# What I learned on my most recent European vacation **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 19, 2022, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-learned-on-my-most-recent-european-vacation/968212 "2022-07-19T18:08:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2022, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-learned-on-my-most-recent-european-vacation/968212/21 "2022-07-20T18:13:58Z")
The only time I’ve seen a rude tourist in Europe, they were Latin American (although they might have been a returning traveler from Spain). I was waiting in the baggage area in Madrid, when someone was waiting for their baggage on a flight from Latin America when someone got tired of waiting, and walked on the currently-stationary baggage conveyor belt, opened up the flaps to the loading room, and yelled at the workers in the back to get a move on. I’ve seen a few rude _locals_ in England, but that is balanced out by the vast majority of the rest hitting the sweet spot between sullen and overly-garrulous. ---
**Author:** ![Die\_Capacitrix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/die_capacitrix/32/9_2.png) [@Die\_Capacitrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Die_Capacitrix)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2022, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-learned-on-my-most-recent-european-vacation/968212/22 "2022-07-20T18:45:20Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > Today I learned that you can also catch covid on the plane ride home. My coworker caught covid on the way to the U.S., so I guess you traded. He gave it to all his relatives. As a resident of a popular tourist area, my opinion is that tourist groups are the worse tourists. They ignore other people, traffic lights, etc., while they are following the tour leader. And talk loudly while lining up to all take pictures in front of the scenery. > [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > I’m so tired of the constant extreme-partisan political “discussion” in this country. Switzerland has their share as well. ☹ > [@Telemark](#): > > We learned that Global Entry was well worth the cost/effort. Defintely. After living in a non-English speaking country for two decades, I still can’t tune out somebody speaking English, if I’l already participating in a conversation in German. Probably most people are going to notice people speaking in their native language before they notice people speaking other languages. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2022, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-learned-on-my-most-recent-european-vacation/968212/23 "2022-07-20T19:12:54Z")
> [@Die\_Capacitrix](#): > > After living in a non-English speaking country for two decades, I still can’t tune out somebody speaking English The first time I visited a non-English speaking country, I noticed that whenever I overheard some other random tourists having a conversation in English I had this strange urge to introduce myself. “Hi there! I speak English, too!” Of course I didn’t, that would have been rude to interrupt them like that, but the impulse was always there. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2022, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-learned-on-my-most-recent-european-vacation/968212/24 "2022-07-20T19:24:47Z")
I lived and worked all over Europe for eight years and I take issue with the characterization of Americans being the rudest people. In my experience, MOST people who are on vacation in a foreign country have little respect for the host country or its people, especially young men who invariably are drunk, rowdy and aggressive. We were actively harassed by young German tourists who were staying at the same hotel as we, when we were on a project in Budapest. I’ve seen French tourists in the US laughing and talking loudly as the honor guard walked a horse past us all during a burial ceremony at the Veterans’ Cemetery in Washington. I was taunted for merely sitting quietly having a beer in a pub in the Netherlands. And young Chinese tourists of means are busy ruining most tourist destinations these days. The list of incidents is endless. Boorish behavior is not confined to one demographic. ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2022, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-learned-on-my-most-recent-european-vacation/968212/25 "2022-07-20T19:39:21Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > 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. I wonder if this speaks to the faux populism of America and its constant insistence that it is “democratic” and not run by elites? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2022, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-learned-on-my-most-recent-european-vacation/968212/26 "2022-07-20T20:25:46Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > 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… > > 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. Yeah, at Disneyland, Australians are thought of as “rude” where in reality they are loud, and just will not tip. Just talking to them, they are very nice. Ar WDW there was a Aussie who, like me, was "follicle challenged"and we were sharing the same bench in some shade in the horrible heat- I noticed his head was getting red and I suggested a hat or something. He said he lost both his hat and his bandanna, so I offered my (clean, unused) bandanna, and in a matter of moments he had somehow turned it into a hat! He then insisted to buy us lunch and or drinks, but my wife had to get somewhere, so we just shook hands. Really nice people, but they _are_ loud, and they won’t tip. In general, Germans and eastern Europeans are thought to be the worst. But yeah, us Yanks get in there too. > [@ftg](#): > > Four guys are standing on a street corner: an American, a Russian, a Chinese, and an Israeli. A news reporter comes up to the group and says to them: LOL 😆 ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2022, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-learned-on-my-most-recent-european-vacation/968212/27 "2022-07-21T02:41:19Z")
> [@shantih](#): > > Did your travels take you anywhere else or was it an exclusively Venetian holiday? Corfu, Dubrovnic and Split. ---
**Author:** ![kitap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2022, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-learned-on-my-most-recent-european-vacation/968212/28 "2022-07-21T05:24:52Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > 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. Years ago a cartoonist - I want to say either Lynda Barry or Nicole Hollander - had a series of strips of phrases you should learn before going abroad. The only strip I remember was “I am not personally responsible for my government’s foreign policy”. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2022, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-learned-on-my-most-recent-european-vacation/968212/29 "2022-07-21T15:40:45Z")
I was hang-gliding (sorry, had to name-drop a sport) and the group ground lesson included a middle-aged guy, a tourist from London. Pretty much all he did was bitch vehemently about British politics: Parliament, PM, royalty. Seriously, we’d ask him about his favorite pub and he’d start yelling: _“Pub? You want you should go to a pub? Well, good luck with that! They’ve levied a TAX on ANY beer on tap! Ya think I’M going to put an extra tuppence in the tax man’s greedy palms? And the local politicians…”_ ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2022, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-learned-on-my-most-recent-european-vacation/968212/30 "2022-07-21T16:18:17Z")
