If you’ve done quite a bit of traveling, you’ll know that you can have vastly different experiences around the world depending on your country and how well you fit in there.
In one place, you might be considered crazy if you smile at a stranger while walking down the street. Meanwhile, in another, you might be called rude if you don’t converse with the bartender before ordering a beer.
Your experience might also be greatly impacted by how the locals feel about tourists. Globetrotters on Reddit have recently been detailing which countries they’ve met the friendliest locals in and which ones weren’t exactly welcoming towards foreigners.
We’ve gathered their most eye-opening replies below, so be sure to upvote the ones you’ll keep in mind for future travels. And keep reading to find conversations with travel experts Alyse, aka The Invisible Tourist, and King Siu of Travel, Eat, Drink!
#1
Dear female travellers travelling alone in India: don’t travel alone.
Image source: maelius, Kelly/Pexels (not the actual photo)
#2
Female, American from DR, raised in NJ in the 80s and 90s. I appear mixed/brown and when I traveled in my 20s and 30s, I mostly did alone.
Nicest people: Japanese. I’ve lived in Japan and traveled there a lot since. Never had a truly bad experience. People were helpful and once the ice was broken, very friendly; everyone tends to mind their business and customer service was always great, even when the konbini part-timer looked like they’d rather be anywhere but at work. Friendliest people I met were at Kamakura.
Meanest: I wouldn’t say “mean” but I am never going to Egypt again. The sexual harassment was unbelievable. Made NYC Construction Sites seem like a monastery by comparison.
Image source: milkcustard, Ketut Subiyanto/Pexels (not the actual photo)
#3
For me, a white woman in my then early twenties, Scotland was by far the nicest country. I found it so endearing that everyone kept calling me “love”.
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#4
Some of the nicest people I’ve come across in travels:
Japanese and Balinese, also New Zealanders
The rudest and most disrespectful:
Russians and Chinese.
Image source: waffles4us, Quốc Bảo/Pexels (not the actual photo)
#5
I feel like men and women may have VERY different experiences in some countries. India for example. I found it very friendly/respectful as a big/tall western man, but I’d not want my wife or daughters traveling alone there.
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#6
This highly depends on who you are. Race, gender, ethnicity, nationality play a huge role.
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#7
People posting nicest places needs to post if they’re a man or woman. Going to someone of these places as a woman is down right dangerous yet men see it as “nicest people ever”.
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#8
The world is filled with nice people and I keep travelling to remind this myself: you will find great people in any country.
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#9
Nicest place I’ve ever been was New Zealand. The land is gorgeous, the people are lovely, and welcoming. I live in Niagara Region, which can be very touristy, and all over NZ was just so pleasant.
Worst place I’ve ever been is the Walmart next to Walt Disney World in Florida. There was a shooting as we were leaving, heard the gunshots while pulling out of the parking lot.
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#10
I haven’t travelled the whole world but I felt safe and comfortable travelling in Germany, and totaly scared for my life in China.
Image source: anon, Porapak Apichodilok/Pexels (not the actual photo)
#11
I understand Mandarin/Cantonese and went to Guangdong for a holiday. Worst holiday ever because I understood how rude they were. When I tried on clothes at a mall shop and didn’t find anything which I liked, the sales girls b*tched out loud to each other that I shouldn’t be trying anything if I wasn’t going to buy anything. At another shop, I asked if they had a certain design in stock. When they offered an alternative, I tried it on, and I could hear them complaining out loud about me being a nuisance just because I asked if they had a particular design in stock. Plus, they did it deliberately loud Mean Girls style, like they wanted you to hear what they were saying. I had people scold ME for exclaiming ‘hey!’ when THEIR spit accidentally landed on my shoe. One lady in her 20s cut the line when I was just about to pay, and then yelled at me. Ordering food at a semi-popular dessert store meant being body slammed like we were at a mosh pit. I was never so glad to leave a country.
