Which countries or even cities in Europe would you describe as “welcoming”?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think there’s a misconception here that a culture that is reserved is less welcoming. We as Americans can’t assume that if someone isn’t smiling and chatty with us, they aren’t welcoming. They just don’t have the same temperament and demeanor as Americans.

100%

[Anonymous]

I have only been to 6 or 7 European countries but l felt welcome in all. A few people have mentioned Turkey, a small part of which is considered Europe. Turkey doesn’t feel like Europe though, it feels like the Middle East.

I bring it up because l traveled there for a month in 2010 as a good looking conservatively dressed 35 year old woman and was constant harassed by men, more so than in any other of the 35+ countries I’ve been to, except in Istanbul which was fine. So it was the opposite of welcoming for me, a lot of them treated me like meat. I would only recommend it for a woman traveling with a man, or maybe an older woman.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve never felt UNwelcome in Europe anywhere.

Same here. Though, I mostly go to Europe in the off season, so that might help.

I've felt particularly welcomed in Northern Ireland, and Florence, Italy.

[Anonymous]

Spain, Italy and the Balkans but especially Serbia and Bosnia. Turkey can be either incredible to you can get robbed in a busy bazaar… I also love Greece personally but it can be chaotic.

But I think this question is about matching your personality to the country. The above are bohemian, relaxed cultures that value music, food, art, time with friends… Nordics are better if you prefer to be by yourself, going on nature hikes etc. Switzerland for everything being very well organized and of high quality. Paris and London if you understand and value high (and low) art and art history, design, film, theatre etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have only been to 6 or 7 European countries but l felt welcome in all. A few people have mentioned Turkey, a small part of which is considered Europe. Turkey doesn’t feel like Europe though, it feels like the Middle East.

I bring it up because l traveled there for a month in 2010 as a good looking conservatively dressed 35 year old woman and was constant harassed by men, more so than in any other of the 35+ countries I’ve been to, except in Istanbul which was fine. So it was the opposite of welcoming for me, a lot of them treated me like meat. I would only recommend it for a woman traveling with a man, or maybe an older woman.

I was in Turkey in my 20s and the harassment was constant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am black and have travelled all over the world. Black people have very different experiences in terms of being welcomed.

Finland was definitely not welcoming. Turkey was wonderful.

Unfortunately this. I did a summer studying in the Netherlands. I did fine in the Netherlands, my classmate/friend who was Asian American got a lot of weird comments.

I only spent a few days in Amsterdam but I found the people there weird with no boundaries. Like, once I was sitting on a bench outside a grocery store eating some baby carrots I just bought, waiting for my friend to come out and a guy walked up and asked me for a carrot. Not a homeless person, just a guy in his 20s. It wasn't a conversation starter, he wasn't hitting on me, he said thanks for the carrot and kept walking. There were a few other mundane incidents like that, where I thought wow, these people have no boundaries. So I can believe they would say any racist thing that came to mind, or ask to touch your hair, or other offensive things.

Dutch are very direct.

I’d have said no. I’m very direct too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If any.

Where did you visit that just felt like the locals were happy to have you there?

This is plain weird expectation. But I felt very welcome in Turkey, in spite of the huge number of tourists that they get. They’re just welcoming by nature, things are very easy to organize, etc. and yes, I know more than half of Turkey is in Asia.

+1 lived in Turkey for awhile and it has an amazing culture of hospitality, even in Istanbul, which can be overrun with tourists at times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am black and have travelled all over the world. Black people have very different experiences in terms of being welcomed.

Finland was definitely not welcoming. Turkey was wonderful.

Unfortunately this. I did a summer studying in the Netherlands. I did fine in the Netherlands, my classmate/friend who was Asian American got a lot of weird comments.

I only spent a few days in Amsterdam but I found the people there weird with no boundaries. Like, once I was sitting on a bench outside a grocery store eating some baby carrots I just bought, waiting for my friend to come out and a guy walked up and asked me for a carrot. Not a homeless person, just a guy in his 20s. It wasn't a conversation starter, he wasn't hitting on me, he said thanks for the carrot and kept walking. There were a few other mundane incidents like that, where I thought wow, these people have no boundaries. So I can believe they would say any racist thing that came to mind, or ask to touch your hair, or other offensive things.

Dutch are very direct.

I’d have said no. I’m very direct too.

Amsterdam is the worst part of the Netherlands to visit - they are overrun with tourists and the locals resent them. Other parts of Netherlands are much more friendly and civil.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am black and have travelled all over the world. Black people have very different experiences in terms of being welcomed.

Finland was definitely not welcoming. Turkey was wonderful.

Unfortunately this. I did a summer studying in the Netherlands. I did fine in the Netherlands, my classmate/friend who was Asian American got a lot of weird comments.

I only spent a few days in Amsterdam but I found the people there weird with no boundaries. Like, once I was sitting on a bench outside a grocery store eating some baby carrots I just bought, waiting for my friend to come out and a guy walked up and asked me for a carrot. Not a homeless person, just a guy in his 20s. It wasn't a conversation starter, he wasn't hitting on me, he said thanks for the carrot and kept walking. There were a few other mundane incidents like that, where I thought wow, these people have no boundaries. So I can believe they would say any racist thing that came to mind, or ask to touch your hair, or other offensive things.

Dutch are very direct.

I’d have said no. I’m very direct too.

Amsterdam is the worst part of the Netherlands to visit - they are overrun with tourists and the locals resent them. Other parts of Netherlands are much more friendly and civil.

While I met many welcoming people in the Netherlands, I remember three funny exceptions from my in college with my now husband and two college friends. None were in Amsterdam.

