Lifestyle
The New American Travel Anxiety: ‘Will They Hate Us?’
As Franck Verhaeghe and two friends planned a March trip to Mexico City, they plotted out not only where they would stay and which museums they would visit but also the language they would speak: French. “It’s not that I think it’s unsafe for Americans,” said Mr. Verhaeghe, 65, who lives in California, but “I can imagine people there aren’t very happy with us. So my friends and I decided that on this trip, we would all just speak French to each other.”
Two months into his second term, President Trump has set off panic in Europe about the potential collapse of alliances; inspired boycotts of American products in Canada; heightened tensions between Denmark and Greenland over the island’s independence; and prompted protests in Istanbul and Panama over the possibility of U.S. territorial expansion.
His proposals are also making some Americans reconsider their travel plans.
Behavior adjustments
Since the inauguration, some agencies are noticing a drop in sales for international travel by Americans. Tour operators are fielding inquiries from customers concerned about how they will be received abroad. The risk management company Global Rescue recently conducted a survey that found that 72 percent of “experienced” U.S. travelers expected Americans to be less welcome abroad this year.
The nervousness does not seem to have translated into widespread cancellations, but social media and travel forums are filled with Americans asking variations of “Will they hate us?”
Christine Bauer, a New Hampshire retiree who is planning a trip to France, asked travelers on a Rick Steves’ Europe forum for insight into how the French were responding to American foreign policy changes. A few days later, she grew more worried when “Trump and Musk began insulting NATO and allied countries.” She and her husband haven’t made any changes “at least for now,” but they are “hoping that travel doesn’t become more unsafe.”
Vicci Jaffe, 68, has second thoughts about an excursion to Berlin this fall. Her concern stems not only from the rise of the far right in Germany, but also from political changes at home. “How will I be regarded while in Berlin?” she asked. “At the very least, I am embarrassed, but also now afraid of retribution or violence.”
Some people, including Mr. Verhaeghe, who is traveling to Mexico using his second, European, passport, are adjusting their behavior. Cheryl Carlson, 63, a Chicago educator, plans to reveal her nationality ahead of time to the owners of the accommodations she and her husband will be staying in during a trip to Canada “to make sure our presence would not cause a small business to feel uncomfortable hosting us.” Peter Serkian, 60, who travels to Canada twice a month from Farmington Hills, Mich., pays in Canadian dollars, not U.S. dollars. “I try to hide that I am an American,” he said.
Feeling spooked
Those measures are preventative; none of the interviewees for this article have actually experienced anti-American sentiment. But the nervousness is taking its toll. Cameron Hewitt, content and editorial director for Rick Steves’ Europe, has seen a dip in guidebook sales, “literally starting the day of the inauguration,” he said.
Lisa Wirth, an owner of Ataxito, which offers tours to Oaxaca, Mexico, said that some prospective guests are feeling spooked. “We had several American travelers decide to cancel our February weeklong tour, either because the travel partners they had planned on traveling with backed out due to concerns regarding safety in Mexico or because the current administration and their anxiety around it caused them to pause any trip decisions in the short term,” she said. Others are postponing because of “concerns regarding inflation and job losses.”
Jack Ezon, founder of Embark Beyond, a New York-based luxury travel company, had a client cancel a trip to Mexico. “They were doing a birthday-party trip and had booked out the whole hotel,” he said. “But this was right after the whole tariff thing, and their security team said, ‘Don’t go, there’s anti-American sentiment, it’s going to be too dangerous.’”
That fear has not been borne out in the experience of other clients, said Mr. Ezon, who added that bookings to Mexico have rebounded. And sales to Europe are booming. “Ever since Covid, the recovery from crisis is a lot faster,” he said.
It’s hard to pinpoint the cause for travelers’ unease. Plane crashes, tariffs and stock market instability have contributed, said Jeff Roy, executive vice president of the tour company Collette. “We’ve been a little bit behind for the last four to five weeks from what we were producing last year at this time,” Mr. Roy said. “There’s so much swirling around right now, it’s really hard to know exactly what’s causing the change.”
What Mr. Roy describes as “mild trepidation” is playing out more in nervous calls than in cancellations. And because many bookings are made far in advance, he’s not too worried about this year. If the uncertainty continues, he said, “I don’t know about 2026.”
Unexpected interest
A few destinations have experienced increased interest since Mr. Trump took office. After he said that he wanted the United States to “buy” Greenland — one of The New York Times’s 52 Places to Go in 2025 — the Greenland tourist authority said it was seeing evidence of “piqued curiosity about the destination.”
The new attention has had a similar effect on Panama, whose canal Mr. Trump has said he wants the United States to reclaim. Carlos Ivan Espinosa, the owner of Panama Canal Tours, said his company has experienced a significant increase in bookings by U.S. tourists. “President Trump’s declarations,” he said, “are awakening curiosity.”
That isn’t to say there haven’t been protests against American rhetoric, notably in Canada, where citizens have objected to Mr. Trump’s tariffs as well as his expressed desire to turn the country into “the 51st state.”
