An aerial view of Hon Thom Island in Kien Giang Province, southern Vietnam. (Photo: VnExpress)

For its annual Readers’ Choice Awards survey, the travel magazine asked readers to rate their favorite countries across the globe, attracting a record 600,000 votes. The listing, released this week, was based on a scoring system representing overall average levels of satisfaction.

Vietnam ranked behind Southeast Asian neighbors like Indonesia (6th) and Thailand (7th).For the second time in a row, Italy topped the best countries in the world, followed by Sri Lanka, and Portugal. Japan and Greece rounded out the top five.

The best time to visit Vietnam is between April and June when the north emerges from its chilly winter season," the magazine said.

In central Vietnam, Hoi An and Hue are at their best between March and August when the skies are blue and the lukewarm seawater makes the nearby shores great for beach holidays, it wrote.

A little further south, the beaches of Nha Trang and Quy Nhon can be visited almost every month, but encounter the occasional downpour between October and December, Condé Nast Traveler added.

In the category of hotels, the survey shows that four Vietnamese hotels were among top 20 in Asia based on the votes of 715,000 readers around the world.
Azerai La Residence in the central town of Hue came in ninth while Sofitel Legend Metropole in Hanoi ranked 11th. JW Marriott Hotel, also in Hanoi, was at 13th while InterContinental Hanoi Landmark 72 came in 15th.