No, you can’t order a cappuccino after lunch. You might wander around the city searching for a trash can for hours. If you need to use the restroom, be prepared to pay. And if someone tries to kiss you on the cheek, don’t freak out. They’re just being friendly!
When traveling internationally, it’s a given that you should mentally prepare yourself for some cultural differences. But no matter how many times they visit a place, some Redditors can’t seem to get behind all of the local customs. Below, you’ll find some of the quirks of various countries that travelers sometimes struggle with, as well as a conversation with travel expert Alex Miles from offMetro!
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This is an extremely controversial opinion, but religion-based "modesty" clothing that is designed to protect women's "sexual purity" will always rub me the wrong way. I don't care if the religion is Christian, Muslim, Pastafarian, or whatever else: I just think it is abhorrent and archaic when women are singled out as the ones responsible for keeping men from being sexual predators and deviants and are made to cover any portion of their body because of some religious mandate. I also do not agree with the logic that this can ever be a woman's choice or a "feminist act" as long as a religious community is the source of the pressure to dress a certain way.
The unhinged tipping culture in the US. I just wanna go to a restaurant without feeling like I'm either either an ungrateful scrooge or ripping myself off. I understand that staffing is an expense, just factor it into the price!
Less egregious but in a similar vein is not including tax in stores.
I come from a non-tipping country and yeah, it kind of puts a downer on the whole experince and awkwardness when you're eating with other people and they don't really understand/want to tip. Plus you also forget when you're not used to it, I'd got out and eat a meal that was already probably too expensive for my travelling bugdet and then you have this horrible realisation halfway through eating that you have to also then pay another 20% on top.
To learn more about some of the cultural differences that might prove challenging to travelers, we reached out to travel expert and editor at offMetro, Alex Miles. Alex shared with Bored Panda that even he has had difficulties adjusting to the local customs in some places.
"I once found myself in Japan, a land of incredible sushi, impeccable manners, and a penchant for bowing that would make your head spin. Now, don't get me wrong, I adore sushi. But let me tell you, there's an art to bowing, and I've got two left feet when it comes to it," he explained. "On my first day, I nodded like a bobblehead on steroids, while the locals performed graceful, synchronized ballets of respect. It was like trying to dance the waltz at a rave party—slightly out of place."
QR codes for menus in the US, and probably other places, not sure.
"Hey welcome to Zany Bob's House of Kebabs! Scan the QR right there on that nasty sticker on the table and you'll be brought to our site. Click on the menu, scroll through a too-large PDF of the menu on your phone because the owner couldn't get a proper developer for this, then order online! Isn't that easy?!"
"Oh, what's that, Grandma doesn't have a phone? Well, I'd love to bring you a paper menu, but it's gonna be about 10 mins because we only have a few in the place."
"Hey here's your food! I'll be back in 20 minutes to rush you out and expect a 20% tip for doing absolutely f**k all. Y'all come back, now!"
Dubai not allowing people to hold hands in public. And also that they have the death penalty if you're gay.
Natural resources don't always lead to progress, sometimes they prevent it as a resource curse.
There is a huge difference between how Emerati are being treated and how foreigners are being treated. Yet, the country could not function without foreigners. Treat them accordingly!
In general, the notion that turning down food is rude.
I appreciate that someone cooked a meal for me, but forcing me to choke down something I don’t like is ruder than me simply saying “No, thank you.”
We were also curious if there are any customs in Alex's home country that he can't get behind. "In the good old U.S. of A, we're known for our generous portion sizes," he noted. "Sometimes it feels like our motto should be 'Supersize Everything!' But there's a caveat to this American indulgence. The portion sizes may be large, but our waste bins are equally enormous."
"The amount of food that goes to waste is a monstrous problem," Alex explained. "So, being an eco-friendly activist, I found myself yearning for the Japanese custom of ordering just enough to savor every bite, reducing both my waistline and my ecological footprint."
How American public restroom stalls have that gap between the door and frame wide enough for you to make eye contact with anyone walking outside the stall.
China - people spitting all over the place right in front of you, on the streets, on the sidewalks. It’s disgusting.
Unfortunately this is a real problem. Discussing this in a class and asking for ideas to stop it one small boy suggested,, that since it was usually older people doing this, young people should all carry a stick and give offenders a smack. You had to love him.
The tipping screen at a coffee shop in the US requesting 20%/22%/25%/other.
Every other country in the world has figured out how to pay service employees without tipping. How has America not figured out how to run a business without handouts?
The weird thing is that American business owners will tell you that paying their staff low wages and forcing them to rely on tips help them to keep prices down, to the customer's advantage. While it keeps the advertised price down, it's no advantage to the customer, who's obliged to pay AT LEAST an additional 20%. It benefits the business owner, no-one else.
