If you have visited England what were you most surprised at?

19 comments

1. Honestly it was kind of what I expected beforehand. I enjoyed it! Would definitely go back if someone wanted me to go with them, but wouldn’t be first on my list of places to go to if I were the one planning the trip.

2. I’m planning to take a vacation to England in the next few years. I want to visit a place with a lot of racing history, Formula One in particular. I’d love to visit some smaller towns and have some good conversations with locals in the pubs over a few beers. I could really use a vacation.

3. Best surprise: the ease of navigating by public transit, as at the tile I hadn’t yet lived in a place with good trains when I first visited.

   Worst surprise: I bought some kind of Skittles milk drink in a convenience store and it was the worst thing I’d ever tasted.

4. I was surprised to find that the people who live in the U.K. often find castles, Roman ruins, ancient estates, and other historical buildings snd artifacts boring. I get it, they live with them all their lives, it’s easy to take stuff in your own neighborhood for granted. And there are probably many Americans who find such matters boring, too, even on a trip to England.

   But it was still startling to me. I enjoyed visiting very much. I’ve always been interested in history. I didn’t find it boring at all. I have many fond memories.

   I was also surprised at how little I knew about England’s history after the American Revolution. I realized that Americans learn some English history up to the Revolution, but very little after. I’ve done my best to remedy that since my visit. There’s so much of the world to see that England is not at the top of my list anymore, but I’m sure I would enjoy it if my family wanted to go.

5. I’ve never been to England, but I’ve been to Ireland. There I was surprised at how familiar it all felt. A lot of old American cities look similar to downtown Dublin.

   I was in Cyprus last week and there were several British pubs and restaurants. The food was unimpressive.

   I would like to visit the UK, and since I’m in Germany I could get there for around $30-100 anytime I want. However given how familiar Ireland felt, and the eye watering cost of anything in London, the UK is pretty close to the bottom of my travel list. There are lots of places in Europe that I feel are a better value for my time and money.

6. • How different the beer is, especially with ABV and mouth feel. Pleasantly surprised at how cheap it was, too.

   • How good the food was, but I’m also partial to “bland” food.

   • Americans are criticized for resisting the metric system, but holy hellfire England uses a weird mix, especially for things related to driving. Was not ready for that.

7. Can i answer when i‘m not an american? I want to answer so bad, because when i was visiting England, i wasn‘t ready at all for how beautiful the countryside is!

8. I’ve visited England 3 times.

   Good surprises would be ease of traveling via mass transit, the charming countryside, delicious local beers on tap at the pubs, and the friendly people! Ooh and the history and ghost stories! So fun.

   Less than stellar surprises…I kept slamming my right hand into the door when I was attempting to shift the gear of the car I was driving. This was only part Englands fault for the wonky wrong side of the car nonsense…mostly my fault. The other was that when I visited, the £ was very strong and the trips were costly where the exchange was concerned.

   I would visit again. I would spend more time outside of London I think, my trip to London was fun though.

9. I’m American but have lived in England for the past 6 years. I think the biggest shock was the drinking culture.

   Drinks with coworkers multiple times a week is not uncommon, often at lunch. Belligerent lads every weekend on most high streets getting into fights. Drinking is legal in most public places so you often just see people taking their drinks to go from pub to pub. I was really surprised that at professional football (soccer) matches they don’t allow alcohol in the stands because people can’t be trusted to not get into drunken fights.

   I swear everyone is low-key alcoholic here except it’s socially acceptable.

10. How much I hated London. People sucked, too crowded, everything was way more difficult than it needed to be. Restaurants were overpriced and the food was pretty shit for what I paid. The older parts of the metro feel like literal jail, just dehumanizing. I felt everybody was looking down on everybody else the entire time I was there. I would be bitter and miserable too if I had to live in such an inhuman hellscape. I do not have words for how much I disliked London. It is by far the worst city I’ve ever had the displeasure of visiting.

    How lovely literally everything outside London was. Jurassic coast was awesome, the little villages and towns with rivers running through them and open air pubs alongside the river, the hiking, the food (we need more meat pies and real curry over in this side of the Atlantic), the laid back and unpretentious lifestyle, the nature and landscape in the places humans haven’t touched as much, the north of England in general is just amazing, the castles and history, the enjoyable conversions people have with total strangers, the cheap beer, warm pubs, etc. etc.

