Many years ago my brother & I were visiting Washington DC seeing the tourist sights & we were walking back to our hotel after dark. A cop car stopped next to us and asked us what we were doing. After chatting to the officer, he said "hop in, I'm a gonna give you Aussies a ride back to your hotel - you don't wanna be walking through this area after dark!" Doh.... dumb Aussie tourists used to being able to wander around anywhere anytime back home! 😅
I remember the night I arrived in Houston, Texas. I was so hung over and all I wanted was a can of Coke. At the motel I booked into there was an enormous bar and restaurant, huge rooms, huge swimming pool. But all the soft drink machines were out of order. There was a fuel station across what looked to be a six-lane highway and I was going there for a can of Coke. A girl out front said you better not do that. She said there are some bad ass dudes over there on that corner and they'll kill you. She was one of the motel's barmaid and took me back inside and gave me an 'itty bitty' steel can of Coke. I sat at the bar watching Columbo on the big rear-projection screen and chatting with her. An Aussie and a Texan. Ended up getting married to that sweet gal. All over a can of Coke...
My best tip is to look left then right before you cross the road , I was almost run overed the first time I went to the states and looked the wrong way
The safety comment is drastically overstated. The small dangerous areas in American cities are usually nowhere near anywhere a tourist will typically go. Even if you make an effort (and you'd have to make an effort to do it) and wind up in a "bad neighborhood", you'll be fine. The real driver of the high rates of crime is inter-gang violence not random tourist attacks. Setting that aside, the vast, vast majority of the US is extremely safe.
Anyone travelling to USA for the first time should watch this. Nice and concise. Very helpful too. Now when I’m back I’d love to give it more than one thumb up if I could.
Yes our Aussie cashless society is well ahead of the world, take cash. Don’t be afraid of travelling to the USA people it’s a great country just be aware of your surrounds
there is a widely held opinion that america is more dangerous than afghanistan and also surprise that dfat hasn't declared a warning about entering that dysfunctional entity that calls itself the "land of the free" ... ( free to be expoited by their employers )
@@brucedeane8 The USA lacks many things and rarely looks at itself or its issues, believing they are the "Best", I have a friends father who describes the USA as, and I quote "The freest and most moral country on earth".....delusional. But still don't hesitate to travel, its has many things to see.
@@brucedeane8 its also the land of the fee. Everyone goes on about the tipping culture in America but the fees for service is off the charts. Its crept into the Australian system but still not as much as what u experience in the States. Decades ago banks and other financial institutions in Australia never even had fees now its everywhere here as well.
I have been to USA many times and leave again on this Sat, finally. Most of this I knew but big one is having cash on hand. I can't remember last time I used cash here in Australia. It has been forever.
What a coincidence this video came out today. I can't drive and needed to do some shopping during the regular business hours in the town that's about a 15 minute drive from my home 🏡. I live in The Atherton Tablelands, Far North Queensland which is up a Mountain Range behind Cairns. It's beautiful up here with it's Rainforests, Waterfalls and Rolling Green Hills with a cooler climate than the coast. But being a country area the public transport isn't exactly the best. There are some buses but you need to plan carefully and be prepared to spend hours in a town before returning home. So I caught a Taxi to the middle of town and later the same driver took me back home from Woolies (Woolworths). He asked helped me with my shopping at the Supermarket and home 🏡. A friend asked me to buy her a large package of Toilet Paper, well at least have it put aside for her at Big W. But since Woolies was only half a block away I carried it. On my return trip the Taxi Driver and I talked about how badly people are treated in America. I'll tell you about it in another comment.
my tip is REMEMBER TO TIP! lol, it was only when I arrived back from Canada that I realised I never tipped! it made me feel horrible because it was unintentional
" Alaska, California, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington -employers are allowed to pay “subminimum” wages to staff, provided that their tips bring their earnings up to the required levels. For some, this can mean that their employer pays as little as $2.13 an hour" Is 20% enough since the diner is expected to subsidize wages
I do NOT agree with tipping just to make up a staff members wage. It is up to the employer to pay their staff a living wage, NOT the customer. On the other hand, if I receive good customer service etc, then I have no objection to leaving a tip (generally no more than 10%).
