A new study reveals that San José (Costa Rica) is among the happiest cities in the world for travelers. The Costa Rican capital has been ranked number 8 out of 40 worldwide, standing out for the friendliness of its inhabitants and for being a destination with excellent value for money. In addition, it is the only city in Latin America that has been included in the ranking.
San José offers a mixture of a traditional Central American city and an urban and cosmopolitan center, with an incredible variety of attractions and activities: parks, museums, historical buildings, theaters and the most incredible beaches, fauna and nature. Guarded by rolling green hills and impressive volcanoes, San José is an idyllic part of the world.
The iVisa Happiest Cities to Travel Index has used 5 indicators of happiness (hours of sunshine, cost of living, life expectancy, friendliness of the locals and weekly working hours) and research determines which city can guarantee a joyful and carefree journey. In addition to San José, the top 10 of the happiest places to visit in 2022 are made up of Lisbon, Barcelona, Athens, Rome, Sydney, Madrid, Toronto, Istanbul and Bangkok.
Sunniest
The index also revealed that the sunniest place in the world is Las Vegas, with some 3,830 hours of sunshine per year. The best value for money is found in Kanpur (India), with a cost of 311.38 euros per month without including accommodation. Hong Kongers live the longest (85.29 years), and it is assumed that a long life is a healthy life, and a healthy life is a happy life. And the inhabitants of Frankfurt are the ones who spend the fewest hours at work.
“This summer travel is expected to see the biggest boost since the start of the pandemic. Although the restrictions remain in place, they will be the loosest we’ve seen since summer 2020, encouraging travelers and holidaymakers to finally book flights for a well-deserved trip,” says Garrett Stembridge, iVisa’s Chief Content Officer.
“With travel expectations changing dramatically, we’ve designed the Happiest Cities Index to help travelers make a conscious decision about where to spend their summer vacation after a turbulent few years of lockdowns and restrictions,” concludes Stembridge.
Value for your money
However, if what you are looking for this summer are happy destinations, but also cheap, the top 10 is varied. In addition to the a for ementioned Kanpur, the list is made up of Istanbul, in Turkey (401.38 euros per month without counting accommodation), Hanoi, in Vietnam (409.58 euros), Guangzhou, in China (518.25 euros) and Warsaw, in Poland (547.47 euros). The other cities with excellent value for money are Lisbon, Bangkok, Kuwait, Athens and San José itself.
Daylight
If you prefer to ensure daylight hours, be sure to visit San Francisco (California), Honolulu (Hawaii), Kuwait, Memphis (Tennessee) or Lisbon (Portugal). And if what you want is to be treated phenomenally, the friendliest locals are not only in San José, but you can also find them in Lisbon, Athens, Hanoi, Bangkok and Dublin.
For living
Finally, if after your trip you decide that you have found the city of your dreams and you want to stay and live, keep in mind that both life expectancy and working hours are factors that influence the happiness of its inhabitants. Tokyo, Zurich, Rome, Madrid and Barcelona, together with the a for ementioned Hong Kong, are among the places with the highest life expectancy in the world. On the other hand, Copenhagen, Brighton, Oslo, London and Oxford (in addition to Frankfurt) are the places where people work the least hours.
Once all the relevant data was collected for each of our happiness factors, a list of the 40 cities that appeared most frequently was drawn up. Each city was then scored from 1 to 40 based on its position on that specific factor. For example, 40 points for the city with the most hours of sunshine and so on. This was repeated for each of the five factors. The global happiness score was calculated as a mean, adding each of the scores of the five happiness factors by city and dividing it by 5.
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