Friendly/Unfriendly Countries

[SailingOnAWave]

Really interested in other people's experiences.

I have always found Ireland and Portugal super friendly. And recently Tunisia.

In comparison I was surprised to find Greece, Norway and Sweden unfriendly.

Is it just pot luck who you happen to bump into?

DD has just got back from Vietnam and found everyone super friendly and helpful. No pushiness at all, they were treated like honoured guests everywhere they went. One odd thing though, everyone they met asked her if she was there to visit family. We do not have any Asian blood in the family but she is quite small framed with small hands and feet.

No, I know, sorry, I use it in this context interchangeably with ‘communist’.

I think this kind of generalisation is a bit mad — Ireland and Greece have appeared on both ‘friendly’ and ‘unfriendly’ lists, for a start. What people are registering is mostly whether, in their experience of being in a country for a brief holiday or two, the people they encountered were nice to tourists, often tourists who didn’t speak their language, in a way the visitors recognised as ‘fruendly’ according to their own cultural norms.

Absolutely agree that it makes such a difference if you treat people well. DH & I stayed in a hotel in Kensington 2 or 3 times & found the staff to be warm, friendly & very obliging. Yet if you read the reviews, they are often described as rude & unhelpful! People on Crete were lovely. DH & I ended up joining in with a wedding party. And the Turkish folks are wonderful!

Southern Ireland was amazing - we met such friendly people wherever we went. They sure know how to party over there!

@ignatiusjreilly Croatia was part of Yogoslsvia. Socialist republic of Yugoslavia! Of course it was part of the Soviet bloc. It did of course re-establish its independence after 1991. Saying it wasn’t Soviet is rewriting history. Remember Tito? Nationalism rose after his death in 1980 and the countries within Yugoslavia wanted their independence. One was Croatia.

Russians really are a mixed bag. Younger people really helpful - older women not so much. Just unsmiling. It’s just being Russian.

I've been to Greece, Crete and Kos and certainly didn't find the Greeks friendly. I'll stress though, that may just be my experience.

Thailand, Malaysia and Turkey have the friendliest people that I've come across ☺️

Sweden is great. Never had an unfriendly moment. Norway, in Oslo especially, on the other hand. The hotel I stayed at received a complaint as to how the Norwegian staff were - the best hotel? I don’t think so. I ended up with significant freebies in exchange for not taking it further.

I am Norwegian. I am sure there are hotels with unfriendly staff in Norway, but to then slate the whole country as unfriendly is ridiculous.

I am on holiday in Spain at the moment. One of the things which stands out for me is how loud the Brits are. You always hear them coming and they are often in big groups. Maybe that’s why some countries feel unfriendly to you. If you removed all the Brits from the hotel I am staying at the moment, it would be so quiet and pure bliss.

Indeed. A Scandinavian dry, stoic, matter of fact, slightly dour approach could be perceived as unfriendly compared to a hyper US approach or an energetic south European approach. I know which I’d choose.

I absolutely get the 'obnoxious Brit abroad' thing. However, I usually travel with just my DP, and we're both mild mannered, speak quietly, don't throw our weight around etc. We treat everyone pleasantly and with respect. We have still had rudeness/terrible service, et cetera in some places (as well as lovely friendly experiences, of course). So while this thread is in some ways a nonsense, as you can't generalise about a whole country, it also doesn't make a great deal of sense to talk about 'tourists' as if we all behave the same.

A post up thread was talking about the friendly Greek and the owner’s grandad playing games with the visiting kids in the restaurant.

Norwegians are not going to put their grandad in the bar for some random British kids and you are mistaking friendliness with just the way they do business. They are delighted to see you because you bring money.

No, but when I generalise about tourists, I’m only saying that generally they’re in a place for a week or two, that most of the people they encounter are tourist-facing, in hotels, restaurants, shops, tour guides etc, and that they generally won’t speak the local language well. I’m not sure it’s necessarily a good basis on which to form a sense of a country’s population.

USA is without a doubt the friendliest place we have been. Especially in the Deep South but also California. With that said, Florida was NOT overall friendly, and we’ve never been to NYC.

Japan is lovely, friendly and polite as long as you make an effort to be very polite to them (I saw some loud bolshy tourists get a frosty response).

We found our experience in Egypt and Sweden very friendly too.

The US is by far the friendliest place I’ve been too. I’ve spent a lot of time there in various states and people are so kind.

lol at the irony here.

I take your point, but I've been in the position of being that kind of visitor in many different countries, and have come across, generally, indifference and surliness (Croatia) and, generally, friendliness and helpfulness (Slovenia), to name two.

