The Top 10 Things Foreign Visitors Should Know About America

by Ryan Vagabundo

Even though we elect reality show hosts as president just to see what will happen and you stand a fair chance of getting randomly gunned down by some incel Nazi at any given time, about 80 million foreign tourists pack on into America every year and there's no sign of that number slowing down. The number increased steadily from 2011 to 2015, there was a very small dip in 2016 and 2017, then 2018 zoomed right back to 2015 levels.

America is a weird place, and not one to wander into unprepared. If I had to pick 10 top tips to give to a foreign tourist ... well, I actually did that, and here they are.

1) Traffic Doesn't Auto-Stop For You When You Wander Out Into The Road

Other countries are more civilized in their use of other-than-automotive means to get around, and I respect them for that. I really do wish America wasn't so car-addicted. Hell, if I had my fantasy world a horse would still be a viable means of transportation.

But anyway. One thing that never fails to amaze me is how tourists from other countries don't seem to bother to learn how crosswalk signals and right-of-way work here before visiting, and just casually stroll on out into really dangerous situations with seemingly no idea that they're risking their life.

I understand that customs are different, but you would think they would look at the mass of high-speed vehicles zooming along and be like "Y'know what, maybe just stepping in front of all that and hoping it stops for me isn't the best play here."

So here are the really important takeaways for my foreign friends to avoid becoming road knackwurst or le biftek du pavement.

First and most important - when you cross any street, look for these signs:

Which is which should be self explanatory. Wait for the walking stick figure to cross. These signs also usually have a little button at the intersection that you have to push to activate them.

If you're standing there with no traffic crossing, wondering why the little walking man hasn't come on yet ... look behind you to your right rather than just plunging across. There may be a left turn lane parallel to you that now has the right of way. This is the #1 thing I see foreign tourists almost get smeared by.

If the digital signs aren't present, you may have the right of way IF there is a crosswalk and some sort of a stop sign for oncoming traffic. Traffic is obligated to stop for you if you're in the road, but use common sense and proceed cautiously as drivers can be on their phones and such.

If there is no crosswalk ... technically, you still have the right of way at all times as a pedestrian, but it is considered extremely rude to just roll out into the road at some random point. Not only that, it's also quite dumb, as drivers will not be looking for you or expecting anyone to do that. If someone smears you while you're jaywalking, they will likely not be found at fault and at worst may have to pay some small fine. Not exactly a great incentive to put themselves at risk swerving to avoid you.

Jaywalking laws and enforcement also vary greatly from city to city in America, but they can be pretty bad. In San Francisco or New York, police ignore pretty much all jaywalking. In Las Vegas, however, you stand a very good chance of getting pounced on for a $200 ticket and the police are also allowed to send you to jail for a night for it at their discretion.

2) Google Maps Vastly Under-represents The Distance Between Some Destinations

American cities tend to be very spread out and some have very long blocks. What Google Maps makes look like a somewhat hearty but doable stroll may in actuality be a multi-mile death march through territory not really designed for pedestrians.

On that note, sidewalk coverage is another thing that varies greatly with each American city. The largest cities can be counted on to have them just about everywhere, but beyond that it's very hit or miss. They sometimes end abruptly, leaving you having to walk awkwardly on some "rockscaping" or even on a road shoulder for a long stretch.

3) We Have A Wide Variety Of Casual Greetings, But They All Mean The Same Thing

"How's it going?"

"How are you doing?"

"Hey, how are you?"

"What's up?"

"What's going on?"

"How you been?"

When used as a greeting, all of these things basically just mean "Hello." The expected response is another "hello" in return and not much more.

This is confusing for some cultures that don't use relatively elaborate questions in this way just to say hello. You might think an American wants you to go into detail on your personal life and circumstances, when they actually want exactly the opposite!

4) Public Transportation Is Pretty Bad

This is something that varies greatly from city to city, but in general don't expect American public transit to be adequate to get you around everywhere in the way it can be done in Europe and many other places.

You'll find some sort of trains, buses and shuttles nearly everywhere ... but they're usually slow and the coverage is limited. We also tend to not have much for overnight transit in most places; some cities shut their public transit down entirely as early as 8 or 9 PM.

5) The Cheap Chocolate Is Gonna Disappoint You

The food that you hear the most complaints about by far here is the chocolate.

America actually does have good chocolate; the thing is, it's not nearly as accessible as the crappy stuff.

The stuff that's sold everywhere - Hershey's, Cadbury, Reese's, Dove and so on - is much more solidified high fructose corn syrup or wax with refined sugar than it is cocoa.

A lot of this has to do with standards that are very lax compared to most of the rest of the world. American products can legally be labeled as chocolate with as little as 10% cocoa, 12% milk solids and 3% milk fat. Another factor is that the government here spends billions of dollars subsidizing refined sugar production for some reason, which is why you see it in absolutely everything.

Still, caveat emptor applies here. Alarm bells should be going off in your head when you can get two Hershey bars for $1 at Walmart. The cheap stuff that's seen in mass quantities everywhere you go shouldn't really surprise you when it turns out to be crappy. How else do you think they make money off of it?

6) Border Patrol Is A Quasi-Unregulated Police Force

Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) has extensive powers that other police forces in the country don't have, and they're authorized to operate within 100 miles of any border ... and international airports count as a "border" even if they're in the middle of the country.

The USA is supposedly the country that's all about freedom and personal privacy, but all of that goes right out the window when it comes to CBP. The agency is free to hold foreign tourists at the airport for hours and question them, and seize their phones and computers and go through them (and while you have the right to refuse to give up your password, they can hold you while they try to circumvent it or simply keep it and send you on your way). They can also deny non-residents entry for not answering questions.

