Rick Steves - How not to be that kind of traveler

[ldubs]

Agree with this wholeheartedly ..and RUDE on top of it.

 

Sorry. Showing great restraint.

[ldubs]

I guess I just wonder why folks who want to travel in a bubble -- without experiencing local food, local interactions, local transportation, etc -- wouldn't prefer to just stay at home and do their sightseeing by watching tv travel shows or youtube? Seeing the boulevardes of Paris through a bus window isn't much different from seeing them on tv, after all...

 

I don't know why, but that is their choice. I'm sure not going to call them names or criticize their travel style because it is different than mine. If someone enjoys, then God bless em.

[Z'Loth]

Uhhh.... please be aware that what I'm using isn't a selfie stick, it's a Handheld Smartphone Gimbal that cost me a pretty penny.

[ilikeanswers]

"Narcissi-sticks":') I wouldn't oppose the name change. Selfie sticks may be here to stay and certainly beats worrying if that person you gave your camera to isnt going to do a runner but I also think it might have made taking a photo too easy that we seem to constantly find faults with our image and need to always correct it. Once we were just grateful to have that picture and cherished the memories attached to it. Now it seems no image is ever good enough:o.

 

When it comes to cultural sensitivity in travel it is important to remember that it is very much a western idea. More people in western nations have had the luxury to travel internationally for a lot longer than people in other parts of the world, so we have had time to develope travelling philosophies. Countries like China that have had rapid increase of people with the disposable income to travel are playing catch up when it comes to travel etiquette. Part of the problem may be the bubble like travel they participate in. Never being taken out of your comfort zone means never having to rethink your behaviour:confused:.

 

On the flip side there is a growing number of young Asians who are choosing back packing and independent travel. As travel styles diversify this it will probably lead to awareness of cultural sensitivity. The one thing I do notice with a few of the independent Asian travellers I have met is there is a real curiousity about the world. They ask a lot of questions and want to understand how things work and have a real sense of wonderment. By comaprison I sometimes think we westerners are a little jaded as travellers:p.

[ldubs]

We leave on a cruise Monday. Group of 16, 15 of which are Asians. Been fun reading some of the ridiculous comments on this thread.

[Ashland]

There's nothing wrong with wanting an "American" breakfast on occasion when traveling. ;p

 

Some of the best we've had were where you would least expect them.

[Z'Loth]

Here is my gripe, and yes, I created a thread on this...

 

One of my big things when traveling is that I try local restaurants where I am traveling and avoid chain restaurants that are in my area. When I was in Costa Rica last year, what is the one of the first advertisements that I saw? Dennys. I also passed by an Applebees between the hotel and the job site. OK, the next time I'm in New England, I may give the McDonald's Lobster Roll a try.

 

Also, when dining in the MDR, I'm going to try some food which I usually don't have or flinch when I see the price tag. If I don't like it, I can order something else.

 

I can understand the comfort issue when eating at familiar restaurant. But, doesn't that defeat the purpose of traveling?

[sparks1093]

One person's stereotype is another's marketing demographic. :)

[ollienbertsmum]

One thing made me smile when I (European) visited Alaska this summer. I do read the small print, when booking the occasional tour (sometimes it does seem the best way to visit a site), I have read the disclaimer about buses in Europe not having A/C. I assumed that I would get five star buses in US.

 

Well... I was totally surprised that not one tour transport that I used in Alaska or Canada was fitted with A/C. That knocked one of my stereotypes on the head.

 

The transport was much more primitive than my bus in to work. We don't even pay for our public transport!!

[calliopecruiser]

Here is my gripe' date=' and yes, I created a thread on this...

 

One of my big things when traveling is that I try local restaurants where I am traveling and avoid chain restaurants that are in my area. When I was in Costa Rica last year, what is the one of the first advertisements that I saw? Dennys. I also passed by an Applebees between the hotel and the job site. OK, the next time I'm in New England, I may give the McDonald's Lobster Roll a try.

 

Also, when dining in the MDR, I'm going to try some food which I usually don't have or flinch when I see the price tag. If I don't like it, I can order something else.

 

I can understand the comfort issue when eating at familiar restaurant. But, doesn't that defeat the purpose of traveling?

 

Why are you griping about what other people enjoy doing? What does it matter to you?

 

And why does wanting familiar food defeat the "purpose" of traveling? I'd rather see a traveler want to avoid stomach upset by eating familiar foods than someone who stays home and doesn't travel. And rather see a traveler stay in a bubble than stay home. You may want to try a lot of different things at once, but some people only want one or two different things at a time. It's still better than never trying anything different.

 

 

I'm seeing a lot of snobbery in this thread (including the article)........traveling is a lot of different things for different people, and I'd rather see people travel (even if they stay in a tour bus or eat at McDonalds) than stay home.

[evandbob]

One thing that Steves din't say in his article, although it's usually quite apparent, is that Americans are generally the largest tourists around.

[Markanddonna]

I wholeheartedly agree with Rick, but he has evolved from his earlier days. He has put out two very helpful books on cruising to Europe and sees they have some unique benefits in travel.

