Calling Something Cheap While Traveling Isn’t the Flex You Might Think It Is

It might be a harmless exclamation to you, but to locals, it might actually feel like a condescending comment. If you live in the US—and most importantly, in some of the US’s most expensive cities, such as New York City or Los Angeles—chances are that when you’re abroad and in some not-as-wealthy countries, grocery shopping, leisure shopping, and even dining out is more affordable than your hometown. However, pointing that out to foreign locals might not be an excellent idea.

Recently, on Reddit, one user sparked the conversation and asked a vital travel etiquette question in the r/Travel subreddit: “How do you feel about people who say ‘Wow, it’s so cheap here!'” when discussing traveling abroad? Quickly, answers started flooding in.

“It is rude,” reads the top comment in the thread. “I will never say anything to the locals. But to my friends I would say something like ‘it’s so cheap for Americans to go to this place.'”

As common sense (and as other Redditors) will have you note, it’s all a matter of context. If you’re traveling from a wealthier country, it is somewhat expected you’ll be aware that your living expenses will be cheaper when traveling there. That is not your fault, and the fact that you can afford a more lavish lifestyle in the country you’re visiting isn’t cause to be reprimanded. After all, you’re still contributing to the local economy with your higher purchasing power, which is a good thing!

Problems arise when visitors say this to locals. “I used to live in Albania and worked in a hostel,” explains one user. “People were often flaunting how cheap it was, ignoring that everyone working at the hostel was on about €100-150 a month salary (back in 2012).” For context, €100 is roughly $110 at the time of writing.

Respecting local culture is paramount, and you should always be mindful of the group you’re traveling with, especially if not everybody is from the same country. In the same thread, one traveler shared their experience of hanging out with a diverse group of newly made friends, all of whom were staying in the same hostel.Some were American, some German and French, while others were Swiss, Australian, and Singaporean, plus another traveler from India. At a certain point, they started talking about living expenses in their home country. “[The] Swiss guy [was] talking about how in their village they would once a year buy a whole small pig for BBQ, which was like 70 dollars, and everyone went: ‘Oh, it’s so cheap!'” reads the comment. Not everybody agreed, though. The Indian traveler responded: “Oh, it’s so expensive at the same time.”

Reportedly, nobody took issue with the situation, and everybody “had a good laugh” instead. However, it’s good food for thought: Different purchasing power is real, and mindfulness goes a long way, especially when traveling around the world and meeting people from different countries and realities.

Sometimes, even countries considered as highly developed can “shock” travelers for their below-average prices—but it’s always relative, and a deeper analysis will likely give you the answers you’re looking for. Take, for example, Spain.

“Spain surprised me when I was there a bit ago,” reads another comment. “Hotels were pretty on par with what we have in my part of the US, maybe slightly cheaper but food and especially drinks were a lot cheaper than I was anticipating. Looking up the median salary really put it into perspective though.”