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flatulating_ninja@reddit

I lived in the Outer Banks for 10 years. Its busy Memorial - Labor day but when I first moved there most stores closed at 5-6 the rest of the year if they opened at all. That included the only grocery store in Corolla until they built the second one. If I needed groceries after 5pm I had to drive 20 miles to Kitty Hawk.

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AKBud@reddit

They are called “SideWALKS” not SideSTANDS ! Step out of the flow to take your pic, Talk to your grandkids back home, Argue about_?? , Or anything that does not involve forward movement.

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someofyourbeeswaxx@reddit

I like it, but I live in the woods and only go into town for errands in the summer, so it’s easy to plan around traffic. The people are cool, we (used to) get lots of Canadians.

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lie-berry@reddit

People forget that in the off-season, it’s a depressed ghost town.

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Miserable_Smoke@reddit

Don't expect sunny skies in June, in LA.

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SideEmbarrassed1611@reddit

Do you know how annoying it is to be having a good night eating dinner with your family and some jerk off is complaining about the wait......in the middle of the July 4th weekend......in Panama City Beach......at the best restaurant in town.....?

Dude, you're not getting your table within an hour, and you are not getting your food within an hour, and dude you are not the King of Florida.

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Ok-Truck-5526@reddit

Nothing that irks me is tourists not respecting our agricultural base in our area, where beaches turn into farmland. People will move here, then try to ban farm animals, pass noise ordinances against farm equipment, bitch about noisy/ smelly livestock. The farmers are the ones who protect our ecosystems and keep the area from turning into one giant subdivision. The city people can pound sand. Nothing the beach.

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YellojD@reddit

Hate it, thanks.

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QueenInYellowLace@reddit

Lived in Santa Barbara right on the beach for several years. The best time to go to the beach is at night in winter. It’s empty, it’s dark, all you can hear is the waves. Wear and sweatshirt and take a warm blanket. Sit in the sand and just listen to the ocean.

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TheKiddIncident@reddit

I live in a tourist town and it's fine as long as you go with the flow.

I definitely have neighbors who really don't like the tourists and get all bent out of shape constantly. I honestly don't understand why they get so upset.

The reality is that for small towns like ours, tourism keeps us alive. There are many small towns nearby that are essentially dead. No stores, no restaurants, nothing going on in town.

What I do is to make sure I'm aware of the season and I do the opposite of what tourists do. If a big holiday weekend is coming up, I am usually down away from the tourist areas. On the other hand, a random Wednesday in April is a great time to hang out in our little town, nobody will be there.

So, yes, you need to adapt yourself and it can be annoying that you have to plan your life around tourists, but the upside is that we have a vibrant, healthy town with jobs and businesses. I'm OK with that.

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nowhereman136@reddit

Not bad aside from the traffic

I thoroughly believe that people drive with an "accent". When it's just people from the same place all driving together, it jells. When it's a mix of different people from all over the place, all with their own driving style, it's chaotic. This is why whenever you see a bad driver, they are from another state

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themcp@reddit

Because of that, driving in Florida around the tourist areas is hellish - you get people from all over the planet who are just there to take their kids to Disney and make the road hell in between.

I've found that when I am the dang furner and I'm driving in a city full of people who all drive the same way, it depends on how my driving style fits with theirs. I find Atlanta a bit unnerving to drive in because everybody tailgates, and Philadelphia was outright terrifying - only time I've ever had to pull off the highway and collect myself just so I could stand to drive for another 15 minutes to the airport without having a nervous breakdown.

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shelwood46@reddit

I can tell the non-locals here in the Poconos by the way on the back roads, they cross all the way into the other (oncoming traffic) lane on curves, and also they are going 20 mph with their brights on 24/7.

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us287@reddit

I don’t live in a tourist destination, but I do live in a transplant destination, and absolutely agree. Out-of-state plates (new transplants and people visiting family) are often the worst drivers - but it’s not even that they drive bad, but just don’t know the unwritten norms of driving in the area.

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DownVegasBlvd@reddit

I can get on board with this logic. So many transplants here and drivers are off their rockers.

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CommandAlternative10@reddit

Grew up right next to a very popular tourist beach town. Didn’t go there that often, parking is always terrible. People don’t always realize that there is a second main street where all the locals go, everyone basically avoids the main drag along the water with all the tourists.

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ThrowawayMod1989@reddit

That “second main street” is so accurate though. Shout out to Turner Street/Middle Lane in Beaufort. Tourists go to Clawson’s and Finz. Locals go to The Royal James and Backstreet Pub.

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themcp@reddit

Here in Boston all the locals go to the Bull and Finch Pub, because it was the one in the photos for Cheers. Locals never go there - I've lived here 35 years, and I've never been inside. We go pretty much anywhere else.

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PotsdamDefamation@reddit (OP)

I grew up in Charleston SC and its really neat how a sort of "parallel society" develops between locals and tourists. Every local would know of some secret spots, such as beaches or restaurants or bars where you could avoid the massive crowds and only locals would congregate at.

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elunabee@reddit

Fortune teller in New Orleans and I vibed and he ended up giving me a list of all the local bars that the bartenders for the touristy areas go to. I never felt more cool or "in" in my life, but no way in hell would I actually show up. Everything about me screams tourist.

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themcp@reddit

When I was a kid, we used to go to NYC once a month. My father taught me not to look like a tourist so we wouldn't have to deal with people trying to scam or rob us. I can go pretty much anywhere and unless I stand out because of my ethnicity, I can look like a local.

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ian2121@reddit

My sister always takes us out to a mediocre restaurant when we visit her in her tourist town. Can get a table in less than 15 minutes

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dixpourcentmerci@reddit

Reminds me of one time in Nice, France— there were two restaurants next door to each other. One had a line out the door while the other was empty. We were hungry so we went for the empty one. The food was serviceable, nothing special but perfectly fine. However the waiter stood ten feet away and stared at us The Entire Meal. I’m sure he felt he was offering good service and it’s true he was prompt but…..wow.

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dr_trousers@reddit

Take the first left over the bridge on folly, drive post the po, and you'll save yourself a ton of time on a sat in the summer

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SnarkCatsTech@reddit

Same. Charleston native. Getting to the beach at Edisto & the beach at IOP take the same amount of time now from the 'burbs. The difference is the former has a mostly-scenic drive and you're moving the whole time, while the latter requires you to sit in miles of traffic.

We left the state this year. All done. 😎

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shits-n-gigs@reddit

North Naples Country Club if in southwest florida

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themcp@reddit

Boston.

I used to work in the building right next to one of the major tourist things. Like, the kitchen window overlooked Quincy Market. (It used to be the #2 tourist attraction in America, second to Disney World. The tourists would stay a much shorter time because it's pretty small, so the daily turnover of people is huge.) Sometimes I'd be at McDonalds grabbing lunch and the guy in front of me would be dressed up in costume with a tri-cornered hat.

Being one block away from it, sometimes groups of drunk tourists would make their way over to the street with my office and accost me while I'm just trying to walk back to my office with my sandwich from the sandwich shop a few doors up the street, and demand I say "park the car in Harvard Yard." Like, full on block the sidewalk in front of me and refuse to let me though until I say it.

In my normal accent, that sounds like "park the car in Harvard Yard." I don't have the Boston accent they are looking for, I sound too educated. However, I got kinda irritated with drunk tourists thinking I'm there just for their amusement, and I've lived here long enough that I can turn on the accent when I want to, so I'd say "whaa, chafuct? ya kaaaaent pahk in hahvahd yahd, hahvahd yahd's not a kah pahk" and brush by them, them having forgotten to keep blocking me in their confusion. None of them ever realized I'd just insulted them before I disappeared, they were too busy trying to figure out what I'd said.

So the moral of this story is that when you live in a touristy area, tourists don't conceptualize that you're just a person with a life of your own, not there for their amusement.

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capsrock02@reddit

Love the city, hate the tourists.

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kea1981@reddit

I grew up in one of those places. Millions of people the world over would give up everything in a second to lead the life I do. I know it, and appreciate every second. The lows are rough: low paying jobs, high cost of living, perpetual turnover of friends and coworkers as they return to "normal". But the highs? My office has a view worth millions. I'm a five minute walk from one of the lost recognizable tourist destinations within 1000 miles. My part time job is to work somewhere people pay thousands of dollars to visit for just a few hours...

There are definite trade offs, but I think I picked the right choice for me.

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MrLongWalk@reddit

I used to live in one, tourists forget that the locals have lives and aren’t just characters there to amuse visitors.

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Figgler@reddit

This is a huge one. I know you’re marveling at the beauty but I’m late to pick up my kid, so please stop driving 15mph under the speed limit.

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seattlemh@reddit

I lived in Durango for quite a while. There's definitely some tension with tourists and locals.

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Gun_Dork@reddit

Durango is really beautiful, but I 100% passed people on the million dollar highway going way too slow because there’s no rail.

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ThrowawayMod1989@reddit

Same. In the NC mountains it’s always Florida plates. In southwest CO it’s always Texas.

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MrLongWalk@reddit

It’s really cool that you find my town quaint and charming but it’s a real place people live, we’re not just here for the vibes.

