Top destinations for blue skies

Holidaymakers looking for the ideal patch of clear blue sky need look no further than Rio de Janeiro's statue of Christ of the Redeemer in Brazil.

The sky in Rio de Janeiro is the world's bluest, with Wales rated as the best place to take in a blue sky in all of Europe, according to a new study.

Expedia.co.uk’s World Best Blue Sky Report was compiled after 20 internationally renowned sky-scapes were pitted against each other in this innovative study.

This is the most comprehensive consumer guide to the world’s skies, educating travellers on where best to get the holiday feeling and bask in the sunshine this summer.

All of the top five skies were in the southern hemisphere, with New Zealand's Bay of Islands in second place, Ayers Rock, Australia in third, and Denarau Island, Fiji rated fourth and South Africa's Cape Town in fifth.

Europe did not fare well in the study, though the UK and Ireland were particularly highly rated. Of the five European skies making the top twenty, three were in the UK.

In ninth position Castell Dinas Bran in Wales was the top destination in Europe, followed by Dublin, Ireland in 12th, the Amalfi Coast of Italy rated 16th and Edinburgh and Cornwall 18th and 20th respectively.

Expedia.co.uk’s study was conducted by Anya Hohnbaum, who set off on a 64,000 mile, 72-day mission, visiting 20 destinations in 20 countries in April 2006.

The destinations were short-listed after thousands of people cast their votes on the dedicated World’s Best Blue Sky website www.let-yourself-go.co.uk, dictating the final 20 places on Anya's itinerary.

Each sky-scape that she visited was subjected to a series of tests to ensure that they were fairly and independently judged against one another in one of the first research projects of its kind.

On the day of testing, the results from Brazil indicated that the South American destination scattered the most light from the sky and the hue of the sky was the most blue when compared to the other destinations.

The people of Rio also scored highly as some of the brightest in the mood tests that were undertaken, proving that blue skies can put you in a better frame of mind.

Anya wrote a journal at each destination that she visited and also kept both a photo and video diary to capture not only blue skies, but also local people and landmarks.

All of these, along with a breakdown of results for each destination, can be found on the website www.let-yourself-go.co.uk.