Wadi Rum in Jordan ranked the world's best place for 'golden hour'

The Wadi Rum desert in Jordan is the world's best place for so-called golden hour, when the light around sunrise and sunset is soft and warm. That is the result of a ranking by tour operator Kuoni with meteorologist Jim Dale of British Weather Services, reported by Euronews on 16 October. A total of 165 destinations were assessed for cloud cover, light pollution, artificial brightness, rainfall, wind speed and average sunset duration. According to the analysis, Wadi Rum takes first place thanks to little cloud cover and almost no rain.

Behind it come Sossusvlei and Damaraland in Namibia, Chile's Atacama Desert and Oman's Wahiba Sands. In all, 20 places made the final list, including four in Greece and three in Namibia; the only European site in the top ten is the Acropolis of Lindos on Rhodes. "The best golden hour locations aren't always the most obvious ones," said Marco Rocha, product, commercial and operations director at Kuoni. Clear skies, low light pollution and a bit of local knowledge often matter more than a destination's reputation, he said.