Simon Wade
SPAIN tops the charts for the most Googled beaches in Europe, according to a survey by holiday rental search engine, Holidu.
After two years of intermittent travel restrictions, people are desperate to book a flight to their next destination to start to make up for that lost time, and this summer is expected to be the busiest for years.
Using data gleaned from social media, a Top 20 of European countries show where people are searching online for that beach destination.
Spain’s 3,000+ beaches were by far the most searched for on Google, and sixth in terms of Instagram hashtags.
Greece topped the rankings for being the most ‘hashtagged’ coastlines, which include Crete, Naxos and the stunning Mykonos.
Interestingly, despite Ireland’s beaches struggling with an average of only 880 Google searches every month, it is the fifth most popular country for hashtagged beaches (42,036), only just behind France with 42,606.
This chart shows the monthly number of Google searches and Instagram hashtags.
| Rank | Country | Google Searches | IG Hashtags |
| 1 | Spain | 8100 | 29947 |
| 2 | Malta | 6600 | 16074 |
| 3 | Greece | 5400 | 142294 |
| 4 | Italy | 5400 | 71746 |
| 5 | Croatia | 5400 | 26176 |
| 6 | Portugal | 3600 | 61366 |
| 7 | France | 3600 | 42606 |
| 8 | Albania | 3600 | 12266 |
| 9 | Bulgaria | 1900 | 1499 |
| 10 | Poland | 1600 | 16582 |
| 11 | Montenegro | 1600 | 5568 |
| 12 | Germany | 1600 | 5407 |
| 13 | Ireland | 880 | 42036 |
| 14 | Monaco | 880 | 5216 |
| 15 | Iceland | 590 | 7173 |
| 16 | Belgium | 590 | 4406 |
| 17 | Sweden | 590 | 2765 |
| 18 | Netherlands | 480 | 18926 |
| 19 | Denmark | 390 | 5913 |
| 20 | Norway | 390 | 4359 |
READ MORE: MAPPED: Spain breaks record with most blue flag beaches in the world
