Yes, people can be awful. But I have read far more cruel comments about people's weight here on Fodor's than I have ever encountered in Europe. (Fortunately, most of the comments I remember on Fodor's are from a pretty long time ago, and I don't see it so much any more.)

I have been trying to remember if anybody has ever made any comments about my weight in Europe, and I can only come up with the taxi driver in Lisbon, who pulled out pictures to show me from the glove compartment. I assumed they were pictures of his children; instead they were pictures of his weight loss. He insisted on giving me his nutritionist's card and telling me how much she helped him. (I have subsequently found a nutritionist much closer to home, who has helped me greatly.)

If I had waited till I lost sixty pounds before I went to Europe, I would have missed out on ten years of fascinating travel and I never would have met the many people who have enriched my travels and my life.

If you travel to Europe, you are likely to walk a lot more than in the US. My pedometer says I walk about 1 mile/day in the US while on an average day I walk 6 miles while in Europe and sometimes over 10 miles. Also, after eating at restaurants in Europe, they must might get used to more rational food portions than the gigantic serving sizes found at US restaurants. So I think waiting to lose wait before the trip is probably thinking backwards. They might lose weight after taking a trip.

When we started travel overseas other than to Canada, we realized after about one week into the trip, we needed to tighten our pants belts. We realized we were losing weight eating better food. We were sold on taking oversea trips ever since.

I am short and overweight. Over the years I've made perhaps 20 trips to Europe -- England, France, the Netherlands, and Belgium -- and I can't recall one instance where I was treated unkindly or felt uncomfortable because I felt I was being slighted or received rude comments due to my weight.

Los Angeles is such a looks oriented city where even a size 12 might feel "fat" -- with so many people there so obsessed with being a size 0, tan, and wearing skimpy clothing. It can make you feel very self-conscious about your weight and then you tend to read slights into everything. I think in this country in general there is more insensitivity toward people with weight issues than in Europe. I wouldn't be that surprised to encounter an outright rude or cruel comment about weight in LA.

Your sister and mother should go on their trip with their heads held high and they will have a wonderful time.

I travel to LA all the time for business. Don't start taking the LA idea of what people should look like as normal or realistic. It is certainly a looks concious city and not always in a good way! I laugh often because so many women kinda look the same because they have had the same cosmetic procedures! I am not overweght but I always feel like I am when in LA.

I hope your relatives will be able to recognize that the world is filled with mostly nice people....don't let the "nasties" get all your thoughts and attention. I agree that often times, different, in any way, will sometimes get stared at and the reason may not be weight at all. I hope you can convince them to just go and enjoy! Life's too short!

NO

I'd worry more about the size of my hotel room's shower stall than anyone being unkind.

I'm a size 10 and have had a problem in some of those tiny stalls!

Look for rooms that have a shower inside a real tub.

I can't imagine that they would encounter any direct rudeness or harassment in Europe because of size. Some places in Asia, on the other hand, quite possibly.

"I'd worry more about the size of my hotel room's shower stall than anyone being unkind."

This is not a joke. We once stayed in a hotel in Venice where the bath was so small that one had to step into the hallway to dry oneself.

Wow, hetismij2. Was it fun putting together that straw man?

Saying that Europeans can be a certain way doesn't mean that the majority of them are. The majority of people in LA in didn't insult the original poster's sister. The sister reacted to the few people who did very hard.

It's not a "myth" that the culture of Europe is different from the culture of America when it comes to being overt about checking out other's people clothes. One of the reason's you see so much comment on internet boards from Americans about people's dress is that under the cloak of anonymity, American feel free to say things they wouldn't dare to say face to face to someone in America.

The problem for the sister going to Europe is not really Europeans. The problem is if she goes to the Eiffel Tower, or gets on and off canal boat rides in Amsterdam, her chances of being around people from LA or Fodor's who are speaking English is pretty high. She won't understand what people might be saying about her in Dutch or French. If some American tourist wants to insult her, what is she going to do?

Not very likely, I should say, GA. I am shocked to hear that derogatory comments would be made in the US.

Back to European shops with gorgeous women's clothes in large sizes, Marina Rinaldi is very nice.

Yeah that's right. Europe is full of Americans travelling the breath of the Atlantic to slag of their fellow citizens. Do you ever actually read what you write?

Wow, more straw men. Must be a lot of hay laying around some people's mental barns today.

Here's a blog written by a French woman in the Netherlands commenting on other people's body types:

http://www.fitnesstreats.com/2011/05...ns-body-types/

The problem for Doppio's sister is that she left her familiar comfort zone and encountered overt discrimination. Her reaction has been to look for ways not to leave her comfort zone again.

It might be interesting for people on Fodor's to gas about their impressions of cultural norms in an effort to provide false reassurance and sympathy, but the truth is that nobody here can guarantee Doppio's sister that she won't encounter discrimination in Europe from fellow tourists or natives. It only took about 1 or 2 people to ruin Doppio's sister's other trip.

Doppio's sister can't control the world or other people. It's up to her to decide how she is going to deal with discrimination and rude people.

>>I cannot imagine anyone of any European nationality even giving you sister and mother a second look much less commenting on their size.<<

When people preface their advice telling you they have no imagination, especially concerning a fairly common situation of people staring at strangers, you're entitled to dismiss your advice.

