SarahWhen I started traveling, I often had the feeling of being seen as a “wallet on legs” by locals. This complaint I also heard from a lot of travellers, interestingly independent of where they went.
Now, after some travel experience abroad, I have to admit, that I more and more shake my head about the behaviour of some travelers and how lightly they throw out their hard earned money for inferior experiences. No wonder that many locals are attracted by the big glowing letters “dumb tourist – please take my money”, that seem to be imprinted on their forehead.
It’s important to know, that these touts and cutthroats are only a very small percentage of the population, but they can completely distort the experience you have on your travels. That’s why I collected my experiences on “how not to be a dumb tourist”, which will help you in any country you are travelling:
- Inform about local scams: In each country there are some typical scams that are regularly used on new tourists. Be it offering free taxi tours to bring the victims to expensive shops. Or claim additional fees when crossing the border. Just do a bit of research before entering the country and you will be set for most encounters.
- Be careful with taxi drivers: One group that seems to be sleeky and unnerving are taxi drivers. Taxi meters are out of order, prices double and triple at night and all other transport modes are according to them insecure, extremely slow or out of order. Always compare prices, insist on the taxameter and check that the stay on the route. If you are ready to walk away otherwise, you can have a good time with taxis worldwide.
- Ask actively for help: As I said before, nearly all locals are nice people and genuinely helpful. Asking actively for help increases the chance to meet interesting locals and to avoid the few bad apples, that would address you for bad reasons
- Hide valuables when walking: Most tourist are easily recognizable with their big camera, tourist map or daypack. Make a routine of hiding your money and valuables when walking through the city and you will be not the easiest target around. It’s as easy as that.
- hide valuables/ camera/ wallet when walking
Don’t:
- Leave no valuables in your checked-in luggage: Whenever your luggage is out of sight, it is an easy target for pickpockets. Even in bus compartments it regularly happens that things get stolen (yes, someone really climbs into the compartment during the drive to crawl through the stuff. One has nearly to admire them for this effort)
- Don’t let yourself being blackmailed/pressured into giving a tip. Do it if you really liked the service and then be generous
- Walk out of the main touristic areas to find cheaper and often much more authentic food. Often on side street is enough (of course regard all stay save rules!
- Carefully compare pre-organized tours. Sometimes they can be a super deal and take your to not-well-known secret spots, but often the are cloned one-for-all offerings that you can organize for yourself much cheaper!
- Have a clear price in mind when bargaining how much you want to pay. Most times it works just to stubbornly repeat your price and start walking away if the seller is not going down enough. Even if your price point is too low you will get a good price after using this strategy with 2-3 merchants
Of course there are a lot of country-specific things to consider, but I concentrated on topics that are helpful independent of the country – I hope it will help you enjoy traveling even more!
