Friendliest tourist cities

In My Humble Opinion
1

What cities in your travels have you found the friendliest to a visitor?

My top three are:

**Fredericton, New Brunswick. **
The entire city had a small town feel; it’s about the size of Schenectady in population, but very quiet with little traffic. I went on a free tour and it turned out I was the only visitor on it (and there were two tour guides).

There also was a pedestrian crosswalk on one of the main (four lane) roads into the city. When I went to cross, the single car stopped for me; this wasn’t in a built-up area, either.

I was there for a convention. We were there to see a band perform an open-air concert and had rented a tent for our dinner. The band had to move under the tent, and all the people joined us to stay out of the rain; they were easy to talk to.

Chicago
I was visiting my daughter. What impressed me first was the first day when we needed to take the elevator to the L. A group of teenagers commandeered it just before we entered; one of them needed a spot to change her clothes. When she finished, the buzzer was going off to let the doors close, yet one of the teens put a football block on the door so that we all could get on. In most places, they would have just walked away.

I also loved visiting Wrigley Field. I learned that “the friendly confines” is not just a sloga.

Paris
Yes, I know the reputation, but everyone I met there was welcoming and cheerful. (Admittedly, I didn’t look like an American – no t-shirts – and my French accent was pretty good).

When I was taking a break, a woman struck up a conversation with me. When I told her (in French), I didn’t speak the language well, she complimented me (“Vous parlez francais tres bien.”) and switched immediately to English.

I felt the same with most of the people I interacted with.

What other cities have you found particularly friendly toward you as a visitor?

2

Can I nominate an entire country? New Zealand. I spent a month backpacking around and it seems to be a point of national pride to be as friendly as possible to visitors. From the largest city (Auckland) to some of the smallest, out-of-the-way-spots, people were unfailingly warm and welcoming.

I’d love to go back.

3

I’d also like to nominate a country, or at least an entire island: Sumatra, Indonesia. Maybe it’s because we went to some obscure places in Sumatra, but the locals were always so happy to find Westerners there. Almost every person we walked past greeted us with a “hello mister”, many would stop us on the street just to practise their English, and we found them to be extremely helpful and welcoming.

We also had good experiences in Amsterdam, which is strange given that they receive some of the most horrendous tourists in Europe.

The final spot goes to the eastern coast of Ireland. Nowhere else in Europe have I seen that kind of public happiness upon meeting a foreign visitor

4

In no particular order:

Singapore
Tokyo
Kyoto
Honolulu
New York City
Vienna
Basel
Zurich
Brussels

5

New York should be numba’ one friendliest ya jerk!!:smiley:

6

Form my experience:

Aleppo (by a wide margin)
Esfahan
Beirut
Wellington
Perth

7

Am I the only one who feels the need for more info on this? I assume this was before the war, right?

8

Vegas, Baby!

9

New Orleans
Miami
Eastern Tennessee

10

Probably West Berlin too, but these days I hear it’s just Berlin. I certainly would not have included East Berlin, because I believe an undercover cop tried to set me up by urging me to make an illegal money exchange with him. I’d been warned about that sort of thing and so didn’t fall for it. Damned Stasi!

11

Can’t speak for Aleppo, but I was made to feel very welcome in Eastern Syria (Deir ez-Zor and Abu Khamal). This was just after Gulf War I.

12

I think I’ll add Hong Kong to the list too.

And maybe Macau.

13

Nashville
Baltimore
Querétaro
Edinburgh
Corfu
Kotor
Haifa
Hanoi
Bangkok
Sydney

14

I neglected to include Bangkok myself because I don’t really consider it as tourist-friendly as many other regional cities. Sure, now that we have the Skytrain, you can move from shopping mall to shopping mall with relative ease, but only in the very central part of the city. Taxi drivers are often louts who will try to scam you and not use their meters, while other scammers are forever lurking around main tourist attractions.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a great city to visit, and the scammers aren’t that bad, especially if you keep your wits about you. But Tokyo or Singapore this ain’t, that’s for sure. I’d rate Chiang Mai in the North as much more tourist-friendly than Bangkok.

15

I’m always on foot in Bangkok, and look neither like I’m drug-seeking nor like I have any money. It’s a city where people are very pleasant to middle-aged women (unlike Athens, for example, where local males would walk right through us if we didn’t hop out of their way).

16

Definitely Paris.

Once, back when I was using a film camera, I was out late at night, and discovered I neglected to bring extra film with me. I was far from my hotel, so asked the guy in a newsstand kiosk. He had film for prints, but I needed film for slides. He didn’t have any, so I thanked him and went on my way. A few blocks later, someone tapped my shoulder. It was the newsstand guy, who remembered a store that sold film for slides.

That was 15 years ago, and I still remember him chasing me down to help me.

I have never had a bad experience in Paris. Or the rest of France, for that matter.

17

Maybe not the biggest tourist destination out there, but Harare, Zimbabwe is one of the friendliest places I’ve been. The people I met were genuinely welcoming, curious, and willing to open their homes and their hearts to me, without any of the shadiness one gets by unexpected invitations elsewhere. By “African Capital City” standards it feels quite safe, and I felt comfortable exploring and running errands solo. Definitely tops on the friendliest places I’ve been.

One can say the same thing about Addis Ababa. The people are delightful, the streets feel safe, and everyone is just so damn nice.

I think the next friendliest place I’ve been is basically any place in the Philippines. Maybe it’s because I was a woman traveling solo, which is a bit of a rarity in the area, but I’ve never had so many people invite me into their homes before. And after a few days in a place people would start treating me like family- sharing their family dinners, inviting me out to high school talent show and other local events, and having me meet the extended family and friends.

18

Suprised there was no mention of Rome. I always found the city to be a great place to visit …

19

Since Dublin is on the east coast I suspect you meant to say west coast. :slight_smile:

20

St Martin/Sint Maarten gets my nod. It’s known as The Friendly Island.