Its stunning sunsets were among the factors in Australia''s favour
Australia named world''s best holiday country
01 July 2008Australia has been named the world''s best holiday country in the Sunday Times Travel Magazine''s latest reader awards survey.
The land down under edged out its heavyweight rival the USA, which was named the second best worldwide country, followed by New Zealand, Thailand and the Maldives.
Readers said they loved Australia for its "sport, sunsets and super-happy people", while America won praise for its parks, open roads and dynamism, with one traveller describing the country as "modern, optimistic and vibrant".
Italy''s cuisine, along with its "warm, genuine, cheek-pinching family-friendliness", saw it voted the number one holiday country in Europe.
This section saw some surprising results, with the traditional favourites France and Spain being pushed down the list by second-placed Greece and Switzerland rounding off the top five.
The strength of the pound against the dollar saw New York take top spot in the worldwide city category, while London, Edinburgh, Paris, Barcelona and Rome were Times readers'' favourite European cities.
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