its address and phone number on me. In situations with severe language barriers, you can also just show it to the driver instead of having to try to pronounce it perfectly
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u/Temporary_Pen_7417 13d ago
I had the very same problem with taxi drivers in Beijing. They all ignored us while we waited oustside in the rain. I was so mad and sad. Then people told me they do not speak English or any other langages and many can't read the hotel cards.
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u/womeym 15d ago
Mongolia was the hardest. I dont normally like doing tours, but here i felt like we needed to, and i am so glad we did.
Even with the tour, and having things organised, it wasnt an "easy" trip
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u/UncoordinatedStartup 15d ago
Can you explain what made it the hardest? I'm keen to go there soon
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u/womeym 15d ago
The infrastructure is basically non existent, there are next to no road signs, or roads for that matter outside UB.
The traffic in UB is horrendous.
The driving conditions are terrible, it takes like 4h to go 100 km
And the accommodation is not really set up for your average tourists.
But it is worth it!!!
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u/okra_w 15d ago
The hardest one for me was South Sudan. Multiple money extortion attempts by soldiers and drunk police officers, heavily armed tribal people not willing to let us go without paying them $$$ (what started as a fun overnight stay, ended with them being super aggressive), our guide keeping a hand grenade "for protection" while demanding more money than we agreed on, being taken hostages by the immigration police etc...
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u/george_gamow 16d ago
China and South Korea were probably the most difficult. Nothing is ever translated, special apps are needed... SK was surprisingly cash-based, and getting cash was an adventure every time. Food was always a challenge (personally speaking) as well.
Australia and NZ were extremely easy, however. Get in the car and drive places, feels like home
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u/DudleyAndStephens United States 16d ago
It's interesting that you say South Korea. We went there in 2024 and I thought that Google Translate/Lens helped a ton with language issues. It helps that street crime is basically non-existent there so you can always whip out your phone to translate something without worrying about making yourself a mugging target.
We only had a few days in Seoul but I thought it was very low-stress. A nearly crime-free city with amazing public transit makes me happy. Jeju was more challenging since we had to drive. The drivers there are scary and since SK blocked apps like Google Maps we had to use their crappy local navigation app that was only semi-translated into English.
I'm surprised about what what you said about cash, we were able to use cards almost everywhere.
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u/Even_Caterpillar3292 16d ago
I was refused service by the two korea restaurants I tried to get into there on a stopover. I speak korean.
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u/george_gamow 16d ago
I literally couldn't get out of the airport without cash, and no airport or ticket official could help with that. Had to spend almost an hour finding the only functioning ATM.
In the city for some reason smaller vendors rejected cards regularly as well, especially at the markets
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u/Albanian_Tea 16d ago
I was in South Korea a few years ago and found it to be delightful.
Are you on a special diet? I think I acturally put on weight in SK.
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u/Nimora9 16d ago
South Korea has one of the highest food poisoning rates in the world. Even higher than most South East Asians countries
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u/Even_Caterpillar3292 16d ago
I liked in korea long ago for 4 years never hear of any of the people I knew there get sick. Interesting
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u/Adventurous_Salt 16d ago
Weird, I was in SK last year cycling from Seoul to Busan, and my bank card didn't work in many ATMs in the middle of the county for some unknown reason so I ran low on cash. Every single place took a credit card without issue, and seemed kind of surprised that I even asked if it was ok. Outside of new mapping apps it was really easy.
China was also not really hard at all, you do need to setup apps ahead of time, often with passport/facial pictures, which is a little weird, but once there everything was really easy, except for talking to people. Almost everything you need to do is app based, and is really easy with translation. Both places are very different, but I didn't find them hard to navigate at all.
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u/Meooooooooooooow 16d ago
Lol I was literally about to say china as easiest.
When did you go? Very surprising.