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MichigaCur@reddit

Guys shooting off fireworks at 4 am... Or having party on the beach all night. Dude I gotta work in the morning, knock it off.

Guy walking through the woods ignoring 400 private property signs and two fences, arguing he's on state property... No no people actually live here

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DontRunReds@reddit

I noticed some of the owners of companies that appreciate overtourism get all mad when the rest of us don't behave like clapping seals. I'm not being paid by tourism and I'm beyond annoyed the last few summers. Expect some civil disobedience.

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TXPersonified@reddit

We only have good weather two months a year which is our festival season. Then people move here and find out summer is basically 8 months of which 3 of those are better described as hell than summer

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didyouaccountfordust@reddit

This year will be nice. No tourists in this trade war/economy can afford or are willing to come to the U.S. to travel . Why worry about fascism and guns in the U.S. when they could travel to billions of other beautiful places with thinner, happier, friendlier people ?

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NaturalFLNative@reddit

People often don't think about how freaking miserable it is here in August and September. How many people have heatstrokes and heart attacks because of it.

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switchbreed@reddit

My 20 minutes commute becomes 30-40 minutes 😩 but I do appreciate the tourists non the less. We need em.

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bobolly@reddit

The noise

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dararie@reddit

I grew up in a beach town in NJ It was great until I started working in my teens. Then it just got annoying. It got really bad when I lived at home in my 20’s and was working full time in another town. People hogging 2 spaces because they don’t know how to park, being unable to sleep because of the drunks etc. I moved to the mainland in my 30’s and only went back to visit my parents. Now that they are gone, I have no intention of ever going back. It’s not the town I was raised in, houses cost millions and the town is now filled with even more entitled ahols

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wawa2022@reddit

Dc here. I don’t mind tourists. They pretty much stick to the National mall and can be avoided as needed. I do frequent all the museums, but I just go on less crowded days or times. I don’t mind when they block the sidewalks and I like to help them find their way.

It only bothers me when they block bike lanes.

I would probably get more annoyed if I had to go to work, but I’m retired so I don’t really rage at others anymore

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MeowMobile999@reddit

Gettysburg. I love it. I love that people want to come here and experience this spot on earth. Whether they are serious history people, or "just tourists," I love all the activity in my home town.

People don't think about how many people live here who are locals who don't really ever think about, or much care about, the battle. I live in the heart of the battlefield, and none of my neighbors give a crap about the Civil War. It's wild.

Love everything about living here.

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basshed8@reddit

It’s better now that 99% of the locals have surrendered and left and the town is 99% vacation and Airbnb

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wizardyourlifeforce@reddit

I used to live in South Beach. I liked it.

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tsukiii@reddit

San Diego is fairly popular as a beach location - the kind of nice thing though is that some of our best weather is after the main tourist season. Going to the beach in September and October is great, I’ve heard it called “Locals’ summer” lol.

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morganproctor_19@reddit

Yep, same thing in San Francisco and the North Coast.

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lpm_306@reddit

We literally just moved out of one of the most famous beach tourist towns in the country (Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA) because it's AWFUL to live in a tourist town. Traffic is horrible and tourists are always getting lost & don't know any of the roads so they're constantly making dangerous and illegal u-turns. The number of huge events keeps increasing (car week/Concourse d'Elegance, golf tournaments/AT&T ProAm, etc) plus the huge wine industry & just overall popularity of the area is driving up the cost of housing even higher than it already was. The wealthy tech bros from Silicon Valley all have vacation homes there so home prices are sky high too. Another thing I disliked was the fact that tourists often don't read warning signs & get themselves stranded out on the rocks when the tide comes in, causing our first responders to come save them, which is a strain on our resources.

I know there are a lot of positives to living in such a beautiful area, but my introverted self couldn't be any happier now that we live on a 250 acre ranch in the middle of nowhere. I like being surrounded by animals, not humans.

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morganproctor_19@reddit

I hear you on the part about tourists ignoring warning signs. I am up in Eureka in Humboldt County and people harass the elk up at Redwoods NP and several tourists die each year because they don't obey the signs about sneaker waves. Oh, and a lot drive their $$$ cars on the beach and leave them there(!!) when the cars get stuck at high tide.

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Hikinghawk@reddit

I don't know if it's because I work with tourists directly, but I really can't stand half of them. It's not them visiting, or crowds, but the bone headed decisions they make. It's like the second they go on vacation people think they get some sort of diplomatic immunity from laws and common sense.

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morganproctor_19@reddit

I used to work at Disneyland and saw that same effect. We'd joke that guests checked their brains at the gate.

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Meilingcrusader@reddit

It's fun when they visit in summer. Much more lively, it's so quiet the rest of the year. Then I have to sit in grueling traffic and I feel differently. Also bro why are our houses so expensive, you guys should just stay at a hotel or rental property instead of buying summer homes you spend a couple weeks a year in

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morganproctor_19@reddit

They don't realize how awful access to quality health care is when they fantasize about living here. Decent hospitals are minimum 3 hours away.

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RemaiKebek@reddit

How rude and entitled so many tourists are. It’s shocking how people act.

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atlasisgold@reddit

I grew up in a major summer tourist town. I liked it. Brought life to town. Winter was fucking depressing and the town felt abandoned

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Existing-Teaching-34@reddit

It’s awesome! Those tourists are why we don’t have a state income tax.

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Yeegis@reddit

These people need to remember they are on a HIGHWAY and not the Oregon trail. Just because there are trees around you doesn’t mean you’re in wild untamed wilderness

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geri73@reddit

It's great until it's a sports event, convention, concert, or summer.

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alwaysboopthesnoot@reddit

It’s good, for most of the year. We have it mostly to ourselves and customers if some year round businesses. Not much traffic. It’s beautiful and peaceful here.

But people, please: stop littering the beaches, parks and trails with your cigarette butts, beer bottles, and other discarded crap. And, clean up after your kids and your dogs and your immature, messy spouses. Some of ya’ll are filthy animals with parents who didn’t love you and who never told you, “no”. And it really, really shows.

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Apprehensive-Ant2141@reddit

New Orleanian here. I love my city and I love that people come to enjoy it too, but please remember this is your vacation while this is our daily life. To make it worse, I work in the French Quarter so I’m constantly dodging people just standing around admiring the sights.

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MartyPhelps@reddit

It's great. I love it in the winter when there are few people around but the sea is still there, it's very quiet and peaceful.

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ThatOceanAngel@reddit

I live in Florida and work as an ocean rescue lifeguard. The tourists are usually quite rude and can’t swim, but act like they can.

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Char_siu_for_you@reddit

I don’t live in a town, I live in a national park, until the current administration fires me at least. The closest grocery store, doctor, dentist, drivers license office, polling place, mechanic, hardware store and whatever else you need is 80 miles away. In winter, 30 miles of that is on a snowmobile. That’s just to get to a small town of 10,000 where a lot of the residents hate federal employees. The “big city” is another hour drive from there. Because I live where I work, I’m always at work. I can’t walk my dog without someone trying to talk to me about work. My neighbors are my coworkers so everyone knows everyone else’s business. The fact that my boss’s wife is a gossip doesn’t help either. I’ve been here 9 years, serving an increasingly unappreciative, entitled public and it’s getting old.

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effulgentelephant@reddit

I’ve lived in Orlando, Myrtle beach, and Boston. All touristy for their own reasons. I always enjoy that there’s pretty much always something to do, there’s a major airport, and specifically in Boston, there’s a lot to do outside of town as well (hiking, beach is close, cycling, etc). Traffic and finding parking is a huge pain in the ass, so Boston wins for me in that regard, as well, given that it has any sort of public transit (Orlando does too, it’s just a huge metro area so it was easier to drive).

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Christymapper71@reddit

Newport Beach, California here. Fall and winter aren't as bad but spring and summer it's way too crowded here. I am very grateful to live here and just try to go to places and areas that locals don't usually go to, but parking and traffic is a huge pain. For example, going to my local Trader Joe's off of Pacific Coast Hwy is a huge pain and it's in a private shopping center that prohibits beach parking! Tourists don't care. They park there anyway because it's across the street from a gorgeous beach park. If I don't go first thing in the morning I can't find a parking space sometimes. It's sooo annoying. This is my local TJ's people! Follow the rules and don't annoy the residents. We pay a lot of money to live here. Have some respect.

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PoxyMusic@reddit

TJs at Crystal Cove?

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Christymapper71@reddit

Yes!

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nettenette1@reddit

I live in a city that’s seen huge popularity spikes over the past decade and is a topic daily on a popular fb travel site. I live outside of the main part of town but there are period of time (festivals, etc) where the roads are incredibly bad and I do my best to just stay home. There are well known famous spots that are becoming or are dirty and unsafe and I just avoid those all together. There are events we used to do every year but the crowds and expense has pretty much ended all of them for us.

I also have a beach house. I used to avoid high season but have been spending more time there. Trying to go out for dinner, even at restaurants far away from the main tourist strip, is impossible. We tried to go to one last Friday, Easter weekend. It’s my favorite restaurant down there. Total unmitigated disaster.

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Appalachian_Aioli@reddit

My town is more “rich snowbird” than tourist, although we still get a lot of those.

