Once you get past the border guards, nothing could be much further from the truth, but if you are prepared to judge an entire nation at second hand and on the basis of the 0.001pc of it which sits in immigration booths at the border, it's your loss, not theirs.
I go once a year in October. Four years in a row a while back, I handed over my passport at check-in and suddenly everyone seemed to be taking evasive action. The first time it happened, the woman behind the counter visibly paled when she ran it through the machine, and started reaching around...
Definitely get a visa, or at least go as far as the Embassy to find out if you need one. The potential downside of risking it is simply too great. Would you do a parachute jump if the risk of a faulty parachute was 1 in 10?
The form is a pain but if you get one of the 8.30 appointments and make...