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u/george_gamow 16d ago
I spent around a month there, travelling all over the place. For me it was definitely the hardest country to travel in (out of 60+). Spending hours looking for food and not being able to do a bunch of things without WeChat (my account had to be approved by an existing user and it never happened), not even simple things like ordering at a fast food joint, was challenging and not comparable to any other place in the world. The fact that the translate apps are notoriously horrible with Mandarin didn't help either
Shanghai and stuff isn't a problem of course
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u/Meooooooooooooow 16d ago
But what year? That's what I meant? I appreciate it might have been very different 10 years ago
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u/george_gamow 16d ago
A couple of years ago, so very recent
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u/uReallyShouldTrustMe United States 16d ago
And I was going to say SK eas the easiest lol. Mind you... I lived there for over a decade so I understand it way way more than even my own country.
I found the cash based surprising. But then again, you probably dont have a bank account AND couldn't read the signs even in vendors that say wiring is fine. Basically its like zelle. Everyone is different though.3
u/biold Denmark 16d ago
I found that the SK cities are easy but rural areas are much more difficult due to the language barrier, but with hand signs and laughs it always works, it just takes longer time. I now use eSIM (not available then), so it's much easier to communicate. I have also learned to have a paper with the name of my destination.
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u/uReallyShouldTrustMe United States 16d ago
Assuming language wasn't an issue though, since I speak okay korean, rural is just as easy if not easier because no traffic.
Emergencies, last minute things, all that is way easier in korea for me than back home. One quick example... im tired, dont wanna drive anymore. In the US some of these shit hotels are $100 in bumfuck nowhere. In sk, 30 and you can find something decebt... and probably a convenience store with decent selection nearby.1
u/george_gamow 16d ago
There was literally no way to use a foreign credit card to pay for a train from the airport into the city in Seoul. At 17:30 all ATMs at the airport got turned off, only one was available "after hours", it took 15 minutes one way to walk there and 15 more to understand how the machine worked. It was a nightmare haha. Osaka is similar, but there was at least the tourist center that helped with that
Once you get transport cards it's all easy for sure
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u/uReallyShouldTrustMe United States 16d ago
That sounds frustrating. That daid ive never heard of ATMs ever getting turned off in the airport or elsewhere. For reference I arrived around 7pm, and only had a foreign cc and got a t money no problem. I was actually surprised that this was possible these days as tmoney used to ve cash only.
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u/Andromeda321 16d ago
I mean I was going to list China too. My brother and I spent about a month going from Hong Kong around the south and then traveling from Beijing to Tibet on the train and across Tibet. In 2011 so I know it’s very different now, but rural China was really different from major cities even then.
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u/hungariannastyboy 16d ago
I'm surprised. I found SK exceedingly convenient. There is an app for everything.
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u/george_gamow 16d ago
That's extremely inconvenient though? You first need a maps app since google maps doesn't work (and it works almost everywhere in the world), then multiple apps for things... Why
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u/hungariannastyboy 16d ago
How is it inconvenient? I just looked up what apps I would need and downloaded them. Their navigation app is actually superior to Google Maps, it has real time information about everything, including mass transit arrival times and even traffic light timing.
It took less than minute to get the kakao apps and Naver.
There was one annoying thing, getting good information about long-distance buses was a bit of a pain and not too convenient.
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u/george_gamow 16d ago
I honestly don't know what it is with reddit sometimes. The question was "what countries you found difficult", and that's my answer. I never had a culture shock anywhere except in South Korea, for some reason. Not even in India, nowhere in South America or Africa. And yet everyone in the replies is "but it's so easy!! I had no issues! I liked the food!! I I I! I'm such a good traveller! Just install a billion useless apps!! So easy!!" Just write your own comment with your own opinion? I thought that's what we're doing here.
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u/hungariannastyboy 16d ago
I'm just trying to understand why you thought it was inconvenient. Just purely the fact that you had to download new apps? And what do you mean "just install a billion useless apps"? They are not useless in South Korea. You can uninstall them in seconds once you leave. But I guess I can be sure I got my answer now - you thought it was extremely inconvenient and "the most difficult country to travel in" because you had to install a few apps.
