What to wear abroad this summer so it doesn't scream tourist

[Cupcakeicecream]

It's pretty much a given that you can spot a British tourist a mile off. I'm going abroad this summer and it'll be hot I want to be cool comfortable stylish yet blend in so I dont scream tourist. When I think off a British tourist its maxi dresses linen pants walking around town with swim wear and flip flops football tops basically the show benidorm. Americans always seem to be in Hawaiian shirts socks with sandals fanny packs and clothes with the American flag on couldn't be more obvious.
Basically what to wear without looking like a tourist.

Just pack some clean knickers and buy the rest of your clothes in the local shops/markets when you get to wherever you're going. Check out what others are wearing while you walk very quickly to the shops and then do your best to assimilate.

But you definitely have to make that first quick walk to the shops in your holiday knickers.

I think maybe it works not because I look especially local but because my clothes look too boring to take on holiday

I think this may be me, also. I have a 'uniform' I seldom deviate from dark colours, old, soft fabrics, jeans, biker boots/Birkenstocks which clearly doesn't code as 'holiday wear' in any of the European places I regularly go to.

Cropped linen trousers on middle aged women. Awful. But truly the worst item of clothing ever worn on a man in the summer has to be those shorts that end midway between the knee and the ankle - always worn with white trainers and trainer socks. That screams Benidorm to me. Or singlets - where do they buy these things?

And sorry ladies, strapless maxi dresses look good on virtually no-one.

Cropped linen trousers on middle aged women. Awful.

I wear linen trousers, not cropped ones though. What is awful about cropped trousers on middle aged women?

Bookmarking because I want to know this too. Hoping to go to France this year, and if I do, I want to actually improve/practise my spoken French. I think it'll be more likely to happen if I at least look as if I might speak French.

Anywhere in Asia you are immediately spotted as a tourist as soon as you buy those dreadful elephant trousers.

The sellers try and tell you all the locals wear them. They really really don't. And you're also being ripped off on whatever you buy them for.

(Similar tourist klaxon for people wearing "poo'ed your pants" harem trousers actually.)

I now confuse some people when I go and visit family in exotic climes.

I've been there so often I dress "local", and a lot of the local places know me so I don't get foreigner tax in their establishments. But I don't quite physically look local enough to blend in seamlessly, unless I'm with someone who is clearly a new visitor.

It's handy for running "restaurant alley" (where all the traders wave menus and call to you) as my half-local face can slip in behind a group of actual tourists and pass by unnoticed.

Ha ha my kids have got the elephant trousers. Wear them about the house now.

When DS was about 6 we went to France and my mum bought him a beret. He insisted on wearing it for the rest of the holiday, mostly teamed with a stripey T shirt. All he needed was a string of onions.

I was a bit worried the French would think we were taking the piss and be offended, but everyone was actually really nice to him.

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A look at a downtown live webcam, if there is one, will tell you what local people wear. Boring clothes as a pp has said. Dressing more like a resident does help you get less hassle from any street hawkers and thieves around.

My tips. People in a lot of countries don't wear open shoes, shorts or sun hats (umbrellas are often used for strong sun by women in the far east). Get a bag from a food market stall and reuse that. Don't wear anything with a fashion logo.

Everyone will know that you are a tourist whatever you wear. On that front you are wasting your time trying to appear otherwise. Be a cool, stylish tourist by all means, but still a tourist.

Pinterest searches for Sofia Coppola, Mimi Thorisson or Beatrice Borromeo and aspire to simple lines, not much flesh on show, erring on conservative, pops of colour, nice makeup. Sounds simple, isnt really but its fun, so off i go to dream. Fancy posh girl hair is unattainable for me, one day perhaps

I think a lot of it is dressing for the weather, but too much.

So if you're somewhere hot wearing a bikini and shorts at all times. Or going to Scotland and wearing an anorak and hiking boots in the middle of Edinburgh in high summer.

I agree that you will basically always look like a tourist though, and who cares. Nothing bloody worse than people who insist "they're not a tourist they're a traveller daaaarling."

The amount of flesh you show is a definite giveaway - especially strapless tops and dresses worn to stop tan lines even if you are walking around town.

And men wearing shorts when it is only 20C.

I don't get this trend about being embarrassed to be a tourist or British. Wear whatever you like!

"I wear linen trousers, not cropped ones though. What is awful about cropped trousers on middle aged women?"

