Faremax: Travel Forums

I have travelled to mostly Euopean nations in my travels, but have had a wide variety of experiences with locals. Of course my time in America is residential, not vacationing, but here too I have had a mixed experience. On the whole, Americans have been nice to me, the dig the accent and always wanting to chat. It's not been the case everywhere-DC on a hot afternoon, the people can suck, and NY-well, I wouldn't recommend some areas.

But in Europe it varies just as much. Brits tend to love Americans, so you would get on well there. But some places seem to hate everyone that is not from that place-like Italians-super arrogant.

What has been your experience-where are the best and worst places to travel in this respect?

I've found Americans, Canadians, Belgians and Dutch people to all be really really nice. When I went to France, however, everyone was really snobbish. It could have been because I was young and travelling with a party of fellow teenagers, but we were all polite and well behaved, and we were still treated in a very hostile manner almost everywhere we went. The only people who were friendly to us were a group of people of similar age to us who came over to assist us as we mangled our French trying to purchase some smoothies.

I usually do not have a bad time traveling when it comes to ignorant people, but then again when my family and I travel we switch to speaking Spanish.  Why?  well becuase of those ignorant people you speak of,.  It can be true, when we have traveled as an American family we run into stupid and onoxious people more often than when we are Spanish.  My family has homes in both Spain and the states so technically we are not lying to people we meet on our travels, but when in Europe we are a spanish family.

The attitude also depends on your gender. As a female, I've never received cold looks from Italian men. As for Italian women, I don't know. But one thing is for certain. I love France but the French look down on anyone who doesn't speak their language, especially at Americans. On the other hand, I've found the British to be quite polite, and yes, the Dutch are definitely friendly.