People left shocked after travel expert reveals the 'friendliest' European destination
Instagrammer @Scottvisits spends much of his time on the road, reporting back on his travels to his 100,000 followers on the social media platform.
After visiting most major cities in Europe, he revealed that Austria is the place where he felt most welcome.
The mountainous central European country, of which Vienna is the capital, impressed the avid traveller enough that he named it as 'friendliest country' in his recent Travel Awards.
On an Instagram reel entitled: 'After visiting every country in Europe, here are my awards', he announced that Austria had won his heart.
Other awards included the most beautiful destination: Switzerland, and the most underrated: Slovenia.
Meanwhile, the cheapest was deemed Albania and and the most delicious food was to be found in Greece, he surmised.
However, some people questioned his verdict on Austrians being Europe's friendliest folk, saying 'are you sure?', while another said @Scottvisits assertion that there was nowhere friendlier was 'total nonsense'.
One person wasped: 'Austrian and friendly do not go hand-in-hand' while another joked 'I wonder where in Austria did he go'.
Another joked: 'Born and raised in Vienna and I can absolutely confirm that we do not have the friendliest people here' followed by a laughing emoji.
However, there were some people who had first hand experience of visiting and living in Austria who agreed that the welcome is always warm.
One fan wrote: 'I lived and worked in Tyrol for 2 years, lovely folk, seriously!'
Last year Vienna was crowned the world's most liveable city in 2024 for the third year running in the Economist Intelligence Unit's Global Liveability Index.
The study ranks cities based on important factors such as healthcare, culture, stability, education and infrastructure.
Which places do others think are friendly?
In April, expat network, InterNations, asked expats around the globe to rate their city based on how welcoming it is, how friendly the local residents are and how easy it is to find friends.
Expats were asked whether they've found a personal support network in their new home, if they're happy with their social life and how easy they find it to make local friends.
The world's friendliest destination for expats was found to be Malaga, on Spain's sunny Costa del Sol.
More than eight in 10 (84 per cent) of expats felt that local people were friendly while 67 per cent said residents were easy to make friends with.
One expat told InterNations: 'What do I enjoy about life here? The weather and climate, the possibility to travel and the friendly environment and people.'
Just under 80 per cent (78 per cent) said it was easy to get used to the local culture in Malaga much higher than the global average of 59 per cent.
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