Best passport?
 

Which is the best passport to carry?

who are the lucky adventure bikers that roam the world with the easy pass?
...and which passport is a printed pain in...?

Yoni

Small European countries are good I think.

Belgium is good, Maybe Switserland and Luxembourgh are better?

A Dutch passport is pretty good too, I would say. Have been using it for almost 30 years all around the world without any problems.

Cheers,
Dirk

------------------
Everytime people see me it´s a KODAK moment!

You only need 3 visas (Egypt, Sudan, Malawi)to travel through the whole of Eastern Africa on a Namibian passport.

I had considered the possibility of using my dual nationally to get a Danish passport for my 2007 rtw. But recent events have caused me to have a re-think!

If I had a choice, I would take an EU passport with Irish citizenship. This would be a very neutral setup, and would be easier to get visas.

Best passport to carry? A valid one.

New Zealand passport is great to travel on - we are to small and insignificant to have annoyed other nations. Often find visas much cheaper on the Kiwi passport if required at all.

Why ask though? You don't get to choose what passport(s) you can get...

Australia is not a bad one, no one seems to notice that we're hanging off the coat tails of Dubbya.
Sean

I agree: Australian passports are good.
I remember when they were about go into Iraq, I was in the states; they had maps in their news showing who was for the invasion. The UK and the US were coloured but not Australia.
In Australia, we had the same maps with us coloured in...For travelling purposes, I'm glad no one looks past our beaches and kangaroos at our politics.

Any exotic unimportant country is good.

I also have a French passport and that was good to go the US: cheaper entry.

The best passport is the one half full of valid visas. The other pages are blank, ready for stamps.

If you can get dual citizenship - do it. That way you can choose either nationality - I chose the cheapest one for the place I'm going to.


[This message has been edited by Frank Warner (edited 28 February 2006).]

Hi, I am a bulgarian living in Spain.
The best passport would be a french or UK.
The worst would be a ucrainean, chinese or iranian.
The bulgarian is somewhere between the two extremes, you don't need visas for countries like Morocco, Ecuador, Chile or Croatia, but need them for countries like UK, Irealnd, USA or Senegal.

iraqi

no on a serious note... i am born indian bred in the uk....both nation have dual nationality.... between the both of them never really have any problems anywhere really.


[This message has been edited by ramanatwal (edited 10 March 2006).]

Worst passport
 

Hello,

I bet the best passport to travel on is the NZ one, though I am not sure. I can however tell you what the worst passport to travel on from America is. That would be my passport, a Colombian one, which even full of valid visas is no guarantee for entry into a country since almost everywhere they think we are smuggling drugs.

A Citizen of the World Passport has to be the best, or at least was. There was a draft dodging American living in Amsterdam in the 70s who made a living selling these passports to his gullible compatriots who had lost their passports due to avoiding conscription for Vietnam.

Hmmm, anyone interested in a Citizen of the World Passport - I accept Paypal, VISA, AMEX and cash in a brown paper bag?

hi guys,

the first answer was the right one. a small European countries passport, e.g. Sweden, Belgium or Luxemburg, maybe Ireland or the Netherlands.

the worst passports for travelling are: Colombia, Peru, most African nations, Russia, USA ...

but most of us did not choose the passport, because it was given to them by the country that they were born. And some people dont even get a passport, e.g. citizens of Cuba, Northern Korea ....

Edited by Mika, who travelled the world 1999 - 2005 on a German passport

Greetings

Best passport???

A Diplomatic one...No hassle anywhere...

Definitely Irish. We only fight amongst ourselves and have never invaded anywhere. :smile3:

Yes, I'm new. No, I don't have a bike...although I did have a go on a friends and managed to crash it within 5 minutes..... and being a selfish cow I only joined in the hope of getting a lift to Mauritania.

An Irish passport actually isn't good EVERYWHERE. I've been living in Colombia for a couple of years, where they require visas for Irish citizens, but not for almost anybody else.

Turns out that a few years back the Colombian government found out that the IRA had sold at least a few guns and bombs to the FARC (the marxist guerilla force that has been terrorizing Colombia for about 40 years), and threw in some military training as well. The visa isn't difficult to obtain, but you can't just show up at the border and cruise right in. They might spend a little time search the bike (and hard to reach body crevices) for some pocket-rocket-launchers.