I think the point is that while we can disagree with it, if you travel to the US then you need to accept that it is how the payments work. If they try to introduce that here, then absolutely kick up a fuss, I would be fighting hard against any importing of such behaviour, totally opposed to it. But when in Rome.
Great advice on the vid. I'd like to visit the US again but was thinking of other locations from what I've already seen. Thanks for mentioning the public transport issues, as I'll check trip adviser for info. I'm amazed about all the cash people have to carry with them. As I'm in Melbourne our grand slam for tennis the Australian Open was a cashless event. Card only for everything. As the US Open is starting I'd love to know if they need to have mainly cash, as it's what I did when last in NY for the tennis.
Tip 1. Make sure you have travel insurance that covers large emergency medical bills. LARGE emergency medical bills. Tip 2. Make sure you have followed tip 1.
yes tax is interesting and that because states also charge tax and that why things can never have tax included, because each state have different tax rate
Still no reason not to include taxes on the price tags. Just means that prices for a given item will vary from state to state. Not including taxes on the items tags is a form of deception.
Whole video I heard the lady justifying really bad American culture.. too many negatives justified and totally put off to go to states ! Why I am to suffer/put up if waitstaff is not happy with their job??? I am on vacation just want to have a good time not think of how a waitstaff will feed their families at $3 / hr and whole time calculate the 20% in my head for tip !!!Even in south east asia they dont have this pity culture ..
The Federal minimum cash wage for tipped staff is US$2.13 per hour. There's an assumption that tips of US$5.12 an hour would take it to US$7.25 an hour, but the definition of tipped staff is anyone receiving tips of more than US$30 per MONTH. Essentially you're relying on people other than your employer to pay the majority of your wage. Fifteen of the fifty US states set their minimum at the default Federal level. Some State and Local Government areas set higher minimum wage rates otherwise they would have no employees due to the cost of living. www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/state/minimum-wage/tipped
As a tourist you can never have enough $5 and $10 bills due to always tipping porters and drivers. In fact its one of the first things you pay for after you land so always get some US cash before you fly.
RULE #1: do NOT lecture americans about how much "better" australia is than the states. it's bad enough we're subjected to it when in oz and sometimes even when we encounter australians in other countries but just as you would not tolerate it fer a second (ESPECIALLY from americans) don't do it. plain and simple.
my experience of americans is they can't stop themselves from telling anyone they can corner how great america is ... never mind little things like mississippi , maga and trump , insane demand to own weapons you only ever see in failed states , social inequity unseen in any other 1st world country and a totally dysfunctional and broken society ... land of the free ? free to be exploited by their lords and masters ... they also have the totally offensive habit of telling people what is acceptable to say ... always willing to censor others and then lecture you on free speech ... hypocrisy manifest ... plain and simple
Aussie news is horrible at this! We constantly get pushed negative news from the US and we get pushed weird bias political views that the Aus government wants us to think 😂🤦♂️ especially regarding trump ect Australia is like soooo left! I love America as a Australian and wanna live there one day
Thanks for your great advice but it's a bit late because I got US dollars here before I left and it was fifties and hundreds and after the first day I had to go to the bank to get it changed to twenties and tens and so right about public transport I gave up in the end and uber and hired a car just need to tell Australians to get top car insurance I didn't need to use the insurance because it's so hard too drive on the other side of the road
I’d love to go and really hope to at some stage, but just now it seems to be just too much of a tinderbox right now. You make great points in your video tho and your advice will be heeded by me when I finally make it there
The tap and go thing is out of date. Basically every POS terminal in the US accepts Apple Pay and Google Pay now. It's the primary way I pay for stuff.
