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Was wondering if anyone else was going to post this.
People in Havana have to be the nicest people I've ever met. I can't tell you how many times we were invited into people's homes for coffee, dinner, or just a chat, and they're very forgiving of my mediocre spanish skills.
Friendliest place I can remember traveling was Ketchikan, Alaska. Once the locals found out we were staying in town a few days, we were treated exceptionally well. People bought us drinks. Gave us free food. Wife got the locals discount at a book store, even. During the day, the place can overrun with the cruise ship masses, and if are one of those many, I'm sure you would have a different impression. But, stay after the boats pull away in the late afternoon, and it was so hospitable.
Friendliest
Philippines
Thailand
El Salvador
United States
Least Friendly
Korea
Japan
China
Japan? Maybe the citizens might be unfriendly but the customer service is still world class.
Quote:
Japan has become world-famous for its incredibly polished customer service, which isn’t something you’ll find only at premium-priced hotels and leisure resorts. Just about any shop or restaurant you go to in Japan, right down to convenience stores and fast food joints, will be staffed by courteous clerks and servers.
To explain this phenomenon, sociologists often point to the importance of respect and humility that are so deeply ingrained in Japanese culture.
China. Yeah all of China is rude as hell, customer service and citizens. They just don’t give a damn. Many places in their country are not even tourist friendly for English speakers (there were hardly any English signs in or around one of their Shanghai airports)
Thailand? Well they’re accustomed to torurists, so yeah, they’re pretty friendly.
United States as a friendly country is insanely laughable. Go to any major city and you’ll see how “friendly” it is with road rage and traffic, superficial body image, lack of common courtesy in public places, and horrible customer service.
China. Yeah all of China is rude as hell, customer service and citizens. They just don’t give a damn. Many places in their country are not even tourist friendly for English speakers (there were hardly any English signs in or around one of their Shanghai airports)
Thailand? Well they’re accustomed to torurists, so yeah, they’re pretty friendly.
United States as a friendly country is insanely laughable. Go to any major city and you’ll see how “friendly” it is with road rage and traffic, superficial body image, lack of common courtesy in public places, and horrible customer service.
That has not been our experience at all in China and we have been there six times. We cannot expect that everywhere in the world is English friendly, especially when the majority of tourists are not English speaking. We found that people were very helpful and would whip out their phones with the translation apps to try to help us. Locals almost dragged me up the Great Wall when DH raced off to take photos and left me struggling.
The friendliest people we have encountered were in Turkey and in Zimbabwe. The most unfriendly would have been in parts of South America.
I usually have good experiences wherever I go. I was surprised how friendly people were in the Virgin Islands, but then it is to their advantage to be so.
Worst experience was Hawaii. We went to Big Island. It was obvious the locals did not want us there. The touristy places were more friendly.
I have met both some of the absolute most friendly and some of the most totally UNfriendly people in Hawaii...
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