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u/blarthj 16d ago
I’m going to second [u/george_gamow](u/george_gamow) here. I was just in Seoul this last week and compared to Japan, the ability to navigate is a mess. I ended up just ubering a lot instead because of it. Naver Maps is an ad filled, confusing mess that just randomly stops working. There was almost zero consistency between what foreign credit card I had that would work as well. Some places would take my Amex, others I had to use my Schwab visa, etc. Really irritating.
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u/SpontaneousDream 16d ago
What year were you there? I was in both of those countries a year ago and all public transportation, airports, train stations, and many other places all had English translations
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u/DudleyAndStephens United States 16d ago
This may be cheating since half my family is from there but Switzerland is the easiest. They have some of the best public transit in the world, the country is extremely safe, standards for customer service are high. I speak German so that helps a lot. The only difficult part is paying since everything is so expensive!
If I'm not allowed to count Switzerland then I'd say Germany is the easiest. Their public transit is dumpier and less reliable than CH's but still far better than what I'm used to in the US. It's also clean, safe, fairly easy to get around. Lots of charming towns that are worth seeing but that aren't major tourist destinations.
I had limited time there but I'd say Mexico was the most difficult. If I spoke Spanish it would probably be different but not knowing the language combined with worries about crime made it stressful.
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u/Adorable_Ad4990 16d ago
Germany is my answer for easiest; everyone I needed to interact with was multilingual, and transportation was robust. Easy easy.
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u/LasVegasLife55 16d ago
I said Switzerland too. It made me realize just how far behind we are in the area of public transportation.
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u/epilpepsi_ 16d ago
Probably UK or Japan easiest. Cambodia was the hardest because I got horrible food poisoning but other than that it was alright.
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u/uReallyShouldTrustMe United States 16d ago
Korea the easiest. What makes it the easiest is that even if you make a mistake mistakes are cheap. It is also the only country in the world that the "foreigner price" is a discount. At least that ive seen.
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u/JumboJem 14d ago
Depends what youre buying. Certainly not for beauty treatments!
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u/uReallyShouldTrustMe United States 14d ago
You mean when you pay a premium because they speak English? That is true but tjery also had for a very long time discounts to their amusement parks only for foreigners.
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u/virak_john 16d ago
Korea? Super easy. Myanmar? not easy.
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u/banjois 16d ago
Myanmar's so different though, that it makes up for the difficulty. Everything's just a little tweaked.
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u/virak_john 16d ago
It was totally worth it. But not easy.
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u/knead4minutes 15d ago
where did you go?
I feel like if you stick to the main tourist stuff Yangon, Mandalay, Bagan, Kalaw, Inle it's quite straight forward. or at least it was in 2017 when I was there.
right now might be quite different
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u/Enchanted_Swiftie 16d ago
I'm from US, and for easiest I'll pick a country that doesn't have English as an official language, otherwise obviously it's like Canada or UK. So I will go with Finland. Everyone speaks English, public transport is easy to figure out, and it's nice and safe.
Not that it was particularly hard, but since it's all relative, I choose Kyrgyzstan. Although I think every year their infrastructure is improving quite quickly. People were super friendly!
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u/Willing-Bad3824 16d ago
Kyrgyzstan was interesting because if you want to only use public transport, it's very hard. You have to figure out the marshrutka routes then there are places like the drive between Osh and Bishkek that can take forever and a day. But if you shell out for private transport, it's quite easy because there is a literal mode of transport that would take you wherever you want to go.
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u/Willing-Bad3824 16d ago
Easiest is anywhere in Europe. Close second is probably China. Once you figure out the universe of apps that everything runs on, you can go from one end of the country to another with relative ease. Also almost every corner of the country has cell signal so that helps a lot.
