Not looking like a tourist

I think it's great you want to blend in. I'm very lucky in Italy I fit in because I'm Italian and speak the language. But when I was in Germany and Austria, different story. I dressed the same way there than in Italy. There is a website called wintersilks. They have summer cloths too. Silk takes up very little room in a suit case or backpack. I never had a problem with the clothes wrinkling. I just roll up the clothes and they are just fine. Silk is so comfortable and you look dressed. I bought a number of beautiful clothes from wintersilk for my Italy and swiss trip coming up in November. The prices on that site are great. I bought a beautiful sweater, silk blend. I'm lucky when it comes to shoes since I travel in the fall. I wear really good looking winter boots, ankle length since I wear mostly slacks. When it's warm I take light weight skirts, and I can pull the skirt down a bit to cover my knees. And up again when I want it shorter. Nice thing about elastic waist bands. My skirts are fairly full and look girlie. But it's not too much. When I wear these skirts, people treat me very well! Too bad to be treated well, we have to look a certain way, but that's life!
Have a wonderful trip!

Sue,makes some good point but I just don't have that ability to "always tell who is a tourist." I have been surprised by who was a tourist and who wasn't. I do like to blend and follow the maxim, "You cannot avoid looking like a tourist. Just don't look like a stupid, American tourist."

I totally agree with Sue.

Tourists broadcast jillions of watts of tourist identity just by milling around major tourist attractions and Rick Steves recommended restaurants and hotels on a regular weekday when most of the local people we are trying to blend in with are probably working.

I found I blended in away from any major tourist destination but as soon as I got near the places where mainly tourists go, I was marked no matter how I dressed or acted.

Kent,

Sure, now that the dollar resurges you want the continent to all to yourself...

I posted something a few weeks ago about how to fit in. I am the same way. Its not that I don't want to dress the way I dress every day, I just want to know how to not stick out like a sore thumb. I want to be able to travel, tour and go to thoese tourest places and not look like the ugly American I hear about all the time.

My European fiancee always finds this topic interesting. She basically divides American tourists into three categories:

1) Those who wear loud American clothes (baseball hats, colorful T-shirts with sports logos) then seem surprised when they are easily identified as tourists.

2) Those that wear decent, but typically American clothes, and usually don't seem to care if their identity as a tourist is known (usually aged 50 or greater).

3) Those who think they're blending in by the clothes they wear, but whose mannerisms, language, accents, acouterments and actions leave their identity just as obvious.

Bottom line- most Europeans can easily spot Americans no matter what they wear, and 99% could not care either way.

My thing is to be dressed as appropriately as possible for a wide range of occasions from one carry-on bag. I try to dress up or down as needed but don't worry about whether I look exactly like the locals.

http://tinyurl.com/6dgare

OK, Kent (LOL), I don't think you will find me wearing that, although I'm not so sure that he might not be a native German. I probably fit more accurately with Tom's fiance's number 2. I dress like Rick Steves - khaki pants, golf or dress shirt, hiking boots. If I am obviously American, it's Rick's fault. However, I think that regardless of what we wear, they can tell by the quality of the material and the stitching that we are not European.

In other ways, particularly accent, I think I am obviously American, although, much to my wife's amusement, when I arrive in Europe, I immediately switch to European table manners. (In fact, even at home, when I have Schnitzl I eat that way).

I think the most important thing is not to be overtly American. Once I was in a local restaurant in a small town (Poing) in the outskirts of Munich. I came into the restaurant and took a table next to the wall. When the waiter came, I don't remember if he immediately recognized my American accent and tried to give me an English menu (I don't even remember if they had one), but, if so, I insisted in ordering in German, and when my meal came sat there quitely eating. After a few minute a German couple came in accompanied by someone who must have been a Texan business associate. He spoke in a very loud voice, and only spoke English with a Texan accent. Everyone in the room knew he was an American. At one point I felt like crawling under the table, but I consouled myself with the thought that, if there were a terrorist around, I wouldn't be his target.

I think the point is, yes, you are different, but keep a low profile, don't make it obvious.

On our RS Family tour this summer there was one family that dressed a certain way. Short shorts, running shoes, kids in sloppy jeans and hoodies,, they looked very very "American" ..

They were also VERY NICE ,, and the man spoke some German as he had been stationed there years ago( military) ,, they had a GREAT time on the trip, and they were not "targeted" as they were smart and alert people, and they were neither loud nor obnoxious..

I used to say dress to blend in, I now think its " much ado about nothing" . Cover your shoulders and knees in Italian churches, and save flip flops for the beach( just cause they are not good for walking miles on cobblestones) , but wear your sneakers and jeans if you want,, only ones who seem to care may be other tourists,,LOL

I think best tip is to keep your voices down, the people who really attract alot of negative attention from locals are usaully the loud mouths.
I hated the big mouthed mother who would call out to her kids in the hallway of our small hotel, I had the misfortune to be on the same floor as a family group that appeared to have 3 out of the 4 rooms on our floor, and the big mouth woman thought nothing of yelling down the hall at her family members.

PS I do make some judgments on what people wear, but it has nothing to do with where I am, in Europe or at home, I do think certain looks are sleazy and sloppy, ,, so personally I don't think anyone should ever dress like Dog the Bounty Hunters wife... AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!

