Ask ten travelers where they felt most at ease among strangers, and you will get ten different answers shaped by weather, food, and pure luck of who they happened to meet. Yet every year, the same handful of countries keep surfacing near the top of traveler surveys, not because of glossy marketing campaigns but because of what actually happens on the ground. The list below draws on the 2025 Readers’ Choice Awards from Condé Nast Traveller, a survey built entirely on feedback from people who had already visited, ranked by score rather than sentiment alone.
Kenya
Kenya took the top spot in the 2025 rankings, and the numbers behind it are hard to argue with. Kenya has been named the world’s friendliest country in the 2025 Condé Nast Traveller Readers’ Choice Awards, topping the global ranking with an impressive score of 98.46%. That figure mattered because the field was unusually tight that year, with all ten countries scoring above 96%, and the spread between the top and bottom of the list only about 2 percentage points.
What pushed Kenya ahead wasn’t the scenery alone. Readers highlighted that much of the country’s appeal comes from the people, attentive guides, vibrant urban scenes and welcoming coastal resorts that together create an overall sense of hospitality. Visitors on safari often mention the guides first, the ones who know how to make a stranger feel steady while standing a few meters from a lion, while Nairobi’s evening energy and the calm of the coast round out the picture.
Barbados
Barbados landed in second place, carried largely by its cultural rhythm. The island ranks second, praised for a lively cultural life shaped by Afro-Caribbean and British legacies. That mix shows up everywhere, in the music, the food, and the way locals talk to visitors like they’ve already met before.
The island’s biggest showcase of hospitality is its annual celebration season. The Crop Over Festival traces its origins back to celebrations of sugar cane harvests in the 18th century, and this time of year sees Barbados explode with rainbow-hued feathers and calypso music as thousands of international travellers flock in to witness the spectacle, all met with splendid hospitality. It’s the kind of event that turns a passing visitor into someone who feels, briefly, like part of the crowd.
Mexico
Mexico came in third with a near-identical score to the top two. Kenya took first place with 98.46 points, followed by Barbados at 98.18, and Mexico at 98.00. Given how close those numbers sit together, the difference between first and third place amounts to little more than personal taste in what kind of welcome a traveler prefers.
Travelers consistently describe the same pattern in Mexico, regardless of which region they visit. Known for its lively markets, delicious cuisine, and vibrant culture, Mexican locals often go above and beyond to make foreigners feel at home, whether someone is asking for directions or sharing a meal. That everyday generosity, more than any single landmark, tends to be what visitors bring home with them.
Bhutan
Bhutan’s appearance in the top five surprised fewer people than it might have a decade ago, given how deliberately the country has built its tourism model around people rather than volume. Bhutan earned a top spot for reasons that go beyond conventional tourism, its people-first policies, emphasis on Gross National Happiness and commitment to sustainable travel were cited as part of the country’s welcoming character. It’s a rare case where government philosophy and visitor experience line up almost perfectly.
On the ground, that philosophy translates into something visitors can actually feel. Its exceptionally high debut in the Readers’ Choice Awards is testament to the incredible time had by those lucky enough to visit, with trekking routes threading through ancient forests, high passes, and remote villages where hospitality is notoriously heartfelt. Strict visitor caps mean fewer crowds too, which only adds to the sense that a traveler is genuinely being hosted rather than processed.
Cambodia
Cambodia rounded out the top five, edging past two much larger tourism economies in the process. Cambodia was voted the fifth friendliest country in the world in the Readers’ Choice Awards 2025, scoring 97.33 points and beating out major tourist nations such as Vietnam at 97.27 and Thailand at 96.36. For a country whose tourism industry rebuilt itself largely within the last two decades, that result stands out.
The reasons readers gave lean heavily on culture rather than infrastructure. Cambodia’s cultural orientation around concepts of compassion and community, together with its rural homestay traditions and the graceful welcome at sites such as Angkor, led readers to rank it highly for friendliness. From the busy riverside energy of Phnom Penh to quiet silk-weaving villages, the common denominator visitors describe is a welcome that feels unhurried and sincere.
What the Rankings Actually Measure
It helps to understand how a list like this gets built before treating it as gospel. Condé Nast Traveller’s Readers’ Choice methodology aggregates reader responses across categories to create a single satisfaction percentage, and in 2025 the results produced exceptionally high scores and very small gaps between countries. In other words, this isn’t a marketing panel or a handful of influencer opinions, it’s an aggregate of people who actually booked a flight and came back with an opinion worth recording.
The broader travel industry is paying attention to this shift too. Booking.com’s own research backs up why this category matters so much to modern travelers, noting that 45% of travelers say friendly locals are a big draw when choosing where to go. Between safari guides in Kenya, calypso drummers in Barbados, home cooked meals in Mexico, mountain hosts in Bhutan, and quiet homestays in Cambodia, the common thread across all five nations isn’t luxury or convenience. It’s the simple, repeatable experience of being treated like a guest rather than a customer.