30 Surprising Mistakes Tourists Make When Traveling Around The World, As Pointed Out By The Locals

"I flew into New York, figured I'd rent a car and take a quick day trip to Miami or Los Angeles."

Tourists visiting Los Angeles always underestimate the time it'll take to get from point A to point B. Our traffic is terrible, and you should add 30 minutes to an hour whenever you want to drive anywhere.

I live in Rome. Tourists come and visit only the city centre, neglecting any other interesting historical sites (or other nice things) which are easy to get to, equally nice to visit, yet a bit far from the center.

They assume any of us have actually seen "The Sound of Music".
I regret to inform you that most Austrians haven't even heard of it.

Also there's nothing special about Cafe Central, no need to wait hours to get in.

If you want a good Sachertorte, get it anywhere else than Hotel Sacher. Edit: I have now had excellent Sachertorte from Hotel Sacher, so never mind that.

Don't do Hitler impressions, they can get you arrested or fined. (To be fair, tourists mostly do that over in Germany, but it's illegal there too.)

Australia: Thinking you can drive between Sydney and Perth for a day drip. Not so much

Hong Kong: Thinking it's a cheap south Asian tourist destination like Thailand. Not so much.

Coming to New York City and spending time in Times Square. Unless they're going out of necessity to see a Broadway show or something of the sort, tourists avoid this place like the plague. I understand the desire to see Times Square for a few minutes, but make it a quick trip. And don't even bother having a meal there. You'll find the same chain restaurants that exist all over America...only the same meal will cost you triple the price.

Mostly happens at bondi beach but this can happen at any beach all over Australia. People swimming out of the flags, most often these people will get stuck in rips or into waters where there are surfers.

Bringing winter clothes in the middle of summer. Some people don't realise that southern Canada actually gets quite warm in July (25-35 C). It's only permasnow up north.

Attempting to spend the whole afternoon shopping in Spain. It's fairly common for stores to close here from roughly 2–4 p.m. (it's called the siesta and it's prime lunch time for Spaniards). So get your shopping done in the morning or wait until stores reopen in the late afternoon.

In Thailand, those who don't know the local customs will often enter someone's home without taking their shoes off. In most places in Thailand (and actually in most Asian countries) it’s customary to take your shoes off before you enter someone’s home. Tourists will just brazenly walk into someone’s house without realizing the proper etiquette.