Scotland and current world events

What is it that you are worried about? These threads always get locked, but I am genuinely curious. If someone yells at me, I can’t say I’d blame them, nor do I have any concerns about anything beyond that occurring, so I’ll be going…if I can afford it, and if we are not at war.

I’m in the middle of watching a talk by Rick Steves’ employee Cameron Hewitt, where he discusses 2026 Travel Tips, Trends & Updates. He discusses the topic you are asking about.

You can watch it here:

https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/travel-classes/festival-videos

Things have changed recently and I've noticed on a number of forums and news site comment sections that there is an increased anger towards the US particularly around the Greenland issue and the imposition and threats of tariffs against a number of European countries.

People are now viewing the US as an unreliable ally and a threat to the stability of Europe (Putin must be rubbing his hands with glee) and I'm now not sure that American visitors to Europe won't experience a degree of open hostility. If I was an American citizen I'd certainly be reticent about visiting Europe at the moment.

My husband and I were in a popular biergarten in Salzburg this past June 2025. We were eating our meal, drinking our beers and out of nowhere an angry (drunk) man appeared at our table and started telling us, in his thick accent (native German speaker, I would assume) that we thought we were better than he was, etc. and so on. He paused long enough to ask if we were American. I was swallowing and attempting to say we speak English but he only heard the word 'English' and assumed we were from the UK. He nodded (with relief?) and toddled off in a different direction. No one will know we're American vs. European if we don't make it blatantly obvious. So, I'm not going to worry about it. I could get accosted in my hometown. Not going to stop me from living and travel'n.

No one will know we're American vs. European if we don't make it blatantly obvious

Unless you're visiting the UK or Ireland (I'm not sure if many non English speakers can determine an American accent) although I can't tell the difference between a Canadian accent and a generic US accent (ie. not a Southern drawl or a New York twang) so all you Canadians should wear your maple leaf wherever you can!

In Glasgow right now. The locals who have struck up conversations with us (train platform, public bus, restaurant, gift shop, cab driver) have been unfailingly friendly, sympathetic, and very well informed.

Accidental Southerner, we found the same warmth and sense of sadness for our situation from the Glaswegians we spoke with when there this past September. Given this was before the latest actions on the part of this administration, but we were all extremely impressed by the friendliness and openness of the people there. I had read about the kindness of the Scots, and in our experiences we found those reputations to be spot on and then some.

The exchange rate between the $ and the Euro is much worse at this present moment that was the case last summer. One needs only to check one's Visa statement to get the exact rate charged say, on 22 July or 8 Aug 2025, etc.

I saved at least four to five hundred dollars on the flight price dep this year at the same time as I did last summer.

That incident in Salzburg in the Biergarten: Confronted with that question I would have shot back at him brusquely, , "well, what about it?" (Na, Und? ). He would have immediately picked up on the linguistic nuance ! Maybe I'll run into that sort of incident this summer too.

Thanks Carrie for noting the Cameron video. I thought it was a thoughtful reflection.

Go and have fun.

If you have conversations with locals just stay clear of hot button subjects.

I think any visitor to the US who comes with an open mind and in the spirit of friendship will have no problems coming to the UK. On the other hand, if you come here with full MAGA regalia espousing the virtues of the US taking control of Greenland expect a hostile reception.

I quite like Denmark’s counter bid to buy California. I suspect quite a few Californians might too.

I spend a lot of time in Scotland. I was last there a little over two weeks ago.

The Scots are wonderful, friendly folks. Just go and have fun.

A very sizeable portion of Scotland's economy is American/Canadian visitors reconnecting with their distant Scottish heritage. I can't imagine people from the US not being welcomed there unless they were being particularly vocal about their politics as mentioned above. They are of course also used to frequent visits from the US president who owns a golf course there (or several?), although he is not always so warmly welcomed by people from the local area.

At least two golf courses a certain person owns- one at Turnberry (Ayrshire), the other up near Aberdeen.

Most people around the world are able to differentiate between a person and their government.
Of the rest, some won't care. Others will care a lot. That said as a citizen of a country you are often a one person embassy wandering around as far as a lot of people are concerned.

Always judge the situation you are in, some people you can talk to about politics like old friends, others may be more prickly.

Keep in mind we also have a parliamentary election on 7th May, so politics is going to be more evident than otherwise, if you are coming to Scotland there is a substantial per centage of the population who don't like being in the United Kingdom, so politics is ever present.

We were in Ireland last year, and everyone was sympathetic to our plight - of course, with an Irish Biden, they might have been unusually biased. We've seen MAGA hats in pubs over the years, but have never felt unwelcome. Sharing a table in the pub with a stranger usually starts with a careful dance until viewpoints are finally blurted out.