Overseas tourists have applauded Scotland for its friendly locals, saying that regardless of whether they were in “big cities” or “tiny towns”, there was always someone on hand to help. The comments were made in a Reddit forum asking for opinions on the “European country” with the “friendliest locals”.
From Glasgow to the Highlands, previous overseas visitors to the nation were quick to share their experiences, saying the people made their time in Scotland “amazing”.
The tourist comments perhaps come as no surprise, with Scotland’s Perthshire having topped a Booking.com list of the world’s “most welcoming” regions earlier this year. In 2022, readers of CN Traveller voted Glasgow as the “friendliest city in the UK”.
Having arrived firstly in Glasgow, one visitor from Argentina shared their experience in the Reddit forum, saying the stay was “next level” thanks to the warmth of the people they met along the way.
“My stay in Scotland was just next level,” wrote the tourist. “We arrived on a snowy night to a pub in Glasgow, asked for some food and the girl behind the bar said the kitchen’s closed. We started to looking at our phones for a nearby spot and upon noticing that, the girl behind the bar got out of the bar, approached us and drew a map on a napkin with directions to a nearby restaurant she liked.
“At a cafe, my credit card wasn’t working and we were out of pounds, so when I said sorry to the barista and mentioned we’d have to leave the coffee, she just told us not to worry and take the coffee with us anyway.
“On our departing day, we went somewhere for breakfast with our bags, and the owner said a huge snowstorm was likely to close the airport. During our stay at his restaurant, he kept giving us updates of the situation.
“Many times we were asked by locals if we needed directions upon noticing us looking at our maps in our phones.” [SIC]
But it wasn’t just the southwest city that received a shoutout. People in Edinburgh are also known for their friendliness, despite it being the capital city.
“Our experience in Edinburgh was amazing,” commented a tourist. “One guy offered to help us because he saw we were looking at our phones confused.”
They continued: “We wanted to get a ride with a bus but apparently you weren’t allowed to pay two consecutive tickets with the same credit card so we wanted to get off and find an ATM to withdraw money, one guy saw our struggle and casually paid with his credit card for my ticket while getting off the bus.” [SIC]
Earlier this year, a study by LNER named Edinburgh the fifth “friendliest” city in the UK – the highest-scoring Scottish destination on the top 10 list.