Americans are the rudest mother f’ers on Earth. The only time I encountered rude people, invariably they were American tourists. There were times a European went out of their way to help me far beyond what an American would do.
I did not have a SIM card or cell plan that let me call back to the states. WiFi calling didn’t work either. Hmmmmnnn, can I use a VPN, wifi and skype to at least make calls back to the states? YES!
If you are traveling (in general) you owe it to yourself to try a Michelin star restaurant. We do that and the one we just visited was an experience.
Yes there were some scams (we lost 400 euros on a hotel that refused to honor their rates and I believe under European law a bad review is libel even if true) but as a whole the prices for tourist $#|^ was more than reasonable.
Traveling is so easy. Once we landed in the EU we had our passports stamped only twice. Once to “enter” Germany to make our connecting flight and again when leaving Italy. The security checks at airports were awesome except for our flight back to the US where we had to undergo a TSA level of security. Guess what happened to our Greek olive oil that was accidently in our carryon bag.
How duty free shops work. I always thought anyone could walk in and buy stuff like a gimmicky airport shop. Nope! You need to be flying to a different (and in Europe, non-EU) country. They scan your international boarding pass and they seal it with the receipt inside and you cannot open the bag until home.
US customs is easy. So you know - EVERYTHING you buy abroad has to be declared. That German stein? That tshirt? The deck of cards? Everything. But no more forms. So at passport control they asked me what I had to declare. For me it was my duty-free (Italian ) olive oil and real balsamic vinegar ( ). Mrs. Cad said a few souviners. No problem … off you go. The I got spot checked by a CBP guard. Spot check consisted of
Where are you coming from? Venice
What did you bring back? Duty-free oil and vinegar and a few souveniers
How much would you say you spent on those items? Ummmm … about 100 euros. (Note for next time: do not throw away any receipts. Didn’t have to show them. Whew.)
Thank you. Have a nice day sir.
Yep, and it’s downright embarrassing. I often start a conversation in the Caribbean with, “we are from the US, but we aren’t horrible people like the Americans you deal with daily”.
I want to move to Europe. After spending time away from here I realized I don’t care if you’re Biden & AOC or Trump & MTG. I’m so tired of the constant extreme-partisan political “discussion” in this country.
I was in vacation in Labrador a couple of weeks ago and we were chatting with the woman at a breakfast place and she asked us where we were from and when we told her, she said “I thought you were Canadians!”
I do not agree Americans are the rudest tourists. For the most part, my experiences with travelling Americans have been positive, with three unimportant exceptions. Some are surprisingly ignorant about the world, but this is true of many people. Americans travelling outside their country at all are more likely to be open minded. Closed minded people sometimes tend to travel and move around less.
What I have observed is in other countries, people do not know the difference between people and government and so blame innocent American tourists for complex political problems they likely have little control over.
Americans are sometimes loud and do not always make an effort to speak local languages (and these variables are not independent). However, these two stereotypes are often false. Mexicans have sometimes told me that “Canadians are not gringos”. Not all would agree. I do not know if they are conflating Americans with Trump, who is not very popular in Mexico.
The American dollar is exceptionally strong - tourist prices are not always so reasonable. The duty free in Iceland is the cheapest store in the country. I doubt that leaving an honest review in good faith is a problem; Europe is a big place and laws differ from place to place.
I just got back from a vacation in Spain and Americans were weren’t heavily represented, but the ones we saw were certainly not rude or obnoxious. There were plenty of Brits, German, and French tourists that took that title. I think people are sensitive to their own people and notice their rudeness more.
We learned that guided tours with small groups or a personal guide can be affordable, interesting, and a time saver. We learned to embrace the siesta during the summer heat, plan to start dinner at 9:00 PM to get the best experience, and learn at least a handful of words in the language. Public transportation is your friend, and easy to learn. We learned that hitting roundabouts every kilometer when driving long distances gets old quickly.
We learned that Global Entry was well worth the cost/effort. We learned that we always overpack if there’s more room in your carryon bag.
I’m not saying all Americans were rude, but if there was rudeness seen like “Let me stand for minutes in this one perfect picture spot despite everyone else trying to get a picture.” or the guy at the airport yelling at the check-in rep because they were making him account that each bag matched up to each person and one of his sons wasn’t there or the ones that just would cut into a long line and look away like it made them invisible … yeah they were Americans.
It is widely thought, at least in Europe, that Israelis are the rudest people. Strikingly blunt is more like my personal experience with those Israelis I’ve encountered.
Speaking as someone who has travelled around Europe quite a lot over the years I would dispute that Americans are the rudest.
Every nationality has “rude” people and sometimes Americans are easier to spot, but my mother, who lived in a tourist attraction in England had the opinion that Americans generally were okay. Her ire was mostly directed at “arrogant” Germans, although living through WW2 may have influenced that. Germans in hotels also have a well-earned reputation for bagging the best loungers etc.
My personal experiences have been overwhelmingly positive, although I have never been to the places frequented by stag and hen parties from the UK, which would have given a very bad impression.
I’m an American who doesn’t look or sound American. I’ve made seven vacation trips to Europe (dozens of cities in seven countries) and spent a fair amount of time in touristy areas during those trips. Seems like by far the most resented nationality of tourists now (well pre-COVID) are Chinese, but this may have something to do with the large groups they travel in and the obsession with getting the perfect picture.
Then the Indians, due to a complete disregard for rules.
Maybe then the Americans. And at least in England, the rudeness of Americans I hear the most about from my UK based classmates and coworkers, is that they are over-friendly and talk too loud. I’m definitely guilty of that. As well as of wearing cargo shorts in a cathedral.
Bistrot de Vinise. And the crowds and weather were fine. Best moment? The symphony was performing Carmina Burana in St. Mark’s Square. Literally as we walked out of St. Mark’s Basilica they started “O, Fortuna”
Ooo, delightful! I love the artistry of an excellent chef, and that menu looks swoonworthy. I visited Venice twice in 2019 and fell madly in love; I’ve since read the whole Commissario Brunetti series by Donna Leon to keep revisiting it in my imagination. Did your travels take you anywhere else or was it an exclusively Venetian holiday?
A guard is standing at the gates of a walled city, when a traveler passes by, and asks the guard what the people are like in the city. The guard asks “What are the people like where you come from?” The traveler responds “The people of my land are the cruelest people you can imagine, always taking advantage of each other, and would as soon steal the shirt off your back as help you.”. The guard says “Then you had best continue on your way, for the people here are much like that as well.”.
Later, another traveler comes to the gate, and asks the guard what the people are like in the city, and again, the guard asks “What are the people like where you come from?”. The traveler replies “Oh, they are the kindest, most generous people you could ever hope for, and would happily give you the shirt off their back”. And the guard says “Come in and be welcome, for the people here are much like that as well.”.
US Americans are not the worst tourists in Europe according to my experience: nouveau riches are. There is an intersection of boths sets, of course, but Russians and Chinese are much worse on average, and rich South Americans can be a PITA too. Thankfully it seems the worst Brits (aka Lager Louts) and Germans (Prolls) tend to concentrate on places I would never go, but I heard horrible things about them from people who claim to know from first hand experience. Horrible, I tell you. /clutching pearls when he realizes the poor woman the pearls belong to can’t breathe.
) olive oil and real balsamic vinegar ( 
). Mrs. Cad said a few souviners. No problem … off you go. The I got spot checked by a CBP guard. Spot check consisted of