The World’s Grumpiest and Happiest Travelers

RewardExpert set out to answer both questions: which countries do the world’s grumpiest travelers call home, and which countries are home to the happiest? And we did so on the soundest and surest footing as possible: numbers.

We used hotel reviews to get a handle on tourist sentiment, and we used a lot of them: 3.5 million reviews for 13,410 hotels in 70 countries, including reviewers from 83 countries. We used an updated version of the methodology we used in our previous report, in which we ranked tourists from each U.S. state according to their relatively grumpy or happy dispositions. We divided our hotel review data set into subsets according to the number of stars, on a one- to five-star scale, with the 955,754 reviews with one or two-star reviews indicating pure “grumpiness.” We used the subset of reviews with five-star ratings, 1,384,241 in all, to measure raw happiness. We calculated an average of these two, as a percentage of all reviews by visitors from each country of origin, in order to rank them on a scale from “grumpy” to “happy.”

Simplicity Is the Key

If you’ve never had a travel card before, or if you just like to keep things simple, you should consider getting a one that works like a cashback card. You’ll earn miles with these cards, but you can redeem those miles for statement credits toward any travel purchase.

The Discover it Miles card, for instance, earns 1.5 miles for every dollar spent. Each mile can then be redeemed toward one cent in travel. The best part is that you can use those miles to pay for travel that you’ve purchased from any travel provider, including airlines, hotels, car rental companies and more. There aren’t any special travel partners to worry about. Just buy what you want and redeem your miles.

The Ultimate In Flexibility

If you want to dig a little deeper into the points and miles game, consider the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express card. This card is great because the points you earn can be transferred to a huge number of airlines or used for stays at Starwood and Marriott properties.

Transferring points to airline frequent flyer programs can lead to some great redemption values where your points are worth well over one cent each. You’ll even get a 5,000-point bonus for every 20,000 points you transfer to an airline with the SPG Amex. The SPG program is truly unrivaled in its flexibility.

The Most Benefits and Perks

If like to travel in luxury, getting a premium credit card is the way to go. While these cards often come with hefty price tags, they also offer tremendous perks that will make any travel experience more enjoyable. The American Express Platinum card is the original luxury card, and it’s still one of the best.

With the Amex Platinum, you’ll get complimentary access to Amex’s swanky Centurion Lounges, plus a Priority Pass Select membership that will give you access to over 1,000 lounges in airports around the world. And if you happen to be flying on Delta, you’ll get into SkyClub lounges for free, too.

On top of that, you’ll get an annual $200 airline fee credit to cover bag fees, change fees and in-flight purchases; $200 in Uber credits every year, which can certainly help you get to your hotel from the airport; and a $100 credit to pay for Global entry or PreCheck.

There are even more perks, like concierge service, complimentary benefits at select hotels and more. While the annual fee is high, you can actually make money with this card if you take advantage of all the perks.

Find the Best Card for You

Whichever travel credit card you decide to get, make sure it’ll help you save money and travel better. If it doesn’t, there’s no point in getting it, no matter how appealing the welcome offer is. There’s nothing wrong with keeping things simple or coming with up a complex strategy for maximizing your points. Just be sure you get out there and take advantage of everything your new card has to offer.