I still assert that a huge chunk of the "tourists" people claim to see wearing tacky clothes are actually locals that you ASSUME are tourists based on your own paradigm going in. You find what you look for. There are some things that are definite "American" clothes, but from what I've seen, many, if not most, Europeans in their daily lives have very similar wardrobes to Americans. Of course if you are dressed in vacation casual walking through an area where locals are dressed up going to work or out to a nice dinner, you'll probably stick out - but I'm not dressing in my work clothes on vacation, I don't care where I'm going or who I'll be around! :)

I think as long as you are a pleasant, considerate person and you aren't obnoxious or inappropriate in your wardrobe choices abroad (for example, I wouldn't bring the orange and blue clothes I wear to UF football games, and I wouldn't wear jeans to a nice dinner out, here or in Europe), it doesn't really matter what you're wearing. Everyone is going to know you're a tourist the minute you open your mouth no matter what you're wearing, so the best way to avoid looking like a tacky tourist is to be polite and respectful wherever you are. I think that's so much more important in making a good impression than what you wear.

I remember in the early 1990's, when Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls were winning, I was in London and saw Chicago Bulls shirts, hats,etc being sold everywhere.

This is such a funny topic to me. I never gave much thought to the way I was going to be dressed on our trip, except for the consideration of weather. We plan to bring our regular clothes. Our trip is costing enough as it is and I can't worry about having to buy new clothes to fit in. Chances are we won't fit in anyway. The whole point of going, for us, is to visit a new place and learn about a new culture, not to go and try to pretend we live there. I think it's okay to be a traveler as long as you are not a disrespectful and ignorant. We are not obnoxious and loud Americans and are respectful of all people...no matter how they are dressed. I hope to also be treated the same way.

Amber has encompassed what Emily and I were saying to a "T". We whole-heartedly agree! Way to go Amber!

P.S. This is Cary from Gainesville - I accidentally logged in as my wife. Oops.

Here's another perspective from a different angle. Living in a city that hosts many foreign tourists and professional workers, I'm often glad that many make no attempt to dress like Americans so that they can "fit in".

I think we have YANKEE tatooed to our foreheads, so don't worry about it. Maybe they have American radar but no matter how perfectly I pronounced my "Bonjour Madam", the very next words were "Good morning sir, how may I help you?" The Europeans in general seem a bit less casual than Americans, but they own blue jeans too. A little common sense and a little taste is all that is required.

I am not German, but I can hear an American accent in a second an American speaks German. Not so much with British though. What is funny though is that sometimes Germans can't tell the American accent from a British accent. Well, as long as it isn't southern

As someone who has dealt with tourists from other countries here in the USA...guess what....I can tell once they open their mouths and speak English that they are not Americans. So, it goes both ways.

The real fun part is being able to tell if someone is from Britain, Australia, New Zealand or South Africa.

So, the general consensus is that Europeans base their judgments solely on stereotypes and outward appearances? I think I would be a little insulted at that.

When it comes down to it, it's all about how you act towards one another. A jerk wearing a three piece suit is still a jerk. A nice person wearing bermuda shorts, black socks with sandals is still a nice person.

I'm leaving for Italy tomorrow and am wearing my comfortable, vacation attire with pride (and I'm also a nice person)

So I'm walking around with a camera and a map and a backpack (so my hands are free for the camera) and I'm gawking at the sites. Don't I look like a tourist no matter what I'm wearing? Does it matter?

People should wear what they feel comfortable wearing--not just physically but psychologically.

We can argue over and over on this subject but there is no right answer. Many like to dress the way they want to dress and no one is going to change their mind. And that's fine.

I tend to dress slightly more conservatively than the average tourist and it has been beneficial to me. I'm not saying it would be beneficial to others or dressing differently is wrong. I'm saying it's been beneficial to me.

I am at peace with being a tourist, but I still try to dress nice :-)

Who is Kent??

Kent is Rick Steve's illegitimate third cousin once removed.

He likes to play with the delete button..:)

This topic just amazes me. I am leaving for Italy in 3 weeks. Second time, last time was 1969, oh my that makes me sound sooooo old. I have never worried about what we wear when I travel. We are hikers so we are in our hiking cloths most of the time. I am an American and VERY proud of it. I am proud to tell people that this is my country and where I am from. I am courteous, pleasant, have good manners. I stick out no matter what and that is good. We are tourists we add to other countries economy when we travel. We are visitors trying to enjoy, experience and feel the country that we are visiting. My clothing doesn't matter. I have alway met wonderful people no matter what country no matter what I have on.

If you have a map in your hand--you're a tourist. I met so many people from all around the world that were visiting Italy. It was very difficult to tell where they were from until they spoke, even then I wasn't always sure. My lesson--wear what ever you want!!!!! What I didn't see was the "prison garb" that is so popular here, you know the baggy pants belted below the bottom that look like you just dropped a load. Folks were not sloppy or dirty even in a t-shirt, jeans and tennis shoes.

This whole how-to-dress thing blows my mind because although several European countries are like the best of the best when it comes to fashion, I dont think I have ever seen a well dressed European tourist or exchange student in America! For the longest time I thought that everyone from Europe was very "granola" and the students didnt have the slightest clue how to put an outfit together. I dont feel that way anymore but its just funny to me.

The first time I went to the UK, I was so concerned about "not looking like a tourist" that I actually ran a photo of my proposed shoes past some British friends (who were bewildered by my question) to see if they were okay. When I got there, my British friends all were wearing--wait for it--RUNNING SHOES. My nice comfy broken-in running shoes were back at home and I was wearing relatively new shoes with, if I'd only known it when I bought them online, very little arch support. Yes, my feet hurt at the end of the day, and I could have been comfortable. Never again.

Yep (Maggie), it's one of the reasons I like the British so much: they're almost as badly dressed as I am (and most of them speak English fairly well, too). In the Fashion Police World's Worst Dressed Tourist Competition, the British are generally ranked next to last, just ahead of us. Where some Americans do sometimes feel a bit under-dressed is in French or Italian cities.