Rating Every Country We’ve Traveled To
During the COVID-19 shutdown we were at home and looking for ways to stay entertained, so I asked my wife and kids to rate every country they’ve been to from 1 to 10. I added in my votes and ranked every country that had at least two votes. The goal: come up with a list of the best countries to visit, at least from our experience.
Everyone could vote based on any criteria. In general the ratings were consistent from person to person, but there were some definite outliers – places where one person remembered things differently than the others. In a family of five, you can’t always keep everyone happy. We had some fun discussions when people disagreed!
Our Top 20 Countries (the 20 Best Countries to Visit)
In order to give you family travel ideas, here are our top 20 countries to travel to. Keep in mind that at the time we created this list our girls were 10 and 14 and our son was 12, and they had been to 62 countries. We split our travels between cities and nature and add in frequent cultural activities and cooking classes. We don’t go to a lot of museums or concentrate on history. Likewise we don’t spend full days at the beach or shopping.
Five continents are represented in our top 20. Australia came in at number 21, and our top African country is the Seychelles at 29.
Note that I’m including the average score after every destination.
20. The Netherlands (7.3)
Favorite Places: Amsterdam, the Keukenhof Gardens and the tulip fields throughout the country in the spring.
Relevant Blog Posts: None. Amsterdam is usually a 1-2 day layover for us, although even 8-hour layovers allow you to get a good feel for the city. We love Amsterdam but I’ve never written about it.
19. Chile (7.4)
Favorite Places: Patagonia, the Atacama Desert and Easter Island. Santiago is fun for a day or two as well.
Relevant Blog Posts: Spring Break in Patagonia | Chile’s Atacama Desert with Kids | Easter Island with a 6-Year-Old
15 (tie). Antarctica (7.5)
Favorite Places: Antarctica isn’t, strictly speaking, a country, but it’s an amazing place to visit with or without kids. We’ve taken our kids at 8 and 12 and loved everything about it.
Relevant Blog Posts: Antarctica with an 8-Year-Old; Adventures By Disney Antarctica: A Magical Expedition; An Antarctica Packing List
15 (tie). Indonesia (7.5)
Favorite Places: Indonesia is mainly about Bali for us, since my daughters love the island, but Borobudur is amazing as well. We want to keep exploring.
Relevant Blog Posts: Bali with Kids | How to Visit Borobudur
15 (tie). Norway (7.5)
Favorite Places: We love Oslo and Bergen, especially in the summer, and the Norway in a Nutshell tour is a great way to travel between them. The fjords are gorgeous as well, and Tromsø in the arctic circle is a good way to experience the midnight sun.
Relevant Blog Post: Oslo with Kids. Most of my Norwegian travels were pre-kids and I haven’t written about them.
15 (tie). Sweden (7.5)
Favorite Places: Stockholm and Gothenburg are both great cities to explore for a few days, but we love the coastal towns and the forests of Central Sweden.
Relevant Blog Posts: Exploring the Magical Forests of Central Sweden | The Icebug Xperience West Coast Trail
14. Turkey (7.6)
Favorite Places: Istanbul and Cappadocia. And we loved our day on a gulet near Bodrum.
Relevant Blog Posts: Istanbul with Kids | An Amazing Trip to Cappadocia with Kids | Bodrum with Kids
13. Switzerland (7.7)
Favorite Places: My wife and I have traveled all over Switzerland pre-marriage and loved all of the small towns – places like Interlaken, Crans-Montana and Luzern – and I recently hiked and biked from Engelberg to Interlaken. With the kids we’ve only explored Zurich on layovers and Lake Lugano on a day trip from Como. Definitely one of the best countries to visit – we just need to plan more Swiss trips with the kids.
Relevant Blog Post: Hiking in Switzerland: Engelberg to Interlaken
12. The Maldives (7.8)
Favorite Places: Six Senses Laamu in the Laamu Atoll.
Relevant Blog Posts: Six Senses Laamu in the Maldives: Our New Favorite Resort Anywhere | A Return to Paradise
11. Canada (7.9)
Favorite Places: Vancouver, Banff and Winnipeg and the surrounding areas. Victoria on Vancouver Island is fun as well.
Relevant Blog Post: Manitoba, Canada with Kids. All of our other Canada trips were before I started writing about our travels.
10. Croatia (8.0)
Favorite Places: Zagreb and Plitvice National Park. We still need to get to Krka National Park and Dubrovnik.
