Europe’s quietest island revealed – and it’s just an hour from one of the continent’s busiest
The Quietest Island in Europe Is One Ferry Ride Away from a Tourist Magnet
Poinews.com – Search interest in "quiet destinations" has surged 1,268% year on year, a phenomenon now branded "quietcation." As urban life accelerates, travelers increasingly seek places where silence is not a luxury but the default. BookRetreats.com, a specialist retreat-booking platform, responded by publishing its Unspoilt Index — a ranking of 100 islands worldwide assessed through satellite imagery, mapping data, and guidance from Olga V. Lehmann, a psychology professor, author, and silence researcher.
The index measured each island against the European Environment Agency's definition of a quiet zone: a soundscape in which unwanted noise is absent or subordinate. Six criteria shaped the scoring — natural richness, minimal road infrastructure, low air-traffic exposure, uncrowded land area, darkness of night skies, and the presence of untouched coastal environments.
Anafi: Europe's Last Quiet Corner
The Greek island of Anafi claimed the top European spot and ranked second globally for peacefulness. It sits barely an hour by ferry from Santorini, yet the two destinations could not be more different. Anafi's population totals roughly 300 across 40 square kilometres — nearly thirty times fewer residents per square kilometre than its noisy neighbour. There is no airport, no arterial road, and the island earned 92 out of 100 on the naturalness metric, one of the highest scores in the entire index. Its beaches, including Roukounas, Klisidi, and Katsouni, remain largely empty and are noted for golden sand and turquoise shallows.
By contrast, Santorini — long synonymous with packed caldera views and shoulder-to-shoulder crowds — landed 99th out of 100, effectively confirming its status as one of the world's most saturated holiday destinations.
Stewart Island Takes the Global Crown
New Zealand's Stewart Island topped the worldwide ranking. The island is best known for its Stewart Island brown kiwi, which outnumbers the roughly 500 human residents by a ratio of forty to one. Light pollution is virtually nonexistent, and the island hosts the world's southernmost International Dark Sky Sanctuary — making it one of the few New Zealand locations where the aurora australis can be observed under genuinely clear skies.
Europe nonetheless claimed ten of the top twenty-five positions. Beyond Anafi, the following islands appeared in the upper tier:
Other European Entries in the Top 25
St Martin's, the third-largest of the Isles of Scilly off Cornwall's coast, placed fifth. Home to just 135 residents, the tiny island benefits from Gulf Stream warmth and ranks among the sunniest stretches of the United Kingdom. Visitors can explore a working vineyard, a flower farm, and snorkel alongside seals in the surrounding waters.
The Isle of Skye (11th) is the sole island at the top of the ranking accessible by road. Herm, in the Channel Islands (14th), is distinguished by its near-total absence of cars and a population of only 60.
Croatia contributed two entries: Mljet, off the Dubrovnik coast, at 17th, and Vis — situated near the far busier Hvar — at 19th. Greece reappeared with the Cycladic island of Milos at 22nd. Italy's Aeolian island Salina (23rd), Portugal's Flores in the Azores (24th), and Spain's La Gomera in the Canary Islands (25th) completed the top twenty-five.
The Noisiest End of the Scale
Malta finished dead last at 100th, edging out even Santorini for sheer overcrowding. BookRetreats.com had already designated it Europe's most overcrowded island in 2025.
"Islands have always been where we go to escape, but very few are still as quiet as they once were," said Sean Kelly, co-founder of BookRetreats.com. "Our Unspoilt Index maps where the last genuinely quiet ones are, and what's clear from the data is that they're peaceful because people chose to protect them, and still do."
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