The Algarve ranked first on travel insurance agency Columbus Direct’s list for “Europe’s Most Family-friendly Destinations”. With an overall score of 77.6 (out of 100), some of the highlights mentioned that earned the country’s most southern region its top rating include the area’s close proximity to the Faro airport, its thriving 275 family-friendly hotels and 2500+ child-friendly restaurants, and more.

Some of the area’s other attractive features include its “golden beaches, picturesque fishing towns and soaring caves”, according to traveldailynews.com, with roughly four million people visiting the Algarve every year. Tourism in Portugal as a whole has been booming over the past decade, welcoming nearly 26 million visitors to the country in 2018 — a impressive 10-million+ increase from 2010’s 14.5 million (according to statista.com).

The research for this campaign analysed 26 different destinations, with this list featuring the top 20 choices. As for other places in Portugal, Madeira also secured the spot on the list as the 17th most family-friendly destination in Europe.

Columbus Direct’s process for rating and ranking the best European family-friendly holiday locations starts by creating a list of popular destinations that are all within a 5-hour flight time from London. The spots are then compared alongside one another and scored accordingly depending on different metrics, such as the number of child-friendly restaurants, hotels and activities in the area.

According to the agency’s website, Columbus Direct was established in 1988 and has become “a leading travel insurance specialist”, also noting that the company was the first to sell travel insurance directly to the consumer in the UK.