People often advise others to
"grab a seat at an outdoor cafe and stay for hours" or "spend your afternoon people watching."

I know it depends on the weather and type of city, but I'm curious as to:

- how much time people actually spend on "people watching" on thier trips

- where are your favorite places

I tend to take short but frequent stops at parks, squares, and outdoor cafes, but don't usually stay longer than the time it takes to drink a beer or a glass of wine.

And I often stop to rest my feet rather than focus primarily on "people". Get restless after an hour or so and tend to push on to another location. Walking around is a good way to see people as well as sights.

Just curious, not trying to belittle the habits of others. And I do have fond memories of sitting outside on a warm spring afternoon in Rome ...... .

[I thought I'd posted a reply but it seems to have got lost].

I've always thought 'people-watching' was a euphemism for resting the feet, or wool-gathering, or day-dreaming. It's just a useful phrase for when you start to think you ought to be doing something (pseudo-anthropological, or 'research for my novel'] to justify what you've spent on the holiday. Or when whoever you're with is still in feet-resting mode.

>...don't usually stay longer than the time it takes to drink a beer or a glass of wine. <

This can be anywhere from 2 min to two hrs.

ira, where I come from its much closer to two minutes than two hours.

Try taking two hours to drink a beer at Gator's Bar and you get the bums rush right out into the parking lot.

I believe PatrickLondon is on track here. When people suggest "people watching", what they probably mean is to just enjoy BEING somewhere that's a nice place to hang.

On vacation, I probably spend 30-45 minutes sitting for every 90 minutes of walking and touring. An outdoor table on a square is my favorite - it must be far removed from auto traffic, however. If a city has a particularly nice park, then I might park it for up to an hour.

Here in the US, I spend a lot of time at outdoor cafes or hanging out at the zoo. Both places are great for species watching, which I find endlessly amusing.

I don't think posters here are suggesting stopping for more than an hour at a time.At the other extreme, however, there are those who feel that even sitting around for 30 minutes will somehow prevent them from crossing essental to do items off their list.

I enjoy different places for about 30 minutes each...or so. I dunno, depends...is it a fine day? Are there musicians playing? Am I flirting with someone? Is there something that I would find interesting to actually watch? But one place might be full of vigorous students posing and prancing...another staid elderly folks, another place might be loaded with other Europeans other than natives in the City in which I'm visiting...i.e., Greeks, Middle Easterners, Asians, etc. on the Left Bank in Paris...

"People-watching" is a loose term for a relaxing, non-directed activity...it's a way to slow down (smell the ). Rest the feet, have a sip, absorb the 'feeling' of the place...and, even look at the people walking by - how are they dressed? walking a dog? try to guess if they're local or a tourist? Maybe there's a busker to entertain you for a while...

Travelnut, I like your phrase: absorb the 'feeling' of the place. That pretty much capture what I like to do best.

Still, my tired old bloodshot eyes sometimes like to watch the "hip fashion runway" if you catch my drift.

I've seen students do a lot of things, but never any actual prancing.

My husband certainly enjoyed people watching in Paris. Is it a requirement that all Parisian women be tall, thin and gorgeous? And where are all of the good looking men in Paris? It simply isn't fair that the streets are full of these female models, while the guys simply do not meet the same standards.

I've noticed that solo travel lends itself to people watching; everywhere... on the bus, at a cafe, on a boatride. You don't have a companion to distract you and you just watch what's going on around you.

With the extraordinary pointy toed stilletto's some of the girls were wearing with jeans...on cobble stones...they seemed to prance!
Of course then there is the Republique area...Marais...
The docent at the Carnavalet was one of the best looking men I ever saw in my life! I mean.... really! I think the men are very handsome and some dress so beautifully. Well cut suits. Tailored dress shirts. Tee-shirts and leathers...
Now is this a hot flash I'm having or a memory reaction? mmmmm....

We do mostly the drink/resting thing - but that is not two minutes - its generally an hour or so.

Occasionally we do a real people watching from a cafe - for a couple of hours. The best places I;ve founjd to to do this - in terms of interest/variety - are the Cafe de la Paix in Paris and one of the cafes (don;t emember the name) in the square in front of the pantheon in Rome. (The latter, as well as very nice drinks, serves free munchies from about 4 to 6 in the afternoon.)

Hi degas,

Like others here, I love my down-time when I get to drink in the atmosphere along with the wine!

My favorite places are cafes or benches along a lakeside promenade, specifically the promenade in Montreux, where the French alps frame the blue lake in a spectacular scene. I also love watching the folks parade by, especially the juxtaposition of old-money Europe (women in understated Chanel walking their dogs) and the new international community (groups of young folks from various origins prancing or skating down the promenade in wild gear). I love to see how they coexist.

If I've finished my wine or coffee, I can sit and stare at the mountains, or read a book, or write in a journal. There's loads to "do" while I enjoy the day.

s

Swandav2000: My favorite places are cafes or benches along a lakeside promenade, specifically the promenade in Montreux, where the French alps frame the blue lake in a spectacular scene.

How true - That situation always makes me linger much longer; especially at dusk.

We enjoy people watching, both from the standpoint of resting after sightseeing and also taking a table at an outside cafe, having dinner, a nice glass of wine, and combining the joy of eating and watching our fellow man.

I don't know if we enjoyed the same cafe in Piazza Rotunda NYTraveler, but it is an ideal place for both. We often ate at a cafe just below our hotel in Madrid, or just had a pitcher of Sangria and enjoyed our surroundings.
Also in both Trastevere and Florence, we enjoyed seeing the other cafe patrons, as well as passersby.

We are also balcony sitters, if we are fortunate to have one, and although we didn't people watch on our balcony in Athens, we had one of our best picnics ever, eating wonderful cheese, bread, olives, grapes and drinking wine, while looking at the Acropolis.

Ah Swandav, what a picture you paint! That view of the end of the lake still haunts my memory.

Dear degas,
Here's a fairly recent example of my people-watching experiences:

I had a free morning in Maastricht so I hunted out a cafe called Blanche Dael Coffee Loves which had been recommended to me. My intention was to just have a quick cuppa, and then explore the rest of the city. Well, I was so taken by the ambiance, the GREAT coffee, and the location that I ended up eating a second breakfast there and sitting well over an hour. Loved it. It was just the joy of the moment and going with it. By the way, in addition to people-watching, I love seeing the assortment of dogs, little and sometimes not little at all, which accompany Europeans to cafes and restaurants on a regular basis. I once saw an Irish wolfhound curled around its owner's feet at the Cafe De Jaren in Amsterdam - it was cool!

dovima, I know where you are coming from - had the best cups of coffee in my life in Amsterdam! But I was too busy dodging bikes to see what kind of dogs were chasing me. Those cute little marked paths by the street are for walkers, right?

<I've always thought 'people-watching' was a euphemism for resting the feet, or wool-gathering, or day-dreaming.>

And here I thought it was a euphemism for wanting a carafe of white wine!

Some of us don't need a euphemism for that..