"As for some tips for fellow travelers who may find themselves dancing on the tightrope of cultural adaptation, first and foremost, research, my friends!" Alex told Bored Panda. "Google is your best pal. Learn about local customs and etiquettes before you step off that plane. It can save you from a world of awkward encounters."
"Next, don't be afraid to embrace the unknown," the travel expert continued. "You're in a foreign land, after all. Experiment with local customs, even if you look like a lost puppy trying to fit in. Most locals appreciate the effort, and they might just teach you a thing or two."
Working in Japan temporarily:
Yeah, we'll be here ready to go at 8AM
Ok, it's 8PM, time to call it a day.
But first, the boss and the big boss want to take us out to dinner
Now we have to go with them to the bar for drinks and karaoke.
Ok, it's 1AM, Boss and Big Boss have left. See you in the morning at 7:30.
Yep. That's Japan. And during those 12 work hours there is no time to walk, you have to run.
Tipping and taxes not included on the price tag.
Alex also urges travelers to keep an open mind. "Remember, you're not just observing customs; you're experiencing a way of life. Be patient with yourself and others, and be ready for some slip-ups. It's all part of the adventure," he explained.
"And here's a secret sauce tip: learn a few essential phrases in the local language. Nothing earns you more goodwill than a heartfelt 'hello' or 'thank you' in the native tongue," Alex added. "It's like sprinkling a bit of magic on your interactions."
If you'd like to gain more travel tips from Alex and the rest of the offMetro team, be sure to visit their site right here!
Squatting toilets. I know it is just local culture/tradition, but I hate going into a public toilet and be welcomed by others' effluence...
In Serbia where people mistreat their dogs. Leave them in cages in the front yard, or just outside unwashed on a chain, even in the snow.
The lack of spatial awareness in China, like people rushing to get into the elevator before you can exit it. Men casually coughing up phlegm and spitting everywhere. Shirts rolled up above belly to cool down. All the stench that can catch you off-guard anytime anywhere.
Aaah yes, the Beijing Bikini, greatest of belly flexes
Lack of air conditioning in Europe and no screens on the windows. I was staying in Italy at a Marriott property and the hotel room was sweltering in December. I opened the window and the room was immediately flooded with mosquitoes.
Portuguese waiters disappearing after serving you the desserts!
A guidebook told me that dessert is seen as the best part of the meal therefore they give you plenty of time to enjoy it. But I wanna pay and move on!
On the other hand: in the US they bring you the check when you haven’t even swallowed the last bite. I don’t like that either 😆
Find some middle ground!
They are not disappearing, they are leaving you alone to enjoy your meal without pestering or useless small talk. If you need anything (reorder, check) just raise your hand or call them, is that so hard?
Squat toilets. I'm a woman and I live in jeans. Every time I encounter one where there aren't other options (which has been infrequent, thankfully), I feel like I'm about to try solving a quadratic equation where if I get the answer wrong, my foot gets soaked in pee.
I've been to Spain twice and can't get my head around everything happening 3-5 hours later than I'm used to... Breakfast at midday... Dinner at 11pm... Out for drinks until 4am...
I can't get used to how nothing in the US is the advertised price, and why starters and mains have the wrong name on menus
As i said elsewhere: It sort of violates a rule of contracts. The contract is, e.g. , the restaurant advertises a meal at a certain price, and the customer accepts to pay that price. But the restaurant then repudiates that contract by expecting the customer to pay another 20% on top of the advertised price. Same goes for state and local taxes not mentioned in the advertised price.
The amount of food on a plate in most US restaurants, and how much leftovers of it go to the garbage, along with the exaggerated use of single use disposable cutlery.
Don't forget that giving them to homeless or letting homeless dive for them in the dumpster is illegal too.
For me, it's in Mexico where the septic system can't handle toilet paper, so there are small trash cans next to every toilet for the.. um.. used paper.
People clapping after a plane lands. This is done in several places but I’m most familiar with it in Russia. Men squatting in public, as often witnessed in Central Asia. People in Bulgaria shaking their heads to mean yes and nodding to say no.
I have a mnemotechnic thing for that! They're NOdding...they mean NO! Hope that helps
Women being hissed at as they walk down the street. A method of catcalling in many countries. I experienced it most in Latin America.
Cat calling for real. Hissing and meowing at people sounds like a mental disorder.
Idk how to phrase this but the absolute disregard for noise pollution in Manila. It's almost impossible to escape the noise. There's loud cars and beeping everywhere. Also, nobody uses headphones. People will play videos at full volume and nobody seems to mind and so many of those videos have these really annoying sound effects. I feel like I developed some disorder there lol.
