The most beautiful countries in the world are truly dependent on the eye of the beholder—as clichéd as it is to say. There are countless ancient natural wonders that take their viewers aback by their sheer scale and intricacy, like Australia’s rust-red monolith Uluru or Bolivia’s terrain-consuming snow-white salt flats. If modern marvels of human ingenuity speak more to your taste, take a grand architectural tour of the world by climbing the tiers of the oldest pagodas in Asia on one trip and strolling through the greatest works of modern masters like I.M. Pei or Frank Lloyd Wright on your next.
As these countries age like fine wine, evolving more nuances and growing more and more spaces to admire, we like to revisit this list every year to shine a light on some new favorites and blow the dust off timeless classics.
For every continent that has countries, we’ve made our picks for the most beautiful countries in the world with sights worth making long-haul trips to see. There’s priceless human history at UNESCO World Heritage sites, beaches laying claim to pure stretches of endless cerulean seas, and otherworldly landscapes that have brought even the surreal beauty of J.R.R. Tolkien’s words to life. Needless to say, this greatest hits list is one you could plan a lifetime of travel around.
But if you find yourself missing the White Continent and want to sink into the specifics of individual sites, look no further than our list of the most beautiful places in the world.
