This quaint country town is the friendliest place in Australia for 2025
Touching down in a new city or country always makes us feel giddy – but it's even more special when you're welcomed with open arms. Handily, Australia's ten most welcoming towns for 2025 were unveiled earlier this year, and there are plenty of hidden gems to make friends with.
For its 13th annual Traveller Review Awards, Booking.com used a whopping 360 million verified reviews to determine the world's most welcoming regions and towns. We already covered the news that South Australia earned a spot among the ten most welcoming regions on the planet, but now we're narrowing in on the ten friendliest cities and towns across the country.
Montville, a charming village in the Sunshine Coast hinterland, topped the list for 2025 – and judging by the photos, it looks as lovely as it sounds. Home to around 1,000 friendly locals, Montville is the perfect short break from Brisbane or the Gold Coast. The town charms with its gorgeous galleries, craft shops and small boutiques, showcasing local artworks, handmade goods and the town's quirky architectural character. In Montville, you'll also find plenty of cosy cafés to mingle with the locals, plus you can stay in good company at a rainforest eco-retreat, homely B'n'B, country cabin or mountain-view apartment.
The good vibes must be contagious, as Australia's most welcoming town in 2022, Maleny, came just behind Montville this year, marking another win for Queensland. The two hinterland towns are only a 15-minute drive apart, meaning you can easily kill two birds with one stone when visiting the Sunshine Coast.
Victoria had the highest number of towns included in the top ten, with Ocean Grove in fifth, Halls Gap in eighth and Daylesford – last year's most welcoming town – in ninth. So, just how friendly are each of these spots? There's only one way to find out – take your pick from the list below and go say g'day.
These are the 10 most welcoming cities in Australia for 2025
Montville, QLD
Maleny, QLD
Margaret River Town, WA
Mudgee, NSW
Ocean Grove, VIC
Bicheno, TAS
Port Lincoln, SA
Halls Gap, VIC
Daylesford, VIC
Orange, NSW
🍁 I found the perfect place to travel in Australia, no matter the season
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Time Out
6 hours ago
- Time Out
This quaint country town is the friendliest place in Australia for 2025
Touching down in a new city or country always makes us feel giddy – but it's even more special when you're welcomed with open arms. Handily, Australia's ten most welcoming towns for 2025 were unveiled earlier this year, and there are plenty of hidden gems to make friends with. For its 13th annual Traveller Review Awards, used a whopping 360 million verified reviews to determine the world's most welcoming regions and towns. We already covered the news that South Australia earned a spot among the ten most welcoming regions on the planet, but now we're narrowing in on the ten friendliest cities and towns across the country. Montville, a charming village in the Sunshine Coast hinterland, topped the list for 2025 – and judging by the photos, it looks as lovely as it sounds. Home to around 1,000 friendly locals, Montville is the perfect short break from Brisbane or the Gold Coast. The town charms with its gorgeous galleries, craft shops and small boutiques, showcasing local artworks, handmade goods and the town's quirky architectural character. In Montville, you'll also find plenty of cosy cafés to mingle with the locals, plus you can stay in good company at a rainforest eco-retreat, homely B'n'B, country cabin or mountain-view apartment. The good vibes must be contagious, as Australia's most welcoming town in 2022, Maleny, came just behind Montville this year, marking another win for Queensland. The two hinterland towns are only a 15-minute drive apart, meaning you can easily kill two birds with one stone when visiting the Sunshine Coast. Victoria had the highest number of towns included in the top ten, with Ocean Grove in fifth, Halls Gap in eighth and Daylesford – last year's most welcoming town – in ninth. So, just how friendly are each of these spots? There's only one way to find out – take your pick from the list below and go say g'day. These are the 10 most welcoming cities in Australia for 2025 Montville, QLD Maleny, QLD Margaret River Town, WA Mudgee, NSW Ocean Grove, VIC Bicheno, TAS Port Lincoln, SA Halls Gap, VIC Daylesford, VIC Orange, NSW 🍁 I found the perfect place to travel in Australia, no matter the season
