I’m from the US and after traveling & living in Europe the past couple years, I realize how loud and obnoxious American tourists are

Kind of a vent, but also just a word of caution to American tourists so you blend in with locals instead of standing out. May get railed on for this, but this is my analysis after living in Switzerland and traveling Europe.

I’m from the US, my family is from the US. We have primarily been in Switzerland the past couple years. Have GA travel cards so use the trains for all transportation.

After being here for awhile, it became very clear to us how loud and obnoxious American tourists are. And how they stick out in a crowd for not good reasons. Which is very disappointing and a shame since it is my home country and nationality.

It’s most obvious on trains or public transport. These are generally quiet with everyone talking at a respectful volume. But then you always hear English speakers and they’re the loudest people on the car. Not reading the room just extremely loud. 100% of the time they’re going to be American. This occurrence happens again and again and again. They’re always the loudest people on a train or any public transport or in any public space.

To hammer this point home, we just did a scenic train through eastern Switzerland as a family the other week while on holiday. 4.5 hour train ride. Departed 8:30. Within an hour a group on our car were all drunk, yelling the entire rest of the trip, held up the train at a stop. Since they were so loud it was easy to hear the “Oh yeah we’re from Arizona!”

It’s just appalling to me being from the US, how out of touch as a whole American tourists are. Just such a lack of respect for everyone else both locals and other travelers.

I now know exactly what a friend from Europe meant years ago before I came here, when I jokingly asked them “Tell me the stereotypes of Americans?” and they said “I don’t want to offend you, but loud and obnoxious.”

Submitted December 21, 2023 at 02:03AM by SkyHighbyJuly https://ift.tt/LRbcl70