AtlTravelr

KayF- I live in Atlanta and LOVE visiting Europe, especially the UK. I found your post very interesting - your observations about Americans.

Air Conditioning - here in Atlanta I know to bring a sweater to movie theatres, restaurants & office building during the summer. We keep our own house fairly cool and I'll admit to looking for hotels with A/C in some European cities - but it is a little crazy that I need to wear long sleeves in the summer!

Obesity - I made a comment to my husband on the number of NON-Obese people we saw this last March when we visited Starsbourg. I would have thought with all the ham, potatoes, cream, etc. that I would have seen more overweight people.

Friendlieness - Very friendly people here, especially in the South!

Cracker Barrel - it is my favorite road trip restaurant.

Charleston - definitely my favorite city in the South. You saw a real gem.

Thanks for the posting!

leavingsoon

I doubt KayF is ever returning, but I would like to say one thing.

If I returned from Australia and wrote a trip report that consisted of my "observations of how different life can be" and noted that everyone drank excessively at every spare moment, that men fought in the streets with sticks and that most were ignorant of or intolerant of people of other races or ethnicities, and that often I could only find fatty fish and chips and no fresh seafood mere meters from the ocean, then I would consider my observations rude and uncalled for, even if other Australians said they also felt the same way.

It's just sort of unnecessary and condescending.

Pegontheroad

I think some of us get our feelings hurt very easily.

Interesting comments.

Our obesity rates have about doubled in the past ten years. Southern states have among the highest obesity rates, but other areas also have high rates.

I don't generally eat at fast food places, but when I was visiting in California a while ago, I went into a non-chain fast food place for a pastrami sandwich, and as I waited, I thought, "My gosh, every single person in here is obese!" There's a clue there, right?

I agree about the air conditioning. I often take a sweater or wrap when I'm going into a restaurant and always when I go to a movie.

I have often noticed how small the rooms are in European hotels--especially for a single. Even when I'm paying plenty of bucks, the room is usually about half the size of a double.

As to not finding bookstores, I think people who read a lot know where the bookstores are. I certainly know where they are in my town. We also also have many used book stores, which I don't often find in Europe. In a university city like Tübingen, Germany, I couldn't find one used bookstore that sold ordinary books, though I think I saw a couple that sold rare books.

In supermarkets there's usually an aisle with racks of books and magazines.

You just have to wonder about the nose blowing sign, don't you? I think my favorite sign is by the Columbia River Gorge, near Vantage, Washington. It simply says, "Rattlesnakes."

KayF

OK, interesting to read all your comments. I’m sorry if I touched a nerve with some people, this is my opinion – and my husband’s – and that’s not likely to change just because it upsets some people. As I said, we love America and are planning on returning so it’s not like any of the negatives have put us off. Indeed, there are many more positive aspects of visiting your country. You surely don’t expect all trip reports to be 100% positive, that’s a bit unrealistic.

My time on the Fodors board has been severely limited lately, mainly because we're in a new flat and haven't had any internet connection for quite a while.

So to those of you who wanted to know what else we did, here goes:

We visited a chain we had not heard of before – Panera Bread – a few times on the trip for lunch. Soup and rolls, that type of thing. Very nice and reasonable prices.

Drove around Jekyll Island and had a walk to see where some of the wealthy industrialists of the last century had their summer “cottages”. The island had a quiet, peaceful atmosphere. Also visited St Simons island but thought there didn’t seem to be much there.

We enjoyed our stay at the Palmer’s Pinckney Inn in Charleston. It was very centrally located and Cindy, the manager, was great, really friendly and she baked muffins and brownies for the guests. Breakfast was a help yourself affair in the kitchen. Our room was lovely with a really comfy bed. We’d definitely stay there again. Lots of good places to eat in Charleston, we liked Cru Café, which was opposite the inn we stayed at, really enjoyed our meal and drinks at Fleet Landing by the water. Also had a good meal at A.W.Shucks, a short walk from the inn.

We enjoyed the covered market in Charleston, though didn’t buy anything, other than lunch in a little café in the market. We did a 2 hour walking tour which was advertised at the tourist office. Our guide Ruth was great, interesting and informative and we really enjoyed the walk. We also saw a movie on Charleston’s history at the tourist office, 2 dollars each.

We did a tour of the Edmonston-Alston house for 10 dollars each. It was OK, a bit rushed and we didn’t see a lot. We’ve been on other house tours in the south, such as in Natchez, that were better.

The weather in Charleston was very cold when we were there in March. I think they had a cold snap. We actually ended up wearing all our warm weather gear from the UK one day, scarf and gloves and all. Luckily it warmed up as we headed back south.

We did quite a bit of shopping in the malls. We found things to be quite cheap, partly because there were some great sales and partly due to the good exchange rate with the pound.

Had a stroll around Beaufort as we headed south, such a pretty place. The sun had come out and there were lots of people about, walking their dogs or just sitting in the sun having coffee.