I kinda hate it. I love my job and my job wouldn’t exist with the rich snowbirds. They are also rude, entitled people who have run up the cost of living to the point that next to no one can actually live here.

I also just hate Florida.

If I didn’t love my job so much, no way in hell I’d still live here.

Beach is nice tho.

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marenamoo@reddit

I live in a summer beach town. In season, locals know when to go to the grocery store - mid week early. We rarely go to restaurants - the lines are crazy. But with the multitudes comes farmer’s markets, beautiful weather and a buzz of energy and excitement. We also get the beach to ourselves on the shoulder seasons and great restaurant deals off season. Plus a serenity during the slow season of being close to nature

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Artemis1982_@reddit

I grew up in a popular beach town in my state. Here's my experience: Imagine you've inherited an amazing home in an area with very high taxes and few jobs, so the only way you can hold onto it is to rent it out to visitors -- who almost always trash the place and treat you like a personal servant. I love it in the winter when we have the place to ourselves.

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delicious-tylenol@reddit

Seasonal traffic increases. Nice Tex revenue for amenities. Transient population. Expensive housing. Lots of stuff to do. Great restaurants.

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wapera@reddit

We need the tourists for funding our economy but damn does it get annoying when people leave trash in the beaches and drive like maniacs.

I always enjoy the time before and after peak tourist season.

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MichigaCur@reddit

Mackinac is best before memorial and after labor day... Any other time... Steps off the ferry... OK that's enough people for this decade. Lol

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wapera@reddit

I remember it not being as bad when I was growing up. We went every summer.

But since those tik toks went hella viral I’m afraid the island is packed and has become more corporate. We made the mistake two summers ago to go in the summer and we could barely walk on the sidewalks it was so packed.

Fall is definitely a nicer time

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MichigaCur@reddit

I agree, it's really gotten bad this past ten years. Summer has always been busy but i used to be able get out and enjoy myself after I got away from the main strip. Now I get worse road rage trying to ride around it than I do driving too it.

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emotions1026@reddit

My husband grew up in a town with a lot of tourists and summer residents, but the overall town was fairly poor otherwise, and he hated it because of how snobby everyone was to the “townies” (if they even spoke to them at all).

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Ravenclaw79@reddit

People don’t think that crosswalks and walk signals exist, apparently

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DontRunReds@reddit

Corollary and when you use the crosswalk, the damn tourist bus drivers don't always respect stopping for you.

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DownVegasBlvd@reddit

The drivers here are the ones who don't know what those are.

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DontRunReds@reddit

I live in Southeast Alaska and we are getting absolutely hammered by cruise ship over tourism. This really all started in 2022 with revenge tourism from COVID and what is in my opinion CLIA's absolute greed and complete disregard for climate change.

Juneau, which is bigger than us, put up a little citizen petition to have ship free Saturdays. That failed on the vote for the ballot measure. Juneau might even wind up with not one but two additional docks. Whatever ships aren't in Juneau can't magically teleport from Seattle or Vancouver to there. So you know this traveling mass of people is going to even more overwhelm all of the other ports.

Now Sitka has a citizen driven vote coming up to potentially limit cruise tourism and Juneau has another petition. The same marketing firm that was paid to kill Juneau's ship free Saturday idea is being paid now by the no campaign. It's running all their marketing.

I think what visitors don't think about are the negative impacts of over tourism to the following and beyond:

whether the planet will be habitable for our grandchildren
all of the cruise ship related medical evacuations straining the Coast Guard and local clinics and hospitals
increased demand for seasonal housing of transient workers displacing year round residents
air pollution especially for people with apartments near docking facilities and people who travel on foot
threats by CLIA to bring lawsuits against any municipalities that seek to regulate them
corporatization of shoreside stores and excursions once a certain visitor threshold is met
the community divisions amplified by over tourism
loss of independence for children due to increased vehicular traffic and difficulty navigating safely
poor and working class bus riding residents being displaced off of public transit by tourists taking all of the seats
head taxes not being able to be put into a general fund
negative impacts to fisheries
negative impacts to marine mammals
disease transmission

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Birdywoman4@reddit

There’s a larger lake out east of the city that locks won’t go to for camping in the summer because it is so over run with visitors. They have to limit the people entering the park during holidays and weekends by counting how many go in and counting how many cars leave.

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twopairwinsalot@reddit

I go and visit my friend in a tourist town and I hate tourists. I'm one of them.

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PoxyMusic@reddit

Laguna Beach here:

Traffic and parking gets a little annoying at the height of summer, but it’s not like I didn’t know that going in to it.

My local cove blew up on instagram, and got really crowded. It’s gorgeous and I don’t blame people for going there also, but they aren’t as good as Lucas’s when it comes to picking up their trash. Also, playing music is a huge local faux pas.

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billy310@reddit

I live in LA, does that count? The thing is, with 8 million people, even a busy tourist season barely makes a dent

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SJReaver@reddit

I live in Las Vegas.

People think prostitution is legal in Las Vegas. It is not. Some people think it's legal right outside the city. It is not. It is legal in brothels, and only brothels, that are about an hour and thirty minutes away. Anything else and you've broken the law.

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birthdayanon08@reddit

Used to live on the Gulf Coast. I moved there during the off-season and lived it for the first few months. Then tourist season started. The first few weeks were kind of fun. All kinds of festivals and events to kick off the season. But it gets old really fast. Trying to go about your day to day life with 10000 extra people who have absolutely nothing pressing to do area all in your way.

One plus was my favorite restaurant. Going for a weekly dinner had become a ritual before the tourist season. When I went the first time during the high season, I was disappointed to find a lot of people waiting. But I discovered they kept a section just for locals. I got to keep going to my regular night out without having to wait forever for a table.

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silkywhitemarble@reddit

I live in Las Vegas. Most locals avoid The Strip like the plague--too much traffic, people and we usually have to pay for parking. Plus, anything in that area is overpriced. I think most people don't think people actually live here--people do. And no, we don't all work in the tourist industry--I don't. We don't all gamble, even though there are slots almost everywhere you go. It also rains here in the summer, so be careful, because it can flood really quickly and badly.

There is also way more here than The Strip. There are lots of nice, big resorts that are off the Strip, the Arts District is growing and there are plenty of natural places to visit like Red Rock, the Valley of Fire, Lake Mead and Mt. Charleston.

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DownVegasBlvd@reddit

Well said! Does it irritate you too when the tourists refer to "Vegas" but they really only mean the Strip and downtown?

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silkywhitemarble@reddit

Not hearing it directly from tourists, but lots of things online. I just saw a real on Instagram with some guy talking about how Vegas isn't anywhere to live and there's no laws and you'll like all your money gambling! Like, shut up! He probably never left the Strip!

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DownVegasBlvd@reddit

Oh God, no... spreading of misinformation like that is dangerous to us. But I guess if we can mostly keep them corraled there, we're safe?

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balthisar@reddit

and there are plenty of natural places to visit like Red Rock, the Valley of Fire, Lake Mead and Mt. Charleston.

…as someone who visits Vegas begrudgingly and only because my dad lives there (not a service worker!), I appreciate all of the nature. I've driven around Mt. Carleston a lot, and it's usually "the" snowy peak that I see, but I've never contemplated "visiting" it. Thanks for mentioning it; I'm going to see what I can do there and add it to my repertoire now that Red Rock has a stupid reservation system.

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interestedinhow@reddit

Please don't walk down the middle of the street. Sometimes tourists feel like they're in Disneyland and just stroll down the middle of the street. (I live in a colonial waterfront town). Also, please try not to shriek at night walking down the street drunk after the bars close.

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HeddaLeeming@reddit

I went to high school in Galveston 78-82. There was nothing for teenagers to do except go to the tiny mall. There was sand everywhere, all the time. I worked at Pizza Hut back when they were dine in and tourists were horrible tippers and many were rude.

In winter it was dead, and in summer it was overcrowded with annoying people.

I love living by the sea, but the whole tourism industry was just horrible and yet it sustained a lot of the people living there.

And sand, sand always in your house, in your bed, in your shoes.

Galveston is basically a big sandbank.

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redjessa@reddit

I used to live in a tourist/beach town. I liked the money I made at a popular tourist restaurant and staring at the ocean while I worked. Otherwise, not my favorite place to live. It's always nice by the beach but the crowds can put a damper on things.

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HonoluluLongBeach@reddit

I lived in Honolulu and tourists would come to my travel desk and ask me if I lived there. No, I take the Concorde from San Diego every morning.

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RsonW@reddit

The mere thought of ever owning a home where you grew up is utterly unthinkable because some tech bro or Bay Area retiree will always be able to outspend you. Some move permanently, some suck up what could've been a permanent residence and put it on Airbnb.

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Goodbykyle@reddit

Trash specifically the plastic sand toys they sell by the bucket. I could build a house with all the plastic I have picked up. If you leave trash, you are trash.

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Psynautical@reddit

Lived in San Diego, Aruba, st Maarten, and st Petersburg FL. I'll take a tourist over a snowbird all day every day.

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allieggs@reddit

San Diego is the one place my husband and I have visited as tourists and left thinking, “yeah, we’d absolutely move here without a doubt”. We’re both looking to change jobs now and there’s a whole lot of applications we’re throwing in for SD positions just for good measure.

