SA is among the world's 'most unspoilt' places, according to Instagram

While cities — brimming with museums, cafes, galleries, restaurants, nightclubs and shopping hotspots — certainly have their appeal, sometimes all a traveller wants is peace and quiet. To escape into nature and a time for quiet contemplation, ideally somewhere with stunning landscapes untainted by the trappings of mass tourism.

If this is you, and you're looking for some bucket-list ideas, take note: a British travel company has turned to Instagram to help identify the places in the world most associated with the word “unspoilt”.

Inghams, which specialises in walking holidays, sought to find the destinations around the world most often linked with the word “unspoilt” on social media — and came up with a list that includes countries from Georgia to Nepal, from Albania to South Africa.

To come up with a ranking, Inghams took 54,000 Instagram posts with the hashtags #unspoilt, #unspoiled and #offthebeatenpath. They then compared them to a control set of 50,000 posts to lock in a #unspoilt post rate. The places with the highest scores are those posted about as being “unspoilt” more than they are posted about in any other context. 

Coming in at number one, with an unspoilt post rate of 13.15, is Iceland, a country famed for its epic natural beauty, with glaciers, hot spring lagoons, as well as being a prime spot for seeing the Northern Lights.

In second place is Australia with a score of 10.9. The country offers visitors a range of natural landscapes including desert cliffs, beaches and turquoise seas. Its low population density, vast protected areas and strict environmental policies also mean that much of the country remains pristine.

In third, fourth and fifth place respectively are Ireland (scoring 8.6), Cyprus (5.42) and Costa Rica (4.19). 

Tanzania is the highest ranking African country, coming in sixth place with a score of 4.16. The researchers point out its wealth of beautiful natural sites, including the volcanic Mount Meru, the Serengeti National Park and, of course, Kilimanjaro, Africa’s tallest mountain. 

South Africa, with a score of 2.96, is six spots behind in 12th place. Kenya, the only other African country on the list, is in 15th spot with a score of 2.62.  

Below is the full top 20 list. You can read more about the research here. 

1. Iceland (13.15)
2. Australia (10.9)
3. Ireland (8.6)
4. Cyprus (5.42)
5. Costa Rica (4.19)
6. Tanzania (4.16)
7. New Zealand (3.58)
8. Peru (3.54)
9. Greece (3.19)
10. Georgia (3.08)
11. Nepal (2.98)
12. South Africa (2.96)
13. Croatia (2.86)
14. Albania (2.77)
15. Kenya (2.62)
16. Romania (2.48)
17. Tunisia (2.38)
18. Bosnia and Herzegovina (2.26)
19. Norway (2.23)
20. Portugal (1.95)