Relevant Blog Posts: Croatia With Kids: Zagreb and Plitvice Lakes
9. Brazil (8.3)
Favorite Places: The Amazon Rainforest and the Rio Negro. Manaus is worth a day or two as well. We haven’t been to Rio yet.
Relevant Blog Posts: The Amazon Rainforest with Kids: A Magical (Unplugged) Expedition
7 (tie). Laos (8.5)
Favorite Places: We’ve only been to Luang Prabang and loved it. We need to explore the rest of the country.
Relevant Blog Post: Asia with Kids: A Crazy Three-Week, Six-Country Itinerary
7 (tie). Japan (8.5)
Favorite Places: Tokyo, Kyoto, Naoshima Island and Hiroshima
Relevant Blog Posts: Kyoto to Hiroshima, a 10-Day Journey | 10 Places Not to Miss in Tokyo | Tokyo with Kids Made Easy | Kyoto with Kids | Hokkaido: Adventure in Northern Japan
6. Portugal (8.7)
Favorite Places: Lisbon, Cascais and Sintra. Still haven’t visited Porto or the Douro Valley.
Relevant Blog Posts: None. Definitely one of the best countries to travel to, but our trips have largely been focused around weddings.
5. New Zealand (8.8)
Favorite Places: The South Island. We’ve explored it far more than the North Island, even though we’ve visited Auckland several times.
Relevant Blog Posts: None. We need to go back and see more, and I’ll write about it next time!
3 (tie). Faroe Islands (9.0)
Favorite Places: Torshavn, Tjørnuvik, Saksun, Gjógv, Mykines
Relevant Blog Post: An Amazing Week in the Faroe Islands (with Kids)
3 (tie). France (9.0)
Favorite Places: Paris, Provence
Relevant Blog Posts: The Best Things to Do in Paris with Kids | Tips for Visiting Paris on a Budget | 10 Tips for a Perfect Family Vacation in Paris
2. Italy (9.1)
Favorite Places: Florence, the Dolomites, Venice, Cortona, Cinque Terre, Rome, Lake Como, Ravenna, San Gimignano
Relevant Blog Posts: Florence with Kids: What to Do and Where to Stay | Our Favorite Restaurants in Florence | How to Visit Cinque Terre | Positano Italy (and the Amalfi Coast) | Why You Should Never Do a Day Trip to Florence or Rome | A Week in Florence without Kids | A Perfect Trip to Florence with Kids | Venice in High Season with Kids | Italy Unplugged: A Week in Emilia Romagna | Hiking the Via Francigena Through Tuscany | Kid-Friendly Adventure in Trentino’s Stunning Val di Fassa | Adventures with Kids in the Dolomites: Trentino’s Val di Fiemme | Two Weeks on Lake Como with Kids | A Villa in Tuscany for a Month
1. Greece (9.8)
Favorite Places: Naxos, Paros and Crete (or pretty much any Greek island in the summer, unless it sees a lot of cruise ships)
Relevant Blog Posts: Naxos Greece: Our Favorite Island | Three Weeks on the Greek Island of Naxos with Kids | A Day Trip from Naxos to Santorini | Paros Greece with Kids
The Best Countries to Visit: Your Turn
What are the best countries to visit from your family’s experience? Do you agree/disagree with our ranking? Would love to hear your thoughts on the best countries to travel to in the comments below.
And I should note that a lot of people are finding this post when Googling “coolest countries to visit”. So I did a separate post on the coolest countries.
Travel Insurance and Credit Cards
We never used to travel with travel health coverage, or even trip cancellation insurance, but we regretted that when my wife broke her knee traveling recently. I write about it here. I highly recommend purchasing insurance – either on an annual basis if you travel a lot, or for individual trips. We went with G1G based on price and what they offer.
And if you don’t have a credit card that earns you miles/points with every purchase, get one! We’ve traveled to a lot of the countries above for free by redeeming miles for tickets. My favorite cards right now are HERE. I highly recommend getting one without foreign transaction fees.
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This is such an inspiring list! I can’t wait to do some rankings with the kids. Our plans to spend a month in Greece this summer (inspired by your article on Naxos) have been derailed, but seeing it as number one on your list validates our decision to reschedule it as our long trip next summer.
Our June Naxos plans fell through, but we’re still optimistic about August – if they’ll let Americans in and if the airlines are flying, we’ll be there.
You have been to some amazing places. Interesting that Europe has scored so highly with all the family.
We’ve traveled to Europe the most, so maybe there’s a sense of familiarity and comfort, especially for the kids? If I was doing my own ranking there are a lot of non-European countries that would be in the top 20, including Ecuador, India and Tanzania.