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seacreaturestuff@reddit

This 👆🏼 Snowbirds are the worst.

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Music_For_The_Fire@reddit

I don't mind it at all. I live in Chicago, which is constantly getting shit on in conservative leaning media. I love it when people come to visit and realize that the media is full of shit (shocker!). It's a beautiful city and it's heartwarming to see outsiders realize that it's beautiful, really clean, and much safer than they were expecting.

Yes, it has it's fair share of problems like any other city and I'm not trying to sugarcoat it, but I love it when I see how much people enjoy their experiences here.

Yeah traffic picks up, it's a little harder to get that dinner reservation, trains are extra crowded, sidewalks are full of people walking side by side looking up at the buildings with no social awareness. But those are small prices to pay to live in a city like this.

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Interesting-Prior397@reddit

Love that someone posted about Chicago because I think very few people consider visiting us for our beaches. I think our lakefront is a strangely well kept secret to tourists. I'm absolutely astonished that the north side isn't full of resort style hotels trying to market the lakefront to tourists. Not that I want that I really love that the lakefront is a giant public park, just surprising to me given how gorgeous the lakefront is developers haven't stolen it from us

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Music_For_The_Fire@reddit

Don't know if you're aware of this, but the city actually doesn't allow any new development east of Lakeshore Drive (Lake Point Tower is the odd one out since it was built before they rerouted Lakeshore Drive around Navy Pier).

My favorite thing to do in the summer months is to go on a bike ride down the Lakeshore path and then go for a swim in the lake after working up a nice sweat. And yes, even the concrete "beaches" are awesome and very unique. Or I'll go for a run and cool down by taking a walk through the free(!) zoo in Lincoln Park. You can't beat a Chicago summer.

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Interesting-Prior397@reddit

I'm aware of the laws surrounding it, but if there's anything growing up in the US taught me it's that greed is more powerful than care for the people. I'm just surprised and happy to see it's still holding strong!

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Music_For_The_Fire@reddit

This is a great point. I'm also surprised that there hasn't been some loophole someone has exploited to violate the spirit of the law. But for now, I just want to enjoy it.

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elunabee@reddit

I grew up three hours straight south of Chicago and really took for granted how close I was to one of the best cities in the world. We'd go now and then (seeing Jordan play in 1998 is a core memory), but it wasn't until I was an adult that I realized how amazing it was. I don't live in Illinois now but if I had the chance to move to Chicago, I would in a heartbeat. I love it, and I love visiting it. Thanks for being so welcoming.

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Music_For_The_Fire@reddit

Oh man, so jealous you got to see the 90's Bulls play. I am not from Chicago originally so never saw them as a kid, but I've been here for almost two decades so was here when the Cubs won the World Series and the Blackhawks were racking up Stanley Cups. It was insane in the best way possible.

And St Louis is awesome and also unfairly gets dragged in the media. Been there several times and always had a great time. Everyone was so nice. Whenever I see news reports or "analysis" about what's going on in Chicago, St Louis, Milwaukee, NYC, or Los Angeles (a city I also spend a lot of time in) I don't know what the hell they're talking about.

Chicago beaches get slept on and I don't know why. It's known as a metropolis with amazing food, cultural institutions, and architecture, but the beach scene somehow gets overlooked. But it makes me happy that you and your twins had a great time here!

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Nameless_American@reddit

Chicago rules and is clearly one of Earth’s greatest cities. Can’t wait to go back.

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balthisar@reddit

I love visiting Chicago. It's pretty much the only American big city that I remotely like. I gobble up the museums, eat at the good places in China Town (not at the tourist Plaza), happy to hop on the metro system and the busses, but these are all tourist areas, and I wouldn't want to live in tourist areas, and I sure as hell wouldn't want to live anywhere else in the city limits, given that I have the ability to live elsewhere.

I think the media negatively portrays the negative parts of the city. No one ever says you're going to get whacked in River North (or, can't resist, on Wacker Dr.) – it's always about the South Side and other negative areas.

And if it's not crime, it's the taxes and the coddling government and corruption.

Keep in mind, I'm saying this out of admiration for Chicago. Genuinely.

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Music_For_The_Fire@reddit

Glad you love spending time here. It really is a special city.

And, as impressive at is it is, I would encourage anyone visiting to venture outside of downtown (after doing the architectural tour on the river, of course, followed by a drink on the Riverwalk). Chicago is really just a large geographical area stitched together by a series of unique neighborhoods, each one with its own version of a main street and distinct history. We're called "the biggest small town in America" for a reason.

Although the immediate area lacks decent nature, we have wonderful states like Michigan and Wisconsin just a short drive away.

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momamdhops@reddit

I lived in Virginia Beach. People don’t realize it’s a huge city, not just the ocean front. A lot of crime and problems with big cities.

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Lothar_Ecklord@reddit

I grew up in part near a lake in New England, and today live in New York. I haven't lived too many years of my life outside of tourist areas. You tend to avoid travel at certain times during certain seasons, and avoid certain routes and locations whenever possible, but it's part of life and it's a major part of any economy so you have no choice but to accept it. You don't have to like it, but I've given up on being frustrated because it's anger with no resolution. I suppose I could live in a cabin in the woods, but people would still find a way to piss me off if I allowed it.

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biddily@reddit

I grew up in Boston, close to the beach, but the rest of my family lives on Cape Cod so I've spent a significant amount of time there.

I love Boston, for so many reasons. People come here, for the schools, for the hospitals, for the history, museums, etc. We have a lot to offer.

If you show up in Boston or on the Cape and are mad about the traffic situation, you're an idiot. The accepted driving rules here are different than where you're from. Go with it or be eaten alive.

Don't show up to the beach at 9am and expect to get a parking spot. You will not. Don't yell at the gate person. It's not their fault you messed up.

There's too many people vying for what's here. Everything is overcrowded. Don't make things worse being a little bitch. You aren't special.

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JustGenericName@reddit

Napa Valley is farm country. You're going to get stuck behind tractors and industrial trucks

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idkidc28@reddit

Growing up near DC we knew when to avoid the tourists and when we would be invaded. Now I live near Hershey, and the amount of congestion and tourists you have to deal with just to go out to eat at a chain restaurant is insane.

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LostExile7555@reddit

1) The town is basically empty during the off-season but wildly overcrowded during tourist season. I have to add 20 minutes to my commute to work once the tourists start showing up.

2) Housing prices are disproportionately expensive compared to typical income for locals because of all the people buying vacation homes and people buying houses to use as short-term/seasonal rentals.

3) Lots of shops and restaurants that aren't used by locals because they are there to meet the needs and tastes of tourists instead.

4) You get to be lectured to by tourists about not being a real local because you don't meet some caricatured stereotype they made up. (Think like that episode in King of the Hill, where Hank has to show the guy from Boston around town).

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Fillmore_the_Puppy@reddit

> Housing prices are disproportionately expensive compared to typical income for locals because of all the people buying vacation homes and people buying houses to use as short-term/seasonal rentals.

This one is so harmful in lots of tourist places and I really wish cities would get tough with ordinances limiting short-term rentals.

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shelwood46@reddit

I live in a tourist town and my town passed an ordinance a while ago that severely restricts short-term rentals. I assume the local hotels and resorts helped craft it. Basically any of the app short-term rentals have to follow the same rules as an actual B&B -- register for an annual license, get safety inspections, and comply with noise regulations, More than one complaint gets the license yanked immediately. There aren't many willing to comply.

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Fillmore_the_Puppy@reddit

That is good. Now, I get that there's some skepticism if hotels and resorts help write it to curb competition. But the fact is that hotels and resorts don't affect the housing/rental market the way that perfectly livable houses and apartments being set aside for tourists do.

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BrainDad-208@reddit

4 for the win 🥇

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TheLastRulerofMerv@reddit

I can definitely relate to number 4. I love Arizona too, the whole state. But particularly the borderlands with Utah. I'd be a happy man random camping there for there for the rest of my days.

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LostExile7555@reddit

I only wear cowboy boots when the rodeo is in town, dammit!

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TheLastRulerofMerv@reddit

I almost honestly forget that Arizona is associated with cowboys and not hippies, hikers and climbers. But the cowboys down there, as an old Alberta boy, definitely make me feel at home.

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Communal-Lipstick@reddit

I absolutely love every single second of it minus the traffic. And tourists walk too slow ok the sidewalk.

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shelwood46@reddit

I live in the Poconos. It's beautiful and I have a lot more restaurant and shopping choices than you'd expect living in the semi-boonies. OTOH, I pretty much have to stay home every weekend because traffic is a nightmare and the grocery & liquor stores are full of drunk & high people, and you get stuck behind idiots going 20mph on a 45mph road. I go visit family/friends who live anywhere else for any major holiday weekend (Easter, Memorial Day, etc) and for most of August because it is just a zoo, you can't go to the store, you can't get takeout, forget getting reservations, plus in the summer people are randomly shooting off fireworks, having outdoor parties/concerts that go to 3 am, all kinds of fun stuff (of course, that does mean they have the occasional party/concert/festival I want to attend, but). But my rent & COL is cheap and it really is pretty just to go to the store.

