Every traveler knows the feeling. A stranger points you toward the right bus, a guide stays late to answer questions, or a café owner waves you in like an old friend. Those moments are hard to measure, but surveys give us some evidence of where they happen most often. Reader polls and expat surveys don’t measure exactly the same thing, so this list leans on both and says which is which.
The ten countries below show up repeatedly in 2025 and 2026 friendliness rankings. The three places where locals have been pushing back against tourism come at the end. That pushback is usually about crowds and housing in specific hotspots, not about hating visitors.
1. Kenya
Condé Nast Traveller published its Readers’ Choice Awards results for the world’s friendliest countries on 7 October 2025.[1] Kenya took the top spot[1] with a score of about 98.5 out of 100. The ranking excludes European countries, which are listed separately.[1]
Readers didn’t only praise the wildlife. They highlighted attentive guides, vibrant urban scenes and welcoming coastal resorts as parts of an overall sense of hospitality.[1] The margins were thin, though. All ten countries scored above 96%, with only about two percentage points between first and last.[1] Kenya’s lead is real, but it’s a narrow one.
2. Barbados
Barbados ranked second in the same poll, with a score of roughly 98.2.[1] Readers pointed to a lively cultural life shaped by Afro-Caribbean and British legacies. It’s a small island, and visitors tend to run into local culture quickly.
Readers singled out events such as the Crop Over festival and a tradition of conviviality as reasons the island feels so welcoming.[1] A festival that invites everyone in does more for a visitor’s sense of belonging than any slogan. The poll reflects readers’ impressions, not a formal study of local attitudes.
3. Mexico
Mexico rose several places to reach the podium[1] in the 2025 Readers’ Choice Awards, scoring 98.00. Readers noted spirited festivals, street food culture and intergenerational community traditions that add up to a warm, communal visitor experience.[1]
Expat data points the same way. Mexico sat at the top of InterNations’ 2025 Ease of Settling In Index, ranking first for Culture and Welcome, second for Finding Friends and third for Local Friendliness.[2] The 2026 edition kept it high, with Colombia and Mexico completing the top three for local friendliness.[3] That survey covers foreign residents, not short-stay tourists, but the two kinds of evidence agree.
4. Bhutan
Scoring 97.78, Bhutan is officially the friendliest country in Asia[4] in the Condé Nast Traveller poll. It’s a Buddhist kingdom in the Himalayas that lives by values of compassion, mindfulness and non-violence.[4] Those values show up in how the country describes itself.
The magazine ties the hospitality to national priorities. Bhutan uses a Gross National Happiness Index instead of purely economic measures, and it is committed to sustainable development.[4] That doesn’t guarantee a warm greeting from every person you meet. It does suggest the welcome is part of a wider philosophy and not just a tourism pitch.
5. Cambodia
Cambodia scores 97.33 on the friendliness scale, just under Bhutan.[4] That put it fifth in the 2025 readers’ poll. It’s a high mark for a country that many travelers still approach with few expectations about hospitality.
Condé Nast Traveller links the warmth to religion. It attributes it to the Theravada Buddhist faith practised there.[4] Whether in Phnom Penh or the far-flung countryside, visitors are greeted with hospitality rooted in “metta”, an unconditional love of all beings.[4] That’s the magazine’s interpretation, but it fits what readers reported.
6. Vietnam
Vietnam placed sixth in the Asia ranking[4] from the 2025 poll. It was one of 2025’s hottest destinations, with travelers flocking to Phu Quoc and Da Nang as well as quieter towns like Hue.[4] Popularity can strain a welcome, so it counts for something that readers still rated it so highly.
Expats back this up. Vietnam finished in the top ten of InterNations’ Expat Insider 2026 Local Friendliness ranking.[3] The survey measures how comfortable newcomers feel with local communities. It’s not a tourism poll, but it adds a second, independent signal.
7. Indonesia
Indonesia leads the newest expat ranking. It was named the world’s friendliest country for local friendliness in InterNations’ Expat Insider 2026 survey.[3] It finished ahead of Colombia, Mexico, the Philippines and Brazil.[3]
Context matters here. The ranking measures expatriates’ perceptions of how welcoming residents are toward foreigners.[3] It rests on personal experiences, not tourism reviews or public opinion polls.[3] Indonesia has also done well in earlier editions. In 2022 it ranked second worldwide, with 90% of respondents calling Indonesians friendly.[5]
8. Colombia
Colombia took second place in the Local Friendliness category of Expat Insider 2026.[3] It sat just behind Indonesia and ahead of Mexico. That’s a strong result for a country whose reputation abroad hasn’t always matched how residents say it feels on the ground.
The Latin American showing was broad. In 2025, InterNations’ marketing chief said expats in the region’s top-ranked countries appreciate the friendliness of the population, feel welcome, and find it easy to integrate and make friends.[6] The data comes from foreign residents, so treat it as a clue about everyday warmth and not a guarantee for every tourist.
9. Panama
Panama placed second in the 2025 Ease of Settling In Index[2] and does especially well socially. It ranks first for Finding Friends, and more than four in five expats say they’re happy with their social life there.[2]
The 2026 survey kept it near the top. Panama was among the top ten for local friendliness.[3] Its country profile says expats find it especially easy to make local friends and are very likely to describe locals as friendly toward foreign residents.[2] Friendliness that holds up outside the tourist zones is a good sign.
10. Thailand
Thailand’s reputation as the “Land of Smiles” has some numbers behind it. It was among the top ten in InterNations’ 2026 Local Friendliness ranking.[3] It also does well with travelers. Rough Guides readers placed Bangkok second on their list of the world’s friendliest cities.[7]
Service culture seems to play a part. Even when language barriers pop up, staff often rely on patience, gestures and steady calm instead of visible frustration.[7] The reputation isn’t invented, though it’s also a country with heavy visitor numbers, so experiences will vary from place to place.
That’s the welcoming ten. Keep in mind that the sources differ. Reader polls measure travelers’ impressions, expat surveys measure how foreign residents feel, and neither is a scientific poll of local opinion about tourists. As one roundup of these rankings notes, perceptions of friendliness shift depending on whether the focus is tourists, expats or a specific nationality.[8]
Now for the three places where the mood has soured, starting with Spain. In June 2025, residents in Spain and other European destinations protested against mass tourism, saying a flood of summer visitors is driving up housing costs and pushing out locals.[9] Some protesters in Barcelona and Mallorca sprayed tourists with water guns.[9] Housing is the heart of it. Most of the anti-tourism protests in Spain have been about accommodation.[10] It’s an objection to the system, not to individual visitors.
Italy is second, with Venice as its clearest example. In 2024 the city banned tour groups of more than 25 people[11] to regulate crowds and improve local life. It has also published a 2026 calendar for its day-tripper access fee.[12] Protests there were part of the same coordinated wave, which also reached Genoa.[12] The third is the Netherlands. Amsterdam launched a “Stay Away” campaign and an interactive quiz to test visitors on behavioural etiquette.[10] That’s a city asking for better manners, not a country shutting its doors.
The takeaway is that welcome depends on how many people arrive and how they behave. Visit the warm places and you’ll probably be greeted generously. Visit the crowded ones with respect, outside peak season, and you can expect a fairer reception too. A good guest is usually welcome almost anywhere.