Ecuador is the only country my kids have traveled to and we loved it!
No. 1. Jordan. We all had a magnificent time there. Small Country so easy to see everything but every day was something different and a different period of history.
2. Grand Cayman. 7 mile beach is just gorgeous. Easy to get to and clean and friendly.
We had a disaster of a trip to Italy but I’d go back to Venice in a heartbeat.
I’ve only spent one day in Jordan, in Petra, but it’s at the top of my list to return to.
We haven’t been to Grand Cayman, simply because the Caribbean can be a hassle to reach from California. It’s easier to get to Fiji than Grand Cayman. But I’ll add it to our list!
Great list, and so many places I need to visit! I’ll add the Czech Republic, in particular Prague, to the discussion. I love Prague for all of its magical architecture and the ability to walk everywhere. And, so many great little outdoor cafes either right in the center of town or along the canal.
Thanks Megan! The Czech Republic actually finished towards the bottom of our list, but for the kids at least that was based solely on one August visit when Prague was very crowded. I think they would like it better if we were to return in the spring or fall. It’s an amazing city, just not fun with too many people. And I want to explore a lot more of the country as well.
I absolutely love reading your blogs and post. Thank you.
Though my kids are older now, we did go ‘round the world’ with them, with partners and a grandson in 2018. Tokyo to Porto then a week on a small (36 passengers) boat from Dubrovnik to Split, on to BC in Canada then a relax in Santa Monica before home. Every place held something special and was so different to the next. I would say the highlight for us all was Canada- we stayed in a small town called Smithers and the the younger ones did extreme mountain bike riding, fishing, hiking, shooting at the gun range and drives to nearby First Nation sites. Unbelievable. I loved it so much I went back in 2019 and did 5 weeks Canada/Alaska which was out of this world.
Thanks Joanne! Your trip sounds amazing – a lot of our favorite places. We still haven’t been to Porto though. And we would love to explore Canada more. I’ll add Smithers to our list.
Great places.
How wonderful for the children. We are slow budget family travellers and often find ourselves saying that we want our kids to have places to discover on their own. Travelling as a family is truly wonderful and we love it. Maybe it will be the highlight of our lives as parents. Yet, as they get older we find ourselves thinking more of solo or exchange trips for them alone that doesn’t include us plus trips for just the two of us that don’t include them. Like much of parenting it is a tough call…
Pretty amazed that Greece beat out Italy (and by a large margin) given your love of Florence. What happened to Spain?
Spain is roughly halfway down our list. The kids have only been 3 times, and only for a day or two each time.
You have missed cape Town as other interesting place to visit.
1) I love Cape Town.
2) Cape Town is not a country.
3) We have not taken our kids to South Africa so it was not included in our voting.
So far, South Africa, Israel and Switzerland have been my favs. Israel is so impactful, obviously, for different reasons. Costa Rica is pretty nice. The U.S. is up there if you think in terms of Kawaii, Hawaii and parts of CA, OR, WA. Austria was great. England was was as well. France nice, but overall, I would put South Africa at the top of the list of all the places we have visited.
Pointers for Switzerland travel from US for perhaps one full week in the country?
Note: We are rather healthy but in our late 60’s. Love your blog and robust sense of adventure and open minds regarding diverse cultures!
Hi Scott. I asked my friend Kate in Zurich for suggestions, since she knows Switzerland far better than I do.
Her thoughts: For a week in Switzerland I would suggest taking the train as it’s so easy, safe, and convenient. Plus, you get to see the Swiss landscapes the whole time. Spend a day exploring old town Zürich, the next day take the train to Luzern and explore it overnight. The rest of the week take the train to Lauterbrunnen and spend a few days exploring the beautiful hiking and waterfalls, sleeping in either Wengen, Grindelwald, or Mürren. If there’s extra time, visit Rhinefalls and the cute historic town of Stein am Rhine.
Have you visited mexico? Was expecting mexico on the list…..I’ve never been there though
Mexico was halfway down our list. We love San Miguel de Allende, I’m a huge fan of Mexico City, and my wife has a lot of family history in Mexico. But we’ve spent too much time in touristy, less-interesting areas like Los Cabos, Playa del Carmen and Cancun. We need to explore more of real Mexico.
You should visit Oaxaca and Chiapas…..amazing places
Of course! On our list.
