Not necessarily. Especially if you’re in a major city, and willing to walk around a bit while looking for a restaurant, you can find some local cuisine that will satisfy most special dietary requirements or likes/dislikes. I managed in Prague, and I’m a picky eater who keeps kosher (I will eat in non-kosher restaurants, but only if I’m pretty sure that what I order won’t contain anything I can’t have).
Restaurants with multi-lingual menus (like the restaurants in Venice that have menus in English, French, Italian, and Spanish or German) tend to be tourist traps. You will pay more there for food that’s not as good as you might be able to get at another restaurant not too far away. It’s better to get a guidebook or “restaurant reader” that lets you translate menus yourself.
If you see a restaurant offering your native cuisine, you should at least look at the menu- you might find it amusing. You probably shouldn’t eat there, though- you will be disappointed.
If there is a restaurant that is empty when most of the ones around it are full, the locals almost certainly know something you don’t. Stay away.
If you’re staying in a hotel with a shared bathroom, be considerate. Don’t take a long shower or bath- other people are waiting for the bathroom. This goes double if the only toilets are in the shared bathrooms.
Hmph. You should always be careful wherever you go, but don’t assume an American or European city is going to be safer than one in Asia, for example. All big cities are dangerous if you don’t take basic precautions. I’ve had more dangerous run-ins in Paris that I ever did in Seoul.
I’m not arguing that one cannot find vegetarian food almost anywhere. I just feel that the tremendous variety of food is one of my greatest pleasures. Prague is a first world cosmopolitan city, so of course you can find vegetarian cuisine there.
There are just not that many purely vegetarian cuisines. India comes to mind, although I wonder if they use ghee in some of those dishes. Actually, I guess this is acceptable to lacto vegetarians.
I was on a really cheap safari ($600 for 3 weeks) in Africa. We had an African cook who only knew of one spice, some kind of strange anise like substance. There were a couple of vegetarians on the truck. They pretty much ate nothing but eggs and rice for 3 weeks.
I managed to find vegetarian or kosher-fish versions of local specialties, too. My point was that, just because you have dietary restrictions, that doesn’t mean you can’t try the local cuisines. It takes a little more effort, yes, but it can be done, and IMO it’s worth doing.
A not-so-specific one, for Euros (or at least Germans) visiting our national parks:
If you decide to go on a long hike away from the primary tourist centers, don’t assume there will be chalets and beer gardens every few miles. Don’t assume there’ll be even potable water every few miles.
I remember this from Yosemite. Hiking down from Half Dome, i ran into a young German couple asking if there was a place to stay.
“Yes, there’s a campground about a mile ahead.”
“Ah! They have rooms?”
“Noooo… just places to pitch a tent.”
“Oh.” Looking dejected, “but they have food and drink?”
“No food. The stream’s right there, but you should filter the water.”
For my first trip to Paris, the wife and I bought a big street map of Paris, months before our trip, and hung it on a wall. Then we put in pins on the map of places like our hotel and other sites that we wanted to see. If we found something interesting on a travel site or a book or a recommendation from the dope, we found it and marked it.
This let us see what things were near each other so we could then plan our days or if while in Paris we could say, “hey, we didn’t spend as much time in that place, that other place is just around the corner.”
But the weird thing was that after studying the map at home so much, I had a pretty good feel for the city when I got there. I could look and see the Eiffel Tower and then see another landmark and I knew which direction the hotel was or whatever I was looking for at the time.
The other thing I did that I didn’t regret was bringing a small flashlight.
E.g. in the west, if someone’s digging a dirty great hole in the street, then there are regulations and ordinances to say “there must be warning signs at such-and-such a distance, and cones around this bit, and flashing lights etc.” (except Ireland ;)). In many third world countries, it’s more like “I will dig this hole and who cares about anything else as long as I do my job as quickly and with as little hassle as possible” Thus you might be walking down the street and suddently find the sidewalk or pavement disappear without warning into a large trench, as I did in Agra, India. And Vietnam. And Thailand. And China.
There are fewer lawsuits and less rigidly enforced legislation in the third world. We’re covered in cotton wool here. There, there are few guard rails next to cliffs. Shit happens. Expect the unexpected.
Heed signs. If the sign says (in English, Japanese, German and French) “Crocodiles, Beware!!”, it’s a very good idea to take it seriously. Crocs here love a feed of international cuisine.
When travelling in the northern hemisphere winter:
Don’t assume that touristy sites are open in their ‘off season’ no matter how important they are historically or culturally (yeah, I’m looking at YOU Ireland!! fucking Rock of Cashel was closed the day we visited wasn’t it. How can such a place be closed for fucksakes??
More generic:
Wear (or at least have in your hand-luggage) clothes that are suitable for the climatic conditions of your place of landing, not your place of departure. For ladies, have modest clothes available if you have a stopover in one of the Arab States even if it is just the transit lounge at the airport.
Don’t buy souveniers at the airport. You’ll be ripped off handsomely.
Don’t travel with someone who has just bought a new camera.
Something that hasn’t been mentioned yet. In many, if not most countries, taking photos of anything military or police is prohibited and can get you in trouble.
Carry wrapped hard candies. Peppermints are nice to freshen the breath, and local kids just love butterscotch (which didn’t seem to exist when I was in Mexico, so I always had a crowd of kids around scarfing up butterscotch from the States).
If you want to learn the language, buy comic books. If kids crowd around, let each one take a turn reading the comic.
In English-speaking countries, say, “Hello” rather than “Hi.”
Everyone I know who’s gotten Montezuma’s Revenge in Mexico and points South said ice cubes and tooth brushing is what brought them down. I’ve never heard of the flip-flops in the shower, though.
I think it was here, that someone mentioned his brother had had a leather jacket and PDA stolen in Barcelona… I asked something like “what did he do, go whoring behind Nou Camp?” and the answer was “yes” :smack:
That is exactly what I like to do. Once you get a map of the place in you head it’s much easier to find your way around a city.
Another tip is if you take your mobile/cell phone with you don’t forget to put all your emergency contact numbers into its phone book, and in the international format. Thus for calling the UK all I have to do is precede the number with “+44” and the phone will do the rest.
I think the flip flops in the showers rule is applicable to backpackers hostels and the like.
Specifically for backpackers, as opposed to travellers who don’t have to carry all their money with them at all times: Don’t carry your valuables in a bum bag (fanny pack). You may as well carry a large sign saying “mug me now”. I carried travellers cheques and passport in a money belt worn under my jeans, and cash rolled into little tubes pushed into the jeans’ waistband. You had to (a) remember to remove the cash before washing the jeans, and (b) hope to hell you weren’t the victim of one of those robberies where they take everything except your undies, as happened to a friend in Rio de Janeiro.
In America, while you will probably be able to use your credit/debit card for most purchases, still you will need some actual currency here and there. Foreign exchange offices are few and far between, so make sure you get some dollars before you leave the airport.
Coins in America are absolutely, utterly worthless. You can ship any that you receive to me and I will see that they are disposed of properly.
