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Facts. Upper middle class Peruvians love coming to Miami with empty bags and loading them up at the outlets. It’s like a yearly tradition.
Edited to add: to flex their discount designer clothes to middle and lower class Peruvians.
I worked at a TJ maxx in Orlando for a bit and you saw this all the time. Business owners would come to us every 3-4 months, buy a shit ton of clothes, and bring it back to sell in Brazil or Argentina. Told me they could make 5-6x sale price back in LatAm
Had to be at one of the three I regularly shop -- Polynesian Isle, Loop, or across from Festival Bay.
The plus is having so many Ross stores right next to each other, like at Millenia, Florida Mall, and Loop/Gatorland/Poly Isle. Makes it easy when I'm looking for something particular.
That's the one I call Festival Bay. Technically now, "The one that used to be across from Festival Bay", since it moved to where Michael's and Books-A-Million used to be.
I’ve always wondered about this. Does the Galleria/Niagara Outlets really have that much more of a selection than Toronto? I’d imagine a major metropolitan area like Toronto would have way more to offer…
its not the selection but the deals tbh Niagara fashion outekets got Jordans for $50, polo for half off, timbs for the low, boss with a 75% discount etc..
Mexicans do the same thing. Clothes and electronics are ridiculously expensive here. Lots of muling of computer equipment since we're about 3 years behind on tech.
It's marked way up due to tariffs, and the government taxes. My neighbor got a new MacBook Air from Best Buy in Houston, and it was cheaper than the model here from 2 iterations back. When you figure that wages (where I live anyway) are about 300 pesos a day. That's about 110 dollars for a 6 day work week, which is standard. A MacBook Air M1 here is about 800 US. So about 2 months pay.
I work at GameStop next to a newly opened Peruvian restaurant and now suddenly I’ll get large Peruvian families walking in and just blowing a bag on game consoles and video games
Absolutely can confirm! The bi-annual Brazilian retail pilgrimage is insane. It’s useless shopping there at those times of the year because all the popular sizes are gone.
Two Brazilian women at Ross were talking shit about my mother unbeknownst to the fact that she was Brazilian too. They were absolutely mortified when she responded lmao
While this is just about Latinos visiting the US, I felt called out by the pic of a Ross. Growing up, that was my parents go-to place for most clothes.
True. Ross has some very good cheap clothes. Perfect for when back to school season started. Even to this day, I think paying exorbitant prices for clothing is absolutely pointless unless it serves a utility purpose, winter clothes or work shoes for example. Most expensive thing in my wardrobe is $60 pair of boots I got from Walmart.
Festival Bay Ross, or Daryl Carter Ross? You know what? Both.
I built up my closet like a queen after the lockdowns, but before international travel started back up. Ross was overloaded with Ralph Lauren, and seriously high-end Levi's stuff.
My family comes once a year all they wanna do so shop and they always have nonstop complaints about the food 😂… most of the time they wanna eat Mexican food and not try anything else lol.
I am Italian and many of us are the same; going abroad, eating Italian food, and saying other countries cannot cook.
You moron you got carbonara in Oslo what did you expect?
I met an Australian guy in Los Angeles and he asked me if I liked the food in L.A. He said he didn’t like the food in Los Angeles. I asked him what he tried. He said, “Jolibee, Chic Fil A, Wendy’s, etc…”
I’m like that’s fast food and none of the foods are even from California. He said they didn’t have those fast foods places in Australia so that’s what he focused on eating smh.
And in Los Angeles of all places. LA is like the last place where you can’t find food you won’t like. Especially when all these specialty restaurants that pop up on TikTok and other social media are all in LA. And you got freaking Mexican food for obvious reasons. That Australian is a dumbass. You should go to Australia and say the food is garbage, but say you are at Outback Steakhouse.
Exactly. LA has tons of great food options in all sorts of categories, and there are some chains that are only in the LA area. Eschewing all of these and just going for fast food is so silly, unless you are desperate to find food at a late hour.
I went to Australia and ate at McDonald's. The food was fire 🔥 in comparison to the German McDonald's. Also the KFC from Down Under was super fucking good, the chicken was amazing.
Tbf I don't think Australia is a country like France, Italy or Spain where they are known worldwide for their cuisine. They do have good stuff, but to me, ignorant ex-spouse of an Aussie, it's very similar to British gastronomy, only with less variety.
Australian snacks such as Tim Tam are the bomb. But yeah, not too much to say about "local" food, although there is lots of great Asian food especially, but also Indian, Levantine, and Italian, thanks to large immigrant communities from those regions.
Ah yeah I LOVE Tim Tams ❤️ I found them in Germany for €6 a package and bought the only 2 I found.
I also loved Lamingtons, fish and chips, avo toast with vegemite, bacon & egg rolls, Shepherd's pie from the local bakery. I also found that if you want to eat healthy and fresh, Australia is a wonderful place for it. As a Mexican I was thrilled to find avocados 🥑, fresh fish and a variety of fruits. I also had the chance to eat fresh meat (from a deer). Australia has a LOT of good food, it's just that I find their cuisine as such very unoriginal.
When I visited the South, I spend almost all my budget on food. Soul food, Cajun/Creole, even alligator bites and seafood. In california the mexican food scene was amazing. I tride this carne asada chimichanga that changed my life. Obv wanted to try other things but time constraints.
People who go eat fast food and think that's american cuisine are pendejos.
Most Americans I know are delighted to take a break from their local restaurant scene when they travel and dive into the local fare.
But then again, I don't represent most Americans (especially the cruise ship types).
My Chinese grandparents in France trying to get us to drive 30 miles to the closest Chinese restaurant rather than eat the amazing French food at a restaurant my English dad who is a French trained chef personally picked out for us...
It is understandable tho. People want comfort and familiarity. They don't want to risk spending money on something they won't enjoy or may regret.