As well, I live in London and I'm not infrequently stopped by visitors asking for directions or some other kind of help. When people don't speak any or much English, I'm patient and try to be as helpful as I can. I don't resent people or treat them badly because they don't speak my language.

I also used to work in the service industry and would come up against the same kind of scenario; I was always (I hope!) patient, polite and as helpful as I could be.

What irony?

I think it is very much about your attitude.
We arrived at a nice Hotel in St Lucia to be warned by American guests about the awful attitude of some staff.
We were there in a group for a wedding and we found the staff absolutely wonderful, one even insisted on singing at the wedding and wouldn't take any payment for it. Despite not tipping like The Americans we were treated much better and the staff arranged trips for us with their friends, took us out for drinks and just generally looked after us.
We had similar in Mexico a couple of years ago (I speak good Spanish). One staff member told me that while tips were great it was nice to be treated like a human being sometimes as well. We got served before and with much more friendliness than people throwing dollar bills at staff.

Well, I was also a patient Londoner who would take some pains to make sure confused tourists got where they were trying to go, but I always found London a fairly friendly, if brisk, place, in all the time I lived there (not from the UK) -- no one is necessarily going to be smiley or chatting at bus stops, and people practice the mental tricks needed to survive crowded journeys on public transport, but always helped with luggage or a pushchair on stairs in the tube, and I was always offered a seat when pregnant. But clearly to some visitors, that constitutes unfriendliness.

But think about your point about Slovenia and Croatia. Isn't it really more likely that this was just the small selection of people you happened to meet in both countries than that an entire population was surly or friendly? I do think there was a lingering lack of 'customer service' in some post-communist countries, because I noticed it in Hungary, where I spent a fair bit of time in the 90s, and my BIL, who was managing waiting and bar staff while working there, said the same, but I would have thought that would have long dissipated.

I think there's also a level of understanding what constitutes friendliness or rudeness in a particular culture. I remember an encounter in a Parisian supermarket years ago. An American tourist walked up to an employee and said 'Mayo? MAYO?' getting louder and louder as he thought he wasn't being understood. The employee said neutrally 'Bon jour, monsieur.' The tourist just kept shouting 'MAYO!' and getting increasingly irritated, and the employee, clearly irritated, kept prompting him to say 'Bon jour'. I've no idea what actually happened and if the mayonnaise ever got bought, but the same employee was very helpful to me when I needed to find something a few minutes later. In part, probably, because, although my French is rusty, I know that you greet staff on entering a shop. My point being that both those people will have gone away thinking 'Rude Parisians!' and 'Rude Americans!' because of their different cultural norms.

I'll say again, to start, that of course my posts (and this whole thread) are anecdotal and based on individual personal experiences, not to be taken as scientific gospel (contradiction in terms, I know!)

My point about Croatia and Slovenia, though, was that they were both busy, tourist-heavy places and the people I'm talking about were doing the same kind of jobs. But in one country they were generally rather surly and in the other they were generally pleasant and courteous. Again, I'm not saying this is empirical fact, but I did have markedly different impressions of similar locations and situations in two different places. I don't think all Croatians are miserable and all Slovenians are delightful, of course I don't; but I am quite naturally going to have
somewhat different impressions of the countries based on these experiences.

And yes, I agree about Paris/France. That certain formality is something I like about French culture; as long as you know the deal, you will get on with people, at least at a basic level.

We have just been to Vietnam and everyone was lovely. Same in Croatia and Istanbul. Most places I’ve visited in fact.

The only two places that were not so great in terms of friendliness were the USA and France. USA false-feeling over-friendliness and France very rude when I tried to speak a little French.

Oh no🫣
I’m aware I’ll probably sound desperately unfriendly now, but it’s just Ireland, not Southern Ireland.
Ireland and Northern Ireland.

The actual south of the country is called the south of Ireland, it’s not even Southern Ireland there.

It might seem petty I know (sorry), but imagine people rechristening England as Western England…and saying things like, ‘I went to visit Norfolk in Western England in my holidays’🤯 It’s just frustrating.

The most northerly point on the island is in so-called Southern Ireland!! It’s more northerly than Northern Ireland.

Anyway, very glad you enjoyed your stay and apologies for being such a grump this morning 😅

It is indeed.

Though I was amused (and slightly appalled) by a story I saw in a newspaper over the last few days (might have been the IT) about someone who ran a luxury bespoke holidays company for the kind of clients who want to spend a week in Ireland and spend $30,000 dollars -- lots of helicopters on standbyand golf at Dromoland etc. But she said she had difficult selling holidays in NI so rebranded it as 'Upper Ireland' on their publicity material. And apparently holidays in 'Upper Ireland' are going like hotcakes. 😯