stokebailey

Probably the reason people were friendly to hetismij in the US is we are suckers for English accents.

flanneruk

The friendliest people I've ever encountered were in a Palestinian refugee camp in Jordan.

The second friendliest were Afghan temporary refugees in North West Frontier Province, Pakistan.

Somehow I suspect other British or American visitors may have received a different reception. Which only goes to show how useless ratings like this are.

hetismij

Markosy, my only experience of Scots in Scotland is in Argyll and Bute and Glasgow. No problem there or with the seemingly endless number of Scots who I've met around the world.

Debi

I would add Senegal, Bolivia, Peru and Macedonia to the list.

AAFrequentFlyer

Afghanistan
Argentina
Peru
Costa Rica
Poland
Jamaica
Easter Island (Chile)
Thailand

L84SKY

Why don't they ask me these things???
Germany is high on my list.

Travelatty

Although the people in Ireland are very friendly, I found the people of Italy to be the friendliest. We were driving through Tuscany once and got totally lost. A truck driver at a gas station spent a long time giving us directions and he did not speak a word of English. Unfortunately we do not speak Italian. Between pictures, pointing and sign language, he gave us excellent directions. He made sure we understood before we left. We have met numerous people in Italy and all seem friendly (even in Naples!).

mr_go

Australia
Scotland
The Netherlands
Italy

Scotland (especially the Highlands) might be the only place on earth where the kindness almost started to bother me.

j_999_9

Someone mentioned Canada, and it made me think of the story about the planes that got grounded in New Foundland on 9/11, and how the residents took in all the passengers who couldn't get flights out.

Friends in Canada tell me the people from New Foundland are looked upon as being "different." But I guess they sure are friendly.

fnarf999

I've experienced extremes of friendliness and rudeness both in Scotland, within a mile and ten minutes of each other.

The English are not particularly friendly, except for the ones who are. Likewise, the French were extremely cold and standoffish, except for the ones who took us into their home and fed us.

The Australians, I have to say, were absolutely uniformly helpful and friendly to an almost bizarre degree.

travelinwifey

Ireland. Just feels like when people talk to you, they really talk to you. Paying attention to details with interest. I know some say the English are cold but I've never, ever felt that way, perhaps because I always have an "I love England" smile on my face

ann99bray

Ireland wins hands down!

Robert2533

I'm glad Ireland won. Did the "good old" USA even receive a mention?

tomassocroccante

Yes, Robert, they put USA in the top 5. Of course a lot of people find us obnoxiously friendly!

I won't name the nation, but I found the friendliest and nastiest people on the same trip = maybe the same day.

The friendly ones were a bunch of little kids - all boys, aged maybe 6-12, who were playing soccer in the road and one by one came over to see what my friend and I were doing. (Taking pictures of a wonderful historic ruin.) Before long they were all getting together to have us take their picture - a great one, with about 10 huge smiles.

Their opposites were a couple of old men whose visible contempt had nothing to do with us being American - for all they knew we were Germans, Swedes or Australians. It was deep, a kind of lifelong resentment that couldn't be defined, though it could be felt. Then again, maybe they were having a bad day.

Clifton

I think about friendliness based on random conversations I've had and not so much how nice I think waiters and other service people were. Just random people and memorable conversations. And thinking about it while comparing city to city, countryside to countryside.

Of the bits I've seen of Europe, which isn't saying much at just 6 countries (parts of countries, really), I'd agree that the friendliest I've experienced was Ireland. Australia is about equal in that respect.

In the world however, many places/cultures stand out as much more warm and extroverted than anyplace in Europe. Cambodia, in general, has been far and away the friendliest place we've been. So far. Thailand and Morocco both also exceedingly friendly (with Morocco getting a tad *too* friendly at times, with a need to regain a little personal space, lol)

Chris_England

Mr Fnarf.

I feel so let down. All the nice things you say about Blackpool and Scarorough and then you go and say we English are not particularly friendly (though you were kind enough to say "except the ones who are&quot

You could at least have said that Northerners are friendlier than Southerners !!!! Actually we aren't, we are just nosier, so we are more willing to start talking to a stranger.

We poor English are just shy - If you smile and say "hello", or just ask for directions, we are really nice !

flanneruk

"We poor English are just shy"

Well some poor (and some rich) English are shy. But mostly we just aren't very friendly, and fnarf (as so often) is right.

We're not unfriendly: most of us actually go out of our way to be truly helpful, and - except when bantering with other Britons or the rare other nationalities who understand Banter - are congentially incapable of being rude to strangers.

We just don't do gratuitous pestering of people, unnecessary smiling, unsolicited intrusion into other people's space or the sollipsistic assumption strangers want us to talk to them.

Aduchamp1

What is this fixation with friendly? Most people respond in kind when you are pleasant to them.

The only time we had trouble was with the Guatemala military and some Parisennes. We have visited almost thirty countries and rarely do we have a problem.

Susie50

I am a Canadian who has travelled extensively in the British Isles and Ireland. I have almost never met an unfriendly person. I think one's own demeanor generally determines how one is treated.

I would have to agree, though, that Ireland is really a special place. I once was stopped on the street by an old gentleman who just wanted to know if I was having a good time on my holiday --- now how did he know I was a tourist!!!

On a recent week in frantically busy central London, I was quite struck by how courteous and polite the locals are. Everyone waits their turn to board buses - no jostling. Never did I experience any sign of annoyance as I dragged my too-large suitcase down the sidewalk, slowing down pedestrians around me. If I were to do that in Toronto, I would probably get cursed at!!