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TidyMess24@reddit

I did, one of those areas that would attract day trippers and weekend trippers from a couple hour drive radius Including some major metropolitan areas.

Parking in residential areas that don't have time limits on parking. These types of spots are limited, by using them as a day tripper, you are actively keeping locals from being able to do errands like grocery shopping on the weekends. Pay the $5 for the parking garages built for visitors please.
if you're coming here to enjoy all of our awesome local shops, please support the local shops by actually buying something, even if it's small.
use one of the many hotel options Instead of Air BnBs, there is a housing shortage, and there are homeless children of working parents because of the housing shortage. Dont contribute to it

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sas223@reddit

All of these apply to where I live as well. One of my coworkers who rents an apartment in our small, quaint downtown area had his building bought by an investor. His rent went up 30% and he had to get a new job.

I would add to your list - - You do not need to bring your entire family into the grocery store and block aisles to go grocery shopping. I’m trying to get my weekly shopping done as quickly as possible, but you’re on vacation time. - Don’t park in business parking lots if you aren’t using that business. There have been times I’ve been unable to get into my pharmacy because people are just parked there to stroll around the area. - Don’t think every property in town is open to you to just walk in to. The private sign means private.

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sas223@reddit

They forget that our homes are private and they’re not welcome to walk anywhere they want. The entire town isn’t a tourist destination. My home is where I get away from you people. Go away.

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Foreign-Marzipan6216@reddit

Traffic. Fun people watching. Lots of trash where it shouldn’t be. Traffic. Fun conversations with people from all over. Making new friends and then being sad because they don’t stay long.

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jellyrat24@reddit

Lived in 2 major tourist cities. One of the things that bothers me most is people making snap judgements about what your life must be like in a certain place based on the 3 day vacation they spent there.

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thebwags1@reddit

My town is touristy on Lake Michigan and every summer I wish my town had a different way to make money

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CatDaddy1135@reddit

I have been attacked on this platform before for saying that the tourists who came to Augusta GA every year for the masters were rude and inconsiderate people.

In Augusta we have special lanes just for the golf people so those of us who lived there could get around town like normal but they always used ours lanes anyways because they were special (read entitled). They treated wait staff horribly everywhere they went but were the absolute worst at the masters itself. It was a known fact that if you were a young beautiful girl you could make absolute bank on tips serving masters people but it was also a straight up guarantee that you would be sexually harassed and a near guarantee that you would be sexually assaulted as well. I knew of several girls who were grabbed and groped by those creeps. They went around town littering and acting like douche bags at the store. Just really obnoxious and inconsiderate of the locals. They acted like they owned the place. Any time I tried to call out their behavior, I would just be blown off and mocked or cursed out. Not one single golf tourist left a good impression on me or my family. Not even one.

Just because a town is hosting a big event doesn't mean you cut loose and be your worst possible self. When I visit places like that, I think of myself as a guest in someone's house, and I am on my best behavior, not my worst. Now I live in Atlanta, where we host a number of large con events, and so far cosplayers, comic book fans and nerds of every variety are VASTLY more pleasant, polite and better behaved than golf people.

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DownVegasBlvd@reddit

That's a shame to hear. I love golf, but the fans seem insufferable.

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CatDaddy1135@reddit

I honestly think it's a tax bracket thing. They feel entitled because they've never not gotten what they wanted.

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DownVegasBlvd@reddit

Ugh. Worst kind of humans.

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ImperfectTapestry@reddit

I agree that it's often frustrating (I wish my town had practical stores instead of beachy gift shops) but once in a while I'm just plugging along & someone excitedly points out something i take for granted (a rainbow, a sea turtle, etc) & i see the magic through their eyes. Helps keep me from being jaded.

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StatusDiamond339@reddit

I live near an east coast beach. It’s nice because the ocean is less than a mile away and a beach day isn’t some long trip or ordeal.

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ThrowawayMod1989@reddit

I love that too. My buddy lives basically at the beach access. I hop over the bridge and park at his place to avoid parking fees.

Being local is the beach on easy mode. If I need it I can set it up. Always so funny seeing tourists walking around trying to score weed or mushrooms meanwhile I have a half sheet of tabs in my freezer and know a pot dealer in the bar across the street that deals out the back lol

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killingourbraincells@reddit

I used to live in THE tourist town. Orlando, FL. Fun, but the traffic is deadly. There's a lot of cars and everybody's driving etiquette is different. Very crowded.

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elunabee@reddit

I lived there when I worked for the Mouse - it was like Mad Max trying to drive there. Definitely had to keep your head on a swivel at all times. It was about 20 years ago when I lived there (and then after visited regularly) and it felt crowded then - now it feels straight up claustrophobic.

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dabeeman@reddit

I hate tourists and tourism based economies. Maine is doomed to be poor forever until they change that thinking.

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nicearthur32@reddit

I live in Downtown Los Angeles, Los Angeles is HUGE and crowded so you don’t really notice the tourists. When I run into any I love it cause I really want them to see the REAL Los Angeles – I ALWAYS give recs for food, hikes, drinks, museums and just the cool places to go. A lot of people can’t really manage a trip here cause of how massive the city is and miss out on a lot.

Los Angeles gets a lot of hate for absolutely no reason, it’s a beautiful city filled with the best of every part of the world here. So I like to help people see that part.

Pro tip, NEVER go to Hollywood. There isn’t anything there. Instead go to the Griffith Observatory explore that and hike to the Hollywood sign for pictures. It’s a short hike, nothing crazy.

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Pretty_Progress_5705@reddit

I went to LA a few weeks ago, and I was honestly surprised at how big it was, like way bigger than NY. its definitely a place I could live, we stayed in an airbnb in anaheim outside of disney and it was quiet and felt safe, even tho i’ve heard some bad stuff abt anaheim. traffic was obviously bad, but im used to bad traffic. i hope i can somehow maneuver myself into living there one day frl

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nicearthur32@reddit

I'm a massive Disney fan so I always tell people to go and give them all the tips... I'm actually going today after work lol.

But Anaheim has some sort of sketchy areas but its definitely A LOT better now than before. And Los Angeles welcomes transplants with open arms... I'm lucky that I was born here because had I not, not sure how I would be able to make the move with the cost of living here.

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Pretty_Progress_5705@reddit

im from the southeast, so ive been to the big disney a good amount, but i was pleasantly surprised with anaheims, and the weather is 100x better lmao. i wish i had a path to move there, but i dont really yet, kinda in a weird spot where im trying to figure what i want to do as a 21 yo halfway thru college w no clear plans😂. ima try and get a job at catalina next summer.

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captainpro93@reddit

I think LA is just a really shitty tourist destination in general even if you do give helpful tips. Everything is so spread out and they're all in different areas from one another.

Even when visiting locals, I hated LA until I moved here. I think its a fantastic city now, but the tourist areas are really some of the worst parts of the area, needing to drive everywhere makes it an annoying tourist destination, the "fun" spots are separated from one another, and the aggressive homeless population is honestly really concerning when you compare it to cities in other first world countries.

I think a lot of people also just don't like the idea of what LA represents moreso than hating LA as it exists in reality, so I don't think its something to take too seriously. At least if everyone is actually fleeing to paradises like Texas, New Mexico, and Kentucky (like I've had people from Texas, New Mexico, and Kentucky tell me) then rent/housing will finally start going down, parking spots will start freeing up, and restaurant reservations will be easier to get right?

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Kestrel_Iolani@reddit

I share your attitude. The commute from my old job would take me through Pike Place Market in Seattle. I have what we call Resting Mister Rogers face. I am perpetually stopped to give directions and advice/suggestions, and I gladly do it. I figure that way, the person can have a pleasant trip, go home, and give me or someone like me directions when I visit their city.

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balthisar@reddit

Pro tip, NEVER go to Hollywood.

Most of us tourists know never to go to Hollywood, but we're usually accompanied by people that insist we go to Hollywood. At least it's small and relatively walkable. Unfortunately the same goes for places like NYC's Times Square, or anyplace at all in Gatlinburg and Pigeon Fork.

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ATXKLIPHURD@reddit

Sucks. Bunch of people moved here and now everything is more expensive and crowded. Corporations buy small businesses and change things. And they buy whole neighborhoods and turn them into high rises or apartments. What was weird and unique is now trendy and popular and all about money.

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Ewalk@reddit

I hate it. I live in Nashville and it’s becoming a trashy Vegas alternative. Bars are expensive, parking is becoming a hassle (and expensive). Any decent food always gets packed and it’s just a pain in the ass.

And people are moving here from more expensive areas, with their cash, so places are raising the prices accordingly and it’s still cheaper than places like LA and SF, so the transplants are loving it.

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juansolojr@reddit

Came to see if Nashville was represented. You sum it up pretty well. I have lived here for 20+ years, and the place has lost so much flavor. If Nashville is a Vegas alternative, I wish they'd go ahead and build a casino nearby.

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DownVegasBlvd@reddit

Nashville doesn't have casinos? Damn!

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CaptainAwesome06@reddit

I used to work in downtown DC. I'd get on the Metro in Virginia at a popular Metro stop for tourists and get off in DC at a popular Metro stop for tourists.