I’m Filipino. Brought my Canadian husband home, he had a hard time adjusting his appetite because we eat 5 times a day. 😅
For me it's the chronic car dependency (US, Canada and the Gulf are particularly egregious). Also I love Iraq but always find it somewhat unsettling how disproportionally few women you see in public (federal Iraq anyway, Kurdistan has is much better in this regard)
US and Canada are massive countries with 500 million people. And poor public transport systems.
I learned in Italy if you see a shop you want to visit and it’s open, go in right then and there because they’re bound to close with no notice at any time during the day without explanation. I don’t think I could ever get used to unpredictable business hours.
They’re not unpredictable, they’re different than what you’re used to (lunch break / nap break / afternoon break / early closing etc) It’s usually written somewhere, or so customary that it’s not necessary.
The lack of public trashcans in Japan. I realize it's Japanese custom to take your trash with you / dispose of it at your own home, but having trashcans at least in heavy tourist areas would be appreciated!
Jaywalking rules. F*****g hell, walk across the empty road. How can criminalising that possibly be legal
The lack of bidets in the USA.... and yes I'm American. We need to embrace the bidet here. Its cleaner, more hygenic and your a*s takes 90% less abuse than TP. We Americans get accused of being *too* clean, that we are obsessed with cleanliness, why haven't we taken the logical next step on a very key area of hygiene ?
People driving without a seatbelt in Turkey. Whyyyyyy
South America - Argentina: Everyone kissing you on the cheek!!!!!
I got kissed by 100 ppl that I don’t know just for dating their nephew/cousin/son/grandson.
The kissing is something I’ve tried to get used to, but I have no clue how to kiss back so I just smile while they give me cheek to cheek kisses.
Having grown up in Spain, where everyone does this, whenever I'm approached by anyone with the intent of the kiss (you can tell), I simply perform an elaborate bow, with much twirling of arms/hands. They get the idea.
This is my 4th time in South Asia (once in India, 3rd in Nepal) and the way they nod yes still gives me pause. For those who don’t know they bob their heads from side to side. The same gesture that westerners make for a ”maybe” answer. It’s produced some hilarious and interesting scenarios lol.
If this is a Nepal thing, I wonder how that works on Everest. I hope it's not too misleading between the guides and the mountaineers.
I mean it doesn't even have to be visiting another country. I'm from California, and anytime I'm in Oregon I always instinctively get out of my car at a gas station because I can't get used to the fact that you're required to have the attendant fill your gas there.
In Poland you fill your tank yourself (except for AdBlue/DEF which on some stations are filled only by attendant), but on most stations there is sign that reads "If you need help filling up honk twice" and then attendant comes and fill your tank. You can also always ask for help if you do not know how to open a tank cap (like for example in rented or leased car).
Closing all windows on sweltering hot buses and trains in Ukraine (and I hear, many Slavic countries)
Germans and central Europeans are mortally afraid of draughts, too. I find it bizarre as a Brit. It's just a bit of air moving around; it won't make you ill! But even educated Germans still think it will. Bonkers.
Speaking of toilet activity lol: the water levels in toilets. I come from mex and the toilets are like in the US, the water level is so high, after living in Europe for quite a while, I find it disgusting when back home or in the US. The splash? God why?? I even kinda like German toilets with the shelf thingy. I don’t love being presented with whatever I did there lol (and the stench) but it feels safer ha!
Also US: what’s up with the gaps in public toilets? I absolutely do not fancy making eye contact with whomever is outside!
To prevent the kiss of poseidon, just fold a few sheets of paper over and drop them gently in, to make a paper surface.
It's a good custom, but one that always throws me off. In the Philippines kids (my step relatives on my step moms side) that come up and touch their forehead to the back of your hand.
Mano (Tagalog: pagmamano) is an "honouring-gesture" used in Filipino culture performed as a sign of respect to elders and as a way of requesting a blessing from the elder. Similar to hand-kissing, the person giving the greeting bows towards the hand of the elder and presses their forehead on the elder's hand. Usually performed with the right hand, the person showing respect may ask "Mano po" or "[Pa-]bless po" to the elder in order to ask permission to initiate the gesture. Typically someone may mano to their older relatives upon entry into their home or upon seeing them.[1]
Paying to use public restrooms in Europe
I don't see the problem here, they're clean and not opened for anybody. Who pays for it maybe keeps it clean and doesn't make a mess. :D
American living in Germany for a decade and still can’t get used to Sunday store closures 😖
I understand that it's probably difficult to get used to it if you are used to 24/7 convenience, but tbh I quite like the impact that closing on Sundays/holidays has on family life and society.
I understand mine is extremely American.
But I really like ice in my drinks. Having room temperature water/barely cold drinks is sad. :-(
Most of my other ones have already been said several times: not having free water with your meal, the tipping culture in the US, squat toilets in Asia.
