# Best countries to "run away" to? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 17, 2020, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-countries-to-run-away-to/855830 "2020-06-17T04:30:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![russian\_heel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f05b48/32.png) [@russian\_heel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/russian_heel)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2020, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-countries-to-run-away-to/855830/1 "2020-06-17T04:30:40Z")
Lets assume no world pandemics. It would have to be from this list (which is a few years old): > **[Countries with no extradition treaty with US](https://www.wsfa.com/story/22665099/countries-with-no-extradition-treaty-with-us/)** > > These countries currently have no extradition treaty with the United States: So let’s say for some unknown reason, I had to suddenly leave the United States with a nest egg dumped into some international bank and no desire to return. Not, OF COURSE, for illegal reasons.:dubious: I’d prefer a fairly modern country in a comfortable climate with a corruptible system where I could “buy my way” in with a one time payment, not get fucked with, maybe set up a nice little house and a job or business. A safe country with a halfway decent human rights record would be nice, too. A few that jump out on the above list: **Cape Verde** This is my #1 choice so far. Tropical, safe from crime, checks all the boxes except one: its apparently not safe to swim in the ocean there. I want to take my dip while on the run, dammit! **PR China** HEAR ME OUT- yes the human rights thing is a big minus. But many parts of China are very westernized and capitalist. If you get an approval to travel you have beaches, mountains, jungles, deserts and topography as diverse as the United States. **Indonesia** Another troublesome country, but it also has Bali. Party time! **Montenegro** Other than Moldova (YUCK) and freezing Russia (double YUCK) besides tiny Andorra seems to be the only European country on the list. I’ve heard great things about the scenery and beaches. Only negative is they joined NATO, which might mean the no-extradition thingy may be a thing of the past. **United Arab Emirates** Dubai? Abu Dhabi? Yes please. The heat and a Muslim dictatorship? Not sure about THAT. **Vietnam** Seems to be a romantic “go to” place to run away on a couple TV shows. I’m sure great beaches and food, not sure if I trust the government . . . **Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Vanuatu or Samoa** Who WOULDN’T want to spend their last days in exile in the Pacific? Only downside is most of these countries may be under water in a decade or two. Morocco and Comoros also jumped out at me but I don’t know enough about those countries. What country would you like to “exile” to that does not have an extradition treaty with the United States? ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2020, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-countries-to-run-away-to/855830/2 "2020-06-17T06:07:05Z")
I keep coming back to South Korea… ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2020, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-countries-to-run-away-to/855830/3 "2020-06-17T06:20:32Z")
> [@Horatio\_Hellpop](#): > > I keep coming back to South Korea… The OP specifies that the country must not have an extradition treaty with the US and links to a list of countries without such a treaty (in 2015). South Korea is not on the list. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2020, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-countries-to-run-away-to/855830/4 "2020-06-17T12:38:28Z")
Moldova is lovely, especially Chisinau, but pretty rustic elsewhere. Kazakhstan cought my eye, I was disappointed Kyrgyzstan was not on the list. I think Cambodia is still a plus. Brunei is the hidden gem, it would be a great place to live. But very restrictive visa policy, you’d have to marry a citizen, who would be Muslim. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2020, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-countries-to-run-away-to/855830/5 "2020-06-17T14:38:57Z")
Out of that crowd of… less than optimal countries, I’d think Russia, Ukraine and the UAE might be the best; they’re all modern, industrialized nations, and you’d have all the creature comforts of home. And Russia in particular would have no interest in cooperating with Uncle Sam in the least on your behalf. I mean, the Vatican City would be awesome, assuming you didn’t actually have to spend every minute IN the Vatican City. Living in Rome (for all intents and purposes) doesn’t sound bad at all. But if you had to worry about getting snatched off the street by the Italian cops or carabinieri and remanded to US custody, I think I’d pass on the Vatican. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2020, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-countries-to-run-away-to/855830/6 "2020-06-17T23:38:09Z")
I have a couple Greek friends who swear by Greece. Granted, it helps if you already have family money and property there, so I don’t know if that helps the OP. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2020, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-countries-to-run-away-to/855830/7 "2020-06-17T23:50:56Z")