 

One phenomenon I observe as I research for my trip are the youtube videos featuring "travel princesses." These videos are supposedly intended to show a site or a city, but instead about half of it features a lovely young lady posing like a model for the camera. Talk about a young lady who wants to promote herself!

 

I love videos like Wolter's World that start out with Mark introducing the topic but the rest of the video is filled with helpful information.

 

We are pretty independent travelers who started out about 30 years ago following Rick Steves' philosophy of traveling. Not backpackers though! The one thing I won't do anymore is book a hotel with the bathroom down the hall. Ensuite now seems to be the standard.

[Sea Hag]

One person's stereotype is another's marketing demographic. :)

Exactly.

[Velvetwater]

I know many Europeans that consider Rick Steves a bit of a Mcdonald's of the travelling world and deem his books toy town and so on and only suitable for US travellers. It is all about perception I guess but you won't see many of us with a Rick Steves book on holiday. I am indifferent to the whole travel book thing as I do not read them.

 

I will say what I always say about tourism and travelling. You will get large groups of travellers that will always be a presence....you will always get travellers whos ways you won't agree with. But if anyone travels the world and enjoys it without annoying anyone else,damaging anything and showing respect then how they want to do it is all good with me. You do not know why someone is camera obsessive or why someone has a selfie stick or why someone insists on wearing socks and sandals.

 

Just go with it.

[sanger727]

I agree with the article. Travel is an experience, not a destination. While I like cruising to see island destinations, you certainly lose a bit of the travel experience. I was amused when I started researching a trip to Southeast Asia. We considered a cruise from the stand point of getting to see several destinations with the comforts of home (because I have heard unpleasant things about traveling in Asia - case in point, ‘squatters’ [emoji853] and because my travel partner has a food allergy that will be difficult to deal with in this area). When I started researching the ports of calls on cruise critic I found that the ports ‘reviews’ focused primarily on which ports were good and based on the quality of shopping. We have since decided to do a land trip and look at the cultural differences as an experience.

 

For those of you who don’t see a problem with the woman in Italy insisting on American Diet Coke instead of Coca Cola light - imagine if you were at a local restaurant and a Chinese visitor came in and made a scene about not getting chopsticks to eat. It’s very entitled to me to travel to a different country and expect them to conform to your cultural expectations. As the saying goes ‘when in rome’

 

 

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Edited September 2, 2018 by sanger727

[JMorris271]

Travel is an experience, not a destination.

 

For me, this is not quite true. The destination is just as important as the experience.. I choose destination first. then work the journey and pack accordingly. We enjoy DIY tours or just turning corner and being surprised at what we find

I t has always been a tradition for us to always stop for people taking photos up to a reasonable amount of time. That does not mean 3 reorganizations of the shots. We like to eat in local restaurants and if possible, trying the exotic dishes. Think monkey brains. Many dishes that sounded disgusting through interpretation were actually very tasty.

 

One part of a journey that burned my butt was once I had gotten in position and was almost in focus to take a shot of the Mona Lisa and was knocked aside by a band of Asian tourist shooting selfies. Shot lost. I am a quick shooter. pretty much I can target, focus and shoot, then move out of the way so others can get a picture. Another event, upon exiting an elevator on a cruise, I was knocked down to the floor by 2 Asian women rushing into a full car before those inside could get out..

I see many many inconsiderate people of all nationalities on trips, but the majority of those are Asian No stereotyping here folks. Just the facts folks.

[calliopecruiser]

I agree with the article. Travel is an experience, not a destination.

Actually, it's both.......but we all don't have to have the same experience, nor the same depth of experience. To each one's own. Better to have a partial experience than none at all.

 

For those of you who don’t see a problem with the woman in Italy insisting on American Diet Coke instead of Coca Cola light - imagine if you were at a local restaurant and a Chinese visitor came in and made a scene about not getting chopsticks to eat. It’s very entitled to me to travel to a different country and expect them to conform to your cultural expectations. As the saying goes ‘when in rome’

I see nothing wrong with "insisting" on an American Diet Coke if it's important to you, nor with going somewhere else if you can't get what you want. In fact, that's part of the experience and the education of world travel......discovering that the entire world does not want what you want, or have what you have. Maybe the next time, she won't bother asking for a Diet Coke, and will just have water instead, if she's not ready to try buying a drink she might not like. Or maybe she's already tried Coca Cola Light and knows she doesn't like it.

[cruisemom42]

I see nothing wrong with "insisting" on an American Diet Coke if it's important to you, nor with going somewhere else if you can't get what you want. In fact, that's part of the experience and the education of world travel......discovering that the entire world does not want what you want, or have what you have. Maybe the next time, she won't bother asking for a Diet Coke, and will just have water instead, if she's not ready to try buying a drink she might not like. Or maybe she's already tried Coca Cola Light and knows she doesn't like it.

 

I think you are focusing on justifying small details and missing the bigger picture.

 

The two women who insisted on an American Diet Coke missed a wonderful, local dining experience (where there WERE other options available besides a diet soda from either side of the Atlantic). It's likely they ended up somewhere that didn't offer that experience.

