This Country Was Just Named the Safest in Asia — and It’s a Top Spot for Peace and Quiet, Too

Taking a vacation is a big investment. It requires time off of work, away from friends and family, and a great deal of money to get you to your destination. That’s why you need to trust that your vacation will deliver the rest and relaxation you’ve worked so hard for and rightly deserve. That’s where Book Retreats’ new data comes in handy.

On Dec. 4, Book Retreats released its Holiday Relaxation Report, which detailed the best destinations around the world where travelers can find the peace and quiet they need during their retreat from their day-to-day lives.

To figure out its formal rankings, the team first created a seed list of 76 destinations, which they selected based on their “safety, solitude, serenity, nature, and wellness.” They then ranked those selections via nine data points, including the percentage of protected area, forest coverage, crowd density, noise and light pollution, peacefulness, and total wellness experiences. It then gave each destination a score of 1 and 100 to reveal its top picks.

After examining all the data, it named Malaysia the best spot in Asia for peace, quiet, and, perhaps most importantly, safety.

Malaysia came in at No. 20 on the overall list of best destinations for quiet, scoring high marks for its peacefulness, plentiful outdoor spaces, wellness activities, and biodiversity. (It lost a few points due to crowding and some rather unruly traffic, but sometimes, you need to take the bad with the good.)

Malaysia also came in eighth place for the Best Holiday Destinations for Safety thanks to its high ranking in the Global Peace Index. (For 2024, Malaysia came in 10th on that list overall and third in Asia.) And if you’re thinking of exploring Malaysia on your next quiet quest, writer Shivani Somaiya adored exploring the nation’s wild side for Travel + Leisure, setting out to visit the country’s most beautiful waterfalls, including Lata Iskandar, a multitiered fall in the stunning Cameron Highlands. See where else Somaiya loved here.

As for other top spots to make the calming list, Book Retreats named Australia its No. 1 global destination for peace and quiet. Canada, Iceland, Finland, and New Zealand, round out the top five, giving you many places to explore all over the world that are simply serene. 

Read the original article on Travel & Leisure