The last one is the fact that almost every toilet in Italy didn't have a toilet seat on it. Almost as bad as the squat toilets.
My personal experience has been that the drinks that need to be cold (like cola or lemonade or a cold white wine!) are usually straight out the fridge - they're not room temperature or barely cold.
Restaurants and cafes that you seat yourself. This tripped me up so much when I was in Vienna because I would stand by the entrance as a dumb American waiting to be seated and it dawned on me by the second or third day that the custom was to seat yourself 😂
South Africa we try to do the formal let-us-seat-you thing but in practice the waiter/maitre'd always takes you to a random table that sucks, so you end up choosing your own anyway. So now I just ignore them and go choose a table.
Lack of free ‘public’ restrooms in the UK. I almost p***ed myself in Soho. As an American, pulling over and s******g in a walmart is a birthright
There are lots of toilets in london that you don't have to pay for if you know where to look. I'm disabled and so stuck to only disabled toilets and never struggle in london. I struggle in America as they seem to have a lot less disabled toilets and the ones they do have are not as well set up as the ones here. They have fewer grab bars and aren't stand alone like in the Uk. So always have to wait for someone who is seemingly able bodied (I know hidden disabilities exist but not all of them are) as they're in the same room as the standard female toilets. Then add on the massive gap down the door and suddenly I have an audience watching me transfer and use the toilet. Give me the privacy of a fully enclosed separate room like in the UK any day!
This is extremely common all over the world. Most of Southeast Asia, parts of Europe, everywhere in Africa, parts of South America. Generally the only places you’ll find toilets where you can flush paper are in North America and Western Europe
(Edit: and Australia/New Zealand)
yeah rubbish, South Africa has 18 million houses and 5544 restaurants and they pretty much ALL have flushing sitting normal western toilets with TP. You only get longdrops in informal settlements (squatter camps) and in very rural outhouses in game reserves.
The lack of free/refillable water in European restaurants.
I went to Italy and Switzerland and it was so frustrating how regular water wasn't free and refillable! I pretty much only drink water, and with being outside all day I can drink a lot of it. But I hated how in restaurants we had to pay for the water and it wasn't even that much! Only .5-.75 liters for 2 people. I don't get why regular water can't be included in the service charge that Italian restaurants charge.
In France, tap water in restaurants is free and refillable as needed during the meal. Europe is not a whole country with uniform uses and habits. EDIT ;: I should have written "included in the price of your meal" instead of "free", my very bad. Tap water comes at a cost for the restaurant of course. And it's common courtesy to also order at least a soft drink if not a glass of wine (you know us Frenchies about wine! ;-) )
The blatant misogyny.
I am a type A travel planner, and having people ignore me and speak to my partner at hotel desks and restaurants make my blood boil.
I took the OH to London for a high-wnd mini-break. 3* restaurant, handed him the cheque. I said there's no need to do that because he's not paying.
I do despair.
Scotland was absolutely beautiful but we soon found we had to plan our itinerary around when shops and restaurants would be open. It's lovely to see that businesses are family-oriented and close at 1700h on weekdays in the summer but this limited our evening meal options. As a result we ended up dining at an upscale Italian restaurant in Glasgow and a pub at closing time in a small village until we learned to eat and grocery shop much much earlier.
In Germany, being expected to wait for traffic lights before walking across the street. Even if there's zero traffic around (have been scolded for this at least twice)
Often when the road is empty but the light is red we cross in a little distance to the light to soothe our guilt lol
The absolute carnage and chaos that constitutes queuing basically anywhere in Europe outside of UK & ROI
In Italy they don’t have ice for your drinks! Was there in the middle of July, 35 degrees out getting a lukewarm glass of water!
I actually find it absolutely ridiculous how ice is put in every single drink you get at any restaurant, fast food place, or pretty much any place that serves drinks of any kind in the US
In England: "correcting" people's English to British-English when they speak a non-British dialect. It's not cute, it's not funny, it just immediately makes me not respect the person doing it.
Water costing so much at restaurants in Germany. It really annoys me. Like 5 euros for tap water? Insane.
It's siestas for me. Can't stand stores and restaurants closing for several hours in the middle of the day. Don't get me wrong, I love napping, but lunchtime is for lunching, and I won't stay up till 10pm waiting for dinner time.
Switzerland can f**k right off with literally closing everything in the country on a Sunday.
Some of these people need to stay home. The rest need to research before they go to a country because, guess what?, they're not going to change for you.
If you want everything to be like it is at home, then don’t travel abroad. Otherwise, get used to doing some things differently. It’s part of the fun!
Some of these people need to stay home. The rest need to research before they go to a country because, guess what?, they're not going to change for you.
If you want everything to be like it is at home, then don’t travel abroad. Otherwise, get used to doing some things differently. It’s part of the fun!
