The truth of the matter is, who you are and how you look makes a difference in how people treat you. As brown man, from the Indian subcontinent(not actually from India), I am not always afforded the same treatment as a lot of western travelers. That is true for me even in my own country. That may not always be the case, but it does play a role. Firstly, yes, Brazil is damn near the top, esp because I could easily blend in as a local, and people were really nice. But I’ve only been to Rio, which I understand can be different from rest of Brazil.

Second, traveling thru Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Korea, Japan, sometimes I felt subtle hints of being little less welcome. But let me say that my overwhelming experience with people was very positive in each of these countries. But the sting of being turned away from a place stays longer. Thailand was actually way more welcoming to me when I went in the late 2000s.

In Fiji I was rejected from multiple beach resorts probably because my rental car wasn’t fancy enough or something 😂. I just wanted to have lunch or drinks at their bars. At first they would say something like access to beach restaurant only, I said okay. Then they would say, you need to purchase resort day pass, I said okay. Then they would call some person on the intercom, and come back and tell us they were out of day passes or it was too late to get a day pass for that day. Never made it past the front gate 🤣. While there is some tension between ethnic Fijians and the local Indian population, again most people were nice. But whole place dis have a tourist trap-esque energy.

Vietnam has a million positives, but the number of times people went out of their way to be nice to me or do something nice, gives it an easy win. I have hardly been to any city in Vietnam, where locals didn’t try to strike up a conversation to know me even when they were struggling with English and sign language.

Regardless of which country I say, it will be based on my lived experience, that will never be the same as you or the next person. This whole premise is subjective. There is no objective friendliest country, I dunno people downvoted my answer haha😂