American Reacts to Mistakes Tourists Make in the UK

When Americans vacation in the UK we typically have no idea what we are doing. Today I am very interested in learning about important mistakes to avoid as a tourist visiting the UK. If you enjoyed the video feel free to leave a comment, like, or subscribe for more!

[TheNoobilator]

I think the very first comment is a really important point to make - the UK is a lot physically smaller than, say, the USA. Yes, you could physically cover that distance in a week, but you have to remember how much more _dense_ the UK is with noteworthy things. In a country where for the majority of its existence, a horse was the fastest way around, things of note had to be built much closer together. By car, you can be less than half an hour away from a dozen things you might want to visit as a tourist, a solid third of those being castles! I stayed in a small town in Shropshire called Ludlow (well, in the hills just outside), and I couldn't even see everything I wanted to see _there_ in a week - Ludlow Castle was a whole day! I think people generally (although this is especially true of the USA, sorry to say) treat everything outside their borders as a theme-park or box-ticking exercise; like "ok, I've seen the Tower of London for 5 minutes, ok that's England ticked off!". As cheesy as it is, I'd say that the world is absolutely full of beauty and interest, and it deserves more of everyone's time than they give it.

[mrorinocobottle]

I'm 61 and have travelled around Britain extensively since I was 17, and I've not seen anywhere near all of it. This little country is like the Tardis...

[seanhickling]

The one that winds me up is having fish and chips at a pub and thinking you've had proper fish and chips. You haven't!
Proper fish and chips needs to come from an authentic British chippy (fish and chip shop) that is nowhere near a tourist area.

[johnrussell]

From the place I live in one county of the UK there are at least 50 places within 1 hour where you could spend a very interesting half a day: castles, walks, museums, historical and heritage attractions. The whole UK is thick with them. I have lived and travelled in the UK for 70+ years and I've visited probably only 50% of them.

[Petrelles]

When planning a car trip, you cannot ignore the fact that british roads are really busy. If you are travelling at weekends or during the school holidays, you might want to double the time it will take you .

[andybaker]

Americans have a habit of going to pubs to try "authentic fish and chips". That's a bit like going to a 'Spoons on curry night to get an authentic Indian! Always go to a fish and chip shop ("chippy" for short) if you want authentic, they're the experts.

[angelahawman]

My Mum & I went to Italy on a coach tour. We stopped at a small town on the Lakes. We got off the coach and walked into the town square. Mum spotted some workmen with hard hats and high vis on and she followed them. (A new side of my Mum perhaps?) She said let's see where they go for lunch. Sure enough the best pizza slices in town for one euro. Best tip ever. See where the locals go.

[IanDarley]

Those driving times were very optimistic. It was probably the evening here when you checked when the traffic had dispersed. It took my mother-in-law 11 hours from Exmoor to Southport a few months ago (about 250 miles). It takes nearly 2 hours each way to work for me to drive only 45 miles due to ridiculous traffic.

[scaraponine]

Yeah, the tube can often be the quickest way to get around in London but once you get really central, a tube ride of only a couple of stops or so can sometimes take longer than just walking there.

[twigletz]

It's almost an 8 hours drive from London to Edinburgh - and that's if there are no hold-ups due to accidents etc on the motorway.
I used to drive from the south coast to Lancashire to visit my mum. Just over 5 hours with no traffic issues, but its taken me up to 12 hours on more than one occasion!

[Iskandar]

Like a lot of people are saying, the UK maybe small but it is chock-a-block with interesting things to see or do. I have lived in London for 33 years now. There are many, (most?) parts of this city I have never visited, or even heard of. Let alone trying to visit all the attractions. London has over 200 Museums and exhibitions and over 240 theatres (not movie-theatres). Apply that to the whole country and you get the idea.

[Jon.Cullen]

There is a 1969 movie called "If it's Tuesday, it must be Belgium", a comedy about a group of American tourists on an 18 day coach trip around 8 countries in Europe. It just about sums it all up nicely.

[urbanshadow]

The UK is small but its not that small. I see a lot of tourists hiking up glen coe or the cairn gorms then getting lost, some of which dying from exposure. The weather in Scotland can turn within minutes and be deadly. Make sure you are prepared.

[corringhamdepot]

UK public transportation in the UK is organised around people commuting to work and shopping during the day in town. Arrive at a town in the evening and you could be waiting hours for the next bus.

[matshjalmarsson]

Heck, first time I travelled the UK, it was for two weeks, the next year I came back for one month.
And I barely managed to scratch the surface.
But I think it's the same for all countries

[PlayingwithD]

If you are a history buff, like me then you could spend 20 years over there and still not see everything. They got 1000 years head start on us for history.

[JoannDavi]

Tyler: "I haven't seen all that much [of the UK]."
That statement applies to your experience of America, too.

[jonntischnabel]

They think that because say, Manchester, is 200 miles from London, and in the US, they can jump in a car, and get on a massive, straight, empty road, that the same applies here. Then they realise that there are 70 million people living on an island that's about 5 percent the size of the USA, and driving that distance takes about 9 hours, and they're completely and utterly exhausted after being in bumper to bumper traffic all day, when they could have got on a train that did the journey in under 2 hours but "public transport" just isn't in. Their brain because they live in the "land of the free". 😂

[helenroberts]

We drive from North Wales to my sister in Cornwall and it takes a full day driving. You’ll be too tired to look around anywhere and enjoy it. You’d need a place to stay overnight. I live in a semi rural area and usually buses are good but I wouldn’t bother at night.

[corringhamdepot]

I have seen Americans who thought that they could do Europe in a week. Just ticking off capital cities on their Bingo card.