I'm a dual citizen with the USA and New Zealand....and yes, I usually use my NZ passport, depending on how much time they'll give each citizenship in which ever country I'm entering. But the US one actually isn't that bad, at least not regarding hassle etc crossing borders. In some countries you might not want to tell some people that you're from the US, especially if they're toting a large fire-arm and wearing an anti Bush T-shirt, but in general I haven't had any problems.

I'll still stick to the NZ one however, just to make things a little easier should I happen to run into that marxist guerilla when I'm hitting up dirt tracks in the Colombian jungle.

passports
 

Mika, I know what you mean about small European countries having "good" passports, but if you ever take the train from Malmo to Kiruna, you'll never call Sweden a small country again! (and I'm sure you meant population-wise, I'm only remembering that long trip). My wife is Swedish and has had great luck around the world with her passport. I would disagree with you about the American passport being bad for travel, I've never had a passport problem in more than 40 countries. Having said that, there are some areas in the world I might visit with a Swedish passport that I wouldn't visit with an American passport (my application is currently underway with the Swedish government). Ride safe everyone, Dave.

Mercosur passport & mentioning Maradona
 

I have travelled around Africa, Europe, South America and the US for the past 10 - 15 years (only recently so on a bike during my Nigeria - Ghana trip) and have learnt to appreciate the advantages of my Argentinean passport.

1. No hassles in Europe or the US as long as you can provide a convincing explanation as to why you are visiting and why you will not overstay.
2. Can back up your low profile, I'm not rich approach when in Sub-Saharan Africa much better than an European or US passport would. Note: It won't work if you are sitting on a '06 1200GS
3. When in football (soccer in the US) loving countries, you can always get the meanest customs officers to smile and go easy on you by mentioning Maradona.
4. Not many people really know where Argentina is nor are they aware of our position on any conflicts.
5. You won't need visas that others don't apart from the US one and regional exceptions (eg: Nigerians travelling to Benin).

Note: probably a Brazilian passport would do the job marginally better on point 3 above as Maradona's era is long gone and Ronaldinho is much more widely known these days.

1. Swiss - Holland
2. Norwegian - Finnish - Swedish
3. Canada
4. I am not sure about NZ and Aus !

Official
 

Here is official ranking for 2009:
Denmark may have slipped since due to events last year, so looks like Finland Ireland and Portugal.

Score is based on number of countries where a passport holder does not need a visa to enter.


Rank
Score Rank
Score 1 Denmark 157 14 Malta 139 2 Finland 156 24 Israel 118 2 Ireland 156 17 Hungary 131 2 Portugal 156 20 Argentina 127 3 Belgium 155 23 Brazil 122 3 Germany 155 26 Romania 115 3 Sweden 155 27 Mexico 114 3 United States 155 29 Croatia 108 4 Canada 154 35 South Africa 88 4 Italy 154 38 St. Kitts & Nevis 84 4 Japan 154 42 Turkey 75 4 Luxembourg 154 44 Dominica 71 4 Netherlands 154 53 Russian Federation 60 4 Spain 154 54 Taiwan 59 5 Austria 153 61 Thailand 52 5 Norway 153 61 United Arab Emirates 52 6 France 152 70 Saudi Arabia 42 6 United Kingdom 152 72 Bosnia and Herzegowina 40 7 Australia 151 75 India 37 8 New Zealand 150 78 Egypt 34 8 Singapore 150 79 China 33 9 Greece 149 82 Jordan 30 9 Switzerland 149 83 Korea, Dem People's Republic 29 10 Iceland 146 87 Pakistan 25 11 Malaysia 145 87 Iran 25 12 Korea, Republic of 144 88 Iraq 23 13 Liechtenstein 140 89 Afghanistan 22 14 Cyprus 139

Out of left field ...
 

NZ and AUS not good, because you need visas for just about everywhere. I have an Aus passport and avoid using it for that reason.

French passport seems good ... much cheaper visas for many countries than other passports. Schengen passports can get 5 year visas in Russia. British can only get 1 year visas.

One passport no-one has mentioned ... the Kazakh passport. All of the CIS and every muslim country in the world is visa free. One schengen visa will cover almost all of Europe.

Passport
 

For me a good one is a valid Brazilian passport i hv been all over world with no problem , they always start talk about football at the borders hehehehe and forget about other question hehehehe.
Big Foot on 2 wheels