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Brits start 'snubbing' anti-tourist Spain for sizzling 38C hotspot
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Forget Spain – I went to Sweden and found the ideal summer holiday destination
'I've never considered taking a summer holiday in Spain or Greece – I'd regret, too much, missing out on a perfect Swedish summer day,' Hårken tells me. We're standing by a lighthouse on Valö, a rocky speck of an island in the Gothenburg archipelago, and the sky is a cloudless colouring-book blue. Hårken's family has lived and worked on the island of Vrångö in West Sweden's Gothenburg archipelago for centuries. He points to a tiny maroon hut on the island's highest point. 'That's the pilot house. My father and grandfather and his father before him would guide ships safely to the harbour from here.' Nowadays, however, he owns and runs Kajkanten, harbourside self-catering accommodation where I spent a few idyllic summer days. He offers kayaking trips around the island and boat trips to neighbouring islands, like Valö. I saw plenty of ingredients for a perfect summer holiday on the boat tour: inviting sandy beaches, wooden jetties with swimming steps leading to glistening, calm waters, and colourful clapboard summerhouses replete with reclining chairs on verandahs. 'There's not really anything to do here – and that's precisely the point' After mooring on a tiny stone jetty on Välo, Hårken guides us down a narrow path, flanked with an abundance of red campions, cowslips and speedwell. It swiftly takes us from one side of the island to the other. There's not really anything to do here, except perhaps loll in the rocky coves, listen to the waves lapping at the shoreline and eat a picnic. And that's precisely the point. I meander among fields of fluffy white cow parsley and let the fresh, warm air unwind my mind and body. The rise of the 'coolcation' 'Fifteen to twenty years ago, the sea would freeze and you could ski to the mainland,' Hårken tells me. 'Winters simply aren't that cold anymore.' He's borne witness to the growing 'coolcations' trend – where travellers seek out cooler climes in the blazing summer months – and nowadays welcomes more visitors than ever from across Europe and the US, many of whom admit they're avoiding the heatwaves and unpredictable weather patterns in more traditional summer holiday hotspots. This year, Intrepid (with whom I'm discovering Sweden) has seen a 50 percent increase in UK customers booking Scandinavian trips in peak summer season (June-August) compared to 2024, and a decrease in bookings for hotter destinations like Italy (-72 percent) and Croatia (-19 percent) in peak summer season compared to last year. According to research conducted by 42 percent of travellers prefer to holiday in cooler locations, and Expedia's analysis on search trends from found that interest in cooler countries is on the rise. Notably, searches for Norway (+24 percent), Switzerland (+20 percent), and Sweden (+3 percent) have increased compared to last year. 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Back in the kitchen we get to work turning it all into dinner: sugar kelp is softened in apple cider vinegar, shredded and added to salad of carrot, chili, rape seeds and coriander; halloumi wrapped in sea lettuce is deep fried; flatbreads are toasted on hot plate on an open fire and dessert is dulse de leche. The next day we sampled a delicious classic Swedish seafood dinner at harbourside Hamnkrogen Lotsen, thanks to owners Andreas Wijk & Jennie Wijk; crayfish cooked with lemon, dill and beer, smoked blue mussels, smoked shrimp eaten traditionally with white bread and aioli, mayonnaise and a mango, honey and chilli dip. And, of course, no visit to Sweden is complete without indulging in fika. It's essentially a 15-minute coffee, cake and chat break, yet taken with religious fervour around 10.45am and mid-afternoon every day. 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But Sweden alone has over 200,000 islands – more than any other country in the world – and the region's near-deserted sandy beaches, paired with manageable summertime temperatures, present an ideal alternative to the heat and crowds of the Med. Fresh air, outdoor adventures and fantastic food: the Nordics are fast becoming the new face of the European summer holiday. Diana Jarvis travelled to Sweden with Intrepid. You can visit Sweden on Intrepid's Taste of Scandinavia (from £1,564pp) or Scandinavia Explorer (from £3,650pp) which includes accommodation, some meals and activities, services of a local guide and ground transport while on the tour.