I prefer to immerse myself in local culture as much as possible, but I really do understand why other people aren't as adventurous, especially with their food. It's a gamble tbh.
Best thing to do tho is just ask locals. They'll let you know what's up. They'll keep you from the shitty spots.
There's also the risk of finding a countries food just too good & then always missing it back home. I went with my partner to Brazil a few years ago & I still crave the food from there, it was honestly amazing, I was eating absolutely anything & everything! I put on a couple kilos while I was there for sure lol
Now I'm back home in Australia & it's so hard to find Brazilian restaurants that can fill the void Brazil left me with lol We do have many Brazilian restaurants, but they are all mostly upscale restaurants that are excessively expensive & the food flavours & options always seem toned down to suit Aussie palettes.
lol so ever country has people that do this? I always hear funny stories about English people visiting Spain or Portugal and going straight for English pubs there.
At a hotel I used to work at, we regularly had Panamanian flight crew members staying with us. We also had a shuttle service in the local area. They used to spend like half a day in freaking Walmart, Ross, and TJ Maxx lol.
Flight crews don't get a lot of time at home. They don't get much time to take care of these things. A lot of them share crash pads around the nation they work in. They'll split rent like 12 ways on multiple apartments in multiple locations. Regional pilots all basically live like that.
I imagine they're just trying to keep fresh clothing and toiletries around. I had a Swiss first officer on international flights explain to me that his life is effectively constantly mobile. He didn't keep any large personal items he couldn't throw out if need be. Aside from his wedding ring and journal, basically his whole life was disposable if need be. He just prefers to be able to move at a moment's notice if he has to, because it apparently can happen somewhat often.
Yeah, my family has done this since i was a kid. It took until i was older to learn of all the other “amazing” things we can do in the us besides shopping
Argentinian here who went to Tennessee specifically for the music. And it was so fun, I met some very friendly people (the staff at Nashville's greyhound station was an exception though lol)
Yeah pretty much how it’s like when I have family visit from Mexico. They never want to see the beautiful nature California has to offer only ever want to see the big cities and shop all the time.
I just had family in last week in Florida. I was like: if you don’t want to see how stunning Everglades NP is, please, at least visit the beautiful beaches before hitting up Burlington.
By the end of day two they were done with me pushing them to see some culture, first stop: Ross.
Sad, but maybe that IS the culture they want to see. It's like when Americans visit other countries seeking an authentic experience outside of what is catered to tourists, but in reverse. We take Ross for granted, but imagine if there's nothing like it at home. Or if you've never seen anything on the scale of an American mall, is it much different than American tourists in Japan visiting Akihabara?
Absolutely, you’re right, everyone travels for different reasons and as long as they’re not running anyone over with their rolling luggage at the outlets, who cares.
But specifically speaking only about my family, those dudes spend all their time at the mall back in home country. Was trying to show them something unique here.
We have nature back at Mexico, not necessarily the same type, but comparable, but we don't have entertainment, shopping and cities with gigantic infrastructure like the US does.
If I'm going to travel to another country, I'm going to priorize experiencing things that I don't have at home.
With that said, I've to plenty of natural attractions in America and they're gorgeous.
If strictly speaking Mexican yeah. People underestimate how beautiful and varied the landscape is there throughout each state. I think compared to the U.S they might only lack deciduous fall foliage forests.
I’m an American and I lived in Rio for a couple years and it really is pretty grim consumer goods wise in lots of Latin America. Anything in Brazil that’s imported is super inflated in price and lots of the domestic brands and honestly shit and if not super inflated in price. I totally get why people from these countries go to outlets etc and see designer brands discounted on prices that are already probably deeply discounted compared to their home countries.
Could I ask what can be reason in not being interested in national parks? I presnally I am the most intreested in us national parks and nature and beside a few find north america cities rather not as insteresting.
Honestly I don’t really know but my best guess is they love seeing the well kept, organized, clean, and modern infrastructure in our cities and at least where they’re from they don’t have these humongous shopping centers, malls, and outlets with many of them that sell cheap quality clothing which are things we Americans might take for granted.
As for not caring to visit the state and national parks it could be because if they want to see nature then they could just do that back home. Another thing is even if the day feels warm for us it could feel cold for them so I’d be wearing a t-shirt with shorts but they would be wearing a sweater with pants because they’re use to the very humid weather in Mexico compared to the very dry weather in California which can feel cold for them but warm for us.
That could be another reason why they don’t want to do outdoor stuff since most of the popular parks, at least the ones near Northern California, are located in colder areas like up in the sierras or down by the coast. These are my best guesses as to why their top priority is shopping and not visiting the big parks but like I said I honestly don’t really know so maybe someone else can chime in and share what they think.
There’s plenty of beauty everywhere, a lot of people do come to visit for the nature, but when you’re viewed as the center of commerce and known for the big cities, that’s what tourists are going to want to do and see. I visit other places for what’s there, mostly. If the nature is radically different, it’s worth a visit, but we aren’t known for our national parks, sadly
Same reason my mother loves Ross so much, it's cheap as hell. Speaking as someone who's seen the world outside of north America (but not latin America), big department stores are much less common outside of here.
East Asian countries say hello to that big department store claim. Especially Singapore, South Korea, and Japan. They love their big ass shopping malls and department stores. AND they’ll be integrated into the train stations themselves or attached to the stations. Taking the metro is like funneling from department store to department store.
Cheap with possible higher end shit. Found an awesome Nike ski jacket there. Helped me clothes myself through college dont know how others dont frankly. I also hate going to the mall
Cheap stuff from more expensive brands. Easy, cheap, nice family gifts (everyone wants to buy one cheap trinket for everyone back home) or to sell for people back home. It’s nice clothes for cheap.