The PRC is an Orwellian nightmare. Society is run by a Social Credit System. No thank you. [Social Credit System - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Credit_System) > [@](#): > > The social credit initiative calls for the establishments of unified record system for individuals, businesses and the government to be tracked and evaluated for trustworthiness.[11][12][13][14] Initial reports suggest the system utilizes numerical score as the reward and punishment mechanism > [@](#): > > As of November 2019, in addition to dishonest and fraudulent financial behavior, other behavior that some cities have officially listed as negative factors of credit ratings includes playing loud music or eating in rapid transits,[31] violating traffic rules such as jaywalking and red-light violations,[32][33] making reservations at restaurants or hotels but not showing up,[34] failing to correctly sort personal waste,[35][36][37] fraudulently using other people’s public transportation ID cards, > [@](#): > > As of June 2019, according to the National Development and Reform Commission of China, 26.82 million air tickets as well as 5.96 million high-speed rail tickets have been denied to people who were deemed “untrustworthy (失信)” (on a blacklist) > [@](#): > > **Certain personal information of the blacklisted people is deliberately made accessible to the society and is displayed online as well as at various public venues such as movie theaters and buses,[45][46][47][48] while some cities have also banned children of “untrustworthy” residents from attending private schools and even universities** ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2020, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-countries-to-run-away-to/855830/8 "2020-06-18T00:56:52Z")
> [@russian\_heel](#): > > se as the United States. > > **Indonesia** > Another troublesome country, but it also has Bali. Party time! Eh. I love Indonesia dearly and lived there for 17 years. But the health care sucks, you’ll never fully blend into the local culture(s), and you need to be pretty fluent in Indonesian to get around unless you only travel in very rarefied circles. If you are white you’ll be regarded as filthy rich whether you are or not, and you’ll be expected to support household staff, relatives of your local spouse if you have one, and you’ll pay a lot more than the locals do for just about everything. Plus, if you are not retirement age your visa options are limited and expensive. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2020, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-countries-to-run-away-to/855830/9 "2020-06-18T01:12:29Z")
Montenegro seems to be the only one on the list with a decent climate… ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2020, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-countries-to-run-away-to/855830/10 "2020-06-18T02:03:49Z")
> **[São Tomé & Príncipe travel](https://www.lonelyplanet.com/sao-tome-and-principe)** > > Explore São Tomé & Príncipe holidays and discover the best time and places to visit. Sao-tome-and-Principe is on the no extradite list and looks like one of the most beautiful places on the face of the world to spend my ill-gotten gains. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2020, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-countries-to-run-away-to/855830/11 "2020-06-18T03:20:23Z")
Of those, I like Bosnia (beautiful scenery there, I loved Sarajevo and Mostar–I enjoy the food and the language is easy for me to learn, as I speak another Slavic language). I’ve never been to Ukraine, but that would probably be #2 for me. I have a lot of Ukrainian friends, the language, once again, will be easy for me to learn, and I have heard very good things about it from my non-Ukrainian friends as well. After that, I don’t know. I’ve never thought I would say Russia, but after visiting there three times, I actually do think I would settle in nicely there. I hated Moscow the first time I visited, but grew fond of it the next two times. I expect I’d be much more enamoured with St. Petersburg and, yeah, I like the cold, snow, all that. And plenty to explore out there. And, once again, language I can learn. Hashing my thoughts out as I write them, I suspect intellectually and culturally, a place like St. Petersburg would probably be the strongest fit for me. So maybe I’ll make that my first choice. I’m not interested in ending up at an island – that bores the ever-living bejesus out of me. I know my choices are very Slav-centric, but that’s the places I’d have the easiest time adjusting to, of that list, and two of the three are places I’ve already visited and have some idea of the lay of the land. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2020, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-countries-to-run-away-to/855830/12 "2020-06-18T12:05:19Z")
> [@UDS](#): > > The OP specifies that the country must not have an extradition treaty with the US and links to a list of countries without such a treaty (in 2015). The OP hid that criterion well, dumping it under his “Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Vanuatu or Samoa” header, which one would only need to read if one was interested in the pluses and minuses of those island nations. And the OP had “Not, OF COURSE, for illegal reasons” at the top, which strongly implies the **absence** of a need for no extradition treaty. Anyhow, we now know that the OP includes that criterion, but if anyone got the wrong idea right off the bat, it was the OP’s fault, not that of the reader. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2020, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-countries-to-run-away-to/855830/13 "2020-06-18T12:23:18Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > [São Tomé & Príncipe travel - Lonely Planet | Africa](https://www.lonelyplanet.com/sao-tome-and-principe) > > Sao-tome-and-Principe is on the no extradite list and looks like one of the most beautiful places on the face of the world to spend my ill-gotten gains. A few selected camera angles do not make an entire nation beautiful. I haven’t been there, but on the ground, I wouldn’t expect Sao Tome to look or feel much different from Gabon or Cameroon… ---
