Ghana's e-visa now asks 260 dollars before it asks your travel dates, topping the rankings of priciest tourist visas. But any ranking flattens three different charges into one column. Read the fee, not the headline.
- A visa is paid once, a per-night levy is paid every day you stay, a departure tax is paid on exit
- Bhutan is the costliest country to actually visit, but that weight is a 100-dollar nightly fee, not its flat 40-dollar visa, and Bhutan cut that fee in half
- Japan's fivefold visa hike spares every visa-free passport; a Western tourist just pays the 3,000-yen departure tax, bundled into the fare
- Check your own passport against the exemption list, and book on the government's own portal, not the lookalike sites above it in search
Follow the fee and you can usually see whom a country is pricing for.