    In London they treated American tourists like actual scum. Everywhere else I was welcomed with open arms with intense hospitality. I’ve been all over the world and never before have I seen such a difference between the capitol and provincial areas before.

11. I want to eventually go to London/general England and check out some of the historical punk locations & hopefully a gig.

12. Casual day drinking.

13. How cold it was in August. London was the last stop on a trip we took to Europe and the shorts and t-shirts we had packed were not warm enough. We ended up having to buy some sweat shirts and sweat pants and an umbrella.

14. Been a few times, for vacation and work, would strongly recommend it to Americans. I live in the Northeast US, so am used to a fair amount of “old stuff,” but a lot more in the UK. My travels included London, Salisbury, Stonehenge, Oxford, Avebury, and Malmesbury.

    Some funny things, to an American:

    In the US, all highways, major and minor, have compass directions. So Route 1 goes North or South, Route I-90 goes East and West, and so on. No so in England, so I’d be on a highway (maybe a B road) and the sign would say: Bristol OR Bath. So I would have to stop and look at a map, to figure out if I need to take the road toward one or the other. To be clear, I was not going to either city.

    It takes almost no encouragement for a Brit to tell you the right way to do just about anything. “I’ll show you the right way to …..” A museum guard to us wandering around, “The right way to visit a museum is to have a plan.” Huh? I just asked where some painting is. People at work were the same, “This is the right way to make a Power Point presentation.” Americans tend not to talk to each other that way.

    Brits, in casual conversation, would talk about going to France or the Netherlands as “going to Europe.” I’d say, “To an American, we are in Europe now.” Well, you know what we mean. — So Brexit comes as less of a shock to Americans who understood that Brits didn’t quite consider themselves “in Europe.” Like France or the Netherlands were in Europe.

15. How at home we felt. Coming from the Midwest, we spent all our time outside London. For much of it if you widened the roads and took away the stonework it looked like home. Same with trh people, minus the accent. Just very very pleasant and oddly familiar.

    Food culture could have been better. Can’t hold a candle to France.

16. A few things come to mind. I’ve been to London twice.
    First was the lack of jaywalking. It’s practically a birthright where I live. But in London I stepped out against the light and a black cab laid on the horn and kept barreling towards me. I jumped back on the curb.

    Second was being confused on how restaurants work. Here, the wait staff keeps things moving. They check on you often, they see if you need drink refills, when you seem to be done eating they ask if you want to order more food or desserts, and if not you get the check. In London you get your food and then you’re on your own. I think they expect that you’ll have the table for a few hours whether you’re eating or not. I imagine the American way feels rushed to people from other countries, but we don’t typically hang out at a restaurant for too long after we’ve eaten. We’d move on to a bar for that.
    Third, was how much better simple food it. Coffee, bread, butter, cheese. Getting breakfast in little cafes was a very different experience from the states. Once you figure out how to pay your bill and leave that is.
    And yes, I would go back.

17. I thought they’d have more variety of beer.

18. When I visited in 98 and then 2000, I was amazed how clean London felt, compared to NYC.

19. From NYC, lived in London for 6 months.

    I was surprised at how London actually felt much more similar to NYC than I expected!

    No rhyme or reason to difference in cost of living compared to NYC. Some things (public transportation) seemed randomly so much more expensive and others (grocery shopping) randomly so much cheaper.

    My limited experience with the NHS was absolutely mind blowing. I know it’s not a perfect system now but from an American perspective it was like a miracle.

    Drinking culture. At night there would often be drunk people screaming and creating huge public disturbances outside, and then in the morning there would be half empty glasses and bottles all over the sidewalk. Even in a city like NYC you rarely see this.

    I do remember at a certain point being like “Wow. It REALLY does rain every day.” Lmao I always assumed that was a stereotype but nope pretty accurate.

    The cops didn’t have guns!

    One of my favorite surprises was all the little flowerpots hanging over the windows and door in storefronts 🥺 I remember constantly taking pictures of them when I first got there.

    I made a few small day trips to little spots outside London, and the only other city I visited was Manchester, which I thought had such a cool vibe and was absolutely beautiful. Would 100% go back to the UK, for the kind, gracious, hilarious people, the art scene, the beautiful parks, and of course Nando’s.