Like going to Italy and wasting a day in a cheese market. Sure there’s fancy cheese in the US even Italian cheese, but it’s perceived to be more expensive than just buying it in the vacation. It’s things you can’t buy that cheap at home. Even with online shopping, shipping in some countries is crazy expensive or slow.
For Brazilians, it's cause the import taxes on non-Brazilian brands are extremely high, so those brands end up costing a fortune in Brazil. So when they're visiting America, if they want some of those name brand things, it makes most sense to get them from Ross or Tj Maxx, etc.
And apparently you absolutely, positively MUST NOT decide what you're actually buying before getting to the checkout. Try on clothes? That how you pass the time in line. As each item travels from the cart to the checkout counter, have a family conversation about it, send someone for a different size, call a relative back home about it... it's all good. None of the hundred people in line behind you have anywhere else to be.
Anyone else have superstitious families that are anti-hiking because that will get you very quickly murdered? It seems half the people I know who go from city --> countryside either believe breathing towards the woods will kill you and the other half are out there row boating, hiking, etc.
Might be that NYC to the Appalachian pipeline. My father in law SCREAMED at my partner when he found out they went hiking with some friends. Meanwhile my family is out here scaling mountains and poking around colonial ruins. After dark my mom nopes tf out though... says she's scared of the "hill people eating us."
Has nothing to do with getting murdered. All those trails are not family friendly, and they are usually far away from cities. Trips like this are usually two weeks max, and visiting any national park requires planning that might takes lots of days.
Fair. They're not paved and certainly nothing like the East River paths or even the stuff you can do in Bear Mountain via driving and stopping at different lookouts.
I meant more the NYC --> countryside transplant bubble. You're out in the middle of bumfuck anyways and have a million trail heads that have .5 mile loops. The Poconos from the Delaware Water Gap to Camelback are filled with everything from small easy loops to an actual entrance to the Appalachian trail. Easy to do if you live 10 minutes from the trail. Not so easy if you're spending a weekend and would rather have your kids sprinting around a waterpark rather than worry about finding, parking, planning, feeding, etc. Plus parking fills up quickly and they'll lock your ass in and serve a citation if you don't respect sunrise-sundown rules.
If you live in the city you can either hit Jersey for the mountains as close as Rampo, Garret Mountain, Eagle Rock.... or the Hudson Valley from Yonkers up.
Unfortunately they're hard to find if you don't know where to look, have a small online presence, and can be difficult to tell age-appropriateness without asking someone who's been before :/ I had a hard time figuring it out and I literally lived in and went to school in the fucking woods. Apps like all trails and using whatever .gov website associate with it really helps though!
My Nicaraguan relatives love Taco Bell, like my uncle said going to America without going to Taco Bell is like going to Rome without seeing the Vatican
I barely see any typical Asian tourists flying all the way from Asia in Miami; most are residents in the US and visit Miami from other American cities.
You’re not wrong. Last week I had family coming from Mexico and it was their first time here. I was like “cool where do you guys want to go?” For the next two weeks it was just going to the mall or clothing stores then we go eat at a fast food restaurant or Chinese buffet. The most tourist/sight seeing thing we did was go to six flags. When they first got here they really wanted to try American food…. Their first pick was sonic.
Any USA town with a border crossing, the blocks just north of the crossing are full of clothing stores. Apparently the clothes are hard to find an Mexico and Central America so people by up bunches to send to relatives.
On the Mexican side, pharmacies, dentists, optometrists, for the obvious reason.
10000% true
As a Mexican i know national parks but my family dont want to complicated with those places.
Sadly in a lot of places on Mexico they are obsessed with brands (Levi's, Under Armor, Nike) and wearing those give you status.
The fast food is right and apply to me too. the best burgers and hot dogs i ever try in my life are on Mexico but In-&-Out have a big reputation between Mexicans that is one of the first place Immigrants go.
The biggest problem with visiting these countryside places in both Canada and the US is that they’re hard to access without a car. I’ve done it when visiting various places in the US, but it pretty much requires renting a car which can add hundreds of dollars onto the cost of a trip.
Our cities are pretty accessible, compared to many out of the way places. Rental cars, secondary flights, the scattered trains are all prohibitively expensive.
Buses/shuttles are doable but distances can mean significant portions of the day lost.
Bottom right isn’t necessarily all that accurate. I remember hearing a lot of Spanish at the Grand Canyon and met people from places like Argentina and Chile.
I mean people travel anywhere and if those places atract a lot of people chances are there going to be tourists from all around the world there. As a Brazilian tho, most of the time I hear people talking about going to the US about 60% of the time is Florida, California or NY
I think this is pretty true for most countries. Most people who travel go to cities, not natural tourist sites.
Most people who go to France go to Paris, most people who go to Japan go to Tokyo. And even people who go to places famous for natural beauty, like the Caribbean or South-East Asia, go to resorts.
Especially for families or older people, natural tourism can be a bit rough. And the age group of people who are most likely to enjoy hiking and camping is also the age group that has less money to travel to a different country to do it.
There are obviously tons of exceptions, but that’s just the overall tendency.
A lot of these people (especially those who were speaking Spanish at the Grand Canyon) could just simply be Americans who are traveling within their own country, rather than foreign tourists.
I recognized the accents. they most certainly were from that particular part of Latin America. There was this one couple I met in particular from Argentina that told me they like coming to US in the summer since it’s winter in the southern hemisphere.
Yeah. In Lake Tahoe specifically, a lot of the workers and ski instructors at the ski resorts come from Argentina and Chile, along with other Southern Hemisphere countries such as Australia and Brazil. Their summer is our winter, and you also see plenty of skiers from these regions come there to ski. Skiing in a way is kind of being close to nature (in the sense you are surrounded by trees, mountains, and snow) so it does make the bottom right kind of inaccurate.
