Tourists

You certainly meet all sorts of people traveling. And it's easy to generalize about them. I'm not saying these are my observations necessarily, but Americans are often seen as being naive, loud, and badly educated in world affairs. These stereotypes I have to say do have a ring of truth to them...but then, that's how they came to be the stereotype. I'll also say Americans are usually always fun and easy-going, have money to spend and are willing to spend it.

Argentines are seen as being self-absorbed and preoccupied with sex. Germans: unfriendly and uptight. The Japanese...well, huge groups of them will seem to move as one organism oftentimes. But then it's inevitable that the Japanese are going to be a little more difficult to approach and shy when their language is so different from the Western languages...they just can't communicate with us oftentimes so they stick together in those tightly knit groups. Find a Japanese that speaks English and you can be sure that they'll be happy to talk to you. The French are viewed as being snobs and unfriendly to Americans, though I've never experienced this and have always enjoyed hanging out with French people, both in France and in other parts of the world. Australians: big drinkers, gregarious, and knowledgable about the world.

There a quite a large number of Israelis traveling down here. In fact, I meet far more Israelis than Americans on the road. A lot of them spend some time traveling after completing their obligatory military service. A couple of the hostels I have stayed at have been almost exclusively Israeli...they do seem to stick together, and those hostels were pretty good deals I have to say. Can´t say I find them especially fun or engaging (not to generalize an entire nation or anything) but I have learned quite a bit about Israel from them.

At any rate, I could go on and on about stereotypes and my observations of the people I've seen and met. I will say that I almost always have good experiences with the other tourists I meet. My view is that the attitude you give others is often reflected back at you. If you're cool with them, most all people are going to be cool with you, whether their French, Argentine, German, whatever.