1 Suriname
Suriname is mostly just really difficult to get to. Geographically, it lies between Guyana and French Guiana, with the Brazilian Amazon to the south. Most of the population lives along the Caribbean coast, but vast parts of the country are rainforest.
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2 Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan is normally passed over by tourists for neighboring Iran. But it’s actually a flourishing country and is doing much better than many of its other post-Soviet Central Asian counterparts. This photo is of the capital Baku’s skyline.
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3 Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan is one of the many post-Soviet Central Asian ‘Stans, and like many of the other ‘Stans it’s experienced a fair amount of political instability since the end of the Cold War. It’s home to the beautiful Tian Shan mountain range.
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4 Namibia
Africa has relatively few economically and politically stable countries. But Namibia is one of them. It’s got a ton of awesome savannah for safari-goers who’re looking for something a little less busy than South Africa’s parks.
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5 Palau
The Pacific island nation of Palau is one of the smallest countries in the world and comprises 250 islands. It has incredible scuba diving, if you ever manage to get there.
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6 Bhutan
The country that’s famous for being the world’s happiest is also famously hard to visit. The visas fluctuate in price but as of this writing were $200 a day during high season. It’s worth it though. Bhutan’s been romanticized as an unspoiled Shangri-La.
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7 Kuwait
Kuwait’s probably best remembered in the West for being the site of Operation Desert Storm back in the early ’90s, but there’s a reason Saddam wanted to annex the country in the first place.
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8 Papua New Guinea
Unlike neighboring Indonesia, Papua New Guinea does not have a particularly dense population and is known for its incredibly diverse cultures and its dense jungle, which has allowed for many local tribes to remain basically untouched. This photo is of the Tavurvur volcano.
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9 Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein is one of the smallest countries in the world, sandwiched between Switzerland and Austria in the Alps. You probably haven’t been there unless you’re a millionaire who’s trying to hide your money in Vaduz, Liechtenstein’s tax-haven capital.
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10 Estonia
Estonia is one of those rare post-Soviet countries that turned into a great success. Turns out, it’s pretty easy on the eyes as well.
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11 Laos
Laos is probably the least frequently visited of the immensely popular Southeast Asian countries. Laos is pretty poor and is still feeling the aftereffects of the Vietnam War, which it came out of with a Marxist government, but like the rest of Southeast Asia, it’s still peppered with beautiful jungle and gorgeous Buddhist temples.
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12 Democratic Republic of Congo
The DRC’s had a rough few centuries. Its history since the Belgians took over in the 1870s has basically been a series of massacres, civil wars, and dictators. It’s now known, among other things, as “the rape capital of the world.” But it’s also home to huge swaths of the Congo rainforest, the second largest on the planet behind the Amazon and, as a result, some of the most spectacular flora and fauna in the world.
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13 Oman
Oman sits on the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula and tends to be the country mentioned in the news media the least among countries in that region. Which is probably not all a bad thing. This photo is of the Bimmah sinkhole, just outside the capital of Muscat.
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14 Antigua & Barbuda
Antigua & Barbuda is a small Caribbean island nation. It does have something of a tourism sector, but it tends to cater to the luxury crowd. So if you’re a budget traveler, you likely haven’t made it here yet.
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15 The Gambia
The Gambia is a tiny sliver of a country on the banks of the Gambia River. It’s surrounded on all sides by Senegal, except for the mouth of the river, which flows into the Atlantic. It’s a relatively stable country. This picture is at the Sheraton Resort there.
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16 Cuba
Okay, so if you’re not from the US, there’s a solid chance you’ve been here. But Cuba is still closed to Americans except in rare situations (at least until the Castro brothers die), and as a result of the American embargo it’s still caught in a 1960s time warp in many ways. Havana is world renowned for its old-style automobiles.
