Definitely Scotland. They are antithesis to the English. Super friendly and welcoming. I have been around a lot in Europe never have I been struck by the German nature after I returned from Scotland.
this post was submitted on 03 Apr 2025
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Most friendly: Namibia probably.
Least friendly: UK.
Some context: Live in Scandinavia, and been in all those countries. Other countries I've been to: Chile, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium (technically, walked across the border from Netherlands), Austria, South Africa, Zambia, Kazakstan.
You thought the UK was less friendly than the Netherlands??? Did you only visit London?
No, met up with some friends living in Birmingham.
French Polynesia. Genuinely the kindest and most down to earth people on the planet. My husband and I had the most amazing and hospitable experience there staying in a detached room (treehouse style) with a local family. The locals are so friendly - we were given food, helped with getting a rental car (they even gave us a ride there and spoke with the guy behind the counter), told of all the best places to explore, taken to the farmer's market, and so much more. We were treated like visiting relatives.
For that to be really interesting you should state your own nationality.
for me American
Canada for sure, but I have friends there
Japan, China and the UK were the friendliest I've been so far. I'm German.
Where did you visit in the UK?
Because I live here and I disagree. If it was London (as it usually is) then I'm really going to laugh.
Aside from London (where I didn't really talk to anyone but my sister who lives there), I spent 2 weeks traveling solo by train around England, staying in Bath, Shrewsbury, York and Scarborough and visiting some of the surrounding towns and villages. I'm sure it helped that it's a country where I have a good grasp of the local language unlike, say, Italy, where I could barely make myself understood. But I had lots of random friendly conversations with strangers in the UK and no negative experiences at all. Way more friendly than the average German for sure.
Big-city people are generally less friendly, so I do believe you that it's a different matter for London. It's the same for e.g. Tokyo, where people are way more cold than in the rest of Japan. And I guess you get a different perspective as a local than as a visitor. Several people in this thread have mentioned Germany, which does surprise me as a German.
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China, Taiwan, and just EA Chinese people in general are beyond nice. This past trip made me see how straight forward and warm hearted they really are and such strong family values.
Philippines
I live in the US and have been to Canada, Mexico, Ireland and Germany.
Only one of these places have I ever been randomly called a faggot from a moving vehicle while just minding my own business on more than one occasion, and it wasn't any of the countries I don't live in.
Honestly surprised it wasn't Germany, as a German
I'm Aussie. For me friendliest countries probably Taiwan, Ukraine and Canada
For me it's actually Australia. Except on Australia day, that was weird as fuck to be honest.
Mexico, but we were in a touristy area so kinda expected. But naturally nice was St. Thomas. Virgin Island people in general except Jamaica. I haven't experienced a "rude boy" sorta speak, but has friends in Florida from there that warned me to be wary of any Jamaican outside of the tourist spots.
Syria
Sudan, definitely. (And I've visited well over 50 countries.)
Oman, is the friendliest country I have been to in the Middle East.
I don't know how to parse this question and it makes me wonder about humanity at large.
Like, what's "being friendly" when assessing entire countries? How do you measure it? Does it apply just to strangers or is it related to having friends there? Does this require you not finding that unsolicited conversation is borderline assault? Because I'm afraid I can't do that. Is it an institutional thing? I almost got deported from Canada once, so from that baseline I'm pretty sure I couldn't agree with a lot of responses below.
Does this require you not finding that unsolicited conversation is borderline assault? Because I'm afraid I can't do that.
Are you serious?
I am slightly facetious and mildly hyperbolic.
But yes, I absolutely hate strangers forcing conversation on me. I find few things more grating and hostile than landing in a foreign country horrendously jet lagged and having a "friendly" cabbie try to extract my life story from me while telling me about their mortgage payments or whatever.
I once had someone in the US just sit at our bar table unprompted and strike up a conversation and I saw my life flash before my eyes. That's what psycopaths do. It's like getting punched right in your social anxiety with spiky brass knuckles.
Now that you explain it I understand and actually agree in some situations like your taxi example.
However, once I’m out doing tourist things I want to meet locals and other travelers and share stories, tips, or local lore. Meeting people in this way has allowed me to discover new places that or perspectives that I would never experience otherwise.
To each their own I suppose.
You can meet people online, I would be very wary as a tourist, most folks will only talk back if they get value from it, like assault, robbery or your blood🦇
You are too paranoid. I have been traveling internationally for the past 3 years and have never experienced any danger. Most of the time I travel alone.
Or maybe we are just different kinds of people and thus get treated differently. Maybe if I was a cishet euro dude I wouldn't worry about it either.
cishet euro dude
Is that what you have classified me as?
Assume less.
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