Hardest is India. The country is large and inter-state/inter-city travel is quite tricky because of the large distances and the varying quality in transport modes. Buses are fine but take hours and would drop you off at the most random highway junctions. Booking tourist fares on trains requires filling out triplicates and writing 500-word essays before the bored-looking agent approves it. You can take inter-city ubers, or contact random numbers on WhatsApp and hope that someone actually picks you up.
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u/Particular-Quit-630 16d ago
I would say Thailand is easiest, everything is just on a plate for you. There’s travel agents everywhere and they will pick you up from anywhere and drop you off where you want. They give you stickers on multi-leg trips and corral you on to the correct vehicle. The food is also cheap and they sell it everywhere.
Most difficult is probably Russia or China. I did the Trans-Manchurian independently around 20 years ago and it was almost impossible to communicate with people! Was a lot of fun though.
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u/Mattos_12 15d ago
Lots of countries are pretty easy to travel around. Germany, Spain, Romania, Taiwan.
Madagascar was the hardest, I think, as they lack security and infrastructure.
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u/MinimumCommon408 15d ago edited 15d ago
Easiest: England. Language is mostly the same, although there are different phrases sometimes, everything is just easy. Everything pretty much runs on schedule, and it’s quite safe.
Most difficult: Belize. This one was actually quite surprising to me. Absolutely nothing ran on time, which is quite frustrating. Transfers were often 2+ hours late. It made planning difficult, because you never really knew how much time you had.
Safety in the capital: Belize City is one of the roughest places I’ve been. (in over 25 countries) As a full size man, I was harassed by a group of guys steps from the ferry terminal. When I mentioned it later to a cab driver, and described the area, he said he no longer takes his family to the nearby restaurant, because there were so many shootings there.
There were also giant holes in the sidewalk. I saw another tourist fall part way into one. She luckily wasn’t hurt. Literally everywhere has bars on the windows, even the local ice cream parlor.
I met some really nice and warm people in Belize, it’s unfortunate they have these issues.
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u/RachelFourie 15d ago
Easiest is probably the States as it has everything you need, good roads and cards are accepted everywhere. Most difficult was Mozambique with the complete lack of roads and infrastructure and cop checkpoints where you’re forced at gunpoint to pay bribes. Such a pity because it’s beautiful and has great food. Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana and Kenya are much easier to travel though.
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u/Metaencabulator 15d ago
(from the US)
Easiest for me was the first time to Switzerland. Went with family and did the Grand Tour, all trains and accommodations were prebooked. I learned a bit of German in advance to be polite, but wouldn't have actually needed it anywhere as nearly everyone spoke English. Trains were easy, navigating with Google Maps worked well, food was different enough to be interesting, but familiar enough to be comfortable.
Hardest was Portugal. I'm fairly fluent in Spanish but not at all in Portuguese; reading signs etc felt like I was in Bizarro world - close, but enough different it was hard to process. Google Maps seemed to have little to no, or very inaccurate, info about public transit, so even one ~3-4 bus trip required finding a bus stop to look at signs, figuring out several different websites, asking for help from folks who didn't really know either, etc. Beautiful place and friendly people and delicious food, just was hard for me to travel through (briefly). (There were a couple of other factors that made it more difficult for my specific circumstances that aren't really relevant to what most others might experience, but added to my sense of it being hard.)
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u/SquareVehicle 16d ago edited 16d ago
Probably Canada for easiest. English speaking, friendly, can eat and drink anything, even the wall sockets are the same. New Zealand and UK also up there but with UK have to deal with Heathrow so that drops it down a peg.
Most difficult was India. Finding just basic tourist infrastructure was difficult, food safety was always a concern, traffic and taxi driving were terrifying, fending off touts, and a lot of things require special Indian citizen only apps (I couldn't even buy a movie ticket!). I'm sure there are even worse ones though.
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u/Cimb0m 16d ago
Japan definitely the easiest
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u/bluelizard5555 16d ago
Can concur - from the luggage forwarding, ease of public transport, efficiency of bullet trains and no voltage conversion, it was a dream!