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17 Kazakhstan
In his attempts to critique British and American culture, Sacha Baron Cohen assumed the identity of a Kazakh reporter named Borat. The only loser in that scenario was Kazakhstan, which is the ninth-largest country in the world. Its tourism levels are inexplicably low, but growing.
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18 Nicaragua
Tourists tend to skip most of Central America between Guatemala and Costa Rica. This photo is of the volcanic island Ometepe in the middle of the country’s giant Lake Nicaragua.
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19 Moldova
Moldova is sandwiched between Ukraine and Romania and holds the distinction of being both the poorest country in Europe and the most unhappy country in the world. This picture is of the Nativity Cathedral in the nation’s capital, Chisinau.
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20 Eritrea
Eritrea, a tiny sliver of a country that broke off from Ethiopia, is ranked as the country with the least press freedom in the world, behind North Korea. But it also has the beautiful Eritrean highlands. Which are great to visit, if you’re not a reporter.
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21 St. Lucia
Tiny St. Lucia is an island in the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean, and though it does host a lot of tourists, most of them come by cruise ships. And that barely counts.
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22 Paraguay
In the heart of South America, Paraguay is usually passed over by tourists for its neighbors: Argentina, Brazil, and Bolivia. It’s known as “the Heart of America.”
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23 Somalia
There’s good reason for not having been to Somalia. It’s been in a state of civil war for over 20 years. As such, even the beautiful places are pockmarked with bullet and shell holes.
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24 Mauritius
Mauritius is one of those rare places that wasn’t discovered until Europeans stumbled on it during the Age of Exploration. There, they found gigantic, dumb birds that weren’t scared of humans. The now-infamous dodo bird is extinct. Mark Twain once said of the island, “Mauritius was made first and then heaven; and heaven was copied after Mauritius.” If you haven’t been there, it’s understandable. It’s in the middle of the Indian Ocean.
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25 San Marino
The story’s the same with San Marino as it is with Liechtenstein and Andorra. It’s basically a gorgeous tax haven. Oh, hey, and it’s surrounded by Italy. You could do worse.
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26 Tuvalu
Tuvalu is the third-least populous country in the world, behind Vatican City and (relatively) nearby Nauru. Tourism there is rare because of how far it is from literally everything.
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27 Sao Tome & Principe
Sao Tome & Principe is a tiny archipelago in the Gulf of Guinea off the coast of Gabon. This photo is of Pico Cao Grande, a volcanic plug that juts out of the landscape 1,000 feet up into the sky.
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28 Brunei
Brunei is a sultanate on the island of Borneo. It’s a great place to visit, but it just enacted some of the strictest anti-gay, homophobic laws in the world. This is a picture of the Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque in the capital Bandar Seri Begawan.
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29 North Korea
Yep, there are even beautiful spots in the infamous hermit kingdom. Granted, if you’re an American, you’re going to have a particularly hard time getting a visa, but if you’re not, there’s an okay chance you’ll be able to book a very controlled, surreal tour of the capital Pyongyang, as well as some well-selected surrounding villages. The picture above is of Heaven Lake, on the North Korea/China border.
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30 The Marshall Islands
The Marshall Islands is another extremely remote island nation in the Pacific made up primarily of coral atolls and small islands. It’s not known for a booming tourism industry, and it’s probably one of the states on this list you’re least likely to have visited.
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31 Slovenia
Slovenia occupies an interesting region of Europe. It basically acts as a crossroads between Western and Eastern Europe and between much of the north and south. The only reason it gets passed over by tourists is because its neighbors are Italy, Austria, Croatia, and Hungary.
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32 Burundi
Though Burundi lacks the notorious past of its neighbors Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it remains one of the five poorest countries in the world. This photo was taken on the banks of Lake Tanganyika (which is the namesake of neighboring country Tanzania).
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33 Andorra
Andorra is a tiny state sandwiched between Spain and France in the Pyrenees. Like most European microstates, it’s a tax haven and per capita is one of the richest countries in the world.
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