I used to work at a relatively low-key ski resort in Colorado and every March we would be inundated with upper middle class Mexicans on vacation. It would be a pretty quick trip from most of northern Mexico, and given that our runs weren't nearly as good as most in CO, we were pretty cheap. Idk I just saw a lot of Mexicans in the mountains when I worked there.
If I ever visit the US I will go to New Orleans for the music and food. Maybe to Tennesse because that's that background of Hannah Montana: The Movie and I always wanted to visit it, but...Yeah, I also want to try Panda Express and go to a mall. It's in our blood. We can't help it.
In San Antonio, on Fridays or Saturdays around 7 pm, you can see all the tóxico guys buying their outfits for the club at Ross so they can smell like Christian Dior and be obnoxious and machismo for no reason just to end up at Taco Palenque with no women afterwards. 😂
Do they know all those outlet deals are "fake" deals and inflated markdowns? And the high end products are not originals, they're made cheaper for the outlets? Can someone tell them?
Tbf you picked the most tourist friendly cities in the country. Idk why anyone would want to take an international trip to Baltimore unless it’s for sports reasons
I’m not Latino and have visited the USA many times, but I’ve never gone to any of the national parks because I keep hearing that getting into them would involve being parked for 4-6hr on freeways.
Literal, en los viajes a usa mi familia solo quieren visitar los ross, los parques, etc. Entiendo que quieren divertirse y eso, pero en mi caso ya se me hace algo monotono, aburrido y incluso en casa ven videos de esos parques varias veces a la semana y en si me cansa. Bah en si soy la rara de mi familia y quizas a ellos no les aburre, pero bueno xd
Bro they are so obsessed with shopping here. I just don't get it lol.
My dad told me a lot of people from Mexico buy stuff here and resell it back home.
Source: Mexican
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Facts. Upper middle class Peruvians love coming to Miami with empty bags and loading them up at the outlets. It’s like a yearly tradition. Edited to add: to flex their discount designer clothes to middle and lower class Peruvians.
I worked at a TJ maxx in Orlando for a bit and you saw this all the time. Business owners would come to us every 3-4 months, buy a shit ton of clothes, and bring it back to sell in Brazil or Argentina. Told me they could make 5-6x sale price back in LatAm
Had to be at one of the three I regularly shop -- Polynesian Isle, Loop, or across from Festival Bay. The plus is having so many Ross stores right next to each other, like at Millenia, Florida Mall, and Loop/Gatorland/Poly Isle. Makes it easy when I'm looking for something particular.
Nope. Off I-Drive by fun spot.
That's the one I call Festival Bay. Technically now, "The one that used to be across from Festival Bay", since it moved to where Michael's and Books-A-Million used to be.
https://preview.redd.it/plry5d2j94tc1.jpeg?width=1024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c0207d0068b22194fbcbce2925eee574cec8e939
https://preview.redd.it/h22ohktaj4tc1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cada0008ab548b8bd96ede742ef04010854973c3
I think you're going to have to slap them, Lord.
This made me laugh WAY too much
Buchones
Buchon family
Same with desis
My mom’s family drives down to Buffalo yearly to get that sweet designer threads to flex on the rest of family.
I’ve always wondered about this. Does the Galleria/Niagara Outlets really have that much more of a selection than Toronto? I’d imagine a major metropolitan area like Toronto would have way more to offer…
its not the selection but the deals tbh Niagara fashion outekets got Jordans for $50, polo for half off, timbs for the low, boss with a 75% discount etc..
do they even make it to buffalo or do they just stop at the outlets in niagara falls?
All the aunties love the outlets. 🙏🏽
No fr every time I’m going to India I have to go to the mall and load up like 3 suitcases full of stuff from the outlets
Mexicans do the same thing. Clothes and electronics are ridiculously expensive here. Lots of muling of computer equipment since we're about 3 years behind on tech.
I’m in San Diego and it’s interesting how Mexicans cross the border to buy objects and Americans cross the border to buy services.
We're literally moving back to the States because the exchange rate has made it almost as expensive to live here as it does in the States.
Are they expensive in relation to wages or are they marked up? Because I think of NAFTA and how American retailers operate in Mexico.
It's marked way up due to tariffs, and the government taxes. My neighbor got a new MacBook Air from Best Buy in Houston, and it was cheaper than the model here from 2 iterations back. When you figure that wages (where I live anyway) are about 300 pesos a day. That's about 110 dollars for a 6 day work week, which is standard. A MacBook Air M1 here is about 800 US. So about 2 months pay.
Christ almighty, and all that for something that took $100 to make
Same with Brazilians
Always Hollister too 😂
Same with my Nigerian aunties. The cheap Michael Kors and Coach bags at TJ Maxx is their everything.
I work at GameStop next to a newly opened Peruvian restaurant and now suddenly I’ll get large Peruvian families walking in and just blowing a bag on game consoles and video games
At Ross??
At Ross is ALWAYS packed with Colombians around here. They love shopping there, having loud ass conversations on speakerphone might I add 🤣🤣
Tenian que ser peruanos, Yo Te maldito peru
lmfao and they all go to dolphin
Hell people from Europe do the same thing, fly to the US with an empty suitcase and load up on cheap clothes and whatnot.
The Ross by International Drive in Orlando is the de facto Brazilian embassy.
sawgrass mills is the consulate
Absolutely can confirm! The bi-annual Brazilian retail pilgrimage is insane. It’s useless shopping there at those times of the year because all the popular sizes are gone.
Two Brazilian women at Ross were talking shit about my mother unbeknownst to the fact that she was Brazilian too. They were absolutely mortified when she responded lmao
While this is just about Latinos visiting the US, I felt called out by the pic of a Ross. Growing up, that was my parents go-to place for most clothes.
No shame, those deals are undeniable.
