A day on the beach is one of those things that bring an effortless smile to most people’s faces. The crashing sound of the waves, the warmth of the sun and the feel of the powdery sand under your feet can only evoke feelings of utter relaxation and happiness that many times are captured in a single frame, like an Instagram photo. And this is exactly what a travel agency did. Through the use of facial recognition on thousands of photos, travel experts discovered the world’s happiest coastlines and revealed which beaches bring the biggest smiles. And yes, you guessed right, many of them are in Greece!
Travel experts at CV Villas, a London-based travel agency for villas in countries across the world, including Greece, used AWS facial recognition software to analyze thousands of Instagram photos from over 100 beaches across the globe. The researchers then calculated an average score out of 100 to create an Overall Beach Happiness score for each location. Barcelona’s Sitges beach in Spain scored just shy of 100 (98.4), making it the World’s Happiest Beach.
European beaches dominate the rankings for the world’s happiest shorelines
Most of the world’s happiest beaches are located in Europe -in fact 23 out of a total of 30- while the top 10 smile-inducing beaches on the list are all European.
Greece, with its crystal-clear waters, is in the top 10 with two stunning beaches, Elafonisi beach, popular for its striking sands on the island of Crete in ninth place with a beach happiness score of 93.3 and Ai Helis beach on the island of Kefalonia with a score of 92.2, ranking tenth. At the same time, Greece has the most smiley beaches in CV Villas’ Top 30 Happiest Beaches with a total of nine (including Glyfada beach on the Athens Riviera ranking 20th and Porto Katsiki on the island of Lefkada, ranking 27th), followed by Portugal with five and Spain with three.
After Sitges beach in Barcelona, crowned the world’s happiest beach with its smooth sands and welcoming atmosphere, another Spanish beach joins the list, with Mallorca’s Port de Soller, framed by the Tramuntana mountains, ranking third with a smile score of 96.9. Neighboring Portugal on the other hand, claims four spots in the top 20, with Praia da Falesia (97.2) and Praia Dona Ana (94.3), landing in second and seventh place. Both located in southern Portugal, they have turquoise waters in which visitors are particularly keen to be dipping into.
The top 10 also features two happy beaches in Wales, UK and one in France while the United States is featured in the top 30 with two smiley beaches.
The World’s Top 10 Happiest Beaches
1 Europe Spain Sitges Beach 98.4
2 Europe Portugal Praia da Falesia 97.2
3 Europe Spain Port de Soller 96.9
4 Europe Wales Rhossili Bay 96.7
5 Europe Wales Caswell Bay 95.1
6 Europe France Plage de Sablettes 94.9
7 Europe Portugal Praia Dona Ana 94.3
8 Europe Portugal Praia do Vale de Centeanes 93.6
9 Europe Greece Elafonisi 93.3
10 Europe Greece Ai Helis 92.2