 

Sure, occasionally we want what's familiar when traveling -- but to make a scene about not getting it (and they did make a scene) rather than just thanking the proprietor and leaving, well..... that's being an ugly traveller, American or any other nationality.

[CruiserBruce]

I think you are focusing on justifying small details and missing the bigger picture.

 

The two women who insisted on an American Diet Coke missed a wonderful, local dining experience (where there WERE other options available besides a diet soda from either side of the Atlantic). It's likely they ended up somewhere that didn't offer that experience.

 

Sure, occasionally we want what's familiar when traveling -- but to make a scene about not getting it (and they did make a scene) rather than just thanking the proprietor and leaving, well..... that's being an ugly traveller, American or any other nationality.

 

Totally agree, and think you said it very well. Funny how many Americans (and I know the poster you are responding to is not an American) expect foreign visitors to the US to take every here as it..don't complain, don't do anything different, this is the US, and we do things our way. But when they go to another country, they expect everything to be as at home.

[iancal]

We have spent several winters in Thailand. On one island where we often stay we are amazed by the number of westerners who not only eat in the western style restaurants but are willing to pay 3X the price that they would pay for the wonderful local food. Why bother to travel and experience other cultures if what you really want is bacon and eggs for breakfast and a Big Mac for dinner?

 

We got turned off some locations in Spain. Got so sick of seeing English fish and chip stores, pubs designed to look like their UK versions complete with UK football games on huge screens that we now avoid these areas that cater to expats. I mean really, who on earth want to order mushy peas in Spain?

[calliopecruiser]

I think you are focusing on justifying small details and missing the bigger picture.

 

The two women who insisted on an American Diet Coke missed a wonderful, local dining experience (where there WERE other options available besides a diet soda from either side of the Atlantic). It's likely they ended up somewhere that didn't offer that experience.

 

Sure, occasionally we want what's familiar when traveling -- but to make a scene about not getting it (and they did make a scene) rather than just thanking the proprietor and leaving, well..... that's being an ugly traveller, American or any other nationality.

Oh, I get the big picture......but I think you're missing the bigger picture that people should be able to make their own choices (if they accept the consequences) without being the subject of derision. Their choices aren't yours or mine, but equally valid for them.

 

 

I think the only "ugly travelers" are those that obstruct others from sharing in the enjoyment. And if you can't enjoy a meal because someone made a fuss about a soft drink, that's a whole 'nuther thread subject. Were those people polite and pleasant? No, but that doesn't make them "ugly" and doesn't require traveling.

 

I know it's not fashionable to not get upset or offended by people's choices and behaviours that aren't like my own, but I'm not sorry for being unfashionable and not jumping on the bandwagon.

[Cairn Mom]

When my husband and I were younger, we traveled exclusively on land taking trains,renting cars and occasional planes between destinations. He often traveled out of the country on business so he was very comfortable doing this sort of travel. If I wanted to go along with him on a business trip, I had to entertain myself. I went sightseeing and shopping alone. This was long before cellphones with gps and translation. I carried a dictionary and a card from my hotel to give the bus or taxi driver. It was both fun and scary. People were generally very nice to me and I feel very blessed to have been able to travel that way.

Years have rolled by, and now our favorite for of travel is by cruise ship. Our backs,night vision and energy level are not what they used to be.

We usually do spend a few days on land before and after a cruise enjoying the local food and just being in a totally different environment. Rarely do we do land tours. In my experience, do not afford local flavor. We know people who exclusively travel that way. They are afraid to navigate a place where they don’t know the language. We prefer to take day/ half-day tours both on land and sea. In some places, they are the best way to to make sure you see and appreciate what’s important to you. Like skip the line at the Vatican and a guide to explain the frescoes in the Sistine Chapel.

 

Ultimately, nobody has the right to tell someone else how to travel and there is no “best way”. People should be considerate of someone else’s experience and not be rude.

 

 

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[JMorris271]

We have spent several winters in Thailand. On one island where we often stay we are amazed by the number of westerners who not only eat in the western style restaurants but are willing to pay 3X the price that they would pay for the wonderful local food. Why bother to travel and experience other cultures if what you really want is bacon and eggs for breakfast and a Big Mac for dinner?

 

We got turned off some locations in Spain. Got so sick of seeing English fish and chip stores, pubs designed to look like their UK versions complete with UK football games on huge screens that we now avoid these areas that cater to expats. I mean really, who on earth want to order mushy peas in Spain?

 

Perhaps the locals have developed a taste for Pappa's Johns, Fish and Chips, KFC and Big Macs.

[navybankerteacher]

The thing about “getting to know the locals” is the fact that, in most places, there generally are more visitors wanting to get to know locals than there are locals interested in getting to know visitors. We’ve had great conversations with Irish travelers in France, Dutch travelers in Italy and French travelers in Spain. The key seems to be that people outside of their home turf seem to be more interested in striking up conversations with strangers than are people hanging at their own local pub, tapas bar or whatever.

[jagsfan]

Uhhh.... please be aware that what I'm using isn't a selfie stick' date=' it's a Handheld Smartphone Gimbal that cost me a pretty penny.

 

 

 

[emoji2]

 

 

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