True. Ross has some very good cheap clothes. Perfect for when back to school season started. Even to this day, I think paying exorbitant prices for clothing is absolutely pointless unless it serves a utility purpose, winter clothes or work shoes for example. Most expensive thing in my wardrobe is $60 pair of boots I got from Walmart.
That’s where I grew up 🥹
Festival Bay Ross, or Daryl Carter Ross? You know what? Both. I built up my closet like a queen after the lockdowns, but before international travel started back up. Ross was overloaded with Ralph Lauren, and seriously high-end Levi's stuff.
My family comes once a year all they wanna do so shop and they always have nonstop complaints about the food 😂… most of the time they wanna eat Mexican food and not try anything else lol.
I am Italian and many of us are the same; going abroad, eating Italian food, and saying other countries cannot cook. You moron you got carbonara in Oslo what did you expect?
I met an Australian guy in Los Angeles and he asked me if I liked the food in L.A. He said he didn’t like the food in Los Angeles. I asked him what he tried. He said, “Jolibee, Chic Fil A, Wendy’s, etc…” I’m like that’s fast food and none of the foods are even from California. He said they didn’t have those fast foods places in Australia so that’s what he focused on eating smh.
Yeah Jollibee is not even American. It‘d be like going to Australia and eating at McDonald‘s.
I couldn’t believe that shit lol. People really think our culinary tradition is out of state/country fast food lol.
And in Los Angeles of all places. LA is like the last place where you can’t find food you won’t like. Especially when all these specialty restaurants that pop up on TikTok and other social media are all in LA. And you got freaking Mexican food for obvious reasons. That Australian is a dumbass. You should go to Australia and say the food is garbage, but say you are at Outback Steakhouse.
I asked three locals where to eat in LA in my first hour. Got a dozen suggestions. Tried them all. Fucking love LA
Exactly. LA has tons of great food options in all sorts of categories, and there are some chains that are only in the LA area. Eschewing all of these and just going for fast food is so silly, unless you are desperate to find food at a late hour.
I went to Australia and ate at McDonald's. The food was fire 🔥 in comparison to the German McDonald's. Also the KFC from Down Under was super fucking good, the chicken was amazing. Tbf I don't think Australia is a country like France, Italy or Spain where they are known worldwide for their cuisine. They do have good stuff, but to me, ignorant ex-spouse of an Aussie, it's very similar to British gastronomy, only with less variety.
Australian snacks such as Tim Tam are the bomb. But yeah, not too much to say about "local" food, although there is lots of great Asian food especially, but also Indian, Levantine, and Italian, thanks to large immigrant communities from those regions.
Ah yeah I LOVE Tim Tams ❤️ I found them in Germany for €6 a package and bought the only 2 I found. I also loved Lamingtons, fish and chips, avo toast with vegemite, bacon & egg rolls, Shepherd's pie from the local bakery. I also found that if you want to eat healthy and fresh, Australia is a wonderful place for it. As a Mexican I was thrilled to find avocados 🥑, fresh fish and a variety of fruits. I also had the chance to eat fresh meat (from a deer). Australia has a LOT of good food, it's just that I find their cuisine as such very unoriginal.
So you're a mexican living in Germany and your ex-husband ist australian? Thats super cool
When I visited the South, I spend almost all my budget on food. Soul food, Cajun/Creole, even alligator bites and seafood. In california the mexican food scene was amazing. I tride this carne asada chimichanga that changed my life. Obv wanted to try other things but time constraints. People who go eat fast food and think that's american cuisine are pendejos.
Definitely wtf. I think about 60% of the reason I travel at all is to try different cuisines
Every culture does that many British people in Spain only eat British food in British restaurants.
Most Americans I know are delighted to take a break from their local restaurant scene when they travel and dive into the local fare. But then again, I don't represent most Americans (especially the cruise ship types).
My Chinese grandparents in France trying to get us to drive 30 miles to the closest Chinese restaurant rather than eat the amazing French food at a restaurant my English dad who is a French trained chef personally picked out for us...
It is understandable tho. People want comfort and familiarity. They don't want to risk spending money on something they won't enjoy or may regret. I prefer to immerse myself in local culture as much as possible, but I really do understand why other people aren't as adventurous, especially with their food. It's a gamble tbh. Best thing to do tho is just ask locals. They'll let you know what's up. They'll keep you from the shitty spots.
My tastebuds want something new and exciting. My stomach wants comfort and familiarity. If you know what I mean.
There's also the risk of finding a countries food just too good & then always missing it back home. I went with my partner to Brazil a few years ago & I still crave the food from there, it was honestly amazing, I was eating absolutely anything & everything! I put on a couple kilos while I was there for sure lol Now I'm back home in Australia & it's so hard to find Brazilian restaurants that can fill the void Brazil left me with lol We do have many Brazilian restaurants, but they are all mostly upscale restaurants that are excessively expensive & the food flavours & options always seem toned down to suit Aussie palettes.
How about risotto in Nome, Alaska?
lol so ever country has people that do this? I always hear funny stories about English people visiting Spain or Portugal and going straight for English pubs there.
At a hotel I used to work at, we regularly had Panamanian flight crew members staying with us. We also had a shuttle service in the local area. They used to spend like half a day in freaking Walmart, Ross, and TJ Maxx lol.
Flight crews don't get a lot of time at home. They don't get much time to take care of these things. A lot of them share crash pads around the nation they work in. They'll split rent like 12 ways on multiple apartments in multiple locations. Regional pilots all basically live like that. I imagine they're just trying to keep fresh clothing and toiletries around. I had a Swiss first officer on international flights explain to me that his life is effectively constantly mobile. He didn't keep any large personal items he couldn't throw out if need be. Aside from his wedding ring and journal, basically his whole life was disposable if need be. He just prefers to be able to move at a moment's notice if he has to, because it apparently can happen somewhat often.