For the most part, I didn't really care. The tourists were just trying to go sightsee, which I recommend doing in DC since a lot of the museums are free.

But tourists did get on my nerves sometimes. These are the main things:

In DC (and a lot of other places), you stand on the right of the escalator and walk up the left. Tourists like to just spread out and take up the whole escalator, causing a backup of commuters.
Tourists from Asian countries like to gather in large crowds at the entrance of the Metro stations and take photos. I don't know why they seem oblivious while blocking everybody's path to the train. I started making sure I was in their photos. I'd often throw up peace signs like they did.
American tourists liked to bash people riding public transportation. As we were riding the train through Arlington, VA (the richest county in the US at the time), I heard a dad say to his son, "This is why you need to go to college. So you don't need to ride a train to work every day."
Tourists talking loudly on the Metro during rush hour. If it's morning, nobody wants to hear a full blown conversation on the train. I'm not trying to police conversations, but be aware of your volume when literally nobody else on the train is saying anything.

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balthisar@reddit

American tourists liked to bash people riding public transportation. As we were riding the train through Arlington, VA (the richest county in the US at the time), I heard a dad say to his son, "This is why you need to go to college. So you don't need to ride a train to work every day."

Consider that they're tourists. I'd probably say something like this, because as a tourist, the place that I'm from has shitty public transit and, yeah, riding a train every day would suck. As a tourist on your trains, this obviously doesn't apply to your local trains, or we'd not get onto them! (I said elsewhere is this thread that I'm happy on Chicago metro systems and busses, for example.)

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CaptainAwesome06@reddit

Whether they referring to their own train system or not, it was the complete lack of awareness that struck me the wrong way.

However, I don't think he was talking about their own system seeing as we were riding the DC train and seeing the people ride the DC train invoked him to say that.

For what it's worth, I hated riding the train. Mostly because it was packed in the evening and in the summertime the AC often wasn't working. However, after I stopped riding it, I started to miss it. Reading or listening to a podcast was much more enjoyable than driving. But now I WFH so I don't miss either one.

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DownVegasBlvd@reddit

I'm in Las Vegas. I absolutely love this wack ass city. But fielding some of the questions that people who have never been or don't know much about it are a riot. Stuff like, "do you guys just all live in hotels?"

"Do people just commute to Vegas to work every day and like live in LA and like fly over?"

"Is there stuff like McDonald's and Walmart and schools and residential neighborhoods?"

"Is prostitution really legal there??" (It's not, some cities outside of us, it is)

"Do you guys just like party and gamble all day and night?"

It's a fully-functioning city with a population of almost 3 million now, and we've got everything for everyone's needs and all manner of jobs and places to live...we are not that little 4.5 mile stretch of road everybody calls the Strip. That's not Vegas. People think we have no rules, that they have carte blanche to act the fool and do really brainless crap, and most of the locals don't find it funny in the slightest (I do, shit!). But they'll be the ones to scream at you that they don't go to the Strip because "laaaaaame." That's pretty much us in a nutshell.

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Unusual_Form3267@reddit

I loved growing up near the beach. We would wake up early to go hang by the ocean before school. I used to drive to the beach after work and sleep on the sand. It was something special.

I never minded tourists. It is a pain when there's no parking or it's crowded, but it's a small price to pay for living near beautiful landscapes and having near perfect weather year round.

I even like that I had the opportunity to go to places like Sea World, Knottsberry Farms, Balboa Park, La Jolla Cove, San Diego Zoo, Soak City, Legoland, Petco Park, (rip) Qualcom Stadium and all the other fun places on school field trips. Some people spend tons of money to travel from other countries to see these places. I had the opportunity to go for really affordable prices. That's a great privilege.

California gets a lot of hate, but it is a beautiful place. It's nice to be from there and have had the opportunity to experience it that way.

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TooManyDraculas@reddit

I grew up in a touristy brach town.

There's very little work outside of home construction trades and the service industry.

Housing is unaffordable.

Most businesses either close for the off season, or have heavily reduced hours in the off season. So you're job goes away and there's not much to do for 3 or 4 months a year.

So most people leave. Most areas like this have seen a huge turnover over the last few decades towards part time residents, and Air B&B has displaced most of the rentals. So for the most part you can't afford to stay, even if you find work.

People who do stay typically work for the town or the county, or were well enough off to start a tourism or construction focused business.

Seasonal residents out number locals and so control local government. Prioritize large lot sizes, single family homes, boutique retail over necessities. Which drives the housing prices up. They typically drive erosion of school budgets and infrastructure spending, since they don't see that as important where they vacation. Or as affecting them directly.

Traditional industries like fishing and farming have largely gone away and to the extent that they remain they either cater to the tourist trade. With farm stands, charter boats and the like. Or the luxury market in high end restaurants.

Both of which are often inaccessibly expensive to locals.

Income disparity is huge. And populations are incredibly homogeneous. With very old average ages, and fast falling populations of kids.

It's honestly pretty bleak there for the most part. A lot the local populace doesn't enjoy the things that the area popular. Either because they working to make those things possible, or because they flat can't afford it.

It's not generally a great place to be. Unless you already made money elsewhere, come from money, or were lucky enough to get one of the rare good jobs at the right time.

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OGMom2022@reddit

There are pros and cons with everything. I live in a very touristy city. It’s great because you can meet people from everywhere. But like others have said, please look into the culture of the city you’re visiting. They get off the tour buses wearing cowboy boots, hats and big belt buckles. We make fun of them because no one dresses like that here. 🙄

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Traditional-Job-411@reddit

I grew up by a very touristy National park and a big ski resort. The park is so busy now that locals can’t actually even go to the park itself anymore. There is a bunch of national forest around that we can go to instead and never see tourists there.

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reflectorvest@reddit

I don’t go out much in the summers because as soon as the weather gets nice the town is packed with tourists and the lines are all out the door no matter where you go. Literal bus loads of people dropped off in the town square to wander and make those of us who live here miserable. We’re not near a beach, we’re not particularly famous, we just happen to have cute buildings that are slightly older than average for the east coast.

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Soundtracklover72@reddit

I love it but I live in Hershey PA. I have to remember that I’m in a tourist town when people drive wild but it’s not nearly as bad as beach towns where people truly forget how to drive.

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Key_Figure9004@reddit

Poconos here.

Pluses: relatively cheaper, mostly rural, generally quiet.

Cons: weekend traffic is an effing nightmare. We are “close” to NYC (90-120 minutes), and a ton of people live here and work in the city or have vacation homes here OR have family here and visit from the city all the time. The pay rate in this area is absurdly low - when I was looking at county jobs, the exact same position one county over paid close to $15,000 more. Outlet mall employees are lucky to make $10-11/hr. Then because there are so many people who work in the city, locals can’t afford homes because the people who work in NYC are making easily 4x as much as locals. Even professional jobs. People are getting paid pennies for the allegedly low COL (admittedly, home prices tend to be lower here), but housing prices are absolutely nowhere relative to the pay rate because landlords/homeowners know that NYC workers will pay triple what a local could afford. The roads are in constant disrepair, as is much of PA, but I feel like it’s worse here being a tourist area. There’s some fun stuff to do here - a couple ski resorts, water parks - not that the locals can afford to go, those are strictly for the wealthier tourists or city folk. Speaking of the city folk, the small-town charm is slowly disappearing. Crime has gone up. The “gated communities” are staffed by arrogant security agencies who have battles with local police over jurisdiction. City people, some not all, are trying to turn this place into an NYC neighborhood. Heck, there was a massive petition and town hall argument semi-recently over installing flipping streetlights in a neighborhood. Really? Streetlights in the middle of the WOODS? If you don’t want to live in the sticks, don’t move here! Tourism has actually gone down, A LOT, and revenue has gone down while population has exploded. And that means a 37% increase, countywide, in property taxes.

This has maybe turned into more of a rant than intended, my due apologies, but this area just irritates me more and more by the week and it feels like I’m being pushed out of my hometown by all these factors.

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Fillmore_the_Puppy@reddit

One of the many things that I love about living in Seattle is that we have a very distinct tourist season and, outside of that, we don't get an overwhelming number of visitors. So, locals get to enjoy all the good stuff from fall through late spring.

It will be very interesting to see what happens with cruise ship passenger-related congestion on the waterfront/downtown this year, since people are cutting way back on travel from outside of the US.

In addition to tourists coming to Seattle in general, my neighborhood has a "beach town" vibe in the summer with people from the greater Seattle area come here in droves. I am very thankful to live a very important buffer distance of a 15-minute drive from that area since it's pretty awful for residents in July and August (parking, noise, trash, and crime issues).

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Agile-Entry-5603@reddit

I lived in NYC for 55 years. 1. The thing that always blew my mind is that tourists forget it’s not just a place to visit. People live and work there. Nothing worse than working in the Rockefeller Center area at Christmas time. What would normally be a five minute walk to the subway takes an hour, because I’m stuck behind Hank and Hannah Hayseed, waddling side by side, looking straight up and ignoring the people around them who are begging them to step aside and make way. 2. It’s an unspoken rule that residents do not go to tourist places unless they’re bringing a visitor. Decidedly uncool.

