Sep20

try to avoid being naked.

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25 Unusual Foreign Travel Warnings for Visiting the U.S.

What do foreign tourists worry about when they visit the U.S.? Expensive emergency healthcare, overly sensitive attitudes towards nude sunbathing, and gross tap water, apparently. That’s according to travel warnings for potential U.S. tourists from around the world.

These government-issued advisories can seem like common sense for Americans, but they also reveal significant cultural differences between the U.S. and other countries.

 Here are 25 unexpected travel warnings from around the world aimed at those visiting the U.S. (most are approximate translations from the country’s official language):

1. DON’T GET RIPPED OFF AT AN ORLANDO GAS STATION (UK)

2. TAKE CARE OF THE FLOWERS (CHINA)

3. DO NOT USE HOTMAIL OR GMAIL (AUSTRALIA)

4. DO NOT STALK ANYONE (GERMANY)

5. WATCH OUT FOR GUNS AT NIGHTTIME (CANADA)

6. STAY AWAY FROM THE EAST COAST (CHINA)

7. REALLY, WATCH OUT FOR GUNS (GERMANY)

8. DOORS MIGHT BE CLOSED (RUSSIA)

9. DO NOT INSPIRE ROAD RAGE (CHINA)

10. DO NOT TALK TO PROSTITUTES (GERMANY)

11. DON’T PEE IN THE STREET (SWITZERLAND)

12. DON’T JOKE ABOUT BOMBS (UK)

13. TRY TO AVOID BEING NAKED (GERMANY)

14. FEEL FREE TO SHACK UP (AUSTRIA)

15. DON’T CUT IN LINE (CHINA)

16. DON’T EXPECT AIR TRAVEL TO BE SAFE (CANADA)

17. VACCINES DON’T CAUSE AUTISM (MEXICO)

18. THE TAP WATER TASTES GROSS (AUSTRIA)

19. THE AMERICAN DREAM ISN’T REAL (RUSSIA)

20. EXPECT HARASSMENT IN ARIZONA (MEXICO)

21. YOU MIGHT GET EXTRADITED (RUSSIA)

22. WATCH OUT FOR EXPENSIVE DOCTOR VISITS (AUSTRALIA)

23. DON’T LEAVE TRASH IN YOUR CAR (CANADA)

24. TAXI DRIVERS KNOW NOTHING (RUSSIA)

25. PAY YOUR TRAFFIC TICKETS (GERMANY)

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credits: google images, mental floss magazine, animation insider

 

 

72 responses »

  4. As a Canadian who often leaves his trash in his car, I am glad for the warning. Ha! You would have laughed Beth – one year we were travelling with our two kids and three of their friends to Disney World. We were driving our new Dodge Caravan and it had a driver’s side sliding back door (as well as a passenger side). I did not want the kids entering and exiting the van from the drivers side into traffic, so I told the kids (they were about 12 years old) not to use that door. They were very good about it and piled all their stuff against the door to get it out of the way- dolls, pictures, marker sets, extra clothing,baseball gloves,soccer balls, etc. I was nervous about crossing the border with 5 kids, three of which weren’t ours and prepped them on how to be polite and answer any questions clearly and honestly and to not add anything unless asked. My wife and I had all the documentation – the birth certificates, letters of authorization, contact information, health cards, etc-lined up and ready. We arrived at American customs inbound and I explained that we had our kids and their friends and we were going to Disney – we had the confirmation of our reservation and payment ready to show. The van had tinted windows and it wasn’t possible to see inside the rear.The customs officers must have thought we were hiding something. so one of them walked around to the driver’s side sliding door and yanked it open. Ha! There was an avalanche of all the stuff that had been piled against the door, that burst out onto his feet.. He jumped back in astonishment as five pre-teens peered anxiously out the open door like baby squirrels from the hole in a tree. Ha! He just barked: “Clean this up and get out of here!”, turned and stomped away. We threw everything back into the van and skedaddled. We didn’t have to show a single piece of documentation, ID or proof.

    I must confess, that incident clued me in that Americans do not like a disorganized car. Bwahaha!

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  11. I lived in Spain for nearly 4 years. I would often perform with a group on Friday and Saturday nights (I played guitar) and I would leave my apartment about 9:00 pm and I walked by a little park packed with hundreds of teenagers standing around drinking calimochos (Coca Cola mixed with cheap wine), beer and hard liquor. I would walk by at 2 or 3 in the morning on my way back to the apartment, and by then there were hundreds of drunk teenagers in the park. There were no restrooms available, so the boys peed on the walls and the girls peed in the doorways or between the cars parked on the street, Needless to say, the sidewalk was a river of urine by the wee hours of the morning. I had to walk up the middle of the street to avoid my shoes becoming soaked with urine. On the occasions I came home at daybreak, the kids were gone, replaced by city workers armed with high pressure hoses attached to fire hydrants washing the urine off the of the buildings, out of the doorways and off the sidewalks.

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  12. Beth … I can tell you that #1 … about ‘don’t get ripped off at an Orlando gas station’ is absolutely true. There were a couple of gas stations near the airport and some exits off I-95 in the Orlando area that are rip offs. They charge way more than any other gas station. Some have been fined, but I don’t know if they’ve cleaned up their act. Disgraceful.

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  23. I don’t know about 1 but 12 is definitely a thing us Brits warn each other about. I was shushing my son just recently as we were heading for airport security. He was making some flippant remark about having a bomb in his bag. I guess us Brits are worried about our sense of humour being rewarded with a strip search or something. 🙂

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  24. As an American, I visited Italy in March. You only have to go to ONE public pay toilet without proper change to see why other countries think OUR rules about peeing are strange – to them. (Apparently the rule in Italy was: No coins? There’s the wall.)

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  27. As an Englishman with many American friends, it always amazes me how profound the cultural differences are between your continent and others on the planet. That line, “Two peoples divided by a common language” says nearly everything you need to know. I’ve always believed that if you think someone “Odd” they almost feel the same thing back at you. One on one, people are always just people but culture versus culture is a whole different can of worms.

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  30. I love the one relating to the title as I have had personal experience of the prudishness and I still don’t get why I got told off for dropping my “pants” (trousers) to show off the beautiful tattoos on my thighs to an encouraging audience in a Naples (FL) bar. I was wearing my very best Calvin Klein boxer shorts.

    What is wrong with that?!

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