There’s an interesting question on Ask MetaFilter today. It’s one that I’ve struggled with whenever I travel:
My wife and I are going to Europe this summer and I want to avoid looking like tourists. We are also looking to avoid being stereotyped as stupid, fat Americans.
We will be in Spain and France. What sort of clothes will keep us from looking too touristy? What sort of day-to-day information will keep us from looking and acting distinctly American?
There are lots of good answers in the message thread. My favourite spawned a separate discussion of the generally-unwise strategy of tucking one’s t-shirt into one’s jeans.
In my experience, the Brits are far worse tourists than the Americans. The average American doesn’t have a passport, and is innately averse to leaving their own country. As such, the Americans who do travel tend to be from the enlightened end of the scale. The Brits, on the other hand, were voted the world’s worst tourists. My anecdotal experience (both as a Tourism Victoria employee in my youth, and later as a traveller) verifies this result. The Brits are loud, obnoxious, unilingual and expect everything to be as it is in their soggy homeland. Wherever I go in Europe, I can be assured of spotting a stupidly drunk British woman, lobster red from sunburn, tottering down some cobblestone lane in impossibly narrow heels.
In truth, you’re never going to ‘disguise’ yourself as a local. I don’t know about you, but here in Vancouver, I can spot the tourists a mile away. Your real goal should be to tread lightly and minimize your impact on the natives. Learn how they dress, and pack accordingly. For example, men in Costa Rica rarely wear shorts. So, don’t wear shorts in San Jose. Avoid anything garish. Learn a few phrases of the language, so that you can at least apologize for not speaking it.
DarrenBarefoot.com 
My former g/f and I did a lot of travel and we tended to dress reasonably well for it–no blue jeans, no t-shirts, nothing shabby. It paid off handsomely: we got treated like real people and not as tourists (even though we patently >weremust be Germans! I still smile 8 years later as I write this now.
FWIW, we did see a number of American tourists in Venice while we were there. You could spot ’em at a distance: mostly couples in their 60s with t-shirts, fanny packs, bill-caps, and the women wore slacks in unnatural colors. They also didn’t speak Italian nor did they try. It was embarrassing.
My former g/f and I did a lot of travel and we tended to dress reasonably well for it–no blue jeans, no t-shirts, nothing shabby. It paid off handsomely: we got treated like real people and not as tourists (even though we patently were tourists).
The most fun we had with this was when we spent two weeks in Venice (quite a trip; I ended up completely full of high Renaissance/Baroque artwork for months afterwards–had to go see a Dali show to clear the mental palette). We never left the hotel without being well-dressed.
As a result, twice during the trip, we were picking up guidebooks and the vendors tried to give us guidebooks in German. I had picked up good conversational Italian prior to the trip–easy language and lots of fun to speak–and I said that no, we’d like an English guidebook, please. We got a funny look from one vendor; the other tried to explain that I really wanted the German version! 🙂
We were mystified both times, but we finally figured out what had happened. We were dressed well (slacks and shirt and tie for me, nice dresses and frocks for her), so we couldn’t be Americans, but we were too fat to be Brits or Canadians; therefore, we must be Germans! I still smile 8 years later as I write this now.
FWIW, we did see a number of American tourists in Venice while we were there. You could spot ’em at a distance: mostly couples in their 60s with t-shirts, fanny packs, bill-caps, and the women wore slacks in unnatural colors. They also didn’t speak Italian nor did they try. It was embarrassing.
I’m in Vegas right now for work and was thinking about this exact thing today. You’ll never be able to “dress like a local” because you won’t know what locals dress like until you get there.
What I find works is just to walk down the street looking rushed and annoyed. It sounds silly, but its worked for me a lot and I’ve even had people stop me and ask me for directions in Europe and New York numerous times. Even if you don’t know where you’re going, look like you do and you’ll be fine.
I worked in a number of national parks, and saw more tourist than anyone should see in a single lifetime. I strongly disagree with the catagorization of Brits as the worst tourists. That honor has forever been reserved in my heart for the Germans.
The experience that stands out most in my mind was the large, drunk, German tourist who wondered into my Yellowstone restaurant. He was wearing full tourist gear, including the obligatory Yellowsone shirt, the fanny pack, and the $2 moose antlers that they sold at the Old Faithful parking lot. He tried to blow past the hostess and the 20 people waiting for tables. When the hostess stopped him, he started flailing his arms and screaming, “Mooseheads! You’re all mooseheads!” Then, he started pointing at the waiters and screaming, “You! You are moosehead! And you! You are moosehead. Like this, see? (pointing to the $2 antlers) American Mooseheads!”
In their defense, no Brit has ever call me an American Moosehead. 🙂
Jes: I think you’ve got an isolated incident there. The article I linked to puts Germans at the top of the list, and my experience tends to confirm that as well. I found the German tourists I met humble, interested in the outdoors and generally inoffensive.
I don’t know if I trust that BBC article. It says “Americans were judged the most courteous and the British the rudest, alongside the Russians and Canadians”.
