Denmark

Denmark is a flat country that has somehow managed to be at the top of nearly every global ranking that matters - happiest, least corrupt, most equal, best work-life balance, best food scene, best design. The Danes have a word for their secret, hygge, which roughly translates to a feeling of cozy contentment, and they have built an entire society around it. Candles, bicycles, pastries, social trust, and a welfare state that actually works.

The Vikings set out from these shores a thousand years ago to discover Greenland, Iceland, and North America. Today Denmark is considerably more peaceful but no less ambitious. Copenhagen has become one of Europe's coolest cities - home to Noma (repeatedly named the world's best restaurant), Tivoli Gardens (the amusement park that inspired Walt Disney), and a cycling culture so embedded that more people commute by bike than by car. LEGO was invented in a small Danish town called Billund. Hans Christian Andersen wrote the fairy tales here. And the Little Mermaid sits on her rock in Copenhagen harbor, looking somewhat unimpressed by all the tourists.