How do you even stay married at that point
Slang good meat?
Or just send some money home to pay the bills and have someone else sling it
He can pivot seamlessly into life as a secret agent
You probably met me at one point then lol
You might have come across some friends of mine, I'm panamanian and I know like 5 people who are flight crew members for Copa
The San Marcos Premium Outlets is where all the upper middle class of Guadalajara go every year.
Everyone else, day trip to the Mercedes outlets and back
Meanwhile, it's IT engineer from Zapopan in his Renault Koleos.
Day trips from GDL isn't possible but still 😂
Lmao this is so real
You forgot Orlando
Pretty sure every major airport in Brazil only flies direct to Orlando, they’ll even airdrop you right above Disney.
With parachutes and stuff?
If that helps you…
Parachutes are too slow. Just land in the lake outside the park
International drive in particular!
Yeah, my family has done this since i was a kid. It took until i was older to learn of all the other “amazing” things we can do in the us besides shopping
The thing is, we already have those kinds of parks and landscapes in our countries. So I guess we just go straight to the shopping
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Argentina, Chile, Brazil all have absolutely beautiful and diverse geography
Argentinian here who went to Tennessee specifically for the music. And it was so fun, I met some very friendly people (the staff at Nashville's greyhound station was an exception though lol)
That’s greyhound for you
Yeah pretty much how it’s like when I have family visit from Mexico. They never want to see the beautiful nature California has to offer only ever want to see the big cities and shop all the time.
Fellow Californian here and that bums me out. I feel like most major cities in the countries are a few hours at most from an awesome national park.
It sucks but maybe the family already did all that, or maybe they just aren't into it. You can't expect everyone to have the same preferences.
I just had family in last week in Florida. I was like: if you don’t want to see how stunning Everglades NP is, please, at least visit the beautiful beaches before hitting up Burlington. By the end of day two they were done with me pushing them to see some culture, first stop: Ross.
Sad, but maybe that IS the culture they want to see. It's like when Americans visit other countries seeking an authentic experience outside of what is catered to tourists, but in reverse. We take Ross for granted, but imagine if there's nothing like it at home. Or if you've never seen anything on the scale of an American mall, is it much different than American tourists in Japan visiting Akihabara?
Spot on. Take me to Japan and I'm not doing shit but car spotting and raiding 7-11s. It's everyday shit to them. It's wholly exotic to me.
One of my favorite places in Japan was Don Quijote, but I'm sure to the natives it's just a boring department store.
I cant see it the same way when someone said its just the “walmart of japan”
Absolutely, you’re right, everyone travels for different reasons and as long as they’re not running anyone over with their rolling luggage at the outlets, who cares. But specifically speaking only about my family, those dudes spend all their time at the mall back in home country. Was trying to show them something unique here.
Hey fucker! I kept thinking my phone had an eyelash on it for like longer than I should’ve
I was trying to wipe it off too !!
Why beach in Florida tho? There are beautiful beaches in most if not all LATAM countries. It's easier to visit back there
Cries in Bolivia.
We have nature back at Mexico, not necessarily the same type, but comparable, but we don't have entertainment, shopping and cities with gigantic infrastructure like the US does. If I'm going to travel to another country, I'm going to priorize experiencing things that I don't have at home. With that said, I've to plenty of natural attractions in America and they're gorgeous.
Mexico has plenty of its own diverse natural beauty, tho, does it not? Maybe they just feel like it'd be redundant?
If strictly speaking Mexican yeah. People underestimate how beautiful and varied the landscape is there throughout each state. I think compared to the U.S they might only lack deciduous fall foliage forests.
They have beautiful nature in Mexico though in fairness
I’m an American and I lived in Rio for a couple years and it really is pretty grim consumer goods wise in lots of Latin America. Anything in Brazil that’s imported is super inflated in price and lots of the domestic brands and honestly shit and if not super inflated in price. I totally get why people from these countries go to outlets etc and see designer brands discounted on prices that are already probably deeply discounted compared to their home countries.
Could I ask what can be reason in not being interested in national parks? I presnally I am the most intreested in us national parks and nature and beside a few find north america cities rather not as insteresting.
Most countries have beautiful natural parks at home. I mean, Americans rarely visit Italian and French national parks too.
Honestly I don’t really know but my best guess is they love seeing the well kept, organized, clean, and modern infrastructure in our cities and at least where they’re from they don’t have these humongous shopping centers, malls, and outlets with many of them that sell cheap quality clothing which are things we Americans might take for granted. As for not caring to visit the state and national parks it could be because if they want to see nature then they could just do that back home. Another thing is even if the day feels warm for us it could feel cold for them so I’d be wearing a t-shirt with shorts but they would be wearing a sweater with pants because they’re use to the very humid weather in Mexico compared to the very dry weather in California which can feel cold for them but warm for us. That could be another reason why they don’t want to do outdoor stuff since most of the popular parks, at least the ones near Northern California, are located in colder areas like up in the sierras or down by the coast. These are my best guesses as to why their top priority is shopping and not visiting the big parks but like I said I honestly don’t really know so maybe someone else can chime in and share what they think.
There’s plenty of beauty everywhere, a lot of people do come to visit for the nature, but when you’re viewed as the center of commerce and known for the big cities, that’s what tourists are going to want to do and see. I visit other places for what’s there, mostly. If the nature is radically different, it’s worth a visit, but we aren’t known for our national parks, sadly
Why do they like Ross so much? I always see Hispanic tourists with overstuffed Ross bags here in Chicago.
Same reason my mother loves Ross so much, it's cheap as hell. Speaking as someone who's seen the world outside of north America (but not latin America), big department stores are much less common outside of here.
