Whether it’s Margaritas in Mexico, Piscos in Peru, Negronis in Naples or Manhattans in, well, Manhattan – drinking in the local flavours is a fantastic way to immerse yourself in a new city. However, more of us than ever are now choosing to ditch the booze and go on sober adventures, avoiding the hangover-induced headaches, costly rounds and wasted recovery days. If you’ve joined the ranks of Australia’s sober-curious, then here’s where you should be casting your eye.
Just in time for Dry July, rehab facility Lantana Recovery released its Sober Travel Destinations Index ranking the 40 best destinations for sober travellers. They looked into the number of sober-friendly activities, alcohol consumption per capita, overall health ratings, public safety and alcohol laws, scoring each country out of 100.
Raise your glasses to Australia, which ranked as the sixth best destination in the world for sober travellers. With a score of 63.1 out of 100, our nation shone in the number of sober-friendly activities per capita (88.73 per 100,000 residents). Australia’s natural beauty and vast outdoor playgrounds greatly contribute to this, offering plenty of opportunities for alcohol-free adventures, be it hiking in our incredible national parks, swimming in our pristine waters or chasing down secret waterfalls. You don’t have to fully skip out on the drinking fun too, with Australia’s greatest restaurants and bars shaking up the tastiest booze-free cocktails to match their alcoholic counterparts.
Australia also excelled in its scores for public safety (92.10), overall health (90.01) and low alcohol dependence (1.5 per cent), yet our alcohol consumption was higher than average at 10.36 litres per capita.
Prefer to take your sober travels overseas? Iceland topped the charts as the world’s most sober-friendly country, scoring highly for its number of sober-friendly activities (541.45 per 100,000 residents) and public safety levels (93.60). Italy came in second place, with the lowest levels of alcohol dependence (0.6 per cent), while Norway took third, scoring highly for its number of alcohol laws.
Here are the ten best countries for sober travellers:
1. Iceland
2. Italy
3. Norway
4. Denmark
4. Japan
6. Switzerland
6. Australia
8. Singapore
9. New Zealand
10. Netherlands
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