The American dream has changed into a nightmare — for vacationers.
With the vacation journey season forward, journey insurance coverage supplier Berkshire Hathaway Journey Safety has named the most secure nations on the earth for 2026, discovering that the Netherlands topped the listing when it got here to vacationer safety.
In the meantime, the US was left off the compendium completely although the crime has been on the decline nationwide.
However the research wasn’t designed to be some biased, anti-American marketing campaign. To compile the listing of most traveler-safe nations, Berkshire Hathaway went straight to the horse’s mouth and requested 1,800 American vacationers to rank the international locations they visited primarily based on security.
The agency then mixed their solutions with knowledge from the International Peace Index, Numbeo, and different sources spanning varied components, together with terrorism, climate emergencies, well being issues and the security of underrepresented teams, Journey + Leisure journal reported.
This knowledge was blended with previous outcomes with the scores from “exterior sources and calculated a weighted rating that displays every nation’s general security,” per the positioning.
Curiously, security was not merely synonymous with lack of crime, per the survey. “We’re seeing a shift in how vacationers outline ‘protected,’” a spokesperson for Berkshire Hathaway advised Journey + Leisure. “Individuals are additionally contemplating healthcare entry, local weather stability and inclusivity.”
Coincidentally, a current survey discovered that Individuals really feel “plagued” by nerves on the thought of worldwide journey, with worry components together with getting damage whereas touring and having traveled to unsafe areas up to now (16%).
Coming in first was the Netherlands, which jumped up a whopping 13 spots from 2024. Surveyed vacationers gave the “peace-loving” place “near-top marks for well being measures, general security, and security for feminine vacationers, LGBTQIA+ vacationers, and vacationers of colour.”
The primary hazard was fast-moving bikes, which have their very own lanes in Amsterdam and different Dutch cities, forcing vacationers to look each methods earlier than crossing the road.
“Additionally, younger bikers’ affinity for high-speed, mini-bike-like e-bikes provides one other factor of hazard,” per the survey.
Coming in second was Australia — regardless of its repute for having an nearly otherworldly animal inhabitants — which acquired the “highest marks for well being measures and is close to the highest for security from terrorism.”
Austria got here in third place after not rating beforehand, whereas final 12 months’s defending champ, Iceland, slipped to fourth place.
In response to the International Peace Index, the Scandinavian nation was the fourth most peaceable nation on the earth.
Nonetheless, Berkshire Hathaway warned that vacationers have to be careful for volcanic eruptions.
“Eruptions all the time carry the potential for disruption, however they’re notably problematic in Iceland, because the lava flows fairly often have an effect on the one important highway that rings the nation,” they wrote. “This has the potential to depart vacationers stranded.”
Canada, in the meantime, rounded out the highest 5 whereas no different North American nations made the listing. The one saving grace is that the US was ranked the seventh most secure nation by respondents whose family revenue exceeded $350,000 per 12 months.
To assist guarantee one’s security whereas touring overseas, Berkshire Hathaway really helpful, amongst different issues, that vacationers register for the US State Division’s Good Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP), which permits the division to situation alerts and discover American vacationers throughout an emergency.
Listed below are the highest 15 most secure international locations on the earth
- Netherlands
- Australia
- Austria
- Iceland
- Canada
- New Zealand
- United Arab Emirates
- Switzerland
- Japan
- Eire
- Belgium
- Portugal
- France
- United Kingdom
- Denmark
