What foreign guidebooks say about Britain

Telegraph

4 days ago

How does the rest of the world view Britain? Surely the stereotypes about queueing for fun, stiff upper lips, endless fish and chips and flagons of warm beer are no longer in circulation? Think again.
When our writers trawled through French, German and American guidebooks, they unearthed plenty of outdated opinions, terrible errors, and one truly baffling theory about hard-boiled eggs.
What French guidebooks say about Britain
'They describe mostly a middle-class Britain of a generation ago'
Most mainstream French guidebooks to Britain are pretty good. In more than 400 pages of Michelin's Guide Vert to London, I found only one claim with which to take issue. In the pub food section, they mentioned Lancashire hotpot – scarcely a London speciality – and, much worse, claimed it was a stew of beef. If you don't spot the mistake there, you're probably not from Lancashire, so I can't help you.
And the generationvoyage.fr website suggested that Cambridge was an 'emblematic town of northern England'.
Otherwise, both sources seemed straight up across all other details. That went for most other guides, though there was a sense that they were dealing mainly with a middle-class Britain of maybe a generation ago.
A 'sorry' state of affairs
Much was made of British politeness. 'You'll be surprised how often you'll hear 'sorry' in any given day,' claims the guide bellabritannia.com.
Others suggest that French visitors would be required to queue properly ('not like in France') and not to push or shove when getting on or off the Tube. 'The British are orderly in Tube stations,' future French visitors are told – preparing them, perhaps, for serious disappointment.
Lip service
According to the Routard guide, French visitors must remember that they should shake hands only on first meeting someone – not every time they bump into that person – and forget all that French stuff about exchanging cheek kisses. That doesn't wash in Britain.
On the other hand, they should not be surprised to be addressed as 'love' or 'darling' by shop personnel or other people whom they don't know and will never see again. 'Generally,' says bellebritannia.com, 'the British are not unpleasant and go naturally towards others'.
Nor should the French expect French-style Cartesian logic from the British, according to the Akteos website. The Briton distrusts intellectualism and logic. The French defend the virtue of reason.
The British, we are told, prefer pragmatism, accepting the instability of things as inevitable and against which it would be vain to protest. 'We'll muddle through' is the British retort to the French preference for life which should respond to ideology.
No laughing matter
Almost everywhere, the British are praised as non-judgmental, whence the anything-goes attitude to fashion and the 'somewhat marginal look' of many people. Punks, say. Pride in 'ugly Christmas jumpers' also comes into play here for one guide writer.
Almost everywhere, too, the French are told to expect British phlegm, humour, a sense of the absurd and a sort of universal self-deprecation which the French struggle to master. This is thought to be a reaction to the uniformity of British housing arrangements, with estates on which houses are all in a line and identical. Whence an urge to be different. The worst insult with which you can charge a Briton is his or her lack of a sense of humour.
Know your eggs
The Routard guide says the British remain masters of tea-time. To be accepted by the British, you must, apparently, put milk in last, and not dunk your toast. And – a bit of a mystery, this one – a British person, on finishing a boiled egg, will pierce the shell with the spoon, 'to let the demons out'. I didn't know that there were demons in hard-boiled eggs.
Across guidebooks, the belief remains that British cuisine has not yet hit the heights of France's own – but, according to the whereismarion.com website, our nation is far more accommodating of vegetarians and vegans. And, if our food isn't invariably terrific, we host a vast number of other, international cuisines which will ensure a French visitor isn't restricted to the full English breakfast and/or fish and chips.
Guide writers are unanimously impressed by the fact that most London museums – or their permanent exhibitions, anyway – are free, like the many great parks. They appear less impressed that it costs £30 to visit Westminster Abbey and £26 for St Paul's. Entry to Notre Dame in Paris, they point out, remains free. And visitors are warned, by whereismarion.com and others, that public transport costs in Britain are prohibitive.
The final words
Though the survey was far from exhaustive, I found no guide warning about knife crime in London. There was a lot more emphasis on how great it is to have shops open on Sundays.
French people are warned to be aware that Britain has three-point plugs and that the plug points often have switches that need switching on if you wish the plug to be effective. This is clearly a source of widespread annoyance among visitors.
Finally, a key element of any French person's visit to London is witnessing the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. Don't bother, advises londres.fr. The ceremony 'seems very long and monotonous'.
Anthony Peregrine
What German guidebooks say about Britain
'Smugness seems to appear when it comes to Brexit'
German guidebooks aren't generally shy about resorting to clichés when it comes to Britain – 'land of fish and chips and football' is the kind of thing that's generally churned out, which is perhaps fair when you consider that we might in turn cheerfully describe Germany as a 'land of beer and sauerkraut'.
Clouded judgment