Made our way to Savannah and the Zeigler Inn which was lovely. It was in a beautiful tree lined street and a short walk into the centre of town. We were a little disappointed at first with Savannah, I think it’s perhaps a city that grows on you. We loved the pretty squares with the massive live oaks and azaleas in bloom. Our room at the Zeigler Inn was self contained, with small kitchen area and lots of home baked goods, made by the owner, Jackie. It was comfortable and very well equipped, our only quibble was that it was right on the street so not very private and a little dark inside.

We ate at the Planter’s Tavern which was OK. We enjoyed a nice afternoon tea at the Gryphon Tearoom and then walked down to Forsyth Park which was really lovely. The fountain there is gorgeous. I had read a lot on how unsafe Savannah is, how you shouldn’t walk around at night etc. Well I have to say we never felt unsafe, we walked everywhere and didn’t see anything at all that would worry us.

We went on another guided walk, this time with a guide who was legally blind but certainly knew his town well. The walk mainly centred on the squares and the history of Savannah. We walked by ourselves down to the river and had lunch down there. I thought it was disappointing, full of commercial shipping traffic and not attractive at all.

Heading south, we detoured to Amelia Island and had a picnic lunch at Fernandina Beach, getting bitten by tiny bugs. We ate quickly and moved on! I got quite a few nasty, itchy bites while we were in the south, they took a few weeks to totally disappear.

We thought St Augustine was nice but a bit ‘Disneyfied’. There wasn’t much that looked genuine and unrestored. Still, we enjoyed our time there, my husband visited the fort and we walked around and looked at the old buildings. We drove out to the lighthouse and climbed to the top for views all over the coastal area, then on to a great restaurant, Saltwater Cowboys which was full of atmosphere.

Stopped for a picnic lunch at New Smyrna Beach where you can pay to park on the beach. This seemed a strange thing to do so we parked (for free) in the carpark and enjoyed the fresh air and views of the sea.

We had trouble finding a hotel in Orlando, to our surprise. There seem to be a million hotels but it was obviously a busy time. We were told they were not taking any coupons, which we had hoped to use to save some money. We went to 3 or 4 hotels near Universal Studios, they were either full or too expensive, and ended up at the Best Western. I think it would have been cheaper to prebook this part of the trip but we weren’t sure how many nights we wanted in each place or exactly what we wanted to do.

We walked across to Universal Citywalk for dinner which was only about a 15 min walk but hardly anyone was walking, it’s designed for cars. Really enjoyed it, it was bigger and better than I expected. Had a great meal at an Italian restaurant.

Kay

beach_dweller

KayF,

thanks very much for posting your comments--ALL of your comments. I think you're right on the money with your general observations in your original post. And I think it was appropriate to point out interesting differences between the America you saw and the UK, whether they were positive or negative.

Come on fellow Americans! Part of our problem is we don't want to know how others perceive us. Are we so certain we can judge ourselves with 100% accuracy that we don't need to listen to what other peoples and other countries have to say?

Pegontheroad

One thing Kay mentioned that bothers me is when I see obese children and young people. I think it's a shame that they don't have the opportunity to experience life at a normal weight. They miss so much.

TeaLoverDenise

Kay,

So glad you liked Charleston. I live and work here and am married to a Brit from Chelsea. His observations mirror yours.

I must admit, I've not seen the "No Nose Blowing" sign - do you recall where it was?

Next time you're back, take a ride up to Summerville for a lovely Afternoon Tea at The Woodlands.

Cheers!

KayF

Hi Denise,
the sign was at the Waterfront Park. It was a large painted sign standing on the ground. My husband actually took a photo as we stood there, looking gobsmacked.

There was a list of things that were apparently forbidden and that included "no spitting or nose blowing". I can understand about the spitting but nose blowing? Surely into a clean hanky, that should be allowed

It also says you are not permitted in the park if you have a communicable disease so if you have a cold AND you are going to blow your nose, you are definitely banned!

Very very strange.

Kay

marilynl

These types of list/generalizations are always very interesting to read, but can be easily skewed. For example, here are a few observations that I could offer after a short trip to London in March:

--The heating was a problem. We had to switch off the heat in our hotel room entirely, and also had several near-misses with the heated towel bar. Why does everything have to be so HOT?

--There were very few people who appear to NOT be tourists/foreigners--this seems equally odd as not seeing MANY tourists. (Also, I find it hard to believe that you saw few foreign tourists in Orlando, a place that I admittedly have never willingly gone.)

--Judging by the INCESSANT television coverage, the English are obsessed with serial killers and sex crimes. Maybe American have shorter attention spans, but the kind of blanket coverage that seemed the order of the day on the Surrey strangler being sentenced seemed very odd to me, who is used to short, snappier coverage on many more topics in my evening newscast.

--Who is that drinking all the wine in all the restaurants and cafes? How do they get anything done in the afternoon?

--Why ISN'T there more obesity, given that tea seems to be an extra, or fourth meal? If not, which one are you supposed to skip?

Finally, CRACKER BARREL?? That one stumps me. To me it is on a par with Waffle House in terms of food quality.