Tourists - how to guess their nationality

So, Americans get all the jokes about white tennis shoes, but how can you tell where other tourists are from? Here are a few ideas:

British: mismatched clothes and bad teeth
Dutch: (women) bleach blond hair and bad sunburns
Russian: scantily clad young women with older looking men
Italian: (older men) always wear suits and hats on the plane
Brazilians: (women) outfit came straight from a 14-year old's closet, (men) tight pants

Please, add your thoughts.

Edie

it is hard to define exactly what characteristics tourists of a particular nationality have but it certainly is possible to pick them out of a crowd.

You look at certain people and you know exactly what nationality they are before they open their mouths.

of course the Canadians are the really friendly ones with the maple leaf patches. They are of course carrying their hockey sticks, unless they left it in their igloo.

In SA, most of the tourists were German and we could spot them with their socks and sandals!

Tennis shoes?Perhaps better would be incredibly loud and fatties.

I thougth it was:

Italian: are travelling with the entire extended family, moving in a massive mob, and talking louder than the Americans (usually complaining about how the Americans are dressed).

you can spot the french from the blue and white hooped sweater, the beret, the baguete in the hand, and the string of onions around the neck.

I was talking with a kid who sells souvenirs/water/food etc. outside of St. Catherines Monastery in Sinai, Eqypt. The kid spoke broken english and seemed much older than the 10 years old I assumed he was. We were just talking aboot tourists, his way of life as a bedouin etc. As the tourists walked by, he would say 'Hello...how are you? Isn't it hot today!! Blah..blah..' in the tourists native language...without speaking with them, just by looking how they dressed he could tell where they were from. He was right every time. It was cool...

funny, I can tell a North American from a European by their lipstick, European women tend to wear coral or orange colours- (that do not suit most), as North American women tend to wear pink shades, goes also for the blush. Then there are the hair cuts- older women with grey hair from NA tend to have short hair, but all curled, where as I see more EU women with either bob style cuts or really dykie cuts. (no insult ment to lesbian women out there, I just find it much harder to pick out the lesbians in Europe, as more women have 'lesbian' hair).

The Mexicans call Canadian Snowbird in Texas, Q-tips- for the white reebok walkers, and the white hair!

Funny, I'd say that it's harder to pick out the lesbians in NA, since they look like any other woman. My best friend in the world is a lesbian, and she's hot! No stereotypes fulfilled there...

That's just plain rude, if she's hot at least she'd have the decency to be bi!

For people visiting Munich, it's easy. It's in the clothes.

Italian don't look like they are vacation, they look like they are headed to the theatre. But not a major performance, just a regular weekly show. Very nice sunglasses and shoes.

North Americans wear comfortable walking shoes if they are over 40 and sandals if they are under 30. Wear shorts in town, something most Germans do not. Young Americans are often spotted wearing sweatshirts with their college emblazoned on the front. Canadians will tend to have Roots wear (a clothing company, not the user) and flags.

As not many Brits come to Munich as a regular tourist destination, they are usually spotted in groups wearing team (rugby, football) colours in town for a game. Easily confused with Eastern Germans in town for the same.

Even if the Japanese didn't have different facial features, you would be able to spot them by all the hats. The women especially wear big sun bonnets to protect them.

Rule 1: If a person/tourist is wearing an Invicta colorful/ugly backpack...That person is guaranteed to be Italian. It's a dead easy giveaway.

@Showem,
What about the 30-40 year old Americans?? Go Barefoot?

Timmeh, no, they could go either way.

Oh, and Australians and New Zealands are easily spotted by location, not clothes.

Hofbraühaus tent, end of September.

oh come on, admit it. All Canadian chicks want to wear me. They want me all over them.

Fair enough comment...but I was asking about their footwear

Yeah, and I have big fat scar across by forearm to prove it!

/a couple of overzealous New Zealanders put a nice big shard of glass into my arm at the HBZ
//a couple of Americans nearly did the same thing at the HBH
///I like the idea of plastic masses and/or staying away from anything with 'HB' on it

Ha! I saw a whole bunch of them in the last week of Oktoberfest waving a *huge* Aussie flag. And they claim not to be flag wavers...

@Roots: Ask Carm or Sk8rgrl aboot dat??

The American kids usually trade their college sweatshirts for one of those HB ones after a day or two here though. And then wear it with short-shorts if female, khaki shorts if male. Dead giveaway.

I find Aussie's & Kiwi's are easy to pick from other tourists in Munich. They tend to look like they've been thru the ringer or just stepped off a 15 hour bus ride (and probably have). And (Oktoberfest aside) travel in ones or twos. Look for the mussed-hair and old shoes dangling from their backpacks. They've probably just lost their wallet/plane tickets/other important item in the last week also, and need a few coins to ring home or buy a beer. (More than likely the beer).