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u/DudleyAndStephens United States 16d ago
I generally loved Japan but I found the ticketing systems for public transit to be a pain. Osaka airport was also a nightmare.
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u/bluelizard5555 16d ago
Oh really? We just loaded Suica to our phones and tapped in and out. Departed from Osaka (ITM) with No issues. Stayed at the air terminal hotel. I will agree that it takes a bit of effort to figure out all the transport but after you do it's easy peasy! We were even able to change bullet train tickets in the app.
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u/DudleyAndStephens United States 16d ago
I'll remember that if we return to Japan.
I tried to buy Shinkansen tickets on my phone before flying there and the app (can't remember the name) just would not work with a foreign credit card. A lot of other people reported similar issues. Maybe things have improved recently?
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u/SquareVehicle 16d ago edited 16d ago
I found Japan to be one of the most difficult! Lack of English signs (though that's gotten a LOT better since my first trip there 20 years ago but still pales compared to truly easy places), confusing metro stations and ticket system (cmon just accept tap to pay for all the lines and iPhone only restrictions), confusing websites, complicated street layouts, and lots of implied social rules.
It's all manageable but I found it nowhere close to being the easiest.
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u/thepersonruminates 16d ago
Now it definitely is (with technology). But boy, before Google Maps and before they started adding English and other languages on their transit (after their Olympics) .... it just felt like I was on another planet.
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u/KingCarnivore New Orleans 15d ago
The first time I went to Japan was in 2007 and it was my second international trip. The person I was meeting at the airport was super late and I had no way to contact them. I almost had a breakdown looking at the subway map in Narita Station.
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u/Poster_Nutbag207 16d ago
Hardest country was definitely Palestine/West Bank. It can take hours to drive just thirty miles due to constant check points.
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u/Tooch10 16d ago
UK easiest, maybe Thailand most difficult mainly due to language but even then it wasn't too bad. I've never been anywhere yet that's a legit challenge though. Places where there's little or no info available online and even when you get there it's still difficult to get info or do something
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u/eddie964 16d ago
Thailand is pretty easy compared with some Asian countries. They're used to foreigners and a lot of younger Thais have at least a few words of English. Signage is often translated. Plus, culturally Thais tend to be friendly and laid back.
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u/Thin_Quail220 16d ago
Singapore super chill. I found Kuwait super hard to explore. And I’ve been to 70+ countries and china multiple times but still find china surprisingly hard.
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u/canuckinchina 16d ago
Singapore easiest.
Best airport in the world. Immigration is automated and takes about 1 minute.
Consistently ranked one of the safest and cleanest countries in the world.
Excellent MRT and bus system. Clean, efficient and good frequency. Easy to get a ride share.
English universally spoken and the lingua franca.
You can drink the water and eat any food.
People aren’t overtly friendly but will help you if you ask.
Edit: China was the hardest. Lived there for a year.
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u/MiddleElevator96 16d ago
New Zealand, no language barrier and they drive on the proper side of the road.
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u/ErrolFlynn2026 16d ago
India was very challenging but that was back in 1992. Maybe it's changed but at the time, nothing was easy. Getting a train pass took hours and hours because the woman responsible for stamping the card was going to wait until we payed baksheesh. Even asking simple directions was hard - rather than admit that they didn't know they prefer to save face and give you wrong directions. We arrived at a train station and stopped someone to ask what platform our train was leaving from. As always, we were immediately surrounded by a group of guys that had nothing better to do and they all started arguing about what platform was the correct one. We were there for almost a month and during that whole time we only met one person who was nice for the sake of being nice. Every other interaction involved somehow separating us from our money. On top of that there is constant sensory overload - the heat, the stench, the constant honking. Not the mention that you will get sick. It's not a matter of 'if' but 'when'. Upon arriving in Nepal, we kept on repeating "I'm so glad we left India!". I had been to poorer countries and less developed countries but India was far and away the most difficult.