One of the funny things about this Fodor's thread is that it exists amid dozens of other threads where American travelers to Europe describe one of the MAIN interests in going to Europe is to spend time "people watching."

What a huge number of Americans remember as the most enjoyable part of their European tour was just sitting in a European cafe or on a park bench watching Europeans walk by. They look at their dress, their shoes, their dogs, their purses and store purchases. They stare at their children playing. They take pictures. They blog about it.

They comment on European women wearing high heels, scarves, men in sandals or shorts. The whole nine yards.

But the notion that a European might be curious enough to look at a foreign stranger? What? Are you kidding? You mean -- it's NOT a television show? Those people can actually look the other way and see us sitting there? And have a positive or negative reaction?

Naw. Can't be true! They are just props for my photo-op! They're not -- gasp -- human beings with human variety and shortcomings like other people in the world.

PS: For those you with some imagination, try imagining this:

Imagine if Doppio had posted on Fodor's message board for California BEFORE her sister's trip. Imagine the title of her thread was: "Are the overweight / obese treated badly in LA?" Imagine if she sought advice about her sister not taking a trip to LA for fear of being laughed at for being large.

Now try to imagine the responses she would have gotten on Fodor's.

Now think about the reality of what her sister encountered.

Ideology isn't the answer to this question. The problem is that it is the wrong question, one that cannot be answered in reality. The real question is how Doppio's sister is going to handle the reality of weight discrimination.

Goldenautumn welsome to Fodors

Doppio, great advice above, generally cities are designed more for public transport ane walking than US cities (obviously a generalisation). Smaller helpings yes, though the multiple ordering system in Italy can be even daunting (you don't have to eat every course). Good point about showers and also beds are smaller (a Queen size in the states is a King etc in Europe). But all in all a 15 stone 6 foot woman is not enormous in Netherlands (not at all), Paris and maybe not in Italy used to receive tourism. Europeans are also used to tourists being able to speak multiple languages so they tend not to make comments in say french assuming you will miss the point.

They will have a great time.

I near you joannnyc....can't even shave my legs cuz I can't really bend over in the shower in Paris!

Treated badly in L.A., due to size? Huh? I'm from L.A. (over 45 years) and my siblings are a large size and very tall and a friend of mine is, too. They've been fine here as there are people of all sizes, although there might be a larger percentage of smaller-sized people here, in general, than in maybe some other places. I notice that when I go to some other parts of the U.S., that there seems to be a larger percentage of larger people.

As for me, I wear both size 10 (skirts) and some 12s (closely fitted tops) and I feel totally fine about my body and size here. No one gives me any problems at all with being my clothing size. I throw on some cool clothes, hit the streets with confidence, and usually get a lot of compliments. In my younger adult years, I fluctuated from a size 4-6-8 mostly, but feel and look best at a size 10 as I like having some junk in my trunk. I'm mid 50s.

Reading some of the negative, size comments about L.A. above, makes me wonder what part of L.A. these women were in who had the hard time here. Plus, size and culture can go hand in hand a lot and some from certain cultures can be more weight obsessed/weight conscience than those from other cultures. I worked over three decades in a part of L.A. where having meat on one's bones was/is seen as a beautiful thing and those women, of all sizes, have been fine here.

Happy Travels!

"....The way she was treated in Los Angeles has really caused her much anxiety about traveling again."

I've lived in the L.A. area most of my life. I have overweight friends. I've seen tons (no pun intended) of overweight people. I've never heard or seen someone treat an overweight person rudely because of their size.

hetismij2 wrote "Provided they have a good attitude to life, and treat other people with respect and friendliness they will be treated in the same way. They should not be self conscious and just enjoy their trip."

I agree. And that also goes for here in L.A. Don't be self conscious. Just go out with confidence.

Vanne wrote "Los Angeles is such a looks oriented city where even a size 12 might feel "fat" -- with so many people there so obsessed with being a size 0, tan, and wearing skimpy clothing. It can make you feel very self-conscious about your weight and then you tend to read slights into everything."

Yes, there are people who can become very self-conscious about their weight when they're here, but I don't see how that's the fault of L.A. That's their own stuff. And I also feel that they can tend to read slights into something else as Vanne put it.

People need to remember that we have great weather nearly year round and that the body is exposed a lot and there are a lot of people who take pride in keeping fit. We don't like being boggled down under a lot of clothing. Although I'm no longer a size 4-6-8 of my younger adult years, I don't begrudge those who are smaller than I am, not even the size zeros.

As for Europe, I've been going there almost annually since the 70s and have spent a lot of time all over Europe. As for Paris, where I spend a lot of time, I'm probably larger in size than a lot of the Parisian women that I see on the street. I don't let that get to me at all. I do get ticked off though when I walk into a clothing boutique and a lot of times can't find a size on the rack larger than an equivalent of an American size 8.

I went into a British designer boutique some years ago and there wasn't one size 10-equivalent on the rack. I was looking for a skirt. The salesperson said that the 10s were in the back room and had to go and pull them out for me. So, there is size discrimination. The saleswoman said that she also wears a 10, but feels big. I don't feel big, I just think that it would have been nice to not have had my size 10s tucked away in a back room. I shop at the same British designer boutique here at home and size 0-12s are displayed on the selling floor.

Happy Travels!

Maitaitom: I agree and I get so tired of L.A. bashing. Happy Travels!