Traveling abroad is an exciting yet stressful endeavor that can result in long days in unfamiliar places, which can make the chance of saying something rude, whether unknowingly or knowingly, a reality.
While most people don’t go on a trip with the intention of offending people in the country they’re visiting, it does happen, and experts told HuffPost they’ve seen it firsthand time and time again.
Below, a travel professional and etiquette expert share the rudest things people say when traveling abroad.
1. “The customer is always right.”
“Something I actually heard: I was in London last week, somebody was arguing with the front desk of the hotel, and they were saying, ‘Well, the customer is always right,’ and it’s sort of like, that’s actually a very American approach to customer service,” said Nick Leighton, an etiquette expert and host of the “Were You Raised by Wolves?” podcast.
It’s not a globally-shared thought pattern. “And very often, the customer is not right,” Leighton added.
“In a lot of places around the world, a business is happy to push back on that,” he said. Meaning, you may not get the outcome you’re hoping for.
“You sometimes hear stories [where] somebody’s in a restaurant in Italy and they ask for Parmesan cheese to put on their fish, and the restaurant’s like, ‘No, we’re not gonna let you do that,’” he said. This often results in an upset customer who utters a phrase like “the customer is always right” or “I’m the customer” only to be met with further refusal from the restaurant.
So, before you assume you can do no wrong as a patron of a business, remember that this is an extremely American idea.
2. Referring to a country as “Third World.”
According to Chelsea Glass, the founder and CEO of Heart of Travel, an ethical travel tour company, the use of the term “Third World country” is another no-no, especially when it’s just as easy to say “developing nation” or simply refer to the country by its name.
“Third-world country has negative connotations and is also just an inaccurate term,” Glass said.
3. “How much is it in real money?”
This should go without saying, but just because you’re visiting a country that uses a different currency doesn’t mean their money is any less “real” than the U.S. dollar.
“The U.S. dollar is a very popular currency around the world, but Mexico pesos are also real money. Euros are also real money,” Leighton said, “and I think…
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