I came across this book written by Mary Calawander Jones a few weeks ago when I was meandering through Library of Congress documents and found it pretty fascinating. The tips in there made me laugh or roll my eyes. For example:
Traveling for women who have no man to look after them is easier and more convenient in Europe than it is here. In the smallest railway stations, for instance, there are always porters, or at least idle men and boys, ready to take your hand luggage; and the whole machinery of hotel-keeping and transportation is carried into greater detail than with us.
Or...
It is a great mistake to take children to Europe unless you mean to settle down somewhere, as if you move about much they are a nuisance to your fellow-travelers.
Or this...
It is difficult to see why anyone should think it necessary to have her name and home address put on her luggage in full, as it is of no use, and only serves to make her conspicuous, which is always disagreeable to a lady, besides offering an opportunity to adventurers.
The chapters about the individual countries were just as quirky. Evidently in Germany, "...the Bavarians and southern Germans [are] more easy-going, more artistic, and apparently more good-natured, than their brothers farther north."
And if you are in France, remember this: "The rule between married and unmarried women is very sharply drawn in France. A married woman may go anywhere her husband chooses to take her, and read any book which he does not forbid; but unmarried women do not as a rule read French novels nor go to most of the theatres, unless the piece is unobjectionable."
But having said that, I loved the introduction to the book, where she talks about American prejudices.
Unless travellers are willing to leave national prejudices behind them, and ready to see whatever is characteristic and excellent in a foreign country, without finding fault because it is unfamiliar, they had better remain at home. Americans are among the worst offenders in this regard; and there is no greater nuisance than the man who growls because he cannot get buckwheat cakes, or the woman who fusses when she has to do without iced-water. If people carry fixed habits from place to place, as the tortoise does its shell, they will be wise to arrange their journeys so as to permit of their remaining in countries where they may be comfortable without too much effort. Remember, when you go to a strange country, that its inhabitants have not sent for you; you go among them, presumably, of your own accord, and their manners and customs cannot possibly seem stranger to you than yours do to them. It is scarcely worth while to go to Europe for the purpose of proclaiming all the time that America is in every way better; if that is your opinion you may show it by going home, and never leaving it again.