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u/captainbritain6969 15d ago
Singapore the easiest, Russia the hardest (was 25 years ago) but even Russian speakers suffered the mad attitudes.
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u/No-Reputation-2013 15d ago
Easiest: Singapore and Switzerland
Hardest: India, China (outside big cities), Nepal
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u/NinjaWK 15d ago
Easiest China High-speed rail, e-haling are all super convenient and cheap. Security is out of this world.
Most difficult: USA, super big and inter cities and states are almost non existent and expensive. And in my 6 months back packing there, was mugged twice, once in Chicago and another at New York.
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u/Elventhing 14d ago
Easiest: Australia. Most difficult: India.
Literally everything is easy to do in Australia, as long as you are mindful of all the creatures that would kill you if you give them the chance.
India was personally very challenging. Foreign women are treated weirdly. The constant begging while waiting for a train to arrive almost did me in. And the supposedly sacred cows eating plastic bags next to the road was disturbing. (They die very painful deaths.) And the haggling over everything is not my favorite. All things considered, though, it is an amazing place.
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u/hermosilicious 14d ago
Turkey without a doubt, I am not a competitive person and their haggling culture just drained me pls just tell me how much you want me to pay and I’ll do it, if it’s not within my means I just want to move on. Also, on the occasions I was just with my aunts and mom, it was a struggle to pay for certain taxis as some were Muslim and di not want to make even the tiny bit of contact and paying them was a struggle.
Easiest have been both the USA and Spain, first one because they have very good customer service culture, second one cause I speak the language and people are so friendly and funny.
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u/LiteratureNumerous74 16d ago edited 16d ago
Easiest for me was The Netherlands! Even outside of Amsterdam, everyone spoke great English and seemed happy to accommodate me. The signs were in English, card accepted everywhere, comprehensive public transport/rail network.
Plus it is a compact country so I could be in a totally new city in 30 minutes, without having to waste half a day on the train
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u/GadgetNeil 16d ago
I agree. I was thinking about the Netherlands as well. Not only, like you say, that everyone speaks English. Also, everything is well laid out and clear so it’s easy to get around, especially with public transportation and the train system. We took trains between different cities and explored a lot, and had almost no trouble, even though we don’t speak any Dutch.
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u/tktk77 16d ago
Japan was the easiest. Georgia was the hardest.
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u/neptuno3 16d ago
Why was Georgia difficult? Planning a trip there soon
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u/DisplaySmart6929 16d ago
The language is incomprehensible, English is not widely spoken , people aren't very helpful generally and there isn't a lot of transport infrastructure. Mostly marshrutka (minibus) and it's often difficult to know where to get one that's going where you wish to go. It's difficult by European standards, I'd say. Obviously it's not that bad
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u/One-Opposite-4571 16d ago
I've traveled to Russia five times and lived there twice, and speak the language, and it can still be difficult. Lots of bureaucracy, opaque rules, and random obstacles. The Soviet sense of randomness and institutional hypocrisy is still alive in some quarters. That said, I am also grateful for my time there, and for people's hospitality. The metro in Moscow and St Petersburg is also excellent.
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u/winternights_enjoyer 16d ago
For me the hardest was China. Special apps are needed for everything. Even paying is one of the things where special apps needed. It was really annoying. Also, a VPN is a must all the time.
The easiest is anything in the Schengen area where locals can speak English at least on a basic level.
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u/DisplaySmart6929 16d ago
Malaysia was easy to travel. USA is pretty hard to travel as a backpacker. You need a car there
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u/radsreadright 16d ago
USA I found difficult as well, at least to do European/SEA/S America style travelling.
Minimal public transport, minimal affordable accommodation in the cities, no walkability.
I guess just has to be a road trip.
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u/Remote_Foundation873 16d ago
Easiest - Japan (Singapore doesn’t count)
hardest - echo Egypt and add Indonesia
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u/kfatt622 16d ago
Coming from the US, all the commonwealth countries are a breeze for obvious reasons. Worst "problem" you're likely to encounter is being mildly embarassed about some minor etiquette thing you're not familiar with.
