Why Traveling to Europe in Summer is a Nightmare

One thing I find hilarious about tourism is like people will spend thousands of dollars all the discomfort that comes with travel costs so much money and then they'll tolerate stuff they would never ordinarily tolerate in their normal lives like eating not even on real chairs out of a styrofoam box waiting in long ass lines sweating their ass off Look, traveling to Europe in summer is a nightmare. Don't come. I don't mean that in a xenophobic sense. Obviously, I'm an immigrant here. I love this continent. I love my life here. I love France. I love Paris. I am years into living here. But this continent can provide very different experiences, let's say, depending on where you're coming from, how long you choose to spend here, and what you're doing. Let me ask you this. Why do some people come here and have an amazing experience, and other people come here and end up hating it? You know, I've explored this before, but... People seem to have a love-hate relationship with cities or places like Paris. And you think to yourself, is it the same city we're all talking about? Here's the thing. Travel can be so many different things. I've been on many trips in my life. Some have been deeply meaningful, mesmerizing, memorable. And then some trips have not been that. I would describe those other trips as more like superficial and forgettable. And I'm starting to notice patterns in what creates the first kind of trip, the kind of trip that we all want to have, the positive kind. versus the second kind of trip, the negative kind. And I am making this to help you avoid those negative trips. This is why I say don't come to Europe in summer unless you really know what you're getting yourself into. And do not let the long warm days of summer fool you. This is a very complicated time of year to travel here. So here is the secret. Here's the reason why travel in Europe sucks in summer. It's because people utterly lack creativity. Honestly... and this is going to sound a little bit condescending but i've made this mistake as well okay i am i've also been a fool most people are cheap when they travel it's that effect right where if you see a bunch of people looking at something you want to look at it as well you're like what's so interesting about that they take photos of things that get photographed like four billion times a day so instead of spending a fortune you can get the exact same photo just by googling it you know it's that same law that same facet of human psychology which says A restaurant that is full and busy is better quality than an empty restaurant. Sometimes that's totally true, and sometimes it isn't. And that is how you end up with the problems that make travel and summer here terrible. Hordes of people, long lines for all tourist attractions or anything to do, like museums or bookstores. Everyone is in the exact same places trying to do the exact same things. And because of the laws of supply and demand, because there's so much demand, you're getting seasonal pricing. which is why you end up paying a fortune for a crappy spot. 10, 15 years ago, Airbnb used to be this really cool way of stepping into someone's home. But companies have to make a profit, right? And it's changed. Now, I feel like sometimes I am paying an arm and a leg for a place that feels entirely done just for Airbnb. It's not someone's home. Honestly, if I were to draw it out, I think seasonal pricing would look something like this. Summer is by far the worst. And then of course, there's a few other moments throughout the year that are tricky. Holiday weekends, the end of the year. But summer is by far the worst extended period. Okay, I'm going to come back to why so many people inexplicably put up with airport insanity and airline chaos. But to properly do that, let me lay out the criteria of what I think makes a wonderful trip. I think this will help make it clear where things are going so wrong. And I have a feeling most of you are going to agree with me on this. I'm looking for authenticity. I want to connect with locals. I don't want a sanitized version. of the culture i want the real deal i don't want to feel rushed i want to expand my mind i want to feel new things i want to eat the food okay so having said that this is why i moved here because when you move somewhere permanently you have way more time to experience what that place has to offer and as i've said before years into living here i have an utterly different experience than with the tourists experience of this city. I know all the places to avoid the tourists. I know when to go out and when not to go out. I'm keep discovering the hidden gems. I honestly have a midnight in Paris like experience sometimes and it's glorious. And that only came after years of navigating the city. And I also recognize you can't just move to the other end of the world every time you want to experience a new culture, which is why we have travel. temporary visit a temporary stay somewhere and this is why I have preached the value of the next best option in my view which is slow travel which is basically taking your time somewhere not maximizing the amount of things that you do but coming in and immersing yourself to the best of your ability I honestly couldn't give a shit about the tourist attractions I don't want to feel rushed I want to just feel the way of life and personally i think spending a proper amount of time in one place is better than doing 14 countries in seven minutes which is a very american approach to travel but can you blame them they get two weeks of vacation a year so why wouldn't they speed run europe another problem with traveling here in the summer people don't adapt at this stage in the game The sad reality is that heat waves are going to happen. They happen every summer. Why anyone would want to travel during a heat wave is beyond me. Why would you want to sweat like a pig? Why would you be running to the shade just to survive? It's also dangerous. You can get dehydrated, heat stroke. Personally, I think it's horrible and one of the worst ways to experience a place. The reason I say this is it's just a part of summer at this point, right? Traveling precisely when heat waves are highly likely to happen is kind of like stepping outside on a rainy November day and getting surprised that you got wet. If you want to have a more authentic experience in any place in the world. Even speaking some of the local language will make a huge difference. I say that as someone who is addicted to doing that. I think it's the best way to travel. That is why I am pleased to say that this video is sponsored by Lingoda. Lingoda offers live online courses to learn foreign languages with certified native level teachers. And there's a focus on building the habit. staying motivated it's flexible available 24 7 and you have the freedom to filter classes based on your preferred times to suit your own schedule they have two upcoming sprints running for two months and the sprints involve either 30 or 60 classes and if you complete it you can get 50% cash back I like this approach a lot because I've shared my own experience doing my own language sprints and I feel like that has helped me a ton in feeling a lot more confident in speaking Italian and Portuguese I just operate in that way like I really needed the challenge i needed to push lingota has actually redesigned the reward structure for students to complete their