There’s nothing like a public vote to get the “world’s most beautiful country” juices flowing.

Known for its “tell it like it is” attitude, online platform Rough Guide asked experienced travellers to vote for the country they thought the most stunning.

An influential travel guide, readers voted and their top choice might surprise – unless, of course, you have been there.

Coming in at number one was Scotland.

Yup, the northern-most nation of the United Kingdom has been voted as the world’s most beautiful country, beating Canada, New Zealand, Italy and South Africa respectively.

That’s us there sitting happily at number five.

Malcolm Roughead, chief executive of VisitScotland said:

“We are delighted that Scotland has received this remarkable accolade from Rough Guide readers, but of course it will not be a surprise to anyone who has encountered our wonderful country.”

And it’s true.

Never been? Tsk tsk – check out these flight options and do yourself a favour.

Everything is so close, and it only takes around eight hours to travel from north to south. A drone video might be the final decision-tipping factor:

Oh, and before you go, this is the full top 10 list, as voted by the readers of Rough Guide:

1. Scotland
2. Canada
3. New Zealand
4. Italy
5. South Africa
6. Indonesia
7. England
8. Iceland
9. USA
10. Wales

You can see the full list here.

[source:theguardian]