Bhutan topped the list as travel guide publisher Lonely Planet asked its followers on various social media to assess how well they liked the countries they had visited.
“This is a country where buying cigarettes is illegal, where the rice is red and where chillies aren’t just a seasoning but the entire dish”, Lonely Planet writes introducing Bhutan.
In all, Asia came very well in the survey as this part of the world takes up half the space on the top 20 list.
In more specific categories, Asia is even more dominant, for example in terms of best countries for food (six of ten), where you get the most for the money (seven out of ten) and cultural attractions (eight out of ten).
Four countries in South Asia have scored so well that they are ranked among the top 20 countries. India, which ranks 6th and Nepal, which ranks 16th, have something in common: the Himalayas and cultural diversity while the Maldives, which ranks 20th, is very famous for its rare underwater beauty, with some of the best dive sites in the world.
Bhutan, which was closed for tourists until 1961, charges visitors famously a minimum of US$200 per day, making it one of the world’s most expensive countries to visit.