challenges to keep them studying beyond the two-month challenge on the road to fluency so you can actually get 40 to 75 group lessons as your award depending on the level of difficulty of the challenge that you signed up to if you complete it or the 50 cash back your choice although the lingota class credits are worth two and a half times the monetary cash back if you're interested in checking them out you can use the link in the description and use my code nathaniel to get 20 euros or $25 off your registration for the sprint. Thank you, Lingoda, for sponsoring this video. Another really important point to be made here is that for some reason, Europeans seem to love to do construction in summer. I know that the Olympics are happening next summer here in Paris, so there's construction up the yin yang everywhere you turn. But I think this is also more broadly true for a lot of European cities. I don't know if it's because of the good weather, longer days, I don't know what's going on, but it's absolutely insane. Now there's something else that's sad about traveling here in the summer without any local connections And that is that the locals aren't here if you're spending all day outside In lines in places where there's you know a lot of people going to visit You're actually spending all day with tourists not locals and when the locals leave It means a lot of shops and venues are closed too. So you're not really getting the full experience. In August, for example, half of Europe is on vacation. This is deeply, deeply culturally ingrained. And you might say, wait a second, you're saying don't come here on vacation in summer, but the locals are doing it. Well, yeah, but you cannot compete with the locals. They've been doing it every year for generations. They have their spots. They go see family. They know where they're going. You can't compete with them. It's not at all the same as coming in here blind. from another continent, and so there are ramifications to coming here when the locals aren't here. No locals means no gateway drug into getting invited deeper into the local life. You know, you might run into somebody, make a connection here or there, and then they invite you to a party or to an event. Now, it's not hard to beat the hordes, to beat the heat, to beat the lines, to beat the seasonal pricing, and I'm actually going to illustrate this through a little story. So, I have been to Greece twice, and the two times I have gone have been... utterly different experiences. They couldn't have been more different. The first time I went was a couple of years ago in August. We spent like four days, walked around, we visited an island. It was fun, but in the grand scheme of things, honestly looking back, it was pretty forgettable. And I think part of the reason why was because I didn't experience much Greek culture. I didn't meet very many locals. I didn't get like immersed. I felt like a tourist. There were tons of people there. It was shit hot. I just remember sweating so much. Now, the highlight of that trip, of that first visit to Greece, was when I posted on my Instagram stories that I was at a bar. Very impromptu. I just said, hey, if you're around, come swing by. I'd love to chat, love to hang out. So a little while later, a group of three Greek friends came over and joined us at the table. They were viewers of this channel. They're really excited and they were super cool. We totally connected. And in that one conversation, I learned more about Greece and Greek culture than the entire rest of my time there. It was absolutely the highlight. So we stayed in touch and flash forward now to January of this year. I decided to return to Greece this time alone. And I went to visit them. In fact, my express goal this time was to do nothing but spend time with them. So this time around, I was hanging with nothing but Greek people in January where there isn't a tourist in sight. Not one tourist. It was extraordinary. I spent time writing. We went on a little road trip through the countryside. Can you press the button? This is a Greek way to eat a toast. amazing amazing experience and let me add I got a little bit lucky because the weather was pretty nice it's January after all but it's still southern Europe and so it was sunny it wasn't too bad it was certainly much better than Paris at that time of year the point of this story is that it's not really actually that hard to have an incredible unique experience if you're willing to be a little bit creative and go off the beaten path That was originally how travel worked until it became this giant commercial thing. I do feel like the way travel has become so commercialized. It's a bit dangerous. This kind of tourism disguises itself as mind-expanding cultural travel, right? But it's not the same thing. It's different. It's a very sanitized, superficial version of the real thing. The real thing I think most of us really want. But the thing is... the real thing is not going to be served in a solar platter for you. If it's made that easy, it means tons of other people have access to it too and are probably doing it already. In fact, this is something I believe more broadly for life in general. If you just let other people decide what's best for you, it often leads to something mediocre. You have to think for yourself. You have to be plugged in. If you can go in spring or fall, Europe is glorious. Those are my favorite seasons and it's more affordable. Go to the places no one else is going. Last year I visited Bulgaria for the first time, and the entire time I was just shocked. It's so underrated, so cheap, and the whole time I was just like, why isn't anyone else here? There were so few tourists. If you are going to travel in summer here, I highly encourage that you go off the beaten path. You try to do things a little bit different than everyone else. Or at the very least, I hope you understand what you're getting yourself into. Really quickly, since you've stuck around this long in this video, I wanted to mention that I recently released the Amor Fatih rings, which I am wearing right now, and they are available until they run out. I love how they came out. They're made out of sterling silver. Some of the other items that I've released with my brand Guerre have sold out, so consider snagging one of these while they're still available. If you grab two items from the shop... You can get free shipping anywhere. Just as a quick reminder, for those of you that don't know the meaning of Amor Fatih, it is one of my favorite phrases of all time. It's Latin for having a love of your fate or a love of all things that happen to you. And for me, it's a beautiful reminder of how I like to live. I'll leave a link in the description if you want to check them out. Thank you so much for your support.

Use the code NATHANIEL with this link to get a discount when signing up to Lingoda: https://try.lingoda.com/NathanielDrew

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Timestamps:

00:00 – Intro
01:41 – The reason travel has gotten so much worse
03:10 – Seasonal pricing
03:23 – The criteria for a good trip
06:02 – Sponsor
07:16 – The season for construction
07:45 – No locals
08:48 – How to have a better experience (a story)
10:50 – Thinking bigger
12:25 – The Amor Fati Rings

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Music

The original Nathaniel Drew x Tom Fox soundtrack → https://www.nathanieldrew.com/nathaniel-drew-original-soundtrack