I’ve enjoyed perusing your lists! Since the majority of us aren’t doing much travel these days, our travel group likes to reminisce about our past travel adventures. You’ve done a country list and city list. Next up, consider a favorite experience/activity while traveling. Here’s our top 10 experiences:
1) Safari in the Serengeti & Ngorogoro Crater
2) Antarctica cruise
3) Amazon River cruise and live aboard
4) Diving and snorkeling in Palawan, Philippines
5) Live aboard and diving on the Great Barrier Reef
6) Great White Shark cage diving in Cape Town
7) Visiting Skellig Michael Island in Ireland
8) Southern Alps plane tour in New Zealand
9) Ziplining in Costa Rica
10) Spending the night in a treehouse in Sri Lanka
I would love to hear what you and your family’s top experiences have been. Gives others great ideas for future travel too.
Aloha, Bonnie
Thanks Bonnie! I did a post back in 2016 with our favorite activities (https://travelbabbo.com/ten-cool-kid-friendly-activities/) but it could definitely be time to update that with more recent things. I was thinking about having the kids rate hotels too.
I have a soon to be 7yo & 2yo, we are trying to decide on where to go next year as a little family holiday and I am determined to take us somewhere that is more than just playing by the pool and beach. This list has given me more destinations to add to the TTT list. I am stuck between Croatia and Naxos in Greece to start off with as they both look amazing!
Great! Both Croatia and Greece would make excellent destinations. Naxos will definitely have more beach/pool time, Croatia would be a little more culture and nature.
My first thought is, will you adopt me. WOW your kids are lucky and I am sure so well educated.
I was happy to see Portugal on your list. A kinda unknown, great value hidden treasure of Europe. And I gotta say, I love the southern coast of Spain.
Your list was really fun to read and some never entered my mind and to be honest, one I have to look up as I have no idea where it is.
I am excited to see what is coming from you and your family as being retired, it is time to get back to traveling. If you could note somewhere how the traveling would be for senior single female it would be great. Many years ago, I traveled to Isreal and Greece alone (not a senior back then), but I loved it.
Thanks Tracy! I’m glad you’re inspired! And I definitely need to explore southern Spain more.
I am unable to write about travel from a senior single female perspective as I am none of those, and I only blog from personal experience. There are so many good travel blogs though – if you search around you should be able to find someone who matches you and your travel style perfectly.
I vote for this location as NUMBER ONE ! ! Without a doubt ……
The Amalfi coast in Italy ! ! ! the most beautiful… people, hotels, food views,
…… on and on ! ! !
Great list! Just a note, it’s Vancouver Island in Canada, not Victoria Island 🙂
Thank you so much! Change made!
Nice Post Eric! I am afraid to travel alone and you travel with kids. Hats off to you. Maybe some day I will also travel like you. Great Post Man.
Please visit India some day.
~ Prashant
I have visited India many times, both with and without kids. One of my favorite countries!
Taiwan is definitely the best. I bet the only reason it’s not here is because they didn’t go. I recommend it!
We’ve been to Taiwan – you could have done a search for Taiwan on this website, or gone to my About Me page, to verify that. It finished roughly halfway down our rankings. Would love to return.
Love this list. Having traveled and lived abroad we are excited to return to travel overseas soon with our 9-year old daughter. Having lived in Estonia for four years, I highly recommend it. Very found memories of the people, land and sauna culture as well as the best intact historic city IMHO in Europe without the crowds. Even more memorable at Christmas time as the best uncrowded Christmas market we’ve been to. (birthplace of the Christmas tree as well as Riga, Latvia’s claim to fame). Thanks for your blog.
I love Estonia! I’ve traveled around Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania several times, but before the kids were born. Would love to take them.
Great list. Italy, Greece, France, Spain and Turkey are my favorites in Europe. Jordan and Israel were also fascinating.
Belize, Costa Rica, Mexico and Ecuador in the Americas.
Botswana, Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya in Africa.
Australia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Palau and Japan in Asia/Oceania.
Still high on bucket list: New Zealand, Morocco, Egypt, Portugal, Croatia and Peru. So many places. So little time.
“Sad that a beautiful country like INDIA is not in the list” .
Especially when Taj Mahal is in seven wonders of world. Rajasthan mighty forts and rich culture. Gold beaches of Goa . Keralas back waters and greenery, Tibet and Kashmir mountains . Thousands of years old temples in Tamilnadu.
This is a very strange comment. Have you not looked through my website? Have you seen all of the India photos I’ve posted to Instagram? This specific post is based on family voting, and only one of my kids has been to India. But India, and Rajasthan in particular, is one of my favorite places in the world and I have said that many, many times.