I’ve never seen any obnoxious American tourists in Australia or Japan. Or any obnoxious Americans in my six or seven trips to the USA. As Chefyguy noted above, drunk young louts of any nationality will ignore rules and be generally unpleasant. I have a lot of nice memories from my trips to the US. Back then I was still unmarried so I was always travelling alone, for work. Just walking around in Chicago, Atlanta or Seattle random people came up and started talking to me. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2022, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-learned-on-my-most-recent-european-vacation/968212/31 "2022-07-25T23:01:53Z")
Oh I forgot As a good American, I learned in Europe how I miss unlimited cola with ice. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2022, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-learned-on-my-most-recent-european-vacation/968212/32 "2022-07-26T11:28:03Z")
I am an American living in Europe. I agree with the general sentiment that people of any nationality can be rude, and with the observation that it _tends_ to be among the _nouveau riche_ who are inexperienced in how to behave in non-selfish, respectful ways. When I was visiting Versailles, it was a large group of Chinese tourists who roughly shoved my child to the ground to clear a space for their selfie, and then whacked me in the head with the selfie stick when I went to rescue my kid. When I observe graffiti in the isolated corners of historical monuments (e.g. in the garret rooms at the tops of the harborside towers in La Rochelle), it is almost invariably written one of two ways — phrases in the local language(s), or in the Cyrillic alphabet. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2022, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-learned-on-my-most-recent-european-vacation/968212/33 "2022-07-26T12:00:18Z")
Sometimes the rudeness isn’t intentional. My biggest beef with international tourists here in Vienna is how they tend to stand or walk in the bike lanes. Quite often these tourists are North Americans; I suppose the idea of reserving a portion of the road or sidewalk for bikes is something that just doesn’t occur to people raised in a culture where cars are dominant. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2022, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-learned-on-my-most-recent-european-vacation/968212/34 "2022-07-26T13:44:11Z")
Just a little hijack - my wife and I will be visiting Vienna for the first time in mid-October. So first of all, we promise to be polite and soft-spoken and not at all stereotypical. Second of all, we’ll pay attention to the bike lanes, although we do have them here and are pretty used to them. Third of all, do you have any quick recommendations, warnings or advice? ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2022, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-learned-on-my-most-recent-european-vacation/968212/35 "2022-07-26T13:55:09Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > I am an American living in Europe. I agree with the general sentiment that people of any nationality can be rude, and with the observation that it _tends_ to be among the _nouveau riche_ who are inexperienced in how to behave in non-selfish, respectful ways. I agree with this. When I read the OP, my thought was ‘Really, the worst tourists are the Russians’. The Chinese can also be pretty ignorant, mainly because they go about in groups and only eat in Chinese restaurants, but they don’t actively shout at waiters and tip small children off sunbeds. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2022, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-learned-on-my-most-recent-european-vacation/968212/36 "2022-07-26T14:07:00Z")
Vienna is a pretty tourist-friendly city, so you probably won’t have much to worry about. Forget about renting a car, as the city is very walkable and the public transit is cheap and excellent; parking is expensive and driving in the centre is generally prohibited. Alternatively, consider renting bikes, though watch out for streetcar tracks if you’re not used to them. There’s so much to do and see here that you should probably decide in advance what you’re going to visit, but leave plenty of time for just wandering around the city. Oh, and avoid the Mozart men that infest all the main squares; [this Q&A](https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/21769/how-can-i-find-good-classical-music-concerts-in-vienna) has some good tips on finding good classical music concerts. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2022, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-learned-on-my-most-recent-european-vacation/968212/37 "2022-07-26T14:12:49Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > avoid the Mozart men that infest all the main squares; Heh. Looked around and it seems this refers to Mozart Cosplay?! Avoid as you would avoid mimes? ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2022, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-learned-on-my-most-recent-european-vacation/968212/38 "2022-07-26T14:39:07Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Heh. Looked around and it seems this refers to Mozart Cosplay?! They’re selling tickets to concerts of ensembles that no one has ever heard of. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the music is bad, though it’s certainly possible to get tickets for much more prestigious performers, in much better venues, for the same or less money. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2022, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-learned-on-my-most-recent-european-vacation/968212/39 "2022-07-26T14:47:25Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > They’re selling tickets to concerts of ensembles that no one has ever heard of. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the music is bad, though it’s certainly possible to get tickets for much more prestigious performers, in much better venues, for the same or less money. Roger that. If we decide we want to attend a concert, we’ll probably go through our hotel’s concierge. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2022, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-learned-on-my-most-recent-european-vacation/968212/40 "2022-07-26T14:54:30Z")
Watched a woman throw a fit in a hotel lobby because there wasn’t going to be any 4th of July fireworks shows in the area. We were in Victoria, British Columbia. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-learned-on-my-most-recent-european-vacation/968212.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-learned-on-my-most-recent-european-vacation/968212.md?page=3)