As reported by TimeOut, the Holiday Happiness Index ranking was prepared by the service BookRetreats.com in collaboration with psychologist Natalie Dattillo-Ryan. Tourist destinations were compared based on five criteria: amount of sunshine, sleep conditions, availability of healthy food, opportunities to spend time in nature, and walkability. All indicators were weighted equally, and the final score was calculated on a 100-point scale. ### Why Lisbon Won One of the advantages of the Portuguese capital was its food: nearly 10% of local restaurants were classified by the study's authors as healthy eating establishments. In this regard, Lisbon outperformed Paris, Tokyo, and New York. Despite its famous hills, the city received high marks for walkability. Lisbon is compact enough, and many of its attractions can be combined into a lengthy walk. Another plus is the green spaces. According to the data provided by the ranking's authors, there are about **49 square meters of green areas** per resident — almost four times more than in Madrid. Additionally, Lisbon is easily accessible to the beaches of Costa da Caparica and Cascais. The sun shines in the Portuguese capital for an average of **2828 hours a year**. ### Who Else Made the Top Five Second place went to **Helsinki**. The ranking's authors noted the large number of green areas and relatively low levels of noise pollution. In third place was **Orlando**. The American city stood out for its amount of green space per person and nearly 2930 sunshine hours per year. Fourth place went to **Athens**, which the study's authors called the most walkable city in the ranking. The number of healthy eating establishments was also highly rated. Fifth place was taken by **Edinburgh** — the only British city in the top ten. Its advantages include parks, sleep conditions, and opportunities for extensive walking. The second five included **Madrid, Vienna, Budapest, Oslo, and Vilnius**. Thus, the Lithuanian capital took the tenth place. It is important to note that this is not a measurement of the actual happiness level of each tourist, but a ranking of destinations based on a set of criteria chosen by the authors, which they associate with well-being during travel.