My wife and I are going to Hawaii at the end of September we have a week in Hawaii than an 18 day cruise back to Sydney the tipping is confusing so now it is 20% thank you for that do you know if mask are needed in Hawaii
When my brother was going to America for the first time I gave him a tip. Just one tip because he was so Gung Ho he wouldn't listen to my advice. I told him that when he gets to Sydney airport check and double check his gate numbers and boarding calls. He fobbed me off like I was mad. When he got home he sheepishly admitted that he almost missed his flight. If he had of just listened to all my advice about all of it from someone that had done it before him. But we can still take all the advice on board and still err. I guess part of life's journey is screwing up...but you gotta get out of your country's airport first...
The safety part… don’t walk alone at night, as an American, this is true, AND please for your life do not visit Chicago or Detroit or even Atlanta and walk alone at night, all seriousness, the crime rate is high and there are always shootouts happening, I wanna move 😂
Card swiping is far less common these days. The option is still available, but most cards do have a chip, so if your card has a chip, you have to do the chip. Most debit cards these days allow for tap.
As someone with a family member from Australia who worked at an American Summer Camp, I echo the advice to get Travel Insurance. Even if you need boring antibiotics that will cost a fortune without the Travel Insurance.
Or just check your credit card - I never had to get travel insurance as NAB gold card always came with free insurance. Many cards do. And every time I went to the US I needed to claim on it.
America is a beautiful country but to be honest I don't think I will be going any time soon. It is now far too dangerous and for such a country with great science it is such a shame it treats its people poorly. I always leave money on my hotel beds for the maids as well as tipping in restaurants. Shame such a rich country has poor health outcomes and poor pay. Young people need to start trying to change things.
Honestly America frightens the Hell out of me. All the political Trump stuff. Trigger happy cops. Trigger happy criminals. States that have tried to kill their own people by treating Covid as a joke. I've seen the world go backwards in my life; America was safer to travel to in the 1980's.
It's no more dangerous than most places, just need to be smart, vigilant and do your homework. I never relaxed in Europe's tourist traps and watch out for London's moped crims.
The tipping thing is not accurate, Ive seen the legislation, if the server doesn't hit minimum wage with their tips (USD of $7.25 or AUD of $11.12 per hour) the employer must make it up, so really to that point your tips just go to the employer.
Why would you want to spend most of your time in a city when coming to America? Seriously, the USA, my country, has so many beautiful natural wonders, it far surpasses most countries. Yellowstone National Park, Glacier National Park, Yosemite National Park, the Grand Canyon National Park, Arches National Park, Grand Teton National Park, Saguaro National Park, Carslbad Caverns National Park, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Crater National Park, Mt. Ranier National Park, Olympia National Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, Denali National Park, Everglades National Park, etc.
Was in NY once and a chain restaurant tipped themselves big automatically. I didn't go for that and changed it, the service was poor. The first poor service in Newark airport was, "When are you leaving?"
6hough I have no intention of visiting the US, due to cost and medical history makes long flights risky for me (yes even 10 hours to Honolulu is a no no according to my Dr), it was interesting to hear nonetheless. I knew about tipping and the tax thing, but most of the others I was unaware of. Very informative.
I tip more than 20% for good thoughtful service. If I get terrible service...I tip nothing! But terrible truly does mean terrible. I will tip 10% for mediocre service.
The tap and go thing is so hard to get use to. You think US would be world leading but banking they aren’t. I ended up in an argument with a store manager on if I had paid as I was the first ever person to use tap and go in the two years he had the machine. He was sure I was shop lifting and I had to insist he checks his receipts and then he was then just confused. Also at Disney when I tap and go I got the cast member commenting “are you from tomorrow land” before asking me about how tap and go works.
Why would you bother, seems it's more off a pain in the backside with all these "must do's". Rather spend my bucks on a place that makes travel enjoyable and cheaper too.