But those protests aren’t directed against American individuals, said Donna Salter, a retired journalist in Vancouver. She, like many Canadians, is swearing off travel to the United States for the duration of this administration but welcomes Americans. “We love Americans and we also love the American dollar, especially now,” Ms. Salter said.
Not all foreigners are receptive. One TikTok user in Scotland told “MAGA tourists” that they are not welcome, and a farmer on the Danish island of Bornholm terminated an agreement he had with a U.S. travel agency to receive tourists in his home for coffee and a chat. “I would feel ridiculous if I had to discuss democracy with representatives of such a government,” Knud Andersen, the farmer, told the Danish broadcaster DR.
On a trip to Italy, Rebecca Andersons, of California, and her family had a taxi driver whose criticisms of American politics started with Ronald Reagan and ended with Mr. Trump. Ms. Andersons told him they were “too young to vote for Reagan and actually are Californians who voted for Harris.” Apparently forgiven, they later found themselves singing along with the driver to “Volare.”
Other Americans are adopting tactics designed to deflect criticism, like answering the question “Where are you from?” with their state’s name. Sue Rook Nichols from California ordered buttons off Etsy that read, “I didn’t vote for him.” She plans to wear them on a trip to Europe.
The tactics may not be necessary. Mariana Hamman, who owns a tour agency in Mexico, said that none of her colleagues had reported encountering anti-American sentiment. “Sometimes you see ‘Go home, gringo’ graffiti,” she said. “But that’s about overtourism, not politics.”
When David Rojas-Klein, of California, traveled to Mexico recently, his expectation that he would “see something anti-American” never materialized. “What I learned was that people make a distinction between the American people and the American government.”
The fear that people in other countries will equate them with their politicians’ actions is a peculiarly American anxiety, one that also surfaced during the Gulf War, said Mr. Hewitt of Rick Steves’ Europe. “If you look at history, most European countries have had experience with a ruler who, especially in retrospect, they’re not particularly proud of.”
Bo Albertus, a 57-year-old school principal in Denmark, agrees. He administers a Danish Facebook group, 89,000 strong, that is dedicated to boycotting American products. But American citizens are welcome in his country, Mr. Albertus said. “The Danish people don’t have a problem with Americans. We have a problem with the American administration.” Even a tourist in a MAGA hat would be treated fine, he added, “Because in Denmark, we have freedom of speech.”
Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram and sign up for our Travel Dispatch newsletter to get expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places to Go in 2025.
Phil Pritchard of the Hockey Hall of Fame works the 2019 NHL Awards at the Mandalay Bay Events Center on June 19, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
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Paul W. Downs can’t help it that even on the weekends, his life intersects with “Hacks,” the HBO comedy he co-created and co-showruns with his wife, Lucia Aniello, and their friend Jen Statsky. (He also appears on the show as Jimmy LuSaque Jr., the besieged manager of its two stars, played by Emmy winners Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder.) The fifth and final season of “Hacks” premiered last week, but on Downs’ days off, he often finds himself at its previous filming locations or hanging out with cast members who have become like family.
In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.
Downs moved to Los Angeles in 2011, but soon after, he and Aniello were hired to write (and for him to act) on the über-New York show “Broad City,” keeping them away from the West Coast for years. Now the couple live in Los Feliz, which they enjoy with their young son.
“I love Los Feliz because it’s a real neighborhood with restaurants and bars, but also feels close to nature with Griffith Park,” Downs says. “Also it’s very central to my Eastside friends and Westside agents.”
And if he had to live at a local mall, like the character Ava Daniels did in the third season of “Hacks,” which would he choose?
“It would be the Americana, obviously.”
Here’s how he’d spend a perfect day in L.A.
10 a.m.: A late rise and a li’l barista
I’m sleeping in if I can, which I can’t because I have a toddler, but let’s say I can sleep ’til 10. That would be insane.
Then I’m making coffee at home. I’m making it with my 4-year-old because he likes to make my coffee now. He always wanted to help, now he really wants to do it on his own. I’m still there to supervise, but he does do a lot of it.
I do batch brew. I’m doing Verve Coffee that I’m grinding there, and then I’m brewing four cups because I need my coffee. I had a Moccamaster for a long time, but I recently got a Simply Good Coffee. There’s no plastic — it’s all glass and metal.
11 a.m.: Chocolate croissants for everyone
We’re driving to Pasadena and we’re going to [Artisanal Goods by] CAR, which is the place to get the best chocolate croissant, I think, in the world. I don’t just think in L.A., I think they’re better than Paris. I’m going there with my wife and my kid and I’m having another coffee and some pastry. We’re ordering three [chocolate croissants]. We’re not doubling up.
