There are many ways to rank the most friendly cities in Europe.
The Conde Nast Traveler’s 2022 Readers’ Choice Awards, the friendliest cities in Europe are assessed by the “overall average levels of satisfaction.” — resulting in the following countries taking top spots:
• San Sebastián, Spain
• Bruges, Belgium
• Reykjavik, Iceland
• Copenhagen, Denmark
• Porto, Portugal
• Dublin, Ireland
• Oslo, Norway
• Lisbon, Portugal
• Stockholm, Sweden
• Amsterdam, Netherlands
Interrail, the organisation behind the all-in-one “Interrail Pass” all-in-one Pass that lets you explore 33 countries by train, also has its own ranking of the most friendly cities in Europe:
• Gothenburg, Sweden
• Stockholm, Sweden
• Porto, Portugal
• Dublin, Ireland
• Berlin, Germany
• Krakow, Poland
• Oslo, Norway
• Copenhagen, Denmark
Both rankings do not have specific measures. Interrail’s ranking is based on “research and personal experience.” They are also the only available rankings on the most friendly cities in Europe.
But a deeper search brought us to Queer.ge’s rankings — which uses more specific measures as it’s targeted towards the LGBT community.
Queer.ge’s version ranks a city on several factors, including “number of LGBT cultural and entertainment events, scale of Pride, hospitality, LGBT community.”
• Berlin, Germany
• Barcelona, Spain
• Amsterdam, Netherlands
• London, the UK
What these three rankings and their varying results show are it’s hard to gauge how friendly a city is. It is highly subjective and dependent on you.
Source: Study International