Image source: Odd-Cobbler2126, BO SS/Pexels (not the actual photo)
#12
Went to Montreal once. Just got to the city and stopped in front of a street kiosk with a city map. Within a couple of minutes of staring at it, a woman approached us and asked if we needed help finding anything. She was local. English, but with a French accent.
I was so confused and startled by this random act of kindness, that my initial thought was she was setting us up for something and I started looking behind my shoulder. The concept of a stranger helping us out for no particular reason was so alien to us that we were on guard for something that never happened. Turns out, people are just nice there and we weren’t used to seeing it.
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#13
Nicest? New Zealand by far.
Worst? Isreal. Arrogant and mean.
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#14
Nicest people – Thailand; people were just friendly and helpful for no gain; I remember the nicest lady who saw we were confused and helped us to cross the street and then she couldn’t speak English so she found someone else who spoke English so we could get directions and then made sure we got safely to building.
Runner Up – Wierdly Americans; seemingly always open to starting a conversation and trying to assist you or give you helpful tips
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#15
Nicest? Easily Canada- some very nice people up that way!
Meanest was easily Germany, though I did find their rudeness to be almost comical haha. I still like them though and appreciate their blunt manner!
Image source: nomorechoco, Daniel Joseph Petty/Pexels (not the actual photo)
#16
Morocco for both. Had some of the most obnoxious dumba**es harass us but on the other hand had the one of the best meals of my life offered for free by the nicest strangers I’ve ever met one Ramadan there.
I prefer to remember the second but I can see how others would not. And that’d be every bit as reasonable.
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#17
I haven’t been to all that many foreign countries, but I thought New Zealanders were quite nice. Sarcastic and teasing at times, but nice in general. I got really, super-bad vibes in Rwanda, like I was hated. That was difficult.
Image source: Regular_Boot_3540, Tim Grundtner/Pexels (not the actual photo)
#18
Nicest was Indonesia , so friendly and genuinely so. I’ve been many times and always have the same experience (touristy parts of Bali exempt)
Most unfriendly , Israel. They just looked so miserable all the time and any time I tried to start a chat I just got a dead eyed stare back at me.
Image source: Long-Confusion-5219, Oleksandr P/Pexels (not the actual photo)
#19
Ireland = nicest, I was surprised as I’m English but everyone was very friendly. France = rudest.
Edit: Runners up for nicest, Greece.
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#20
Taiwan is awesome and the people are super welcoming and nice
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#21
Meanest in Morocco, lots of catcalling and no respect for personal space. Nicest I am going to say America from personal experience.
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#22
Best: Japan. By far the worst of what I’ve experienced: Turkey. God I hate everything about that country.
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#23
The French. I am not a huge world traveler so I’m no authority, but in my experience the French folks I met were not very friendly, and liked to make fun of people and any attempts to speak their language.”
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#24
Philippines is very friendly to travellers. The rudest I’d say were France and Belgium. I honestly can’t say I was really personally impacted by that, but coming from Canada it was quite shocking to see how rude some service staff could be to customers.
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#25
Vietnam is probably the friendliest place ive been.
Image source: Petrich0rium
#26
For me thus far, nicest: Denmark. I don’t think I met a rude person once. They score very high on reported happiness quizzes. Close second would be Costa Rica.
Meanest: France, but I still wouldn’t say they were mean. People in the Loire valley were great, Parisians were a little less nice. But still much nicer than the stereotype, which I think comes from Americans who believe that everybody understands English if you just slow it down and shout it.
Image source: RichCorinthian, Oleksandr P/Pexels (not the actual photo)
#27
Thailand. Nicest people.
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#28
The meanest is probably Manila Philippines. I’ve been there 3 times and every time I encounter the coldest least friendly people I’ve ever met. I heard good things about other places away from Manila so I’ll have to experience that first.
Image source: zaryaguy, Jeys Tubianosa/Pexels (not the actual photo)
#29
Nicest customer service: Mexico
Friendliest locals: South Africa, Southern USA
Worst customer service: Russia
Least friendly locals: Northeastern USA.
Image source: ElysianRepublic, Tembela Bohle/Pexels (not the actual photo)
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