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Character-Twist-1409@reddit

I used to and loved it! It meant on special occasions there were a lot of cool options and reasonably priced like boat tours, etc.

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mrspalmieri@reddit

I live in one. Summers are brutal around here with all of the extra people and traffic and even though it's barely spring it already started. I had to drive through downtown over the drawbridge to get to a doctor's appointment this morning and tourists were everywhere, traffic was soooo slow because pedestrians were blocking the street. Ugh

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WichitaTimelord@reddit

I used to live in Clearwater, FL. I hated the traffic during tourist season

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Such-Mountain-6316@reddit

Close relatives in Daytona Beach Florida almost lost their house in a hurricane about five years ago. State Farm paid a little but not nearly enough for complete repairs. They're on a fixed income. They just finished the repairs this year after a lot of scraping and saving. Their situation meant they couldn't move, but they certainly can't do that now because they can't sell their property. They don't even go to the beach now because it depresses them to see the remaining damage and the extreme changes that happened since. And I understand State Farm quit covering Florida, as did many insurance companies.

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korey_david@reddit

When the busy season is over, small towns are small towns. Your reputation can diminish quickly based on our actions.

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KiaraNarayan1997@reddit

Working in retail in a popular tourist city gets to be nightmarish!!! There are language barriers, but I still have to communicate with these people anyway to ask them if they have a rewards account, because if they don’t, they won’t get the discounts. If I skip that part, they get mad that they didn’t get the discounts. If they try to make a rewards account, but can’t because they don’t have a USA phone number, they get all whiny that they didn’t get the discounts. Then I have to explain to them why their phone number isn’t compatible with a rewards account, which is impossible because we don’t have a language in common. Also, the store gets slammed to the moon and back, gets really loud, requiring me to strain my voice in order for anyone to hear me. Then I end up sucking down my entire calorie limit in just cough drops. During peak tourist seasons, the store gets so slammed that people are still in there way past closing time with lines stretching all the way down the aisles.

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primordialpaunch@reddit

I love living in a city that people go out of their way to visit. We live in a cool place and tourism helps keep it vibrant.

That said, I wish people wouldn't: - drive impaired - roll coal - vandalize, especially by driving their cars at speed through barriers intended to keep cars out

I feel like not putting yourself and locals in danger is the bare minimum you can do when visiting a new place, but apparently that's a lot to ask of some people.

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silence-glaive1@reddit

Napa, California. I love living here but the traffic gets out of control and a lot of people think it’s fine to drive drunk and it’s not. There’s also a lot of people that come here and have such entitlement and treat service industry workers very poorly.

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toomanyracistshere@reddit

I live in Sonoma and work at a hotel in the Napa Valley. This is pretty much my experience as well. Most of the tourists are fine, and of course I wouldn't have a job if not for them, but there are some that seem to forget that real people live there, and way too many of them seem to think that when it comes to driving drunk, wine doesn't count. It's nice having so many great restaurants around, but I've noticed that a lot of people in the hospitality industry, once exposed to quality food and wine, end up developing a taste for things we can't necessarily afford, which can be a problem for some people. And even aside from that, it's very expensive to live here. So many houses turning into vacation rentals doesn't help with that. It's really beautiful, though, with great weather most of the time, and someone like me can earn pretty good money without having to go to college. I don't think I'd want to live anywhere else.

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anneofgraygardens@reddit

Yeah, I absolutely hate driving in that area if it happens to be a sunny weekend day. You know that people are driving drunk and i don't want them near me. (I understand that it can be hard to get rideshares between wineries, though, which sucks.)

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toomanyracistshere@reddit

I think it's gotten a lot better since rideshares came along, but it's still pretty bad. The valets at my work handle way fewer cars than they did 15-20 years ago, which is bad for them, but there are fewer drunk drivers on the road, which is a positive for everyone else.

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Glenn_Maffews@reddit

My hometown is a destination for certain type of Americans from a huge city who often complain on reddit about visitors to their big fruity metropolis taking up too much room on the sidewalk.

I guess they forgot that gripe when they get that week off every year to come down here and complain about the heat

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BoomerishGenX@reddit

How come the top five or six responses are from those who don’t? 😂

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Delicious-Ad5856@reddit

I don't mind giving people directions to the King of Prussia Mall and Valley Forge. I mind once they stand in the way or drive really slow looking.

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SwordTaster@reddit

I've got a friend who lives about an hour from both Tampa and Orlando. She hates how hot it is constantly, how sky high the property prices are, and how touristy everything is in summer with people who cant fucking drive

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Wit_and_Logic@reddit

I grew up in a medium sized town in central Texas that is home to the largest Waterpark in the world, it also has 2 rivers that are excellent for tubing. During Summer, the town has about 25% higher population, more traffic but not terrible. We complain about tourists a lot, but the benefits of living in a place that people travel thousands of miles to visit is worth it.

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Inside_Ad9026@reddit

Man, I love the Frio so much 😍

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Wit_and_Logic@reddit

I grew up in New Braunfels, so Comal and Guadalupe. But the frio is better. I spent a lot of time in Concan too :)

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Inside_Ad9026@reddit

Yeah, I grew up floating those rivers, too. The Comal is actually pretty great!

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themermaidag@reddit

Dang I miss tubing there so much. One summer I need to make it back.

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TheLastRulerofMerv@reddit

Not American. So I don't qualify for this specific question. But my hot take as someone who lives in a vacation and beach oriented area - I love the off season more than peak season. Early Spring right before the wave of tourists hits, and after Labor Day when everyone leaves. Everything in between is OK but traffic is annoying, and it's really hot so that can suck too. I imagine that's the same story in most American beach towns, but I don't live in an American beach town so I don't know.

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Laura27282@reddit

There used to be a definitive off-season where I grew up (Myrtle Beach, SC). It's still slower through the winter but it never really stops. Stores and attractions on the strip used to shut down for several months a year, not anymore. Most big restaurants were seasonal, not anymore. It really changes things the vibe.

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TheLastRulerofMerv@reddit

Oh god I hope we maintain an off season. I love the peace and quiet after busy season. Busy season has its perks, but I dont' think I could manage that year round.

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handsupheaddown@reddit

HOW CAN I TELL YOU WHAT YOU DON'T THINK ABOUT?!

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cottoncandymandy@reddit

I lived in Virginia Beach for a while. I didn't love it. I don't appreciate the beach that much, and drunk tourists/teens everywhere are annoying AF. Throwing trash all over the beach and streets. 🤷‍♀️

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tarheel_204@reddit

My great aunt and great uncle live just outside of North Myrtle and we’d visit them pretty often during the summer especially. They enjoy it overall. My aunt will sometimes complain about how crowded the grocery stores get during the peak season and they generally avoid the main tourist areas like the plague. They’ve always lived in big, crowded areas though so they’re used to the traffic

I loved visiting them because they always took us to the local spots and hidden gem places and it always seemed like they knew literally everyone on the waitstaff at all of these places.

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MoonieNine@reddit

Stop trying to get up close photos of the bison. It's likely not going to end well, and we will mock you for it endlessly.

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OkPerformance2221@reddit

I live in Santa Fe, the according to various magazines and websites, #2 best destination in the United States, #21 in the world, #1 in the western U.S., and #6 friendliest in the U.S.. I live about a mile from the Plaza. I love it. I like showing people around. I like giving people directions (to the extent of my ability in various languages, as needed) to people who are puzzling over maps when I'm out walking. I like the vibrant art and restaurant scenes, that are not crowded during the off seasons. I like that there are free concerts of known and desirable performers within walking distance of my house. I keep track of when the big art markets and other festivals are happening, and either walk into them, knowing what I'm getting myself into, or stay home and stay out of them. I am occasionally disappointed in people and wish they had broader minds or more i formation or quieter voices, based on what I overhear or see on the street, but that's going to happen anywhere, so might as well have nice scenery for it.

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missphobe@reddit

The tourists bring a lot of money to town. Luckily, it doesn’t really cause traffic issues-but housing is excessively expensive and the air bnbs don’t help with that issue. It’s always frustrating when you’re looking for long term rentals. So many property owners only want to do short term and prices are insane.

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shammy_dammy@reddit

I've never lived in one in the US, I have lived in one here in Mexico. While I would move back to the general city again, I'd be a lot more conscious and aware of what part of the city I chose. On one hand, it's great and vibrant on the other hand it was tourist buses. So many buses. Always the buses.

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TheWholeMoon@reddit

Loved it, but the worst thing was the traffic. A perfect blend of wandering visitors and fed-up locals, those on some sort of “substance” while driving, etc. along with roads that flood easily.

Living at a beautiful beach that you can visit in the off season or before and after hours, though, made up for the downside.

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Unreasonably-Clutch@reddit

I love it. Many wonderful aspects including:

It's fun to meet people from all over North America and some people from overseas.
There are always many activities, events, etc. going on.
The city keeps the place clean and well maintained.
The vast majority of people I run into on a daily basis are in a good mood, relaxed, and friendly.