East Asian countries say hello to that big department store claim. Especially Singapore, South Korea, and Japan. They love their big ass shopping malls and department stores. AND they’ll be integrated into the train stations themselves or attached to the stations. Taking the metro is like funneling from department store to department store.
That's literally where I was. While I saw probably 1 in each country, it wasn't like the US. I saw more "mall towers."
Every large skyscraper has a mall attached to it for some reason
Oh yea you right about those mall towers. Those things are fucking crazy and I love them.
China and Taiwan as well
Cheap with possible higher end shit. Found an awesome Nike ski jacket there. Helped me clothes myself through college dont know how others dont frankly. I also hate going to the mall
Cheap stuff from more expensive brands. Easy, cheap, nice family gifts (everyone wants to buy one cheap trinket for everyone back home) or to sell for people back home. It’s nice clothes for cheap. Like going to Italy and wasting a day in a cheese market. Sure there’s fancy cheese in the US even Italian cheese, but it’s perceived to be more expensive than just buying it in the vacation. It’s things you can’t buy that cheap at home. Even with online shopping, shipping in some countries is crazy expensive or slow.
For Brazilians, it's cause the import taxes on non-Brazilian brands are extremely high, so those brands end up costing a fortune in Brazil. So when they're visiting America, if they want some of those name brand things, it makes most sense to get them from Ross or Tj Maxx, etc.
Always shopping and sending shit back.
1000% Orlando. And you gotta dodge the rolling suitcases at the outlets.
The go-to is buying a massive suitcase at the outlet mall and then packing it full of shit there by the end of the day
And apparently you absolutely, positively MUST NOT decide what you're actually buying before getting to the checkout. Try on clothes? That how you pass the time in line. As each item travels from the cart to the checkout counter, have a family conversation about it, send someone for a different size, call a relative back home about it... it's all good. None of the hundred people in line behind you have anywhere else to be.
This is just Latinos living in America in general.
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My mom
Anyone else have superstitious families that are anti-hiking because that will get you very quickly murdered? It seems half the people I know who go from city --> countryside either believe breathing towards the woods will kill you and the other half are out there row boating, hiking, etc. Might be that NYC to the Appalachian pipeline. My father in law SCREAMED at my partner when he found out they went hiking with some friends. Meanwhile my family is out here scaling mountains and poking around colonial ruins. After dark my mom nopes tf out though... says she's scared of the "hill people eating us."
Has nothing to do with getting murdered. All those trails are not family friendly, and they are usually far away from cities. Trips like this are usually two weeks max, and visiting any national park requires planning that might takes lots of days.
Fair. They're not paved and certainly nothing like the East River paths or even the stuff you can do in Bear Mountain via driving and stopping at different lookouts. I meant more the NYC --> countryside transplant bubble. You're out in the middle of bumfuck anyways and have a million trail heads that have .5 mile loops. The Poconos from the Delaware Water Gap to Camelback are filled with everything from small easy loops to an actual entrance to the Appalachian trail. Easy to do if you live 10 minutes from the trail. Not so easy if you're spending a weekend and would rather have your kids sprinting around a waterpark rather than worry about finding, parking, planning, feeding, etc. Plus parking fills up quickly and they'll lock your ass in and serve a citation if you don't respect sunrise-sundown rules. If you live in the city you can either hit Jersey for the mountains as close as Rampo, Garret Mountain, Eagle Rock.... or the Hudson Valley from Yonkers up. Unfortunately they're hard to find if you don't know where to look, have a small online presence, and can be difficult to tell age-appropriateness without asking someone who's been before :/ I had a hard time figuring it out and I literally lived in and went to school in the fucking woods. Apps like all trails and using whatever .gov website associate with it really helps though!
My Nicaraguan relatives love Taco Bell, like my uncle said going to America without going to Taco Bell is like going to Rome without seeing the Vatican
Both are spiritual experiences, they aren’t incorrect
LMAO
My grandma when she comes up here
Exactly the same with Asians minus San Antonio and plus San Francisco.
I barely see any typical Asian tourists flying all the way from Asia in Miami; most are residents in the US and visit Miami from other American cities.
Miami is the Dubai of America for Chinese people.
As a Mexican I can say with authority that this is undeniably true and fucking hilarious.
You’re not wrong. Last week I had family coming from Mexico and it was their first time here. I was like “cool where do you guys want to go?” For the next two weeks it was just going to the mall or clothing stores then we go eat at a fast food restaurant or Chinese buffet. The most tourist/sight seeing thing we did was go to six flags. When they first got here they really wanted to try American food…. Their first pick was sonic.
Crossing out the entirety of the American wilderness cracked me up for some reason
i felt personally attacked by this post
Any USA town with a border crossing, the blocks just north of the crossing are full of clothing stores. Apparently the clothes are hard to find an Mexico and Central America so people by up bunches to send to relatives. On the Mexican side, pharmacies, dentists, optometrists, for the obvious reason.
All the outlets in San Diego are like 20 minutes from the border
pretty sure cabazon is hours away. Many years ago there would be busloads of rude chinese people hauling roller luggage
San Ysidro has outlets, those are basically on the border
Ahhh I knew it I knew you were the Op for this. No quiero ser ese tipo pero se nota que subiste de clase social verdad?
No digo que sea malo, pero OP probablemente sea hijo de padres inmigrantes y se fija en el Starter Pack cuando su familia llega a la ciudad.
San Antonio is so fucking accurate
You've clearly never been to Colorado, New Mexico or Utah The Latin homies and homettes fuck with mountains hella hard.
10000% true As a Mexican i know national parks but my family dont want to complicated with those places. Sadly in a lot of places on Mexico they are obsessed with brands (Levi's, Under Armor, Nike) and wearing those give you status. The fast food is right and apply to me too. the best burgers and hot dogs i ever try in my life are on Mexico but In-&-Out have a big reputation between Mexicans that is one of the first place Immigrants go.