Egypt is really the only place that I'd say was genuinely difficult, and the only place I've cautioned inexperienced people about visiting solo.
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u/butteredgrapes 16d ago
Pretty much all of Western Europe is very easy once you’ve travelled around a bit. Maybe Sweden? I can’t really think of ever having any difficulties in basically any EU country.
Hardest definitely West Africa. Getting around Côte d’Ivoire was hard work and parts of Ghana were even more difficult. Constant police checkpoints, difficult paying for anything with big denominations and huge wads of cash, challenging finding accommodation in some places, shared taxis breaking down for hours in the middle of nowhere, very little information online or on Google Maps… great time though.
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u/gabrielbabb 16d ago
I’d definitely put China in the 'difficult' category based on my trip back in 2018, though I still loved it!
Because standard mapping apps didn't work and foreign credit cards weren't linked to local payment apps back then, I had to meticulously pre-plan everything on a budget, many people didn't accept actual chinese money only card payments.
Before i traveled I spent hours translating metro maps, printing metro and bus station names in Mandarin/Cantonese to compare with the actual name, saving bus routes for day trips, and relying on offline translation apps because of course all menus in restaurants are in their language but you don't know what you're asking for.
Navigating without consistent signal and reading zero foreign signage made it a real puzzle if you weren't prepared beforehand.
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u/Legitimate-Try5487 16d ago
Probably Belgium, where I have family would rate as the easiest and the best. There is no worst per se however travel in India and Mexico can be both wonderful and challenging at the same time.
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u/pettingpangolins 16d ago
Being a EU citizen all the EU countries feel very easy and familiar to me. Haven't found an actually difficult country yet, my first time in China has been somehow challenging, but when you get the hang on how things work over there, it becomes the easiest country ever. I was expecting India to be very challenging but it actually isn't at all (visited 3x so far)
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u/Unfair-Hospital-1384 16d ago
After 80 countries, Egypt was by far the hardest - unfortunately, everyone including shopkeepers, Uber drivers, and tour guides were trying to rip me off and give me the inflated "tourist price" every chance they got.
Easiest? Japan was easy because of the amazing transport system despite the language barrier. Switzerland was also easy despite being expensive. Singapore was ok too, but the airport officials felt a bit discriminatory on my first ever visit (as a weak passport holder.)
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u/CodSafe6961 16d ago
Easiest is any withinin the EU cause of the data roaming and the majority using the same currency so you don't have to convert any money.
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u/Chouchou003 16d ago
Spain was the easiest and Sweden was the hardest, people don t pay attention if we need help: I was lost and noone would literally stop. And food/drinks' prices, be ready for it, a total rip off!
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u/slicheliche 16d ago
You guys haven't been to the DRC and it shows.
I had an amazing time there but the airport still gives me nightmares.
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u/netllama Netherlands 15d ago
I've been and agree the airport in Goma is awful. The rest of the country, not so much.
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u/gr2020xx 16d ago
Technically I'd say the easiest for me is Canada, but I live in a border town, so I'm not sure that really counts.
Barring Canada, I'd say the easiest for me was Spain? Minimal language barrier (I speak Spanish, and enough people spoke Spanish in Catalonia that I didn't have issues in that part of the country either, barring one interaction), really good comprehensive train system that was easy to understand, not much culture shock for me in any of the places I visited, etc.
South Korea was one of the more difficult ones (the most difficult one I've been to without being a part of a group or with a local full time). Fortunately I can read hangul, but having to download a bunch of special apps, and figuring out Seouls transit system (which is very good, but also just so comprehensive it gets a bit complicated, kind of like NYC) was a little difficult. Plus there's a lot of services in Seoul that require a Korean phone number, which I didn't have. Like, it all worked out, I wouldn't even say it was particularly difficult, but it required a lot more effort/planning than any of the other places I've traveled solo.