**Author:** ![Isosleepy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/isosleepy/32/479_2.png) [@Isosleepy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isosleepy)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2020, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-countries-to-run-away-to/855830/14 "2020-06-18T13:09:40Z")
It’s a good thing you’re not needing this because of “illegal reasons”, as some of these countries will extradite your ass regardless of the lack of a treaty, and in some others there is very little to stop the US from just grabbing you. (My post is my cite - very little in the way of clear proof of this in a quick internet search - but I remember an acquaintance of an acquaintance coming back from Andorra to stand trial, not of their free will) The list gets bigger if avoiding extradition is, in fact, key: Cuba has a treaty with the US but rarely (never?) honors extradition requests. Some countries don’t extradite their citizens, like Brazil. Get a 2nd passport… And some countries tend to be… unenthusiastic… about granting extradition requests, like Iceland, for example. No guarantee you won’t be on a plane with a couple surly guys handcuffed to you, but lower odds than say, in England or Mexico. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2020, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-countries-to-run-away-to/855830/15 "2020-06-18T13:40:55Z")
What you really want is a looming death penalty risk back home, then you can float around any country in the EU as they won’t extradite you. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2020, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-countries-to-run-away-to/855830/16 "2020-06-18T13:42:59Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > I have a couple Greek friends who swear by Greece. Granted, it helps if you already have family money and property there, so I don’t know if that helps the OP. Greece is lovely if you’ve got money. Not so great if you need to earn a living. I find the food a bit repetitive after a while too. Also not sure it fits the OP’s criteria as it’s in the EU. ---
**Author:** ![Oredigger77](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oredigger77/32/3181_2.png) [@Oredigger77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oredigger77)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2020, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-countries-to-run-away-to/855830/17 "2020-06-18T15:28:28Z")
From the non extradition list I’d pick Ukraine. My grandfather is from there so I’ll blend in a little in the looks category and in theory I’ve got some aunts, uncles and cousins that are still there and at least knew my grandfather when he went and visited but I wouldn’t count on nay help there. I’ve also got business contacts and could probably get a job fairly easy with them. Southern Ukraine doesn’t have terrible weather so I’d be aiming just outside of Odesa. If I was actually on the run for US law enforcement I would head to Northern Paraguay. It is basically a lawless region of the world where 1/3 of the illegal marijuana is grown and a lot of the brazilian drug lords hang out. I’ve got some work I could do right on the edge of the lawless region that would keep me well paid but off of the radar of anyone since it is pretty easy to get in and out of the country without anyone knowing. If the whole extradition thing wasn’t an issue I’d be heading to Chile. In general, if I can ever convince my wife to bail on the US that’s where I want to head and go live on the coast in wine country and spend my days making brandy. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2020, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-countries-to-run-away-to/855830/18 "2020-06-18T19:09:12Z")
> [@SanVito](#): > > What you really want is a looming death penalty risk back home, then you can float around any country in the EU as they won’t extradite you. No, that’s not how it works. They will make extradition conditional on the requesting country not applying the death penalty. If the requesting country waived the death penalty and instead seeks life imprisonments without parole, extradition can occur. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2020, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-countries-to-run-away-to/855830/19 "2020-06-24T05:21:21Z")
EU countries may not extradite you, but after 6 months they will escort you to the nearest airport and put you on the next departing plane tp Jiddah or Lagos. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-countries-to-run-away-to/855830/20 "2021-01-25T05:50:52Z")
I have spent time in several of the countries on the list. Of them, I would pick Indonesia or Nepal. Vietnam is great to visit, but I’m not sure I would want to live there. And I know of Westerners who have moved from Thailand to Vietnam who have started to agree with that sentiment. Cambodia might be a doable choice, but Indonesia and Nepal just feel safer. One think about Nepal though. Now, I don’t know if this still holds true, but I looked into a job there back in the 1990s but ultimately decided to stick with Thailand. But it was made clear to me that foreign nationals could only live in Nepal for nine months out of the year. I’d have to go somewhere else the other three months. That was almost 30 years ago though, and things may have changed. But I really enjoyed Nepal – although Indonesia has better food.