11:45 a.m.: The family business
We’re driving to Fair Oaks in Pasadena. There’s a place called T.L. Gurley. We shot “Hacks” there, actually. Not only in Season 1, but also full circle in Season 5. We’re going to shmay around and look at antiques. My kid is going to want to play a vintage pinball machine. We’re going to find a little piece of art for the house or what have you. It’s not necessarily that I’m on the hunt. It’s to pass the time and to have some fun. If I could do anything and have a leisurely day and take my mind off work, that’s what I’m doing.
People love to interact with my kid when he’s there. We’re really training him to appraise things at a young age. My parents are part-time dealers of antiques. My grandmother bought and sold antiques. It’s kind of a family business.
1:30 pm.: Baguettes and books
We’re driving to Larchmont and we’re getting a sandwich at Larchmont Village Wine, Spirits & Cheese. I’m doing prosciutto-mozzarella-basil on a baguette.
Then we’re going to Chevalier’s Books. What’s sad is that I’m often not looking for leisure material. I’m looking for something that I’m interested in learning more about or writing about, or that they’re turning into a show I want to audition for. But we’re also doing Little Golden Books for my son. He’s obsessed. We’re not huge on screen time, so we really encourage the book-buying.
2:30 p.m.: Cast pool party
We’re having some family fun in the pool and we’re doing that until evening. We invite people over all the time. My sister-in-law is a New Yorker, but she actually wrote last season on “The Rooster” and she’s often writing on shows in L.A., so she’s often here and she’ll have a couple friends come over. I know this sounds like a piece of PR or something, but we’ll really literally have Hannah [Einbinder] and maybe Mark Indelicato from “Hacks” come over to swim. Jen, our co-creator of “Hacks,” will come over.
6:00 p.m.: Family dinner
Sometimes we’ll order Grá to the house, which is a pizza place in Echo Park — excellent sourdough crust pizza. But if we don’t do that, an ideal evening is an early dinner at All Time on Hillhurst in Los Feliz. We’re ordering the ceviche and my son is having all of it and not sharing with anybody at the table.
8:45 p.m.: A thrilling ending to the day
After putting my kid to bed, my wife and I, in an ideal world (full disclosure: we haven’t done this in two years), we’ll watch something together that we’ve been meaning to watch. We have a long list of movies and we either want to revisit or that we haven’t seen that we need to watch.
We don’t watch a lot of comedies. It’s a dream to watch a “Black Bag” or a little espionage thriller. We really like that because it’s so different than the stuff that we’re working on in the day.
Often the things we watch are things that we admire. We like deconstructing it as fans of film and television. We do like talking about the making of it, but it’s less of a critique and more of a listing of the things we appreciated about it.
10:30 p.m.: No work tomorrow
And then it’s lovemaking ’til morning on a perfect Sunday. If it’s a perfect Sunday, there’s also a Monday that’s off.
Jay (not pictured) found himself alone and hopeless in a jail cell when a fellow inmate’s unexpected words of comfort changed his life.
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When Jay was 22 years old, he was a self-described loner. In this story, he is being identified by his nickname to allow himself to speak candidly about the following experience and his mental health. He says the few people he did hang out with at the time had questionable morals.
”I chose my friends poorly, and your friends have a tendency to rub off on you. And so I started making poor decisions,” Jay said.
One evening, when he and his friends were out drinking, someone suggested they should try to break into the chemistry building on his college campus. Most of the group shrugged the suggestion off, deeming it impossible, but Jay was convinced he could pull it off.
“The next night I made a plan of how to do it, and I did it,” Jay remembered. “And I didn’t get caught doing it, [but] I got caught afterwards.”
At around 1 that morning, Jay was placed in the county detention center. Sitting alone in his cell, reality began to sink in.
“I pretty much thought that my life as I knew it was going to be over, and I had decided that the world would be better off without me in it.”
Jay made a plan to end his life. As he prepared himself, he began to cry.
“But just in that moment when I was ready to do it, I heard a voice coming from the top left corner of my cell, from a little vent. And someone called out to me and said, ‘Hey, is this your first time?’”
The man who called out was an inmate in the cell next door.
“I collected myself a little bit, and I said, ‘Yeah.’ And he said, ‘Can I pray for you?’”
Jay had grown up religious, but had stopped going to church years before. In that moment, though, he knew he needed support. He said yes, and listened as the man began to pray.
“I wish I could tell you that I remember the [exact] words that he said to me, but what I remember is that his words landed with me, and instead of wanting my life to be over, suddenly I saw hope,” Jay said.
The interaction happened nearly ten years ago, but it was a pivotal moment in Jay’s life, and one he thinks about all the time.
“[Now], I have a good job. I have a girlfriend who loves me. I have a life. But I have a life because somebody who was in the same situation I was in had the courage to talk to a fellow inmate and be kind.”
Jay says that he wishes he could meet that man again and express his appreciation.
“[I would] shake that guy’s hand, give him a hug, and tell him what his small gesture meant for me, how he changed the course of my life.”
My Unsung Hero is also a podcast — new episodes are released every Tuesday. To share the story of your unsung hero with the Hidden Brain team, record a voice memo on your phone and send it to myunsunghero@hiddenbrain.org.
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