5 Visa Friendly Destinations for Indians

I’m superbly excited about my upcoming Anglo-Irish vacation, that will cover a largely enchanting landscape. Starting from the modern wonder of a city adorning the banks of Thames, chasing feathers down the Clyde in Glasgow and finally embarking upon a wild eachtraíochta along the West Atlantic coast of boisterous Ireland. As rosy as it sounds, the planning process in itself wasn’t entirely smooth-sailing. I’ve never traveled outside of India on my own, I’m a recently employed, unmarried guy (yes, 2years is still ‘recent’), I demonstrate no inclination towards pursuing further education and by all means, qualify for a ‘potential long-term immigrant’ as far as UK border control is concerned. A meticulous application process, however ensured I bagged my Tourist UK visa without setbacks of any kind. Want to know how I planned my application process? [Read: Simple Guide for a Tourist UK Visa]

We live in strange times where tourism helps dissolve boundaries and growing security/economic concerns dictate stringent foreign policy on immigration. Visas for some of the developed countries in the world aren’t the easiest to avail, especially if you hail from developing countries like India. For instance, I’ve always wanted to travel to Iran, a country that offers visa on arrival for travelers from several countries, but not India.

Unfortunately, India’s visa & immigration policies also leave a lot to be desired for. Here’s an interesting stat I recently came across:

In a recently published list of nationalities that can avail visa free access, India ranks 74th with 52 countries offering a friendly embrace to Indian passports as compared to 173 countries out of 219 for Finland which ranks 1st on this list.

That, honestly is a staggering statistic for people considering fresh lives as perennial travelers. Admittedly, as your travel footprint becomes more defined and you collect more stamps across your passport, immigration becomes easier to clear – but for beginners, entry in itself can be a huge factor . For the benefit of those that are new and want to find their feet with exploring more welcoming lands, we’ve put together 5 wonderful, visa friendly destinations for the offbeat Indian traveler.

Take Me to Those Destinations Pretty-Please!