(1) in Leiden when I struggled to order a grilled cheese (trying the Dutch words) and the waitress asked if I wanted “old cheese” or “young cheese”. She was struggling to explain / ask, I ordered the old cheese, and she continued to try to communicate something. After I confirmed that I wanted the old cheese, the man at the next table said - in perfect English - “the old cheese is quite piquant.”

(2) In Gouda a young child (7 or 8 years old) approached us, saying something in Dutch, and trying to sell us a Dutch-language newspaper. We declined. The child then realized we spoke English and asked in English if we wanted to buy the newspaper, and we declined again and started to walk away. The child pedaled after us in a bicycle yelling increasingly loudly (in English) “hey man, I f*ck you in a**!” over and over. I don’t think the child knew what it meant (who knows) but we were getting dirty looks as we ran from this child on a bicycle. We eventually jumped a wall to get away.

(3) In Maastricht we asked for a beer at a pub. When the person taking our order acted as if he didn’t understand we switched to French and German. I had decent French and my husband decent German, but our college friends were fluent because of the countries they’d lived in during childhood. The one with German had actually lived in the Netherlands for a year when he was 6, so was good at picking up Dutch words (again). The person still acted as if he didn’t understand. It was only when my friend switched to ordering in Dutch that he served us.

By contrast, in Amsterdam a woman chased after me to give me better directions when she realized “4th left” hadn’t included a cobblestone alley (I remember being surprised she knew the word for cobblestone) and a crowd at the train station at about 2 am tried very hard to “correct” us “help” us when we were trying to get tickets to the quiet neighborhood outside Leiden where we were staying as they were quite certain nobody wanted to go there in the middle of the night. (We were staying with people my friend’s family had stayed in touch with.)

[Anonymous]

Pp here. I really loved Norway - and found the people much more welcoming than their reputation would suggest. I think it helped that I had at least attempted to learn some Norwegian although almost everyone spoke perfect English.

[Anonymous]

The Scots and Irish were lovely - the English, however, were rude.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Greece. We were there at the very start of the season so they weren’t yet sick of tourists.

Same. Greece in April is my answer.

I loved Barcelona, but boy are people there sick of tourists.

Paris is Paris.

London was fine, but welcomed? Not so much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You'll be welcome anywhere as long as you behave responsibly, don't act entitled, and don't stand out in a way which may be considered offensive locally.

Isn’t that 99% of Americans though?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am black and have travelled all over the world. Black people have very different experiences in terms of being welcomed.

Finland was definitely not welcoming. Turkey was wonderful.

Unfortunately this. I did a summer studying in the Netherlands. I did fine in the Netherlands, my classmate/friend who was Asian American got a lot of weird comments.

I only spent a few days in Amsterdam but I found the people there weird with no boundaries. Like, once I was sitting on a bench outside a grocery store eating some baby carrots I just bought, waiting for my friend to come out and a guy walked up and asked me for a carrot. Not a homeless person, just a guy in his 20s. It wasn't a conversation starter, he wasn't hitting on me, he said thanks for the carrot and kept walking. There were a few other mundane incidents like that, where I thought wow, these people have no boundaries. So I can believe they would say any racist thing that came to mind, or ask to touch your hair, or other offensive things.

Dutch are very direct.

I’d have said no. I’m very direct too.

Amsterdam is the worst part of the Netherlands to visit - they are overrun with tourists and the locals resent them. Other parts of Netherlands are much more friendly and civil.

While I met many welcoming people in the Netherlands, I remember three funny exceptions from my in college with my now husband and two college friends. None were in Amsterdam.

(1) in Leiden when I struggled to order a grilled cheese (trying the Dutch words) and the waitress asked if I wanted “old cheese” or “young cheese”. She was struggling to explain / ask, I ordered the old cheese, and she continued to try to communicate something. After I confirmed that I wanted the old cheese, the man at the next table said - in perfect English - “the old cheese is quite piquant.”

(2) In Gouda a young child (7 or 8 years old) approached us, saying something in Dutch, and trying to sell us a Dutch-language newspaper. We declined. The child then realized we spoke English and asked in English if we wanted to buy the newspaper, and we declined again and started to walk away. The child pedaled after us in a bicycle yelling increasingly loudly (in English) “hey man, I f*ck you in a**!” over and over. I don’t think the child knew what it meant (who knows) but we were getting dirty looks as we ran from this child on a bicycle. We eventually jumped a wall to get away.

(3) In Maastricht we asked for a beer at a pub. When the person taking our order acted as if he didn’t understand we switched to French and German. I had decent French and my husband decent German, but our college friends were fluent because of the countries they’d lived in during childhood. The one with German had actually lived in the Netherlands for a year when he was 6, so was good at picking up Dutch words (again). The person still acted as if he didn’t understand. It was only when my friend switched to ordering in Dutch that he served us.

By contrast, in Amsterdam a woman chased after me to give me better directions when she realized “4th left” hadn’t included a cobblestone alley (I remember being surprised she knew the word for cobblestone) and a crowd at the train station at about 2 am tried very hard to “correct” us “help” us when we were trying to get tickets to the quiet neighborhood outside Leiden where we were staying as they were quite certain nobody wanted to go there in the middle of the night. (We were staying with people my friend’s family had stayed in touch with.)

Your 2 made me smile. I’d have paid to see that exchange.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You'll be welcome anywhere as long as you behave responsibly, don't act entitled, and don't stand out in a way which may be considered offensive locally.

Isn’t that 99% of Americans though?

Not sure what you mean. Are you saying most Americans behave responsibly? I would guess that many Americans block the sidewalk and aren't familiar with city etiquette. I say this because that's how US tourists act in DC.