12+ Travel Opinions & Habits That Travel Snobs Hate

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They say there’s a difference between a traveler and a tourist. What that difference actually is will depend on the person. But you may have heard of these:

• Tourists travel in large groups; travelers travel solo or just with one other person
• A tourist eats food they know; a traveler tries out the local cuisines
• Tourists dress for comfort; travelers dress for style first
• Tourists stick to their native tongue; travelers make an attempt to learn the local language
• Tourists rely on maps; travelers trust their instincts

Know what I say to that? What a load of crap! Let me tell you, I’ve been almost every one of those people. I’ve been in large tour groups, and I’ve traveled alone or with just one person. I’ve eaten at Hard Rock Cafes around the world, but I also have had fugu in Hakone. I’ve been to Austria and Germany without speaking a word of German, and I’ve been able to have simple conversations in Spanish in Havana, and in Japanese in Tokyo. The only ones I’m guilty of? I always dress for comfort (I’ve never cared about style), and I’ve always relied on maps and GPS…because who wants to get lost?

But while I think the concept of any major difference between a tourist and a traveler is hogwash, I DO think there are people out there who are travel snobs.

You know the kind of people I’m talking about. They pity people who have never left their home country. They’ll only stay at hotels if they can go on points. They’ll boast about how many countries they’ve been to, and no, they don’t count layovers. They’ll pick travel locations for exclusivity and remoteness.

Or you’ve got the travel snob on the other end of the spectrum, who does things WAAAY on the cheap. They only stay at hostels. They never check bags. Oh, and have you seen their Insta? They just got their 500,000th follower.

Kill me now.

Anyway, an interesting topic came up on Reddit not long ago:

What’s your travel opinion/habit that travel snobs would rip you apart for?

The author of the post, Alean, even threw out the first answer:

• I make it a point when I visit a new country to try out their McDonalds. food is always shaped by a countries history and culture, so I think it’s super interesting to see the country specific items they have (beer in germany, Parmesan puffs in Italy, rice buns in Japan!)

See, now I can totally agree with that, because, with few exceptions, fast food that you’d think should be “the same everywhere” is SO NOT. Mister Donut (it used to be a nice sized chain, but many were changed to Dunkin’ Donuts in the 1990s. There’s only 1 left in the U.S. now, it’s in IL, about 30 miles north of St. Louis) isn’t nearly as sweet in Japan as it was in the U.S. Starbucks in Austria sells a sipping chocolate that is to die for. And 7-Elevens around the world are ALLLL different.

Some of the replies Alean got were just as good:

• It’s okay for travel to just be some fun hobby, not a mind bending, life altering experience. — yezoob
• I don’t really care about authentic local experience. The locals are busy with day to day lives everywhere, same as me in my home. I am a tourist, I am going to see the touristic stuff. There’s a reason those are famous. — IamNobody85
• I was told once that my trip wasn’t ‘travel’ because it was ‘only’ a month. You’re not a traveller, you’re a tourist. Lol ok…. — baconandwhippedcream
• Lol, wanted to say something about magnets. I love them and I hate how some people act like you have to buy local crafts with a long history as a souvenir. — biererkopf
• “Why do you want to see the Anne Frank house, it’s such a tourist trap!” “Because we can’t see the Anne Frank house in Oklahoma City” — ayotechnology
• I love airports! Just the structure, different foods they offer, what amenities they have. Heck even how their seating is like is fascinating to me. And you can get a good walk in before your trip. — itsthekumar
• After a long day of sightseeing, I will happily eat popcorn and watch Netflix in my room rather than experiencing whatever nightlife a destination might have to offer. — lh123456789
• Any time I travel internationally, all I want when I first arrive is a meal and a shower. When you’re exhausted, and feeling some culture shock, and suddenly can’t remember any of the local language even though you studied the basic phrases for several months, those restaurants with the pictures and the menu written in three languages are a godsend. Is the food going to be an exemplary representation of the local cuisine? Of course not. But I never feel ashamed to eat at one. — gizmodriver
• It drives me mental when people on here say things like, ‘if you go to city X, forget about all the tourist destinations and go wander around the small neighbourhoods, where the ‘real’ city is.’
  That’s what I’m going to do, forget the things that draw people from around the world or wherever, and go check out where you go to buy your groceries. I’m a tourist dammit! — qwerty6731
• Don’t get me started on what it seems to be the absolute heresy of checking a bag! — qwerty6731
• “Yeah, I spent three weeks in Cambodia but I skipped Angkor Wat. I mean, it’s so touristy there. Why bother? Instead, I visited a cassava farm and drank tea with a local shop owner. It was way better than Angkor Wat.” Said every travel snob ever — CitizenTed
• It’s perfectly fine to want to stay at the hotel and not go anywhere. — monkey_scandal
• I’ll take a taxi to and from the airport over choppy complicated public transport anytime. Don’t care if it’s overpriced. — _Cdifficile
• My friend calls grocery stores “food museums.” I absolutely love going on cultural trips to the food museums. You can learn a lot there. It isn’t about going to the grocery store to purchase food. It is my must-do/activity simply because I want to browse to see what may be staples within their household, price range, how they market, people watch, etc. — BlaBlah_12345
• I find the obsession with getting to know locals, finding locals to hang out with to show them around bizarre and entitled. Like, you get to brag about the cool authentic experience you’ve had off the beaten tourist path and get to big yourself up as being ‘better’ than regular tourists, but what’s in it for the ‘local’? As a local of my own city, I would have no interest really in entertaining a tourist for a significant amount of time beyond giving directions or a short conversation. I have my own life, I have stuff to do, errands to run, friends who actually live in my city that I will see for more than one day in my entire life and can have meaningful friendships with. I also wouldn’t know any cool off the beaten path spots that the people who go out seeking ‘authentic, local experiences’ would want, because I spend a lot of my time at work, or at home, or doing boring everyday stuff. Tourism is an industry with an infrastructure around it – there are people whose job it is to guide you round cities, there’s all kinds of walking and food/drink tours. Spend the money paying people to do this rather than feeling entitled to people’s time and expecting the people who live in a city to do it for free. — buttfacedmiscreant11
• I like to buy ultra tacky souvenirs with the name of the place on it. Love a good key ring to add to the pile I have too — the-other-g
• (in response to above) If there’s a better souvenir than a kangaroo scrotum bottle opener I’ve yet to see it — ButtholeQuiver
• I’ve spent half a day in some huge city’s and saw everything I wanted to see.
  People will say ‘you need to stay for days to soak up the culture’ nah mate id rather move onto something that’s actually interesting than to Stockholm syndrome myself into liking a city. — _BreadBoy
• I like having a checked bag!!!! I don’t want to be restricted in my hair and skin products — missmelibeee
• All the guides that tell you how rad travel on a budget is are f**king lying. All the ways to try to weasel into free or reduced plane/trane seats, the hostels, the off the beaten path stuff, the stuff about going in the off season. The new app to travel-couch-surf or whatever.
  As someone who was broke as f**k and did all that, but then got a career and traveled with a real budget … The two experiences are worlds apart. Poverty travel is NOT fun. You only think it is because you don’t know different yet. Getting stranded in a foreign country with no means to get out is TERRIBLE. Hopping six kinds of train to go somewhere is objectively more of a hassle than flying there in a snap. Staying in a filthy hostel with crazy (but sometimes fun) people is objectively worse than staying at a super clean hotel that serves hot breakfast. When you are traveling outside your country, every problem == THROW MONEY AT IT. — 06210311200805012006
• My opinion that people seem to hate in here is that group touring is all 60 person groups of loud annoying people.
  Group touring can be really behind the scenes and in depth culturally.
  There’s nothing wrong with group tours — drobson70
• A lot of people might say, “I never even turn on the TV when I travel”. I like to spend some time just watching TV in a different country just to see what kinds of things are on. I don’t mean just vegging out and binging something – more like actively watching and flipping channels. Sort of like checking out the grocery store (which is also fun) it just gives you a window into the culture. — ErthWermSlim
• Hostels are lame and half the fun of traveling is staying in beautiful hotels / villas. I’d rather spend a week balling in a location than 2 months cosplaying as a homeless person. — Xxanal-destroyerxX
• I LOVE booking trips through Costco. The hotels have always been amazing and you usually get additional perks included in your vacation package. On our last vacation, my wife and I got free breakfast everyday and two free dinners at our hotel’s restaurant. This saved us money and the meals at the hotel were outstanding. We also got a Costco gift card at the end of the trip.
  I also love that Costco makes it super easy to book your flight, transportation, and hotel all at once. Travel snobs wouldn’t be caught dead with a Costco booking, but I highly recommend it.
  Oh, forgot to add that Costco also puts together its own reviews from members that previously stayed in the hotels. The reviews are honest and not paid/bots. — Crash_Marshall
• I like to return to the same place over and over again if I loved it. While I also value experiencing new places, I love building a deeper connection to a place I love and I find it easier and more relaxing at times to simply show up somewhere familiar vs plan a whole trip around somewhere entirely new. — Sweet-peach88

I agree SO VERY MUCH with a lot of what these people wrote!

How about you? What do you do or think that would make travel snobs think less of you?

Or are YOU a travel snob? 😉

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