Do people stare at you when you’re on holiday?

[Escallop]

I’ve got a mop of thick red hair. My DP has natural blond hair. We’re both very very pale and green/blue eyed.

When we’ve travelled to areas of the world where this colouring is not very prevalent, we’ve always noticed people staring at us. Now this could be because we are not locals, but I can’t help but think it’s because of how we look. So I was wondering, do people stare at you when you’re on holiday?

By the way, I’m talking about just going about daily life, like being in the supermarket or getting a bus. Even if there are other tourists, we seem to be watched by others more than others. Maybe I’m just making it all up in my head!

I've noticed people taking photos of my white curly haired daughter several times! It would be nicer if they asked!

In Thailand we noticed a lot of people would stop and stare at my daughter, some would ask for a photo! She's not blonde at all but has lots of freckles and blue eyes and they were fascinated!

I forgot about that until I read this post, it seemed so odd at the time! 😆

They did in India. I'm blonde. I was surrounded by children at some of the tourist places, all wanting photos and to touch me

Yes. I have red hair and as a child when we went to rural Greek islands, people openly stared and the children and old ladies touched it. (Without asking). My very white blonde friend had a similar experience when her family went to Egypt. Except that some man wanted to buy her 🤣

Yes in more far flung countries were fair blonde and curls are not the norm, I was prewarned by a travel agent for one trip and had people come up to me wanting to touch my hair!

My 6'5" too. They called him Big, tall man too! Hilarious.....not.

Oh, and something else. In India too, my 6'6' white blonde boyfriend was sitting on a bus and wearing shorts revealing white blonde leg hair. Will you believe a couple of men actually felt his legs in amazement...

I am black and am often stared at when abroad (depends on the country). I remember going to Greece in the 90's and random people wanting to take a photo with me 🤷🏽‍♀️

I think it's your colouring for sure.

I had tourists stop me twice on separate occasions in London when I was younger to ask for a photo with me. I obliged but wondered why.

My MIL is extremely well travelled, as are my nieces and nephews. Because of their colouring, if they go to the Middle East or Asia etc they are constantly being stared at and asked for photos.

I think it's just because if you look distinctive or exotic in some way (red hair, blond hair, very pale skin, extremely curly hair or whatever) people are curious about you.

travelled a lot in SE Asia and China 30 years ago and lived in Japan. I’m tall foot a woman and bright red hair. Pale skin, green eyes. So many photos taken, people starring. China it got wearing as few tourists then and we weren’t in touristy areas. My friend would sometimes leave me as bait to distract attention while she’d go off and get tickets etc as she was asian in origin, while being pure Californian girl. When she opened her mouth.

Still get attention know due to the hair travelling anywhere really except America and parts of Scandinavia….

Had lapanese ladies stroke my hair and arm hair…..

Not at all where I live in London, all the time when I go abroad.

When my sister backpacked around the Far East, not only did every other person stop her for a picture, a few cheeky sods rubbed their index fingers along her arms without asking to see if her skin colour came off.

People everywhere also seem fascinated with Afro hair, and constantly try and put their hands in it, particularly without asking. Don't be those people lol.

I was stared at in Libya because I had long red hair. A group of girls on a school trip to a museum asked me to pose for a photograph with them. The staring wasn't hostile but I did end up wearing a scarf so I could be a bit more anonymous. It was an organised group trip but none of the other women had this so I assume it was the colour.

Felt like a celebrity in China honestly

Tend to blend right in in most other countries. Going back to Asia soon but to very touristy places so doubt I’ll offer much in the way of novelty!

I've had a lot of Indian men want to have a photo taken with me in far flung places. Nothing more, just a quick photo.

People always stare at something/someone different IMO, in some countries staring isn't considered rude, even asking how much you earn is fine!

Not really, but I mostly go on holiday to parts of Europe where I don't look that different to most other people. I did get hassled & cat called a lot on holiday when I was younger. It didn't really happen to my DDs when they were wandering about without us recently so maybe young lads in France and Italy are a bit better behaved these days.

I was with a group of people on a work related trip in a shopping mall in India. We were talking about the beautiful, colourful dress of the locals but saying it would be rude to take photos. Just then a group of young men in some sort of uniform came up and asked if they could take our photo. We thought it was so funny and obviously complied. We must have looked so interesting and exotic to them (middle aged primary school teachers FWIW).

My son is red haired and he got his hair touched a lot when we were in Dubai. I’m 6ft 2 so I get stared at wherever I go !

this happened to my daughter and her children in Egypt, they were getting repeated requests for photographs, they've all got red hair.

We went to Malaysia not too long after their travel restrictions stopped and they'd not had many tourists back into the country. We went to KL, Penang and another small town called Ipoh.

Dh, dd and I were definitely stared at. People came up to us to talk to us a lot, and we'd often have people taking our photograph. If we stopped to look at the sights, small children would appear in front of us with their parents taking photographs. Teenagers came up to us practising their English.

We don't look anything out of the ordinary - dh is 6'1" which is fairly tall for other there but dd and I are much shorter - I'm only 5', dd a little taller.

But due to the lockdowns we were amongst the first holiday tourists they'd had for a while.

Was one of the friendliest places we've ever been and is one of DD's favourite holidays of her 21 years. The people may have been intrigued by us but they were incredibly polite, even when standing their children next to us for a sneaky picture.

Yes, it's happened to me in various places. It's understandable that people will find their eyes drawn to something they find unusual.

I think that the fascination with blond or red hair as being exotic rather than negative (as it too often is in England) goes back to Scandinavian traders and Vikings

I find the photo taking thing really odd! If I came across a 7-footer with floor-length purple hair and a couple of extra ears I wouldn't take a photo, because, well, why?! I just don't get it.

My daughter, then 17, went to Japan a few years ago with a sports team - all similar builds and 5ft 6-8" tall, mostly blond. They all got stared at and asked for their pictures as they were unusual over there.

It's very common in Asia and some Mediterranean countries. I'm very pale, but otherwise nothing unusual about my looks. I was in Greece last week and noticed some people stared at me. I guess they were blinded by my white legs reflection