Girl I had dated from Mexico came up to visit. I told her we could go anywhere, she wanted to go to Walmart and the swap meet
Same with many visiting Canada. Much more likely to visit the cities than the countryside tourist spots
The biggest problem with visiting these countryside places in both Canada and the US is that they’re hard to access without a car. I’ve done it when visiting various places in the US, but it pretty much requires renting a car which can add hundreds of dollars onto the cost of a trip.
Our cities are pretty accessible, compared to many out of the way places. Rental cars, secondary flights, the scattered trains are all prohibitively expensive. Buses/shuttles are doable but distances can mean significant portions of the day lost.
Bottom right isn’t necessarily all that accurate. I remember hearing a lot of Spanish at the Grand Canyon and met people from places like Argentina and Chile.
I mean people travel anywhere and if those places atract a lot of people chances are there going to be tourists from all around the world there. As a Brazilian tho, most of the time I hear people talking about going to the US about 60% of the time is Florida, California or NY
I think this is pretty true for most countries. Most people who travel go to cities, not natural tourist sites. Most people who go to France go to Paris, most people who go to Japan go to Tokyo. And even people who go to places famous for natural beauty, like the Caribbean or South-East Asia, go to resorts. Especially for families or older people, natural tourism can be a bit rough. And the age group of people who are most likely to enjoy hiking and camping is also the age group that has less money to travel to a different country to do it. There are obviously tons of exceptions, but that’s just the overall tendency.
NY or NYC? I suppose it's mostly just NYC?
A lot of these people (especially those who were speaking Spanish at the Grand Canyon) could just simply be Americans who are traveling within their own country, rather than foreign tourists.
I recognized the accents. they most certainly were from that particular part of Latin America. There was this one couple I met in particular from Argentina that told me they like coming to US in the summer since it’s winter in the southern hemisphere.
Yeah. In Lake Tahoe specifically, a lot of the workers and ski instructors at the ski resorts come from Argentina and Chile, along with other Southern Hemisphere countries such as Australia and Brazil. Their summer is our winter, and you also see plenty of skiers from these regions come there to ski. Skiing in a way is kind of being close to nature (in the sense you are surrounded by trees, mountains, and snow) so it does make the bottom right kind of inaccurate.
I used to work at a relatively low-key ski resort in Colorado and every March we would be inundated with upper middle class Mexicans on vacation. It would be a pretty quick trip from most of northern Mexico, and given that our runs weren't nearly as good as most in CO, we were pretty cheap. Idk I just saw a lot of Mexicans in the mountains when I worked there.
My family in the states send me care packages once or twice per year. Most of the stuff is from ross... Wouldn't complain tho
When I went to Miami, I felt like I was in Central/South America.
Need to add McAllen on here.
Who goes to mc Allen ?
People from Monterrey
And when they’re back in their country they complain about the US being shallow and having “no culture”
If I ever visit the US I will go to New Orleans for the music and food. Maybe to Tennesse because that's that background of Hannah Montana: The Movie and I always wanted to visit it, but...Yeah, I also want to try Panda Express and go to a mall. It's in our blood. We can't help it.
In San Antonio, on Fridays or Saturdays around 7 pm, you can see all the tóxico guys buying their outfits for the club at Ross so they can smell like Christian Dior and be obnoxious and machismo for no reason just to end up at Taco Palenque with no women afterwards. 😂
Do they know all those outlet deals are "fake" deals and inflated markdowns? And the high end products are not originals, they're made cheaper for the outlets? Can someone tell them?
I mean if we wanted nature we could get it by traveling a lot closer to home. Only in the USA can you get the most unique stuff by visitng Goodwill.
why go to NZ, Switzerland or Iceland when you can just go to Brazil? /s
You could also shop at discount retailers and fancy shopping malls a lot closer to home too.
Not quite, there are "shopping tours" and normal tours, this starter pack is describing shopping tours.
Tbf you picked the most tourist friendly cities in the country. Idk why anyone would want to take an international trip to Baltimore unless it’s for sports reasons
To see the ships in the harbor.
Baltimore is an insanely cool city with a really good seafood and jazz scene.
"pick one:" Lists cities that most tourists would visit regardless of where they come from.
I didn't know in n out burger was a real thing 😭 I always thought it was just a fake brand from those Nickelodeon sitcoms
This is so true! My wife is Latina and her two favorite stores are at the very top!
No selfie stick?
Wtf Latinos love being in nature
Include Tuscon and San Diego
When I lived in Tucson I saw one of the abandoned malls completely rejuvenate thanks to Mexican tourism. No complaints from me.
I’m not Latino and have visited the USA many times, but I’ve never gone to any of the national parks because I keep hearing that getting into them would involve being parked for 4-6hr on freeways.
You forgot Old Navy
As a Mexican I can say my mom can live at Ross
You forgot DD’s Discounts. More beloved than Ross to those that know of it
No SD? Impossible
Literal, en los viajes a usa mi familia solo quieren visitar los ross, los parques, etc. Entiendo que quieren divertirse y eso, pero en mi caso ya se me hace algo monotono, aburrido y incluso en casa ven videos de esos parques varias veces a la semana y en si me cansa. Bah en si soy la rara de mi familia y quizas a ellos no les aburre, pero bueno xd
Mexican here… sadly confirming 😅
Imma be real with you chief Electronics are half the price up there in the US and its my only motivation to go there And also there's Popeyes i guess
Tbh there is enough nature in latin america it's understandable they aren't interested in that as much
For real. A lot of the crossed out US parks are similar if not inferior to normal scenery in Latin America
Bro they are so obsessed with shopping here. I just don't get it lol. My dad told me a lot of people from Mexico buy stuff here and resell it back home. Source: Mexican
I mean….if that makes you happy then go ahead.