Tan France has some very strong words on capri pants not being any woman's friend. And he is always right

Just dress in a way that is appropriate for the places your are visiting. Nothing screams 'tourist' as much as the women slepping around landmark religious sites in a bin liner because they haven't dressed for the occasion.

@jamievardyshavingaparty

Bookmarking because I want to know this too. Hoping to go to France this year, and if I do, I want to actually improve/practise my spoken French

Go to Belgium! Or to French speaking Switzerland. (Or Canada for that matter). Or rural France, as long as it's not somewhere with tons of British. Don't go to Paris whatever you do. I'm sure some Parisians welcome foreigners' attempts at French but I've never met any...

@Chippychipsforme 😂😂😂👌

It’s not about what you wear!! These days ppl all over the world wear pretty much the same give or take!! Any city I go to, no actually gives a shit! 🤷‍♀️ But... the key to NOT Looking like a tourist is not walking around with a where the f am I?? Expression on your face!! And not taking maps out on the side of the street, bum bags are back “in” so you could get away with them?! Learning some of the language of the country you are in helps a lot.

I live in a tourist area in a tourist mecca spot near us I saw a coach disgorge a load of retired american ladies, they all wore white trainers, was so funny my DM abroad would not be seen dead in trainers, in fact she does not own any. I thought to myself how practical.

"I'm sure some Parisians welcome foreigners' attempts at French but I've never met any..."

It's strange, I've heard many many people say this, but I haven't encountered it personally on any trip to Paris. Perhaps my French accent is just SO bad that they rush in to speak English to me every time

We holiday somewhere the Spanish enjoy so see more Spanish than Brits. They wear hawaiin shirts, t shirts, flip flops shorts, My DC`s whilst playing ask the children if they speak English. We all dress differently on holiday. The language barrier does not stop all the children having a lot of fun together btw.

Brief hijack - @HoneydDragon I once saw a British stag group in Krakow leading the groom to be about on a leash, he was in full on gimp outfit. This was in the old ghetto, how no Polish people had told the disrespectful gang of gobshites off is beyond me.

OP wear what you like to wear - people in your destination will look like tourists when they travel too you know, and there is really nothing wrong with that.

Look at the Hush catalogue for inspiration. I like their plain floaty dresses in black or navy.

Wear plain or muted colours. Keep it simple.

Tan or black leather sandals.

Bookmarking because I want to know this too. Hoping to go to France this year, and if I do, I want to actually improve/practise my spoken French

Good luck. A surprising number of French people want to practise their English. At least, that has been my experience.

I was always told that 'French people are arrogant', 'Parisians will hate you and they're always really rude' (with an extra from one that 'they'll be ruder to you because you're so fat' - charming, eh?) - but they were lovely without exception when I went there.

I realised after I got home that I hadn't spoken English once from getting on the Eurostar until I shut my front door behind me on my return.

My spoken French is atrocious and littered with profanities when irritated, as they were what I remembered most from my three terms of lessons when I was 13 - to the amusement of a waiter outside a cafe when I informed a driver that his light was on red, asked if he was blind and that he was a fucking stupid cunt on being told to fuck off - but I can buy food in restaurants, shops and market stalls, fags, drinks, answer a lady from the South of France when she asked what bus/directions as I was waiting, ward off the first hawker verbally and deflect all others with a look and spend lots on money on makeup.

Perhaps my appearance made a difference before I opened my big gob and mangled London French came out? Doubt it, but I don't have a holiday wardrobe, so would have been wearing a selection from

Jeans - black or dark blue
T shirt - fitted black, plain
Shirt - dark green or black
Shoes/Boots - expensive (for me, but my arthritis/feet do not care about my bank balance), black
Biker jacket
Light, long scarf in case I got cold, black with bronze stars
Dark knitted beanie if I got cold or it was blustery.

and a bit of makeup - eyeliner, mascara, lipstick - and hair twisted up in a loose bun or left to do whatever it wanted to do once out of a bun.

So nothing remarkable.

Dunno. [Shrug]

Whatever it was, I've just come back from the hell that is Primark and I can tell you what people will be wearing to announce to all and sundry that they are a tourist this year - day glo vests, orange and yellow, or mint green/peach ones, a lot of cropped and/or completely sleeveless tops and almost everything else with slogans all over them.