So you might think that since you're not a bad guy, they have no reason to stop you and mess with you like this. Guess again. There are many trivial reasons that they stop and search people for all the time. Has a family member, no matter how far in the distant past, ever been a member of a group considered an enemy of the United States or a terrorist organization? Or got themselves on a "watch list" for some reason? Your name sounds like the name of a "person of interest" from your part of the world? Forgot that you left some food in a bag? Travel agency booked your trip and got your name or address a little wrong? Stopped in another country for only a day or two before traveling on to the US? CBP officer just arbitrarily decides they "don't like your attitude"? People are regularly detained and searched for all of these things and more.

Also, if you're going to Canada during your trip be aware that there are huge stretches of unmarked land along the border that you can just walk across. However, the US monitors all of this and CBP is petty as hell about incarcerating people that stray even a foot across the border. At best, if it's unintentional you're still looking at a couple weeks locked up while beautiful American bureaucracy works. If they think you did it intentionally for a thrill, they might pack you off to a detention center somewhere halfway across the country to sit for weeks before being deported.

7) Sales Tax Isn't Listed On Shelf Prices

In many other countries that have a sales tax, the price plus tax must be listed on the shelf. The US is one of the few where this isn't the case, leading to confusion and consternation on the part of many foreign travelers when they get to the register.

Sales tax is levied at the state level, not federal, so it changes depending on where you are. The county or city you are in can also sometimes add on a little extra. A handful of states have no sales tax: Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon. Everywhere else, it usually ranges from 6% to 9% in most places.

Some cities have a special "hotel tax" or "transient tax" that replaces the sales tax when you stay at a hotel. This is always higher than the local sales tax and can range up to 15% at most, but is usually around 10%.

8) Tipping Is Expected And Servers Get Upset If You Don't

America's tipping culture is complicated and strange. It basically only exists for the benefit of the restaurant industry; they get to charge lower prices because they can legally underpay servers, but that bill is passed on to the customer in the form of this unspoken, hidden fee you're just supposed to know about through cultural osmosis.

The servers don't care who this benefits or what the nuances of it are, though. They want their money, and if you're the one that's supposed to give it to them, they expect it from you. So tipping in America is basically just a hidden 10% to 20% tax on any meal that involves sitting down and being waited on.

About 20 or so years ago, it used to be that only servers at sit-down restaurants expected tips. That's because labor laws here allow tipped servers to be paid at a rate below half of the minimum wage.

However, eventually other customer service people (with regular salaries) got cheeky and just started putting out tip jars to see what would happen - first it was just baristas at coffee shops for a long while, but then it was mom-and-pop take-out restaurants, sandwich shops, ice cream shops, almost any place with a register.

This violates the covenant of tipping in a couple of ways. One, tipping is supposed to be compensation for wait staff who are making less than minimum wage. Two, it's supposed to happen AFTER the goods and service are provided and the amount is based on the quality of said goods and service - you're within your right to refuse to tip a server if they do a shit job or are offensive in some way.

But they just keep putting the jars out, and dumb-ass no-backbone-ass Americans keep stuffing money into them, so they'll just keep proliferating. Some of those places that have you pay through a tablet screen actually ask you to tip at the time you place your order, before you even sniff your food.

So, the deal is this - tip when you sit down to eat and a waitperson comes to your table, UNLESS they do a really crappy job. Give 10% to 20% depending on how good the experience was and how much you can afford. The jars you see at counters are totally optional, kinda something they really shouldn't be doing since it goes against the spirit of tipping so feel free to ignore them unless someone did something really exceptional for you.

9) American Public Restrooms Are Some Of The World's Worst

America leads the world in a number of categories, but public restrooms are definitely not one of them. It ain't India here, but it often ain't exactly civilized either.

You may come from a country in which you get full floor-to-ceiling stall walls for complete privacy, or even where restrooms are always one-at-a-time. And they are also kept clean through a combination of diligent staffing and people using them just generally not acting like animals.

You're gonna have to lower your expectations quite a bit while in America. Stalls are commonly built with huge gaps underneath them, and the walls and door barely above head level for the average man. And they're often filthy. Basically, the larger the city and the bigger the local homeless problem, the more messed up the bathroom is likely to be (and the harder it will be to find one you can use without having to buy something).

10) Liquor Laws Vary Greatly By State

The lone universal federal standard about alcohol here is that you have to be 21 to purchase and possess it. Aside from that, localities can vary quite a bit in their sales laws.

Most of the states have an overnight period in which alcohol cannot be sold at all. That period usually starts somewhere between 10 PM and 2 AM, and lasts until 6 or 7 AM. In these states, bars and clubs usually close down during this period, and 24 hour grocery stores will put a plastic sheet or something similar over their beer coolers or will physically block off alcohol aisles during that time.

Nevada is the only state that has 24/7 unrestricted alcohol sales. Alaska is almost 24 hours, stopping only from 5 AM to 8 AM, but spirits (hard liquor) can't be sold in grocery stores there. Miami / Dade County in Florida allows 24 hour alcohol sales, but the rest of the state of Florida doesn't.

Some states (such as Alabama and Arkansas) allow the sale of beer and wine 24/7, but not spirits - however, these states also often have a bunch of "dry counties" scattered around that forbid the sale of alcohol entirely within their borders (though you can bring it in from other counties).

Long story short: you have to look up the weird laws of each state / county / city you're in, unless you're in Nevada and then you can buy whatever you want anytime and anywhere.