News

It's official: Uluru has been ranked the best place to see the sunset in the world

It may be a matter of personal opinion, but we're not mad about Uluru getting gold

Maya Skidmore
Written by
Maya Skidmore
Contributor
Uluru in Australia
Photograph: Benny Marty via Shutterstock
Advertising

When it comes to the absolute dreamiest place to see the sunset, Earth has a lot of pretty gorgeous contenders. But right now, Australia may have just come out on top. 

In a recent survey collected by the folks over at Bounce, Uluru has been ranked the best place in the whole world to see the sunset – which is a pretty big deal, given how many places there are to see the sunset worldwide (read: infinite). 

After examining things like light pollution levels, expert travel recommendations and Instagram data (yes, perhaps not the most factually sound – but still, there’s a lot of folks on there), Bounce have come through with a list of the world’s ten best sunset destinations – and Uluru has been ranked number one. 

Uluru, Northern Territory
Photograph: Tourism Australia | Warren Clarke

To most Australians, it’s probably no real surprise that Uluru has taken out gold for being the best sunset watching location on Earth. Our nation’s real and proverbial heart, this mammoth crimson rock in Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park is steeped in ancient stories, sacred meaning and aeons of powerful connections that can be felt just as strongly today. Watching the sunset there (for all those that luckily have) is a transcendent experience. 

Bearing witness to the colossal rock turn countless shades of deep orange, red, pink, purple and blue throughout the duration of the sun’s descent is truly mind-boggling, and we aren’t surprised that this very special place has been ranked number one when it comes to sunset travel destinations. 

Using Bounce’s metrics, Uluru scored a hefty 9.3 out of 10 for its extremely low levels of light pollution (0.973 μcd/m2), its over 30,000 ‘sunset’ mentions on Instagram, and for having the highest volume of internet travel recommendations on the list. 

The Maldives came second with a score of 9.7, followed by Haleakalā (also known as the East Maui Volcano) with a score of 8.86.

The full ranked list is: 

  1. Uluru, Australia 
  2. Maldives, Maldives 
  3. Haleakalā, United States 
  4. Santorini, Greece 
  5. Angkor Wat, Cambodia 
  6. Grand Canyon, United States 
  7. Bali, Indonesia 
  8. Serengeti, Tanzania 
  9. Boracay, Philippines 
  10. Key West, Florida 


Australia. We've got it going on. 

Want to travel to the Top End? Head to Darwin and Kakadu while you're at it. 

You may also like
You may also like
Advertising