The American kids on the other hand will have brand new back packs, bright clothes and the girls sport perfectly straightened hair and large earings. They will travel in ones or two's also but only with ma & pa in tow, or in casual groups of approx 9 - 30 friends.

Brit's I find really hard to pick. They seem to blend in here fairly easily.

Canadians & the maple leaf patch... At first I thought it was pretty dorky, but I talk to loads of tourists and have yet to meet an unfriendly Canadian. Now I'm always happy to see it - it's like a badge of friendliness.

Another give away I noticed of us Americans here is: The white socks. I think only americans will wear white socks.

There you go folks. Categorical proof that the UK is not in Europe.

ah ya big poof dw!

Italians always have those fluorescent backpacks, even if they're wearing a Dolce & Cabana outfit.

younger American men wear baseball caps and Abercrombie and Fitch or have Navy crew cuts

female American tourists usually have very high, squeeky voices and tend to not know much about geography: "oh my god! you're from Australia? My brother is travelling through New Zealand right now!"

Australian men are usually hot

I'd always assumed that Canadians wore the Maple Leaf because they didn't want to be mistaken for Americans.
BTW this is not meant as another "Let's knock the Americans" thread.

I wonder why that is..


Germans can't really be praised for their sense of style

I would agree with you. But for me now it just means approachable.

Japanese and Chinese tourists always walk around in large groups. The Japanese you spot by the giggling, the high-tech cameras, the silly floppy hats, the girls all colour their hair the same way or have one of the same three hairstyles, the slouching. The young guys all try to look very cool or like Yakuza gangmembers.. The Chinese you spot by their antiquated clothes and camera equipment. If they need to wear glasses, the glasses come with thick, plastic rims. The Chinese have a different air altogether.

Is that why they are generally shorter than Europeans?

Oh, I almost forgot.

Spaniards and Portuguese: Dark clothes, sallow complexion, always smoking

Me too.

Had a similar experience on holiday when a tour guide came up to us and immediately talked English to me, though she was confused when my German girlfriend then spoke to her in German. Oh, and the police seem to have it sorted too - my gf has never been asked for id on the street whereas I've been asked twice in five years. Mind you I do look like a dangerous, disreputable tax payer, so that may have something to do with it.

Agreed. Grey suits with brown shoes... eek! One day I'll catch one of them wearing a suit with sandals, I know I will.

haha, a lot of my american friends wear canadian flags/maple leafs when backpacking through europe ... or at least they did about two years ago due to the politics.

Work for one of the tour companies out @ the Hauptbahnhof for a couple months, then you can spot'em a mile away...and we're reasonably good at guessing the nationality too. (spain instead of portugal, no biggie)

Reuters: And the best tourists in the world are...

...the Japanese.

Yeah, Americans can be spotted easily. They wear flip flops and khaki shorts even when it is freezing outside (saw one the other week and I was like he must be American, then I heard him talk and sure enough he was) ... One of my favorite games here in Heidelberg, Ami spotting. We have quite a bunch of them. Their cars are also dead giveaways (even without the license plates). Pickup trucks or sportscars or minivans, of course with tinted windows... Only an Ami would even consider driving a truck here. I know of one who had his shipped back to the States because he couldn't ever find parking here, haha.

If you rub a german girls belly they will giggle. True story.

Bloody tourists...

Arent a lot of the maple leaf patch wearers actually Americans in disguise?!

Yes

To be sure, ask them what poutine is.

Kinda related... when my brother was visiting here last summer he really had a laugh at all the German kids dressing "ghetto" with their NY hats on sideways, big chains around their neck and baggy jeans half way to their ankles. We had a group on our train ride one day and they were trying to impress each other with their k00l American slang. Couldn't help but laugh at them and left the train with a nod and "later g", which left them looking confused.

Could be worse I guess, teens in the States could be sportin Lederhosen and jammin folk music on the El

I've had the exact same thoughts before. It’s really funny to see guys walking around, thinking they are so badass… when all I can think is: “awww, that’s adorable� … I’d love to drop them off in some US city to watch the beat-down

On a semi-related note: about the time I first got here, I think Chappell’s show must have premiered in Munich or Germany… I just remember sitting in the S-bahn on multiple occasions and hearing a thickly accented: “I’m Rick James bitch!� or the especially awkward “Fuck your couch N***er!�

I feel like one of the Dead-give aways is when a tourist has a Rick Steve's book, Simply the color alone.

My Friends and I tend to spot the Eastern Europeans by the fanny pack and/or the sweatsuit...

I can spot the Eastern European nouveau riche women with their bright arse gold pants and wearing labels from head to toe.

Usually the Americans get all quiet around me as if I am about to attack 'em (must be because of my height ) and get in a protective/scared stance.

EDIT: You're right KD. I get it even from some of the Germans as well. Woe is me.

That's not just the Americans luv

and the women in totally unsensible shoes for a day of sightseeing.

The Irish are an easy pick. They're the ones under the tables at the Chinese Tower.

or down in some basement called an irish pub.