Most people see city breaks as a contrast to beach holidays. On the beach is where we are our most relaxed, we have nothing to do and no problems to bother us; in the city, stress levels are higher as we struggle to fit everything in, wade through the crowds and deal with the sounds. But do city holidays need to be stressful?
To help make every holiday as relaxing as possible, we’ve created this index to identify the least stressful cities from across the world.
Everyone perceives stress differently, especially on holiday, but we decided to rank cities on widely-regard activities/amenities which lend to a more peaceful experience. Our intention was to identify environmental and social factors which would help travellers feel more relaxed during their stay.
Factors we assessed: Friendliness, Transport, Spas, Nature & Parks, Cost of a Meal (for 2), Avg. Sunlight Hours, Air Pollution, Population Density.
Using these metrics, we found the best cities to have a relaxing holiday while still being in the epicentre of another culture.
While travel is limited, why not check out what these top cities have to offer virtually before you start making any travel plans?
Environmental
Transport: Country-wide ratings for ground & port transport quality. Data collected from the World Economic Forum (http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_TTCR_2019.pdf).
Nature & Parks: Number of listings in the Nature & Parks section with 4 and 5 star ratings. Data collected from TripAdvisor (https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/).
Sunlight Hours: Average number of sunlight hours per day. Data gathered from Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_by_sunshine_duration), Weather Atlas (https://www.holiday-weather.com/) and Holiday Weather (https://www.weather-atlas.com/).
Air Pollution: Most recent measurement of the average mean ug/m3 of P10 pollutants. Data gathered from the World Health Organisation (https://www.who.int/airpollution/data/aap_air_quality_database_2018_v14.xlsx).
Social
Friendliness: Data collected from Big Seven Travel (https://bigseventravel.com/2019/08/the-50-friendliest-cities-in-the-world/).
Spas: Number of Spas listed with 4 and 5 star ratings. Data collected from TripAdvisor (https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/).
Cost of a Meal: Cost of a three-course meal for 2 people at a mid-range restaurant. Data from (https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/).
Population Density: Population density per square kilometer. Data from Wikipedia (http://wikipedia.org/).
Professional dry cleaning in London & Manchester.