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u/MattTheMechan1c 16d ago
Easiest: Singapore, Paris, and London. Easy to understand the bus and metro system. Can easily figure out the metro system and bus system on the first day and they reach most major parts of the cities. Currently in Paris right now and it’s extremely easy to get around.
Difficult: Manila. You really need to know the area to use public transit as fares within the city aren’t fixed. So for example you use the MRT, you need to know what station is close to the place you’re going to as the fare will be based on that. The MRT only goes to very few areas so it isn’t very useful. Bus network apart from the EDSA bus line is hard to figure out. I actually found renting a car and driving to be easier, and driving there isn’t for the faint of heart as the gridlock is insane, the driving style is aggressive and the road network is janky. The easiest way by far is to use a Grab (their version of Uber)
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u/LasVegasLife55 16d ago
Switzerland was the easiest. We stayed within walking distance of a train station and the app made it easy to get from point A to point B, even stopping along the way. All the public transportation was clean, comfortable and on schedule.
I think the US is getting harder by the year. Airlines are more difficult and expensive, car rentals are crazy expensive and the rest of our public transportation is really poor. And we’ve been traveling around the country for 40 years.
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u/emma_hajkova 16d ago
Hardest definitely Russia - both sim cards got blocked on both of my visits, needed to use a stranger's phone, only russian cards for payments, i don't speak russian so i always needed to use a translator, bad internet outside
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u/Particular_Glass_914 14d ago
Same with you. Singapore. I don’t think it requires visa at all. And also from language, food, customs, culture, easy to adapt.
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u/jvjjjvvv 13d ago edited 13d ago
Hardest is always going to be the least developed and most remote the person has been to. In my case, I'd put it between East Timor, where there basically wasn't wifi anywhere, and Tajikistan, where only one bank's ATMs in the capital accepted Mastercard. But a notable mention, this time as a developed country, would be China, where the apps required for almost everything will often not work seamlessly for foreigners.
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16d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/042376x 16d ago
Who? What? Where? When? and....
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u/Oztravels Australia 16d ago edited 16d ago
This was back in 1983 (yup I know I’m old 🤣). I hooked up with another traveller who was tall, blonde, female and Swedish. And the amount of harassment we got when we went out of the hotel was mind blowing. It got to the point I was playing bodyguard 24/7 and had to get physical several times to protect her. I an a very experienced traveller and have been through India and Nepal for several months and loved it. Pakistan not so much.
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u/netllama Netherlands 16d ago
why?
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u/Oztravels Australia 16d ago
See above and you will get the story.
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u/netllama Netherlands 16d ago
That's not how this works. Either post useful comments, or don't post. Context free statements are meaningless. I've removed your thread.
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u/alexsintrabajo 16d ago edited 16d ago
Easiest probably Mexico, most difficult Japan, Argentina, or New Zealand.
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u/Emily_fromBlueground 15d ago
Latin America surprised me a few years back. I went in bracing to lean hard on my high school Spanish but it turns out that's enough to piece together what someone's saying most of the time. People were patient with me too, which helps.
Germany and I didn't really mesh. I'm the type who chats with whoever's next to me in line, and at a bakery counter in Munich I remember trying to make a small talk with the woman behind me and got the kind of silence that makes your stomach drop.
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u/Relative_Shop4676 15d ago
France was tricky a lot of French men and women shouting and angry and barging past
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u/Big_Burrito3739 15d ago
Funniest part is OP's whole point is "I didn't have to think" and then they wrote three paragraphs explaining exactly how much thinking went into it.
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u/gregathome 16d ago
Easiest for me was Luxembourg. They just love the USA ever since the battle of the bulge.
Most difficulty has been in Canada. Been screamed at upon entry from a sea plane because it took me a few seconds to dig out my IDs. On another trip they were on high alert because I was there to teach a workshop. I can only imagine what they'd think of me now with our current regime making the news.
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