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Easy-Maybe5606@reddit

Found the ultra extrovert

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Imaginary_Oil4512@reddit

I live in Ventura county. There’s many many beaches. It’s not a very popular beach town but it is beautiful and quaint. It’s a good mix of Hispanic,white,Asian, etc. we are 30 min south of Santa Barbara and an hour away from LA. We do get some tourists but not a crazy amount. I go to the beach often but don’t go in very much anymore. The beach from downtown is just a ten minute walk. There’s a sense of community and has amazing food all around. I love it. I didn’t come here for three years because of family issues and I moved away to college but I am back and am just as in love with the place as before. It’s not crazy expensive to live here. It’s truly a hidden gem of a beach town :)

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GnG4U@reddit

People forget that it’s still “real life”. Way too much drinking and driving, wearing bathing suits into grocery stores, restaurants etc.

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vodeodeo55@reddit

My entire town us not your bar, your whorehouse or your frat party. I get that you're on vacation and feel like cutting loose but driving drunk and being a pushy idiot is universally non-Kosher.

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xmichann@reddit

Huntington Beach, CA here (surf city USA). I absolutely hate it. I can’t wait until we can afford to leave. I don’t hate it because of the tourists, I hate it for the residents and reputation we have.

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themermaidag@reddit

I lived in two beach/tourist towns and worked in tourist related jobs (one at an aquarium and one in a nautical decor boutique near the cruise port). For the most part, tourists were pretty cool. They were usually in a good mood, being on vacay and all. Occasionally we would get some that were entitled and I hated dealing with them.

I also loved watching them try to parallel park outside the store.

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FullOfShitSoWhat@reddit

San Diego. I mostly avoid the beach in the summer except for early morning surfing. September/October the tourists are gone and the weather is great. That's when the locals head to the beach.

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Darryl_Lict@reddit

It's really gorgeous and the weather is unbelievable. I don't really go to the beach all that often, but go for walks whenever I feel like it, especially during a king tide. Most of the town is walkable and I can walk to a bar or festival downtown. There are a couple of grocery stores withing walking distance although I do most of my shopping on a bicycle/electric bicycle with big pannier baskets. We are a big enough town to have a Costco, a Target and a Home Depot.

The town is insular and there seems to be a missing crowd between college age and middle aged or the nearly dead. The biggest problem is that housing has gotten outrageously expensive and working class people can't afford to live here, and the commute is hellish although the traffic in town is pretty tolerable unless you are trying to get into town or out of town from LA at the wrong time of day.

I miss the nightlife of San Francisco and LA and the much greater cultural opportunities and diversity in big cites.

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joepierson123@reddit

I used to live right on Venice Beach which is like the busiest beach in the United States.

I love that it was like being on vacation everyday after work.

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tdpoo@reddit

I'm really lucky to live here, it's beautiful. Sometimes famous people come through. Have to be careful in the summer for drunk boaters and drivers.

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beebeesy@reddit

I live one a lake and while I love where I live, I HATE the people. Like HATE them. Since Covid, there has been an upswing in people buying up property in the area for second homes and there have been RV Parks and Condos go up. And the problem is, they aren't just visiting the area, people are moving to it. I HATE it. It was peaceful aside from holiday weekends and now its chaos all the time. And people are ignorant and uneducated on how dangerous boats and atvs are. We have had more accidents and major injuries/deaths in the last five years than the entirety of my life. As much as I hate to say it, the only good thing about inflation and the growing costs of housing is that it will hopefully slow down the growth. I hate to be that old hag at 28 but I am.

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Murky_waterLLC@reddit

"What are some things people often don't think about those locations?"

That the flow of traffic needs to be maintained, if you want to look at the lake find a parking spot instead of slowing down to a crawl to get a better look.

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petitecrivain@reddit

It's nice. It makes everything a little different from the typical small town. You meet people from all over and there's stuff to do. Some local businesses only stay afloat because of income from tourist season. On the other hand, off season is kinda dead. Makes for better traffic and quieter time in the parks but things can get boring.

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mtkveli@reddit

I spent a couple summers in a lakeside ski resort town in middle school when my dad worked there. I imagine it would be fun to live there as an adult but for a kid it was insanely boring with very little to do. Not a good place to grow up

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RedditSkippy@reddit

I didn’t grow up in an area with a lot of tourism, but as an adult, I’ve lived in Boston and NYC.

I think it’s pretty cool. I always chuckle when I see one of those tourist double-decker buses go by when I’m getting out of the subway or walking home from the grocery store. It’s funny to think that someone came to gawk at my everyday life.

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IWantALargeFarva@reddit

I just hate the traffic. I think that we should have a tunnel system that is only open to locals. I’ve screamed in my car, “I don’t care about the pretty waves. I’m trying to get my kids to practice on time!!”

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punkwalrus@reddit

One of my long time friends lives in Fort Lauderdale. He said "drunks asleep on my lawn" is common during Spring Break.

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Sabertooth767@reddit

I grew up in one. Hated it.

Beach vacation towns are designed to be charming and affordable for a week or two, not decades.

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G00dSh0tJans0n@reddit

Yeah I used to spend my summers at my parent’s place in Myrtle beach but I’d would always try to be out of town 4th of July week. Every tourist becomes a feel little gremlin 4th of July week.

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Im_Not_Nick_Fisher@reddit

I’m not in directly in the popular area, and I’m basically in the in between. There are more popular touristy beaches to the north and south of me. I don’t have any hotels or short term condos near me. So it’s a bit different. But I still go to those busier areas. And still absolutely love it. Most beach towns seem fairly similar. There are usually lots of smaller local spots. Mom and pop shops still mostly exist. Even in the larger busier areas if you go somewhere relatively often enough people will remember you. I’m a once a month shopper at a few places and everyone remembers me. It’s busy, but still has a small town feel. Tourists are just sort of there. Parking and general traffic is probably the biggest thing most people aren’t thinking about. Lots of paid parking and most locals might have the option to park somewhere free. Really depends on the area.

The speed limit is usually lower than a lot of other suburban areas because you just have more pedestrian and bike traffic. That’s another thing that tourists just don’t think about. Unless they stay long enough to realize there are lots of people actually walking around.

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GulfofMaineLobsters@reddit

I have a love hate relationship with tourists, I depend on their money, but I resent being treated as a stage prop. Most of them are quite nice as a rule but some are just entitled pricks. As a rule though I don't mind them too much.

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dgmilo8085@reddit

Clear blue and 72, world-class restaurants within walking distance, and a city properly maintained to attract people? I love it. The one thing people often forget is that we do live here, we're not just visiting.

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Add_8_Years@reddit

I live just outside of a touristy beach town. I’ve learned to try to stay away from town during the season. At least if I can help it.

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NorthMathematician32@reddit

"The season" is everything. It makes or breaks businesses. The rest of the year lots of places are shut down and people are just scraping by.

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SassyMoron@reddit

I live in one and I love it. Parking gets pretty tough in the season though.

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weirdoldhobo1978@reddit

Honestly it's getting kind of sad. Every year more people have to move away because more and more housing gets turned into Airbnbs. All the local businesses are struggling to hire people. Everything's get bought out by big companies and developers. Lots of substance abuse and mental health issues, we're a small town but we average 1 or 2 suicides/ODs a year.

But the tourists just keep telling us how much they wish they could live here.

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Arleare13@reddit

I don't mind tourists. I just stay away from the worst areas (e.g. Times Square).

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AntaresBounder@reddit

I don't live in one, but work in one: Hershey, PA. We get over 2 million visitors a year.

Positives: better restaurants than a town this size(25k) could normally sustain, big-name artists play in the stadium, we have a minor league sports team(Go Bears!), nearly had an NFL team (Milton Hershey tried to buy the Packers and later the Jets by some accounts), chocolate, HersheyPark, Troegs (excellent beer brewery), large hostpital in town, lots of jobs in summer, lots of $$ into local economy, multiple hotels for visiting relatives to stay in

Negatives: tourists (loud, ignorant, terrible drivers because they're lost or on phones), bad traffic (especially on concert days), because there's $ in the local economy the schools are better which drives up property values which drives up tax revenue for the schools which creates an upward spiral... so you've got great schools, but you've got to be making $$$$ to own a home

Overall? It's not too bad. It helps that the tourist area (HersheyPark) is separate from the "town."

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PossibleJazzlike2804@reddit

You can drive your vehicle into the beach but tourists never pay attention to the ocean and often get their vehicle trapped. Entertaining.

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HotTopicMallRat@reddit

I don’t think I know another way to live tbh

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peacesigngrenades203@reddit

A lot of the people that appreciate the tourists are trying to take advantage of them. It’s a good idea to be nice to the locals even if they are grumpy. They are less likely to be the ones taking advantage of the tourists and they may open up and show you around.

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vonMishka@reddit

People walk in the middle of the road. This ain’t Disney!

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ThrowawayMod1989@reddit

I enjoy it. Tourist season is picking up right now. The influx of traffic can be annoying but with the traffic comes lots of new faces ready to have a good time. Sounds pigish but different women every week is pretty rad if you’re a single man. Plenty to go around and no strings attached.

What people don’t think about is the off season for us locals. The dating pool and general population drops off very quickly and we’re all kinda left staring at each other like “so… how was everyone’s summer?” Then we go back to seeing each other all the time. Small town drama is the name of the game in winter. Who’s fucking who? Who’s breaking up? Who got arrested?

I got no plans to leave anytime soon lol.