As an Australian living in the states the past 20 years ( New Jersey ). I get frustrated with the lack of toilets for the public over here. It’s frustrating
Ah kaitlyn i saw your latest video and i have been to your country many times and i know,tipping is part of US culture,but is it really as dangerous as you say, me my wife and my son loved Disney world.I wouldn,t go at the moment as the aussie dollar is too low
@kinda_australian🔛TELEGRAM FOR SUPPORT my aussie family and i would love to meet you and mark at a bar during summer,we live in the shire,and i experienced homesickness as well while i was living in houston
You’ve got a Telegram scammer in your comments. I don’t know how you can block them, but I thought you’d like to know. Also, is it safer to go and avoid bigger cities (say, focus on National Parks) or is crime pretty much anywhere?
Much safer in / near the National Parks. Flagstaff for Grand Canyon, Merced River for Yosemite. Durango for Mesa Verde eg. I voided LA almost entirely as I have no interest in Disneyland or Univeral Studios.
#1 Tipping sucks, but respecting the culture is expected by us, so why would you refuse to do so there? Base food prices are still cheap even with the tip. #3 sounds like enough reason to never go to the US as a tourist. It sounds like downtown Baghdad is honestly safer. #4 "Living the dream" #5 Absolutely. INSANE MEDICAL COSTS #9 American attitude on the internet is frankly that everything goes in the trash and recycling is some kind of woke money wasting con and related to . I wish they could frankly grow the hell up and respect our planet, but right now that seems a societal divide that is just too far for some people.
As far as recycling there is not a market for cities to sell the recycling to. ( China used to buy a lot) so even if you are fastidious about recycling it ends up in the landfill with the regular trash
Huh??? Tipping isn't required. You tip when the service was good to exceptional. I've not tipped before when the service was bad. You can still visit the US - coming from an American! That was a silly thing to say that they can't come!
The situation with the local taxes being added is that the vendors don't include the tax into the listed purchase price. We manage it here with out GST and all through Europe with their VAT. It's not rocket science they seem to have got into a bad habit are can't be bothered to offer a 'service' to their customers...Cheers!
Doubtful you are an American. Tipping is part of our culture. Chill out. Our food is lower-priced. Having it this way saves the restaurant money, makes the restaurant less likely to go out of business. It also stimulates more business, as labor costs are lower. Furthermore, most people only eat out 1-2 times per week, so tipping twenty percent of the price of the meal is no big deal. It doesn't break the average American's bank, and it also leads to higher income for tipped workers. Being tipped, they make more money than they would if they were paid a higher wage. The federal government has allowed this structure. This isn't the workers' issue, but most waiters or delivery personnel prefer the tipping system.
Unless you have a million dollars 15-20% is outrageous! I was born in the US and have lived here most of my life. Yes tip a couple of dollars .No one is going to look down on you for not giving 20 % Watch the dollars you get in change if you are not using plastic. We have had a LOT of counterfeit going around . and minimum wage is 15 $ an hour. Most states thrive on tourism so don't let some nay sayer frighten you away!
Only a few states have minimum wages that high. 22 states still have the federal minimum wage of $7.25 for non-tipped employees, and most of these states have the federal minimum wage of $2.13 for tipped employees.
@@gregmullins6927 lol I’ve lived, studied and worked there too. She’s using the accepted American spelling, which is the spelling she learned at school and you may be over reacting just a tiny bit 🤣
It's always good to be honest right, until America does a Uturn to catch up with the rest of the world then im never going there ever. SORRY AMERICA FACE THE FACTS ! ! ! 😁
I agree. Sales tax, tipping, no recycling, cash required, can't walk anywhere after dark, miserable public transport, superficial smiles and greetings, not being able to eat a meal in peace at a restaurant, horrendous money-driven health care system, gun laws... doesn't make it an appealing place to visit when there's so many other more advanced and generally better countries on the planet.
@@grandmothergoose quite frankly, if you don't want to be here, we'd prefer you stay home. But none of those things are day to day concerns for most Americans.
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We weren't the ones locked down in our homes, threatened with arrest for leaving a small bubble around our home. What Australia dealt with was downright tyranny. Same thing in Canada.
@kinda_australian🔛TELEGRAM FOR SUPPORT just letting you know how it is. If there is a mass shooting and it is less than 4, it is not considered a mass shooting, go figure.