I know Canadians have been accused of a lot of things, but this is the first time I’ve ever seen them accused of being rude!
i like to think i have some experience in this area, after living for a year in paris (you haven’t felt underdressed until you’ve been a woman living in paris with no shopping budget). note that all this is europe-specific.
here are my rules:
clothes are important. dress neutrally, and whenever possible wear black. it’s dressy, but it blends in. no jeans, and NEVER EVER wear tennis shoes (this is hard as a tourist in a walking city). NO FLIP-FLOPS. no backpacks and absolutely no fanny packs. don’t give in to wearing a money belt or one of those passport holders you hang around your neck. they are a giveaway. dress they way you would to go to a nice museum in your own city. carry a purse or a messenger bag. avoid logos. avoid tshirts. you can carry a camera, but you have to do it as you would in your own city, and unselfconsciously. women should wear dresses and skirts, men should generally not wear shorts.
behavior is next. tourists stand out in part because they are looking at things that locals don’t — architecture, parks, general window shopping. if you don’t look like a tourist, look like you know where you’re going and you’re in a little bit of a hurry to get there. look as if you’re late to a meeting and can’t be bothered with all those chocolate eclairs in the window you just passed or the amazing steeple up ahead. you will note that this will somewhat defeat the purpose of being a tourist, which is to see things, but you can’t have it all ways.
contact with people is next big problem. for north americans, eye contact with strangers is entirely appropriate and in fact desirable. this is not true in most of europe. you should be avoiding eye contact unless you’re standing in front of a counter or having a conversation. don’t make eye contact with people on the street, don’t smile at strangers, don’t greet people who are walking by. it’ll feel rude, but it’s just life as usual. (this doesn’t apply everyone in europe, but it’s definitely generally true.)
it goes without saying that observing what locals do will help, but keep in mind that if you’re heading for highly touristed areas you won’t see many of those. head for the grocery store and check out what people are wearing, or for a department store. watch for other tourists and identify for yourself why you know they are tourists. then don’t do that.
when you get stopped and asked for directions by a local on the street you’ve achieved the nirvana of not looking like a tourist — congratulations. now you have to figure out how to answer them 😉
“when you get stopped and asked for directions by a local on the street you’ve achieved the nirvana of not looking like a tourist — congratulations.” Susannah
Susannah, if you get stopped by a local for directions, you likely are about to be pickpocketed. DT
I don’t think you can place Canadians
accurately on any list of qualities
when traveling abroad as so many Americans and others are fond of sewing a Canadian flag onto their backpacks.
As though it were some kind
of universal message to locals “I am bland and unremarkable, ignore me.”
I don’t get it. Why would you NOT want to look like a tourist, if thats what you are ?? The reason you’re visiting a city if you’re a tourist, is so that you absorb the art, history and culture of the place (hopefully), so what so wrong about advertising that ? S’long as you respect the ‘see and do not touch’ policy i.e BEHAVE yourselves and conduct yourselves appropriately, there really shouldn’t be a problem in standing out in a crowd of locals, should there ? ‘Sides, most locals welcome tourists quite warmly… it is after all a cultural imperative in most cultures to make guests feel comfortable. And, I quite disagree with the British standing in the tourist chart… in my experience, Americans are the worst tourists. They’re loud and brash, and couldn’t care less about the traditions of another country, coz hell… they could always invade us. Yeesh!! Germans are nice. I like Germans. Indians are also bad tourists, in my opinion. But then, they’re bad locals too… they spoil their own country and then do the same outside as well, unless of course they know they’re going to be flogged, like in Singapore. I’m Indian. I’m ashamed of it, usually.
I do my best to be a good tourist, but I will wear my sneakers. From experience I know that there is no ‘nice’ shoe that is as comfortable and supportive for hours on my feet. I am not going to ruin my very expensive and possibly once-in-a-lifetime trip by wearing uncomfortable “nice” shoes just to ‘blend in’ with strangers who don’t give two hoots about me.
Wearing sneakers isn’t exactly the point. I to, want my feet to be comfortable. But big clunky athletic shoes the were made for just that, athletics, can be replaced with sleek, chic stylish sneaker. I hate to see tourist in Rome, dressed like they are going to Disney World.
Canadians are bad tourists?(that is news to me) As far as bad tourists go, I am sure every lot has it’s share of bad apples, and each person’s own experience tends to impact their views of who is the worst. I can’t say I have encountered a bad German tourist, but it was fun to read about.
As an American, I try not to be offensive. Dressing appropriately, not acting loud, and learning key phrases like thank-you’s tend to help a lot. (locals think better of those who at least attempt the language) Of course it wont always help.
When I visited Paris, most people were amiable, with the exception of a few clerks in the Eiffel tower. They gossiped audibly about the group I was with, but we should have seen that coming. Who isn’t going to take note of a swarm of jean-clad Americans decked out in fanny-packs?
I am going to try moving as if I am in a hurry on my next trip, and if I get asked for directions I will be mindful of my belongings.
Thanks! (=
i am a pure european .listen to my notes
1/dress in black
2/people in europe have money to speand
3/must act like one to bleand in
4/ they will think ur rudue if u dont dress like ur going to church
5/ if u want more info email me at melanir@bellsouth.net
Having just stumbled upon this article, I’m outraged. How dare the author state ‘The Brits are loud, obnoxious, unilingual and expect everything to be as it is in their soggy homeland.’ Excuse me??? I’ve always found Canadians to be wonderful people – I guess there’s always one moron to prove me wrong. As a young British woman, who works full time, rarely drinks AND speaks FIVE languages, I find those comments offensive. How many languages can this braindead author speak? If they say more than five, I know they’ll be lying.
Louise: You may be both intelligent and enlightened, but that hasn’t been my experience of your countrymen when they’re on holidays. If you’re not interested in my recollection of British tourists–I met literally hundreds in my work in a tourism office and on the streets of Dublin, where I lived for two years–then consider your own BBC:
“[The British] are the rudest, meanest, worst-behaved, most linguistically incompetent and least adventurous holidaymakers, the study published on Friday claims.”
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