Looking for service with a smile? Head to Iceland, top of Europe's happy league, says Doug Lansky
Head over heels ... in Iceland. Photograph: Stuart Westmorland/Corbis
Forget Greece. Skip Ibiza. Leave the Canary Islands alone. If you want some guaranteed happiness, the place to go is - dramatic pause - Iceland!
Why Iceland? Travellers agree that the most important ingredient in a travel experience is the people you meet. And Icelanders have just been ranked the happiest people on earth by The European Happy Planet Index. What's even more impressive is that they've managed to land this title with a national football team ranked a depressing 76th in the world, earthquakes and volcanic activity to worry about, taxes on alcohol high enough to make your head spin, and for three months between November and January, there's almost no sunlight at all.
The UK, even without Posh and Becks, came up 20th in the 30-nation survey, just below Romania.
There are some things you can do to bump the UK up the list, not including a new Prozac prescription. The Index uses a rating system based on carbon efficiency, life satisfaction, and life expectancy. And the UK is burdening the planet's available biocapacity by 22% above what the ecosystem can handle. So eating more local produce, biking and walking instead of driving, turning out the lights and all the other 38,000 things you can do to lead a greener life will help. Some of those, like the biking and walking, will probably give the life expectancy figures a lift, too.
The easiest thing, of course, would be to just head to Iceland. They've already done much of the dirty work, like harnessing all that geothermal and hydro activity, which now powers 98% of its hot water and all the electricity. What's more, by 2050, Iceland plans to be completely hydrogen powered. Which is all very nice, but probably not top of your holiday wishlist. The country is not exactly short of things to offer the outdoor-minded visitor, though. It's the most sparsely populated nation in Europe, averaging roughly five people per square mile. About 75% of the country is an uninhabited lunar landscape of lava fields, glaciers, extinct volcanoes. And then there are all those lovely naturally-heated outdoor pools.
But before you start packing, just make sure you have some funds to prop up your plastic. Iceland isn't cheap. And make that eye-wateringly expensive if you plan to drink. According to a 2004 Iceland Review article, the government takes in ISK 7.1 billion in alcohol taxes per year, or about £200 for every man, woman and child in the country (40% more than the government makes from petrol taxes).
Sweden and Norway placed second and third, respectively, on the Happiness Index and both have similarly outrageous alcohol taxes and little sunlight in the winter months. I'm going to go out on a limb here, but maybe there's a link: happy to see the sun when it arrives, can't afford to get drunk when it's gone.