The German Wikivoyage guide has a whole section on how the 'unofficial national dish of the United Kingdom is fish and chips', although it does have the wherewithal to mention that we also serve them with peas (whole or mushy peas), pickled onions, gherkins or baked beans, with 'brown sauce, ketchup or other sauces added to taste'.
It also adds, with a discernible air of schadenfreude, that the English climate is 'known for its abundant rainfall and the interplay of sunshine and clouds'. They could have at least mentioned the five days of uninterrupted sunshine we get each year.
Please please me
The Marco Polo guide is a little more nuanced. Its guide to London admits that the 'cliché that two Brits immediately form a queue when they meet is no longer true' but adds that we do pay attention to a fair queue order and that it's a good rule of thumb to ask where the end of the queue is.
They also advise always adding the word 'please' to your sentence when ordering in a shop or restaurant because 'not doing so, sounds simply unfriendly to English ears'. As someone who has lived in Germany for nearly 20 years but who is still often shocked by the bluntness of German interactions, I can only concur.
Love lost
Some smugness seems to appear when it comes to Brexit. 'While Brexit is limiting the influx of EU citizens, immigration from outside the EU has increased due to a shortage of workers, particularly in the hospitality industry, nursing homes and hospitals. Many bring their families with them, so immigration from non-EU countries has doubled,' says the German guide.
That said, it is clear how much the Germans secretly love us – football, fish and chips and all – from a recent Welt article that tearfully reports on the new ETA restrictions that came into effect in April 2025. 'We love the royals, we wear tweed and trench coats, we diligently visit National Trust castles and manor houses,' it whimpers. 'And what do the British do to us? They treat us like strangers and deny us entry.'
Paul Sullivan
What American guidebooks say about Britain
'There's much discussion of Britain's role in the slave trade'
Trips to Olde England tend to be the gateway drug for American travel to Europe, which is to say that we get the numbers but not the exotic sense of adventure that other destinations may garner. In the fêted New York Times list of 52 places to go in 2025, three British destinations warrant entries:
Jane Austen's patch of 'south-west England', chosen to mark the 250th anniversary of the writer's birth.
East London, which is cited for its rich cultural offerings, namely Sadler's Wells East, the V&A storehouse and the inaugural SXSW London, which debuted in early June and received lukewarm enthusiasm from this publication.
The Flow Country, Scotland's vast peat bog, which achieved Unesco World Heritage status in July; visitors are advised to 'lean in to the wildness'.
Start with an apology
Of course, much is made of British manners. As one example, the US-facing guide to British etiquette for Insight Vacations notes: 'The British apologise for absolutely everything, even if it is not their fault and no offence occurred.'
But it may also be that the UK, and London specifically, owes the world an apology, according to the classic US guide Frommers. This US guidebook empire has been a mainstay since 1957, when the US Army corporal Arthur Frommer penned a guide for American GIs in Europe, followed by a civilian version called Europe on $5 a Day.
'Whether you realise it or not, London shaped your destiny', a Frommers introduction to the city says, going on to credit the city with the founding of the US (in reaction to 'London's edicts'); the populating of Australia with the city's criminals; and the creation of 'modern Canada, South Africa and New Zealand'.
It cites the city's role in the slave trade, noting the 'irrevocable change' wrought on 'the lives of millions of Africans who were shipped around the world while Londoners lined their pockets with profits'.
Leave London
Rick Steves, the revered American travel writer and television presenter, has advised his fellow Americans on travel to Europe for more than four decades. And his Great Britain Itinerary includes the admonition that visitors embrace 'a gentler small-town start in Bath (the ideal jet-lag pillow)', building up to the Big Smoke at the end of their trip.
Scotland to Steves is 'feisty', Wales 'largely covered in green, sheep-dotted pastures that end at 750 miles of scenic, windswept coastline overhanging the Irish Sea', and England 'delights'. (Though I am not sure that Steve's American readers will delight their hosts if they do as he advises, and 'strike up a conversation just to hear the King's English' or, worse, far worse: 'Bite into a scone smothered with clotted cream, sip a cup of tea, and wave your pinky as if it's a Union Jack'.)
One final tip
American tipping culture has long been the bane of Telegraph readers on their Stateside forays. Their American counterparts are equally confounded by the vagueness around the custom in the UK.
The American website Tripsavvy.com offers the often-repeated advice that exceptional service from a kind barman in the pub may be rewarded with the offer of a small amount of money, '(like the price of half a pint of beer), with the words, 'and have one for yourself' or something similar'. The site explains that 'the bartender may pour themselves a drink on the spot or may put the money aside to have a drink later'.
In my experience, Americans hear this advice as: 'Buy the barman a drink every single time he brings you one'. My American grandfather, a great pub enthusiast, made his way around the UK in this way, with a trail of possibly charmed, and somewhat bemused, pub staff in his wake.