If your holiday brief begins and ends with blue skies, a visit to the world’s sunniest cities will likely be excessive in your trip wishlist. And a brand new world research has ranked the cities round the world that get pleasure from the most annual sunshine hours, and several other locations in the Middle East characteristic amongst the prime spots.
For travellers, extra sunshine hours means extra time open air – whether or not that’s winter seaside mornings, waterfront walks in the spring, or dinners that begin earlier than sundown and end below clear evening skies. In cities the place sunshine is constant relatively than occasional, day by day life naturally shifts exterior.
The rating varieties a part of the 2025 Holiday Happiness Index, a broader research exploring how environmental circumstances affect the means we really feel after we journey. Across 47 world locations, researchers analysed common annual sunshine hours to find out the place brightness is most dependable.
What is the Holiday Happiness Index?
The Holiday Happiness Index analysed 47 cities worldwide throughout 5 measurable components proven to stimulate key “happy hormones” equivalent to serotonin and dopamine.
Those components embody:
- Sunlight: common annual sunshine hours
- Quality sleep: primarily based on public notion of noise and lightweight air pollution
- Healthy weight loss program: the proportion of eating places categorized as “healthy”
- Time in nature: inexperienced house per capita
- Physical train: metropolis walkability primarily based on journey time between prime points of interest
Each issue was weighted equally to supply a complete rating out of 100.
To decide which cities supply the best potential for vacation happiness, the index evaluated 47 locations worldwide throughout 5 measurable components linked to wellbeing.
Sunshine was assessed utilizing common annual hours of daylight recorded in every metropolis. Sleep quality was knowledgeable by public knowledge on mild and noise air pollution, reflecting how conducive a vacation spot is to correct relaxation. Green house figures have been drawn primarily from UN-Habitat’s Global Urban Indicators Database 2024, with authorities and educational sources consulted the place obligatory.
The share of eating places categorized as “healthy” was calculated as a proportion of whole listings on TripAdvisor, whereas walkability was decided by measuring the time required to journey between the 4 most-reviewed points of interest in every vacation spot.
All 5 indicators have been weighted equally and standardised utilizing a min-max normalisation technique to supply a remaining rating out of 100, permitting for direct comparability throughout cities.
The advantages of sunshine
According to Dr Dattilo-Ryan, daylight performs a direct organic function in temper regulation.
“When we talk about feeling good, we’re really talking about the release of happy hormones like serotonin, dopamine, endorphins and oxytocin,” she explains. “Many of the things that trigger them – like sunlight, movement and quality rest – are often part of a good holiday, if you choose the right destination.”
Exposure to pure mild stimulates serotonin manufacturing and helps vitamin D synthesis, each of which are related to improved temper and sleep regulation. In sensible phrases, extra daylight can imply extra time outdoors, higher bodily motion and extra steady circadian rhythms.
The world’s sunniest cities
According to the index, these locations document the highest annual sunshine hours: