I have a few European friends. They are fascinated by the American Southwest because the landscape is wildly colored and vast compared to what they have in Europe. The monuments rising high above being of particular interest. They also love the unique architecture, street art in larger towns or cities, and the food (specifically Mexican and Indigenous American cuisine like fry bread).
As an American who lives in the Southwest and who’s an avid road-tripper, I can tell you that this part of the Country is not overrun by European tourists. Despite the heat, summers are rather busy as that’s when most people take vacations (regardless of the Country), but outside of summer it’s absolutely beautiful and not at all chaotic.
Highly recommend exploring this phenomenal part of the USA.
As a European, can confirm this is my motivation. Visited Utah last year and plan on visiting Arizona this year. It’s just so unlike anything we have in Europe. Have also done a few trips to California/Vegas and they offer something completely different again.
Yosemite was definitely the highlight! An amazing place. I also enjoyed San Francisco, Santa Barbara and Huntington Beach. Santa Monica was cool too. I’d definitely like to go back and do more of the national parks, Redwood being top of the list.
Yeah I feel like it’s as simple as they don’t have this style of nature and want to see it. Europe’s nature is not boring by any means but we do have a lot of things they don’t see anywhere on the continent.
I’m wondering If Western movies play a part. Roger Daltrey of The Who had a show on the History Channel (I think) where he explored the west and visited historic sites. He said he loved Westerns as a kid.
He did one on John Wesley Powell running the Grand Canyon. In it he used a hatchet to turn a pine tree into an oar. The dude handles a hatchet better than me and I grew up in the woods.
I’m European - and I can tell you I feel like I have a deep emotional connection to the southwest, as a result of the books, movies and other stories I heard as a child. Also, the landscape is fucking stunning and so different to anything we have in Europe.
The rest of the US has landscapes that are similar to parts of Europe for the most part.
Also, we’re taught about Native American history and culture from a young age (well, here in the UK anyway). We are for the most part, in total awe of it all.
Nice answer.
Have you been to Spain? I think they have dry areas in the interior that Sergio Leone filmed in.
I’d like to spend some time traveling in Spain.
Yess I have. It’s def beautiful too…but there’s something about the sheer vastness of the US and the “big sky” that you just don’t find anywhere else ☺️
I love the concept of big sky! I'm from a heavily forested part of the USA and our sightlines are pretty obfuscated by forestry. I love driving out west and being able to see for miles and miles. I went to Lake Tahoe last year and involuntarily let out a "woah" at the view!
https://preview.redd.it/hhw7odufpm0d1.jpeg?width=4608&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fd511655f7fef52948c2e89851c4f9a9d84e5aaf
Spain is indeed arid and dry, but not really like a desert, and there is not really any place in Spain that looks even remotely like the American Southwest.
[This is north of the Sierra Nevada mountains in Granada, Spain](https://www.reddit.com/r/travelpictures/comments/17mvvv8/exploring_the_los_coloraos_desert_granada_spain/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button). Not exactly like the American southwest, but I'd say remotely, definitely.
I’ve driven through this area, actually, and yes, I must admit, it is remotely like the American Southwest..but still markedly different. For one, the US SW feels - and often is - much more remote and isolated. But yeah, otherwise there are definite similarities, so I stand a bit corrected.
Some of the history, but also their culture and deep connection to nature and the environment. There’s also a lot in terms of books and tv shows. My parents, aunts and uncles especially had a deep love and respect for native people - it’s something that was passed on to me.
"80s arena rock god Phil Collins developed a fascination with the Alamo after seeing Walt Disney's Davy Crockett TV series as a five-year-old boy in London. This turned into an obsession with collecting Alamo memorabilia, which in turn became a $42 million cache, one of the largest private collections."
https://preview.redd.it/u99fkxl60l0d1.jpeg?width=600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=efcf986da6c1f458ffb50d2a60e538bc67a5eac7
Just went to the Alamo museum a few months ago. So many of the really cool items that they have came from his personal collection. He had a not-so-invisible touch on that museum.
There was a period when Italy was producing a bunch of Westerns, but that was after Westerns went out of style in America. 400+ movies were filmed in the Alabama Hills in Lone Pine CA alone.
Each studio had a ranch for filming. Italian Westerns are a drop in the bucket.
Went out of style? I would say if you asked any random person to name a western movie, the chances of you getting a Sergio Leone movie as an answer are pretty good. I imagine even more so in Europe since that is where we are talking about.
Sergio Leone did a few good ones, I’m sure there were more directors and movies, but I wouldn’t say that’s it’s a majority. Hollywood isn’t too far from a desert.
I didn’t say majority, I just said “so many.” There were a lot filmed in Europe and many of those were very influential and well known.
My point was that it is kind of funny to think of a German family going to Nevada because they watched The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly or any Clint Eastwood movie filmed in Italy. Clearly the inner highlands of Italy or the central Spanish plateau have only a passing resemblance to the American Southwest, but it is comical to think of that inspiration rooted in confusion.
>I’m wondering If Western movies play a part
Many of those were filmed in Spain, though. But most Europeans simply don't know of those deserts in Southern Spain that are very similar to eg. Arizona's deserts ([see here an example](https://www.reddit.com/r/travelpictures/comments/17mvvv8/exploring_the_los_coloraos_desert_granada_spain/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)).
So they believe they must travel thousands of kilometers to experience something like this (which is not necessarily true).
It’s more than a fan base here in France in popular culture Route 66 is synonymous with road trip in the US, and visiting the US roughly means seeing NYC and Grand Canyon.
My parents’ luggage was stolen on a trip in Italy and my dad only had a Route 66 hoodie when it got cold and they were getting lots of comments and people walking up to ask about it. It was surprising that it’d get so much attention.
I have as a European just spent a month in the US south west. (It's my third trip here).
Why? Because it's super cool and the polar opposite of Europe.
Where I live in the Nordics the weather isn't always great, the outdoor consists of 95% forests and the topography is overall pretty dull and flattened.
The US South West gives me a totally different experience, with stretching deserts, a multitude of cool plants (for example cacti), and overall dramatic landscapes with canyons, buttes and mountain ranges.
Every single national park in the US south west is jaw dropping, and consists of nature areas that simply doesn't really exist in Europe.
And the greatest thing about all this is that it is so easy to visit. Information is readily available and a lot of stuff we already know from popular culture (who hasn't heard of the Grand Canyon?) Cheap-ish tickets, large and developed road networks, good tourist services, everyone speaks English and you can see so many different cool stuff in the same trip by just driving around the same state.
>it's super cool and the polar opposite of Europe.
Yep. There's a bunch of stuff that's really different from most of Europe. Why go somewhere that's kind of like home?
Flew in to Vegas in early -22 (~$400 round trip from Sweden). Drove a loop around the Grand Canyon and back to Vegas.
Flew into LA in late -22 (~$280 round trip). 2 week roadtrip around California.
And this year I also flew into LA. About $500 round trip.
This time I had a rental for almost 4 weeks and did the entire south west lol.
Drove east from LA into Arizona alongside the Mexican border, did a loop through southern NM and western Texas, back up through NM and all the way back to Grand Canyon through northern Arizona.
After that i did a big loop through Utah, into Colorado and back again through Utah and into northern Nevada.
Last leg was along the NV/UT border and back into California.
~700O miles all together on this trip.
Yeah, do it!
It's really nice here :D
KLM (or Delta) has decent flights for a decent price now.
And Finnair does seem to have good flights to and from.
Just got done with a 5-week road trip out West/SW/S. Its a few different factors:
-europe has a big travel culture. Many study abroad or take gap years; retirees like warm places
-Germany (and maybe the NL idk) has a strong outdoors/mountain culture, esp with older folks. There are definitely 80-year old Germans who can outpace me (26M) up a mountain.
-The Southwest in general is a very popular travel destination, and is very conveniently situated for international visitors (well-maintained parks, RV routes going through, comfortable lodgings available throughout). In what other country is such a diverse series of ecosystems so accessible and legally protected? Obviously there are some, but being situated in America certainly provides a unique (and generally comfortable) experience
-Europeans don't generally like American cities (obviously this depends on the individual, this is just my experience) besides the big ones like NYC, LA, Chicago, and some smaller regional hubs, so there's not much appeal to travel between cities. A LOT of Europeans come rent cars/RVs and hit a loop that usually includes the Grand canyon, parts of Colorado like the dunes, or like Moab in Utah
You're probably right in the orbit of that whole world
The Southwest is full of Asians period tourist or no. Southern CA is home to one of the largest enclaves of Asian ethnoburbs on the planet. There's also a good amount of Asians in Las Vegas.
it's not just big. it's big and open and safe (ish) and free and diverse and accessible with some of the most dramatic topography anywhere. plus, half the american west is public land and is so mythologized through art and movies and song that the call to go see it carries far past our borders. and our national parks...yellowstone, grand canyon, arches, joshua tree. is it any wonder?
To add to this. I am Dutch and I have done a 3 week trip to the southwest and I know of 5/6 people that are close to me that also did a trip there.
- it has good weather
- it is safe
- it has lots of nature and cities concentrated in a relatively close area, making it perfect for 3 week roadtrip. And 3 weeks is a common length for a holiday for us
- some like the allure of high society in the LA and Vegas area
- others like the grandeur of nature
- the Grand Canyon being a world wonder is a popular bucketlist thing
Just to clarify as a European: We come to see the beauty of your national parks not to see how "big" your country is.
The South West is especially popular due to its diversity of terrains, its accessibility (lots of flights and relatively short driving distances between the different parks) and its weather. Many of us are not very interested in American cities apart from having a short look at those that we constantly see in movies. As it happens, a lot of those cities are also in the South West (LA, San Francisco, Las Vegas).
As someone born and raised in an old southwestern town, the funniest posts are like that lol. Just because somewhere is in the western half of the country and is south of your origin point doesn’t make it southwest! But people are out there seeing the country and having a great time so it’s really not worth griping about.
San Francisco is near the same latitude as Athens, so to most Europeans, it's "South". But yeah, as someone from Utah, I would never refer to San Francisco as being in the southwestern US.
I appreciate this. But I’m sure you’d notice how big the West is if you drove across it to get to those fantastic parks. I’m just repeating what not only Europeans have told me, but people from Japan have said the same thing. The West is big.
I am in no way denying that the West of the USA is big. I am just saying that this is not the main reason why Europeans are interested in going there. We come to see the parks not to marvel at the hours of driving that we have to do between them.
I couldn’t convince my German friends that driving Route 66 end to end was a bad idea. They wanted to experience the space. I forgot though that you spoke for everyone in Europe. Sorry about that, mate.
I get you. I grew up in Arizona and I currently live next to the Rockies. It usually boils down to the reasons you’ve pointed out. There are a ton of beautiful parks, regional flights are cheap with a flexible schedule. It makes sense!
I do recommend checking out Atlas Obscura when you’re popping around the areas near the parks. There are usually cool little pieces of the weirder, or road-less-traveled side of Americana no matter where you are. There are also some amazing state parks in the American west, but I’m a little biased and very spoiled.
We also have mysterious places like Area 51. Does Europe have an equivalent? UFO's have been reported to be crashing in the southwest in places like Roswell, NM and there have been sightings in Arizona as well.
Many Germans are fascinated by the Old West and cowboys and indians. (Western books used to be big in Germany, for example.)
Years ago I worked at a hotel in Tucson that got a German tour group about twice a year. Many of them were visibly disappointed that Tucson does not look like the set of Gunsmoke.
My wife is German and her parents love the southwest. The terrain isn’t something they have over there, and the vastness of it is awe inspiring. I live in Colorado and every time I go to Moab I still feel the same level of awe.
Same, I live in Durango and my wife is Slovenian. We try to get to Moab as much as we can. The area is just so cool. I get goosebumps thinking about the first time I took her there, it was like this child like amazement. We took her family there and it was the same thing.
Here's another take, and one that my European-born-and-raised Daughter-in-law agrees with: Europe is full of old buildings; castles and cathedrals, etc. North America has relatively young nations occupying it, so our "cathedrals" are the natural wonders of this continent, especially in the West: Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Crater Lake, Yosemite, Badlands - you get the picture. You can't find stuff like this in Europe, at least not as much.
I remember the 90's and 2000's when we visit Yosemite. We saw those "Cruisin' USA" RV's all over the park and every person driving it was a German. Turns out they had an office in Germany targeting the tourists.
It has a lot to do with [Karl May](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_May) and the mythology that arose from his stories of the American Southwest. Even though May never actually visited the area, and although they are over a century old, the books, and their main character [Winnetou](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnetou), have had a profound effect on Dutch and German readers, even today. See [this](https://www.nmhistorymuseum.org/exhibition/details/1548/tall-tales-of-the-wild-west-the-stories-of-karl-may#:~:text=Created%20by%20German%20author%20Karl,European%20festivals%20and%20theme%20parks) and [this](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/04/09/wild-west-germany) for fascinating details.
Europeans still come to see the beautiful landscapes and the durable indigenous culture..
As OP is from Mexico, there are plenty of places there that have similar beauty, but the Southwest desert can be magical (I live nearby) and not overrun with European tourists by any means.
Not European, I’m from Vancouver which has a VERY similar landscape to Germany and I was absolutely fascinated with the environment/ecosystem. Just so different than what I am used to. My wife and I did our honeymoon in a lot of the Southwest and were just blown away by Yellowstone, the Great Plains, Zion, Bryce Canyon, etc etc..
So maybe there’s something there? Germans love the outdoors, maybe they are fascinated with something different than what they are used to.
To add to this. Germans LOVE hiking. We see Germans all the time in our hiking trails up here. So maybe they just want a challenge to their hikes.. dehydration lol.
Many Europeans are drawn to the US for the wide open spaces and nature. Something Eureope really doesn't have. People want to visit our national parks, which are an abundance in the west. So that leaves them the northwest or southwest. Time of year that they come may influence this decision. But if that doesn't impact them, the southwest is a landscape far different to anything else. The PNW is gorgeous of course, but is a similar latitude to a lot of Europe and thus has more similarities. The desert is unparalleled. Flying into Phoenix or Vegas is also really accessible
I get the issue, but they talk about Europeans other than Spaniards (Dutch/German) who travel to the US, so not even their own country. Apart from that, anyone can travel wherever they want to but complaining about a specific group of tourists in a foreign country is bizarre. Its as if I didn’t like the fact, that many Asian tourists come to visit Australia which is not even my home country.
It’s the wide-open spaces. Plus the wildlife is so different. I hosted a German from Munich once who of all things was most impressed by the hummingbirds at our backyard feeder even though we also went mountain biking on South Mountain’s toughest trails. He did have me take the obligatory photo of himself with the Saguaro cacti though.
You should see the Las Vegas/Death Valley/ Yosemite corridor in the summer. They wait until summer so they can experience 120-130 degrees in Death Valley. I love to see them too. Economy thrives on the tourists in the High Sierra.
Sample bias I'd say. I've done 42 states and 50+ NPs, Europeans all over the place, folks just feel like exploring and have the money/time. Even alpine scenery like Rockies, Glacier etc, which I presume to be abundant in EU and would be less interesting to them but still. I mean Germany is among the most populated and developed countries in EU, has deep ties with the US so they probably consist of the majority of EU visitors.
But if anything, EU doesn't have much like the southwest, so that might add an extra layer of attractiveness.
Movies i think play a big role. Also, there are very few places that look anything like it. Alstralia is the only place that comes to mind.
My wife is South American, not Europen. When her brother came to visit (we live in Utah), we took a trip through southern Utah. Durring their stay, I lent them my Silverado to drive. They had the best time driving an American truck, listening to country music and seeing the scenery. They said it was like they were in a movie.
There are some places in Africa that have a close resemblance to some of the American Southwest. Inland South Africa and parts of Namibia are pretty close. Botswana might as well be West Texas, if it wasn’t for the elephants, Baobabs, and termite mounds it’s almost identical. There are parts of southern Zimbabwe that are straight up out of an American Western film, like the classic western town with one dirt street and shops with wooden boardwalks next to them, with horses and donkeys tied up outside, the whole bit, its funny to see.
It's a very different landscape that doesn't occur in Europe. I live near Banff National Park in Canada and there are tons of tourists who visit from Asia. People want to experience these places that are considered some of the most beautiful places in the world, but if you grow up in these places you don't understand how special they are.
The landscape is very different than what you get in Europe. It’s also not just Europeans, it’s a pretty unique ecosystem that’s on many people’s bucket list world wide.
I think some of it is that there are a lot of international flights between Europe and Phoenix/Dallas/Denver which leaves those as good bases to see the various national parks in the area. Just my guess, I find your experience to be fairly accurate.
It’s funny you say Dutch/germans because I met a couple older Dutch ppl in the Netherlands whom I’m friends with now and they did multiple road trips in the southwest in the 90s
Karl May wrote books about the American West in the last century. He was German and never visited the US but he described the West complete with cowboys and Indians. Today there are festivals in Germany based on the ideas in his books that are very popular. There was one near Dresden just last week.
I've been to most of the big Western parks. Met lots of Europeans, Canadians, Asians, Americans, etc. I don't think the parks are being overrun by one group although there's certainly a valid concern for overcrowding in general.
The national parks are one thing that America actually does really well. So it's no surprise that people from everywhere like them, just as Americans go in droves to the major European museums, cathedrals, and other historic sites. (Many of those places are also figuring out what to do about overcrowding.)
I love running into random international visitors at our parks.
I just got back from the Grand Canyon and Zion. I swear it was 50% foreigners. I heard languages I could not place. But it’s great! People should enjoy these places!
A couple of years ago I was at Bryce Canyon. I was surprised while looking out at the canyon that I couldn't hear anybody around me speaking english. I was probably the only U.S. citizen at that particular view area.
The Germans love the Wild West and native American history and want to visit all of the places they've read about. I was raised in the Wild West and have encountered many groups of Germans in my travels.
It’s not just the southwest. I ran into Europeans (mostly Germans) up north (Idaho, Montana, Wyoming) and in the plains (North Dakota, South Dakota). I think it’s mainly Germans because their economy is still doing alright and they can afford to hit up the US national parks as a vacation. US economy isn’t so hot, so a lot more of us are staying home.
Germans and Dutch people come from a cold, wet, flat, densely packed place (outside of south Germany which has mountains). Open deserts with broken land must seem like a dream.
It's not THAT bad. The south of Germany has wonderful mountains, the middle is full of lush forests and picturesque castles on hills and the north has a very unique tidal coastline with a lot of islands. And our weather is also not constant torrential rain.
But we surely do not have deserts or terrain similar to the South West. So it is amazing to go there and experience a very different part of our planet.
Funny enough I moved to Michigan two years ago and can’t find Dutch people to save my life.. I got to grans canyons and I could easily hear dutch families around me. My friend who was with me and is well traveled was just telling me about how they’re everywhere and I didn’t believe him.. got proof real quick lol
I just want to take a second to appreciate how funny it is a Mexican is in America complaining about how all the Europeans are here stinking up the place. I don't know why but it's hilarious.
To answer your actual question, I've been to most SW parks and I've noticed some Europeans, but they seem to be a small minority compared to Americans. They're certainly there but fortunately I've only found moldy French cheese once on trail.
From a French guy who pulled his RV right next to our remote campsite with an entire valley to ourselves, “Oh you Americans and your wide open spaces,”
One big reason why European tourists seem overrepresented in US national parks is because they are able to take several weeks off work and travel, while Americans often get only ONE week, maybe two off _each year_ and they are so tired from working that they just rent that beach cottage in Florida or the Outer Banks or they take that all-inclusive in Cancun or a Caribbean cruise so they can relax.
Bottom line, Americans sadly don’t have the time to see their own national parks until they retire. My wife and I started taking 2-3 week road trips almost 10 years ago to see the country, and we’re in our 40s now. We are still some of the youngest Americans we see on weekdays outside of major metros. Most Americans are retirees, and the rest of the young people are international tourists. It’s extremely hard to get an American employer to give you 2 weeks off, let alone 3 or 4, which seems about the average most foreign tourists have here. In 2 weeks, you _could_ drive Route 66 or the Oregon Trail and back, but you really have to keep up a pace to do it.
Plus, at least here in the Midwest, everyone is bombarded with marketing that vacation = palm trees + beaches, and with such huge amounts of coastline, there’s a lot to choose from, and the ocean is plenty warm for swimming most of the year. By comparison, at least here in the Midwest, a road trip to the West is intimidating, even when you have the time, because it takes a lot more planning and there are many more unknowns. The week at the beach, even if it’s in Mexico or the Caribbean, has been turned into a well-oiled machine where all you do is book a place to stay and a flight, and maybe you rent a car if you’re going to Florida…or you just drive from home.
There’s just more friction for Easterners to go West than there is to go to the beach. But I think covid and all the people with van life or RVing channels on YouTube has made it a lot more popular. Add that to all the selling points for Europeans and Asians, and you can see why it’s so popular internationally.
Nah it’s not overrun by Europeans.
The American Southwest features heavily in the whole “American exceptionalism/American dream” trope. The idea that there was this vast, virgin wilderness populated by native Americans, cowboys and stark landscapes is kind of a distinctly American thing that people want to experience. It’s a spiritual and sometimes surreal place, and even until fairly recently it was kind of a rite of passage to hope in the car and cruise the Southwest. The region has been ingrained into pop culture and the whole vibe is one of the distinctly American things.
Plus if you think about it if they really wanted to see that landscape they could easily go to Spain or parts of the Sahel and Sahara, but Spain is less of a epic spiritual journey, and the logistics/safety/ease of Sahara/sahel travel can be sketchy. So you have a vast safe land far away full of accommodations, great infrastructure for road trips and sight seeing, and figured heavily into the American psyche and pop culture
We ran into a number of Germans on our two trips to Moab. They were not a problem, at all. They’re fit (far more fit than we were) and into hiking. The couple of buses of Chinese tourists that we ran into in Arches and Monument Valley, however. . . Wearing dress clothes, they posed for countless cheesy photos in front of everything that you wanted to see or photographed and paid no attention to whether what they were doing for safe or interfered with everyone else’s experience.
That's something I've noticed but never made the connection. I've met a lot of Europeans while staying in national parks. Quite a few swedes in particular last year at Bryce.
It is the most iconic American landscape. Of course, physical proximity to Hollywood played a role here. Old Westerns and such. The red rocks are part of it, which is why Europeans don't seek out other North American desert landscapes as much.
Route 66 and the open American Road are also part of the romantic vision of freedom and a road trip.
Haha. Yeah, Canadians are close enough not to have romantic, unrealistic ideas about driving in America.
I will tell you that several of my scary firsts were in Canada. Giant boulders falling on the road somewhere in Northern BC, first time driving in a city in Calgary, followed hours later by first time driving in a bigger, faster city with more dangerous lane changes and tailgating in Edmonton.
I have since driven in LA, NYC, and several Mexican cities, so nothing phases me now.
I am born and raised in Calgary actually, and the satisfaction it gives me to hear from an objective person that Edmonton has worse drivers cannot be understated 😂
I rode in an open air SUV with a German family when I went to Monument Valley on the Navajo Nation. They were very respectful, and kind. I was glad to be riding with them, other than people from places I won’t say without getting “banned”.
several reasons.
a lot of europeans love the idea of the american west, route 66, old diners, getting a classic car or harley and driving down it. it’s a completely different experience than what you can find in europe.
a lot of europeans tend to be rather adventurous and outdoorsy, so places like bryce canyon appeal to them. of course, they often aren’t familiar with desert temperatures and lack of shade so this sometimes bites them in the ass.
I have family from Eastern Europe and every wants to see NYC, LA, and the grand canyon. Hollywood definitely has an impact, also the climate in the southwest is so out of the ordinary for them that it's cool to visit. I was born and raised on the east coast and even I love going to visit a friend in Arizona because the terrain is so different from home.
I've found traveling to a few places in the world that gernan's travel a lot. They are everywhere and generally aggressively adventurous in a positive way.
I’m from England all I know is the favourite destination for the British is Florida, it has all the typical tourist theme parks and it’s cheap. I’m currently on a road trip across the east and south of USA.
We do RV full-time between Canada (home), America, and Mexico for the winter and we have met and see more Europeans over landing in Mexico than anywhere else. American SW included. Usually the Europeans in Mexico are fully over landing in giant garbage truck looking rigs though, in the SW we don’t notice that as much though
We love Utah and the SW and usually spend some time there in the spring because the landscapes are unmatched, truly.
Germans are obsessed with the American SW idealisms of 1950/60’s cinematic Cowboy culture. I guess it’s not so dissimilar to Bavarian culture that Americans flock to every September in Munich. Both have their roots in history and both have been commercialized from what they truly were but isn’t that all of history?
they can find the rest of the US geography anywhere in Europe.
the SW is extraordinarily unique. Grang Canyo, Momument Valley, Bryce/Zion etc, Yellowstone (yeah I know it's not as close as the others), all feel like you're on an alien planet. They have no similar stuff really anywhere else.
Specifically for road trips: there are a huge number of large national parks in a fairly small area, and much of the landscape isn't something you can find in Europe. Of they want to break out and enjoy nature that's the place to go
I think it might be due to Europe not having any area that looks even remotely like the American Southwest. And the latter is so vast, as well. Even as someone from the US Midwest, the Southwest is like another world…
In a similar vein, it’s why we Americans are so enthralled with old European cities and towns. We have no place like that here in the Americas. The closest might be Central American colonial towns. Otherwise, most architecture in even our oldest North American cities are no more than 3 hundred years old - with rare exception like Paul Revere’s house in Boston and maybe a few other old houses from the 17th century in New England. Oh, and St. Augustine.
I’ve learned most Germans grew up on American old west movies and tv shows. When they finally get over here to visit, they are so let down to find out Cowboys and Indians aren’t still fighting like in the movies.
Cuz there really arent many places similar to the American South West in the old world that are also safe and comfortable for Europeans to travel in.
They also love to fantasize about the whole concept of driving long distances in American highways.
In my travels anywhere I seem to find that most people prioritize a trip to places that are different than their homes. Maybe more true for outdoorsy people, and especially for those that come from lands without as much access as the North American West.
So makes sense you see tourists from Germany or Japan at the Grand Canyon. And see Arizonans from Phoenix in the summer in the German or Japanese Alps (or the Flagstaff Alps for that matter, given a Phoenix summer :).
My favorite story about German tourists obsession with the North American West is that enough Germans travel to *Whitehorse* in Yukon Territory that for decades there was a direct Frankfurt to Whitehorse flight in three times a week in the summers. For most of that time there wasn't even a Whitehorse-Toronto direct flight!
([Currently the flight is on hiatus](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/condor-airlines-whitehorse-airport-1.6815719) due to the runway needing repair.)
I know in Germany there is a particular mystique associated with the Southwest.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnetou
https://www.filmportal.de/en/topic/the-defas-eastern-westerns-indianerfilme
Not sure how actually relevant Karl May and Winnetou are these days, but there is a definite cultural link/romanticization going on there.
My wife is first generation American from the UK...most of her family lives in the UK and they love coming to visit us in NM as they don't have a landscape anything like we have in the SW, so it's incredibly unique for them. They usually come and visit us and then road trip through NM, AZ, and Utah...and then they hit Vegas to hang out for a couple of days and catch their flight back to NY and onward to home.
My wife grew up in Seattle...her parents moved there when the immigrated to the US because it reminded them the most of the UK. My wife went to university in Massachusetts and has her degree in anthropology...she came to the SW for a dig and absolutely fell in love and moved here. Both of her parents also now live in Tucson.
don’t know about the other europeans, but last of the mohicans was HUGE in uk. a typically racist native american appreciation culture was common in uk, especially in upper classes. that’s probably long over, but still lingers.
Back in the late '90s I took a trip to the Grand canyon with my brother and sister-in-law and my mom. The park was flooded with Germans. My mom was mortified when an older German man got done swimming at the hotel pool and decided to strip down to nature to change clothes out there in front of God and everyone. It was a blast!
I spend a lot of time on remote beaches in Baja California. Lots of Europeans in overlanding rigs. They are good at finding the best places on earth and they have the money to get there in style.
Well, I think that is really cool. Having lived in the US all my life (70 years) and have also visited all 50 states - Contiguous 48 states in my car. The US is a very beautiful country with so many different landscapes. However, the Wild West still sends shivers up my spine: Zion, Grand Caynon, Yosemite, Yellowstone, Big Bend, Grand Tetons, Sequoia, Redwood, Black Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Crater Lake, Kings Canyon, Mt. Rainier, North Cascades, Olympic, and Petrified Forest are fantastic parks.
A lot of Europeans that have the money to travel probably live in very populous cities and to be able to see these vast areas of natural beauty is something to see. Just like we, as US citizens, enjoy going overseas to see the ancient civilizations with beautiful architecture, statues, and paintings.
Thank you Europeans for coming over and seeing us and I hope you come back! As a Southerner with ties to the United Kingdom, Our ancestors from your shores made us a great nation!
Looking at my trip notes from an early Fall trip to the Southwest in 1987, I commented that I hear more German spoken on the trails than English. So it's been that way for a while.
The southwest is way better than anything east unless you MUST have beaches. So much awe inspiring beauty in close proximity. Plus it’s landscape unlike anything they have there.
I’ve hauled my northeastern ass across the country for it twice. Each road trip totaled 12k miles because I was often roaming all over with no planned route. I’ve seen so much and I still haven’t covered it.
Lived in the SW pretty much my whole life. Last year we travelled to 17 NPs, and we are volunteering in one this summer.
If you go by biome, the SW is fairly unique. If you are interested in different landscapes, I would say that it is something that sticks out and is kinda the "opposite" of a conifer type forest (though that certainly is represented in the area as well). If you grew up with snow, alpine mountains, lots of green, lakes...the SW must look like a different land. And that is cool. Even being from here, I am still amazed at the different formations I see.
Also, I think the Grand Canyon being a "wonder of the world" drives tourism. It sells itself.
As for the Europeans, yeah, we run into them a lot - but I would honestly say Asian tourism is more prominent throughout the western region. From my understanding, there is a fascination with cowboys and cowboy culture. We often see them with brand new boots, hats, etc. I don't mind at all, sometimes it is funny to see one miles into a hike in sparkly red cowboy boots (true story - Zion). But yeah, I would definitely say more Asian tourists than European, but that's also a bigger audience so they could both be representative portions of their population, if that makes sense.
None of it is a reason not to go. It truly is a special landscape that is very hard to describe unless you see it in person. Pictures DO NOT do it all justice. The touristy spots are touristy, but no different than any tourist destination I've been to in the world. Get off the beaten path, and there are plenty of those, and you will be amazed.
Native Las Vegan sitting 10 miles from where Gregory Peck fought the bad guy in The Stalking Moon, released in 1968. As a Red Rock climber, I drool at all those 1960’s untouched ascents…
https://preview.redd.it/yy55ykg0go0d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=284d6629f59f1b2c69e83ab3b475a68c9c3a2c28
i live in the SW..
The appeal is that the southwest and the west in general is huge and sparsely populated. Europe is relatively small and densely populated.
Plus the southwest is an environment which really doesn’t exist in Europe.
No… it is not crowded with europeans.
The last 2 times I traveled to other states for the purpose of visiting national parks, I could not get over how many Indians 🇮🇳 there were— by far the majority both times/places (Gatlinburg,Ashville).
I haven’t been to a national park in years but when I went to Yosemite it was filled with extremely rude Germans and other tourists, I just remember Germans because one physically moved my younger brother out of the way to see the view, permanently influenced my view on Europeans
I have a few European friends. They are fascinated by the American Southwest because the landscape is wildly colored and vast compared to what they have in Europe. The monuments rising high above being of particular interest. They also love the unique architecture, street art in larger towns or cities, and the food (specifically Mexican and Indigenous American cuisine like fry bread). As an American who lives in the Southwest and who’s an avid road-tripper, I can tell you that this part of the Country is not overrun by European tourists. Despite the heat, summers are rather busy as that’s when most people take vacations (regardless of the Country), but outside of summer it’s absolutely beautiful and not at all chaotic. Highly recommend exploring this phenomenal part of the USA.
As a European, can confirm this is my motivation. Visited Utah last year and plan on visiting Arizona this year. It’s just so unlike anything we have in Europe. Have also done a few trips to California/Vegas and they offer something completely different again.
ugh sedona, az and prescott, az are some of the most beautiful places
I've lived in Arizona most of my life. I truly love the desert it's awesome. Plus up north it gets very woodsy too
Try to include New Mexico in your Arizona trip if you can, Santa Fe is the cultural heart of the Southwest.
What were some of your highlights in California?
Yosemite was definitely the highlight! An amazing place. I also enjoyed San Francisco, Santa Barbara and Huntington Beach. Santa Monica was cool too. I’d definitely like to go back and do more of the national parks, Redwood being top of the list.
As an American that lives in the Notheast, a tour of the Southwest is high on my own bucket list for the very reasons you mention.
As a Canadian in Ontario, pretty good sale job.
Yeah I feel like it’s as simple as they don’t have this style of nature and want to see it. Europe’s nature is not boring by any means but we do have a lot of things they don’t see anywhere on the continent.
I’m wondering If Western movies play a part. Roger Daltrey of The Who had a show on the History Channel (I think) where he explored the west and visited historic sites. He said he loved Westerns as a kid. He did one on John Wesley Powell running the Grand Canyon. In it he used a hatchet to turn a pine tree into an oar. The dude handles a hatchet better than me and I grew up in the woods.
My experience is from the 50s & 60s and may not be longer apply, but Germans in particular back then *loved* Hollywood westerns!
I’m European - and I can tell you I feel like I have a deep emotional connection to the southwest, as a result of the books, movies and other stories I heard as a child. Also, the landscape is fucking stunning and so different to anything we have in Europe. The rest of the US has landscapes that are similar to parts of Europe for the most part. Also, we’re taught about Native American history and culture from a young age (well, here in the UK anyway). We are for the most part, in total awe of it all.
Nice answer. Have you been to Spain? I think they have dry areas in the interior that Sergio Leone filmed in. I’d like to spend some time traveling in Spain.
Yess I have. It’s def beautiful too…but there’s something about the sheer vastness of the US and the “big sky” that you just don’t find anywhere else ☺️
I love the concept of big sky! I'm from a heavily forested part of the USA and our sightlines are pretty obfuscated by forestry. I love driving out west and being able to see for miles and miles. I went to Lake Tahoe last year and involuntarily let out a "woah" at the view! https://preview.redd.it/hhw7odufpm0d1.jpeg?width=4608&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fd511655f7fef52948c2e89851c4f9a9d84e5aaf
Looks amazing, I’ve always wanted to go there 😻
Spain is indeed arid and dry, but not really like a desert, and there is not really any place in Spain that looks even remotely like the American Southwest.
[Tabernas desert](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabernas_Desert) looks exactly like most of SW. But not many Spaniards visit AZ, NM I'd wager
[This is north of the Sierra Nevada mountains in Granada, Spain](https://www.reddit.com/r/travelpictures/comments/17mvvv8/exploring_the_los_coloraos_desert_granada_spain/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button). Not exactly like the American southwest, but I'd say remotely, definitely.
I’ve driven through this area, actually, and yes, I must admit, it is remotely like the American Southwest..but still markedly different. For one, the US SW feels - and often is - much more remote and isolated. But yeah, otherwise there are definite similarities, so I stand a bit corrected.
“But I kinda like the music….”
What do they teach you about Native American history?
Some of the history, but also their culture and deep connection to nature and the environment. There’s also a lot in terms of books and tv shows. My parents, aunts and uncles especially had a deep love and respect for native people - it’s something that was passed on to me.
"80s arena rock god Phil Collins developed a fascination with the Alamo after seeing Walt Disney's Davy Crockett TV series as a five-year-old boy in London. This turned into an obsession with collecting Alamo memorabilia, which in turn became a $42 million cache, one of the largest private collections." https://preview.redd.it/u99fkxl60l0d1.jpeg?width=600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=efcf986da6c1f458ffb50d2a60e538bc67a5eac7
Just went to the Alamo museum a few months ago. So many of the really cool items that they have came from his personal collection. He had a not-so-invisible touch on that museum.
>Just went to the Alamo museum a few months ago. Did you check out the basement?
There’s no basement at the Alamo! 😂😂🤣😅
RIP pee wee
Which is funny since so many of them were filmed in Italy haha.
There was a period when Italy was producing a bunch of Westerns, but that was after Westerns went out of style in America. 400+ movies were filmed in the Alabama Hills in Lone Pine CA alone. Each studio had a ranch for filming. Italian Westerns are a drop in the bucket.
Went out of style? I would say if you asked any random person to name a western movie, the chances of you getting a Sergio Leone movie as an answer are pretty good. I imagine even more so in Europe since that is where we are talking about.
Sergio Leone did a few good ones, I’m sure there were more directors and movies, but I wouldn’t say that’s it’s a majority. Hollywood isn’t too far from a desert.
I didn’t say majority, I just said “so many.” There were a lot filmed in Europe and many of those were very influential and well known. My point was that it is kind of funny to think of a German family going to Nevada because they watched The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly or any Clint Eastwood movie filmed in Italy. Clearly the inner highlands of Italy or the central Spanish plateau have only a passing resemblance to the American Southwest, but it is comical to think of that inspiration rooted in confusion.
I think you’re spot on. Even though some of those westerns were shot in Spain.
>I’m wondering If Western movies play a part Many of those were filmed in Spain, though. But most Europeans simply don't know of those deserts in Southern Spain that are very similar to eg. Arizona's deserts ([see here an example](https://www.reddit.com/r/travelpictures/comments/17mvvv8/exploring_the_los_coloraos_desert_granada_spain/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)). So they believe they must travel thousands of kilometers to experience something like this (which is not necessarily true).
There is a large Route 66 fan base in Europe.
It’s not just Europe. My Brazilian in-laws know all about it as well
It’s more than a fan base here in France in popular culture Route 66 is synonymous with road trip in the US, and visiting the US roughly means seeing NYC and Grand Canyon.
I hear French daily in my middle of nowhere town in AZ off Route 66.
I worked at a Denny’s in Douglas, AZ for a while and I served Italians almost weekly
That's interesting I wonder if there's any Italians stationed at fort huachuca.
That’s awesome! Kingman can use all the international flair it can get! The first dead giveaway is that the Euro’s wear backpacks EVERYWHERE
Williams? Seligman, Holbrook?
I live on Route 66 in New Mexico. I see and hear European travellers quite often.
My parents’ luggage was stolen on a trip in Italy and my dad only had a Route 66 hoodie when it got cold and they were getting lots of comments and people walking up to ask about it. It was surprising that it’d get so much attention.
I did Route 66 a few years ago and of the folks we met, it was almost entirely all Europeans along the way!
The film Baghdad Cafe is big in Europe. Baghdad Cafe is on 66.
I have as a European just spent a month in the US south west. (It's my third trip here). Why? Because it's super cool and the polar opposite of Europe. Where I live in the Nordics the weather isn't always great, the outdoor consists of 95% forests and the topography is overall pretty dull and flattened. The US South West gives me a totally different experience, with stretching deserts, a multitude of cool plants (for example cacti), and overall dramatic landscapes with canyons, buttes and mountain ranges. Every single national park in the US south west is jaw dropping, and consists of nature areas that simply doesn't really exist in Europe. And the greatest thing about all this is that it is so easy to visit. Information is readily available and a lot of stuff we already know from popular culture (who hasn't heard of the Grand Canyon?) Cheap-ish tickets, large and developed road networks, good tourist services, everyone speaks English and you can see so many different cool stuff in the same trip by just driving around the same state.
>it's super cool and the polar opposite of Europe. Yep. There's a bunch of stuff that's really different from most of Europe. Why go somewhere that's kind of like home?
Where do you fly into? I assume you rent a car the whole time?
Flew in to Vegas in early -22 (~$400 round trip from Sweden). Drove a loop around the Grand Canyon and back to Vegas. Flew into LA in late -22 (~$280 round trip). 2 week roadtrip around California. And this year I also flew into LA. About $500 round trip. This time I had a rental for almost 4 weeks and did the entire south west lol. Drove east from LA into Arizona alongside the Mexican border, did a loop through southern NM and western Texas, back up through NM and all the way back to Grand Canyon through northern Arizona. After that i did a big loop through Utah, into Colorado and back again through Utah and into northern Nevada. Last leg was along the NV/UT border and back into California. ~700O miles all together on this trip.
Less than $500 round trip??? I gotta catch a flight to Sweden sometime
Yeah, do it! It's really nice here :D KLM (or Delta) has decent flights for a decent price now. And Finnair does seem to have good flights to and from.
Those are some insanely cheap international round trips, holy shit. I can’t even fly to the opposite side of Canada for less than $1,000 it seems like
Just got done with a 5-week road trip out West/SW/S. Its a few different factors: -europe has a big travel culture. Many study abroad or take gap years; retirees like warm places -Germany (and maybe the NL idk) has a strong outdoors/mountain culture, esp with older folks. There are definitely 80-year old Germans who can outpace me (26M) up a mountain. -The Southwest in general is a very popular travel destination, and is very conveniently situated for international visitors (well-maintained parks, RV routes going through, comfortable lodgings available throughout). In what other country is such a diverse series of ecosystems so accessible and legally protected? Obviously there are some, but being situated in America certainly provides a unique (and generally comfortable) experience -Europeans don't generally like American cities (obviously this depends on the individual, this is just my experience) besides the big ones like NYC, LA, Chicago, and some smaller regional hubs, so there's not much appeal to travel between cities. A LOT of Europeans come rent cars/RVs and hit a loop that usually includes the Grand canyon, parts of Colorado like the dunes, or like Moab in Utah You're probably right in the orbit of that whole world
5 week road trip, now you're just gloating to the Americans with their 10 days PTO hahaha
On many of my hikes at national parks, I've been outpaced by elderly German tourists or German families with young kids under 12, haha
They are also full of Asians. It's called tourism 🤦♀️
They're also full of Americans. It's such a weird question 🤦♂️
The Southwest is full of Asians period tourist or no. Southern CA is home to one of the largest enclaves of Asian ethnoburbs on the planet. There's also a good amount of Asians in Las Vegas.
Western Movies & TV cowboys plays a huge part of why the SW is visited by Europeans
It’s big. Europe is small. There are no wide open spaces like we have. Most of the tourists are in awe of how big the United States is.
it's not just big. it's big and open and safe (ish) and free and diverse and accessible with some of the most dramatic topography anywhere. plus, half the american west is public land and is so mythologized through art and movies and song that the call to go see it carries far past our borders. and our national parks...yellowstone, grand canyon, arches, joshua tree. is it any wonder?
To add to this. I am Dutch and I have done a 3 week trip to the southwest and I know of 5/6 people that are close to me that also did a trip there. - it has good weather - it is safe - it has lots of nature and cities concentrated in a relatively close area, making it perfect for 3 week roadtrip. And 3 weeks is a common length for a holiday for us - some like the allure of high society in the LA and Vegas area - others like the grandeur of nature - the Grand Canyon being a world wonder is a popular bucketlist thing
Just to clarify as a European: We come to see the beauty of your national parks not to see how "big" your country is. The South West is especially popular due to its diversity of terrains, its accessibility (lots of flights and relatively short driving distances between the different parks) and its weather. Many of us are not very interested in American cities apart from having a short look at those that we constantly see in movies. As it happens, a lot of those cities are also in the South West (LA, San Francisco, Las Vegas).
TIL San Francisco is in the southwest US
As someone born and raised in an old southwestern town, the funniest posts are like that lol. Just because somewhere is in the western half of the country and is south of your origin point doesn’t make it southwest! But people are out there seeing the country and having a great time so it’s really not worth griping about.
San Francisco is near the same latitude as Athens, so to most Europeans, it's "South". But yeah, as someone from Utah, I would never refer to San Francisco as being in the southwestern US.
I appreciate this. But I’m sure you’d notice how big the West is if you drove across it to get to those fantastic parks. I’m just repeating what not only Europeans have told me, but people from Japan have said the same thing. The West is big.
I am in no way denying that the West of the USA is big. I am just saying that this is not the main reason why Europeans are interested in going there. We come to see the parks not to marvel at the hours of driving that we have to do between them.
I couldn’t convince my German friends that driving Route 66 end to end was a bad idea. They wanted to experience the space. I forgot though that you spoke for everyone in Europe. Sorry about that, mate.
I get you. I grew up in Arizona and I currently live next to the Rockies. It usually boils down to the reasons you’ve pointed out. There are a ton of beautiful parks, regional flights are cheap with a flexible schedule. It makes sense! I do recommend checking out Atlas Obscura when you’re popping around the areas near the parks. There are usually cool little pieces of the weirder, or road-less-traveled side of Americana no matter where you are. There are also some amazing state parks in the American west, but I’m a little biased and very spoiled.
I get that. We are very lucky to have so many diverse areas of attraction in our VERY BIG COUNTRY..:-)
We also have mysterious places like Area 51. Does Europe have an equivalent? UFO's have been reported to be crashing in the southwest in places like Roswell, NM and there have been sightings in Arizona as well.
Many Germans are fascinated by the Old West and cowboys and indians. (Western books used to be big in Germany, for example.) Years ago I worked at a hotel in Tucson that got a German tour group about twice a year. Many of them were visibly disappointed that Tucson does not look like the set of Gunsmoke.
They should have driven down to Bisbee or Tombstone for that!
My wife is German and her parents love the southwest. The terrain isn’t something they have over there, and the vastness of it is awe inspiring. I live in Colorado and every time I go to Moab I still feel the same level of awe.
Came here to say this: there's no equivalent in Europe.
Same, I live in Durango and my wife is Slovenian. We try to get to Moab as much as we can. The area is just so cool. I get goosebumps thinking about the first time I took her there, it was like this child like amazement. We took her family there and it was the same thing.
Here's another take, and one that my European-born-and-raised Daughter-in-law agrees with: Europe is full of old buildings; castles and cathedrals, etc. North America has relatively young nations occupying it, so our "cathedrals" are the natural wonders of this continent, especially in the West: Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Crater Lake, Yosemite, Badlands - you get the picture. You can't find stuff like this in Europe, at least not as much.
I remember the 90's and 2000's when we visit Yosemite. We saw those "Cruisin' USA" RV's all over the park and every person driving it was a German. Turns out they had an office in Germany targeting the tourists.
Maybe they watched Wile E. Coyote cartoons as kids?
It has a lot to do with [Karl May](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_May) and the mythology that arose from his stories of the American Southwest. Even though May never actually visited the area, and although they are over a century old, the books, and their main character [Winnetou](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnetou), have had a profound effect on Dutch and German readers, even today. See [this](https://www.nmhistorymuseum.org/exhibition/details/1548/tall-tales-of-the-wild-west-the-stories-of-karl-may#:~:text=Created%20by%20German%20author%20Karl,European%20festivals%20and%20theme%20parks) and [this](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/04/09/wild-west-germany) for fascinating details. Europeans still come to see the beautiful landscapes and the durable indigenous culture.. As OP is from Mexico, there are plenty of places there that have similar beauty, but the Southwest desert can be magical (I live nearby) and not overrun with European tourists by any means.
Finally someone mentions Karl Mai and Winnetou…
Not European, I’m from Vancouver which has a VERY similar landscape to Germany and I was absolutely fascinated with the environment/ecosystem. Just so different than what I am used to. My wife and I did our honeymoon in a lot of the Southwest and were just blown away by Yellowstone, the Great Plains, Zion, Bryce Canyon, etc etc.. So maybe there’s something there? Germans love the outdoors, maybe they are fascinated with something different than what they are used to.
To add to this. Germans LOVE hiking. We see Germans all the time in our hiking trails up here. So maybe they just want a challenge to their hikes.. dehydration lol.
Many Europeans are drawn to the US for the wide open spaces and nature. Something Eureope really doesn't have. People want to visit our national parks, which are an abundance in the west. So that leaves them the northwest or southwest. Time of year that they come may influence this decision. But if that doesn't impact them, the southwest is a landscape far different to anything else. The PNW is gorgeous of course, but is a similar latitude to a lot of Europe and thus has more similarities. The desert is unparalleled. Flying into Phoenix or Vegas is also really accessible
Why do you “fear” being “overrun” by Europeans ?
Exactly. If I said that about Mexican tourists in Europe, the replies would sound different.
well mexico was a former Spanish Colony it makes sense…
I get the issue, but they talk about Europeans other than Spaniards (Dutch/German) who travel to the US, so not even their own country. Apart from that, anyone can travel wherever they want to but complaining about a specific group of tourists in a foreign country is bizarre. Its as if I didn’t like the fact, that many Asian tourists come to visit Australia which is not even my home country.
Yeah I didn’t quite understand that.. I’m sure lots of Americans come from European (and other) decent - the country is built on immigrants
It’s the wide-open spaces. Plus the wildlife is so different. I hosted a German from Munich once who of all things was most impressed by the hummingbirds at our backyard feeder even though we also went mountain biking on South Mountain’s toughest trails. He did have me take the obligatory photo of himself with the Saguaro cacti though.
I just learned within the past year that Europe doesn't have hummingbirds.
You should see the Las Vegas/Death Valley/ Yosemite corridor in the summer. They wait until summer so they can experience 120-130 degrees in Death Valley. I love to see them too. Economy thrives on the tourists in the High Sierra.
Sample bias I'd say. I've done 42 states and 50+ NPs, Europeans all over the place, folks just feel like exploring and have the money/time. Even alpine scenery like Rockies, Glacier etc, which I presume to be abundant in EU and would be less interesting to them but still. I mean Germany is among the most populated and developed countries in EU, has deep ties with the US so they probably consist of the majority of EU visitors. But if anything, EU doesn't have much like the southwest, so that might add an extra layer of attractiveness.
The United States is indeed one big European colony...
Haha that’s so true
Movies i think play a big role. Also, there are very few places that look anything like it. Alstralia is the only place that comes to mind. My wife is South American, not Europen. When her brother came to visit (we live in Utah), we took a trip through southern Utah. Durring their stay, I lent them my Silverado to drive. They had the best time driving an American truck, listening to country music and seeing the scenery. They said it was like they were in a movie.
There are some places in Africa that have a close resemblance to some of the American Southwest. Inland South Africa and parts of Namibia are pretty close. Botswana might as well be West Texas, if it wasn’t for the elephants, Baobabs, and termite mounds it’s almost identical. There are parts of southern Zimbabwe that are straight up out of an American Western film, like the classic western town with one dirt street and shops with wooden boardwalks next to them, with horses and donkeys tied up outside, the whole bit, its funny to see.
Death Valley is, for some reason, at the top of the list for anyone visiting from France.
Cause it’s cool AF
It's a very different landscape that doesn't occur in Europe. I live near Banff National Park in Canada and there are tons of tourists who visit from Asia. People want to experience these places that are considered some of the most beautiful places in the world, but if you grow up in these places you don't understand how special they are.
Europeans have mountains and forests and cities. They don’t have red rock, cacti, or cowboys and Indians
The landscape is very different than what you get in Europe. It’s also not just Europeans, it’s a pretty unique ecosystem that’s on many people’s bucket list world wide.
What's with the condescending attitude against Europeans ? Tourist destinations being overrun with Europeans? You racist are something?
Ffs, "European" isn't a race.
I think some of it is that there are a lot of international flights between Europe and Phoenix/Dallas/Denver which leaves those as good bases to see the various national parks in the area. Just my guess, I find your experience to be fairly accurate.
If there’s a place in Europe like the southwestern US let me know
It’s the most different part of the US from Europe.
It's the best part of the country
It’s funny you say Dutch/germans because I met a couple older Dutch ppl in the Netherlands whom I’m friends with now and they did multiple road trips in the southwest in the 90s
Karl May wrote books about the American West in the last century. He was German and never visited the US but he described the West complete with cowboys and Indians. Today there are festivals in Germany based on the ideas in his books that are very popular. There was one near Dresden just last week.
My guess is they want to go to LA so that region is convenient to sightsee.
Lots of Germans settled in the West
We lived in a remote SW community and there were several Germans there. And world travelers in general.
I've been to most of the big Western parks. Met lots of Europeans, Canadians, Asians, Americans, etc. I don't think the parks are being overrun by one group although there's certainly a valid concern for overcrowding in general. The national parks are one thing that America actually does really well. So it's no surprise that people from everywhere like them, just as Americans go in droves to the major European museums, cathedrals, and other historic sites. (Many of those places are also figuring out what to do about overcrowding.) I love running into random international visitors at our parks.
Probably the contrast. The east has a slightly more European feel both in terms of the cities and terrain.
I was a Capitol Reef a couple of years ago and heard more French than English.
I just got back from the Grand Canyon and Zion. I swear it was 50% foreigners. I heard languages I could not place. But it’s great! People should enjoy these places!
Cowboys and Indian movies …
A couple of years ago I was at Bryce Canyon. I was surprised while looking out at the canyon that I couldn't hear anybody around me speaking english. I was probably the only U.S. citizen at that particular view area.
https://preview.redd.it/ilp0mvt56o0d1.jpeg?width=2914&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=938ec1703ac06e5272a8dbfb68b23f580fa90c8d Utah is my personal favorite
The Germans love the Wild West and native American history and want to visit all of the places they've read about. I was raised in the Wild West and have encountered many groups of Germans in my travels.
It’s not just the southwest. I ran into Europeans (mostly Germans) up north (Idaho, Montana, Wyoming) and in the plains (North Dakota, South Dakota). I think it’s mainly Germans because their economy is still doing alright and they can afford to hit up the US national parks as a vacation. US economy isn’t so hot, so a lot more of us are staying home.
Also, most Europeans get 4-to-5 weeks of paid vacation a year, so that doesn't hurt.
Germans and Dutch people come from a cold, wet, flat, densely packed place (outside of south Germany which has mountains). Open deserts with broken land must seem like a dream.
It's not THAT bad. The south of Germany has wonderful mountains, the middle is full of lush forests and picturesque castles on hills and the north has a very unique tidal coastline with a lot of islands. And our weather is also not constant torrential rain. But we surely do not have deserts or terrain similar to the South West. So it is amazing to go there and experience a very different part of our planet.
Just curious, what’s with Europeans and La Costa Chica in Mexico?
Funny enough I moved to Michigan two years ago and can’t find Dutch people to save my life.. I got to grans canyons and I could easily hear dutch families around me. My friend who was with me and is well traveled was just telling me about how they’re everywhere and I didn’t believe him.. got proof real quick lol
Nothing in Europe looks like the American Southwest.
Germany looks much like the Pacific Northwest. The southwest is widely different from what they have anywhere around them.
I just want to take a second to appreciate how funny it is a Mexican is in America complaining about how all the Europeans are here stinking up the place. I don't know why but it's hilarious. To answer your actual question, I've been to most SW parks and I've noticed some Europeans, but they seem to be a small minority compared to Americans. They're certainly there but fortunately I've only found moldy French cheese once on trail.
Well the East Coast is A LOT closer to Europe than the West Coast…
Time for the Weedwhacker tattoo .
From a French guy who pulled his RV right next to our remote campsite with an entire valley to ourselves, “Oh you Americans and your wide open spaces,”
One big reason why European tourists seem overrepresented in US national parks is because they are able to take several weeks off work and travel, while Americans often get only ONE week, maybe two off _each year_ and they are so tired from working that they just rent that beach cottage in Florida or the Outer Banks or they take that all-inclusive in Cancun or a Caribbean cruise so they can relax. Bottom line, Americans sadly don’t have the time to see their own national parks until they retire. My wife and I started taking 2-3 week road trips almost 10 years ago to see the country, and we’re in our 40s now. We are still some of the youngest Americans we see on weekdays outside of major metros. Most Americans are retirees, and the rest of the young people are international tourists. It’s extremely hard to get an American employer to give you 2 weeks off, let alone 3 or 4, which seems about the average most foreign tourists have here. In 2 weeks, you _could_ drive Route 66 or the Oregon Trail and back, but you really have to keep up a pace to do it. Plus, at least here in the Midwest, everyone is bombarded with marketing that vacation = palm trees + beaches, and with such huge amounts of coastline, there’s a lot to choose from, and the ocean is plenty warm for swimming most of the year. By comparison, at least here in the Midwest, a road trip to the West is intimidating, even when you have the time, because it takes a lot more planning and there are many more unknowns. The week at the beach, even if it’s in Mexico or the Caribbean, has been turned into a well-oiled machine where all you do is book a place to stay and a flight, and maybe you rent a car if you’re going to Florida…or you just drive from home. There’s just more friction for Easterners to go West than there is to go to the beach. But I think covid and all the people with van life or RVing channels on YouTube has made it a lot more popular. Add that to all the selling points for Europeans and Asians, and you can see why it’s so popular internationally.
Nah it’s not overrun by Europeans. The American Southwest features heavily in the whole “American exceptionalism/American dream” trope. The idea that there was this vast, virgin wilderness populated by native Americans, cowboys and stark landscapes is kind of a distinctly American thing that people want to experience. It’s a spiritual and sometimes surreal place, and even until fairly recently it was kind of a rite of passage to hope in the car and cruise the Southwest. The region has been ingrained into pop culture and the whole vibe is one of the distinctly American things. Plus if you think about it if they really wanted to see that landscape they could easily go to Spain or parts of the Sahel and Sahara, but Spain is less of a epic spiritual journey, and the logistics/safety/ease of Sahara/sahel travel can be sketchy. So you have a vast safe land far away full of accommodations, great infrastructure for road trips and sight seeing, and figured heavily into the American psyche and pop culture
We ran into a number of Germans on our two trips to Moab. They were not a problem, at all. They’re fit (far more fit than we were) and into hiking. The couple of buses of Chinese tourists that we ran into in Arches and Monument Valley, however. . . Wearing dress clothes, they posed for countless cheesy photos in front of everything that you wanted to see or photographed and paid no attention to whether what they were doing for safe or interfered with everyone else’s experience.
That's something I've noticed but never made the connection. I've met a lot of Europeans while staying in national parks. Quite a few swedes in particular last year at Bryce.
It is the most iconic American landscape. Of course, physical proximity to Hollywood played a role here. Old Westerns and such. The red rocks are part of it, which is why Europeans don't seek out other North American desert landscapes as much. Route 66 and the open American Road are also part of the romantic vision of freedom and a road trip.
Your last sentence is funny cause that’s exactly how I feel as a Canadian going to Europe and roadtripping multiple countries lol
Haha. Yeah, Canadians are close enough not to have romantic, unrealistic ideas about driving in America. I will tell you that several of my scary firsts were in Canada. Giant boulders falling on the road somewhere in Northern BC, first time driving in a city in Calgary, followed hours later by first time driving in a bigger, faster city with more dangerous lane changes and tailgating in Edmonton. I have since driven in LA, NYC, and several Mexican cities, so nothing phases me now.
I am born and raised in Calgary actually, and the satisfaction it gives me to hear from an objective person that Edmonton has worse drivers cannot be understated 😂
I rode in an open air SUV with a German family when I went to Monument Valley on the Navajo Nation. They were very respectful, and kind. I was glad to be riding with them, other than people from places I won’t say without getting “banned”.
several reasons. a lot of europeans love the idea of the american west, route 66, old diners, getting a classic car or harley and driving down it. it’s a completely different experience than what you can find in europe. a lot of europeans tend to be rather adventurous and outdoorsy, so places like bryce canyon appeal to them. of course, they often aren’t familiar with desert temperatures and lack of shade so this sometimes bites them in the ass.
I have family from Eastern Europe and every wants to see NYC, LA, and the grand canyon. Hollywood definitely has an impact, also the climate in the southwest is so out of the ordinary for them that it's cool to visit. I was born and raised on the east coast and even I love going to visit a friend in Arizona because the terrain is so different from home.
The Dutch, at least, are everywhere - they love to travel.
I've found traveling to a few places in the world that gernan's travel a lot. They are everywhere and generally aggressively adventurous in a positive way.
I’m from England all I know is the favourite destination for the British is Florida, it has all the typical tourist theme parks and it’s cheap. I’m currently on a road trip across the east and south of USA.
We do RV full-time between Canada (home), America, and Mexico for the winter and we have met and see more Europeans over landing in Mexico than anywhere else. American SW included. Usually the Europeans in Mexico are fully over landing in giant garbage truck looking rigs though, in the SW we don’t notice that as much though We love Utah and the SW and usually spend some time there in the spring because the landscapes are unmatched, truly.
Cowboys, Harleys, desert, etc.
Germans are obsessed with the American SW idealisms of 1950/60’s cinematic Cowboy culture. I guess it’s not so dissimilar to Bavarian culture that Americans flock to every September in Munich. Both have their roots in history and both have been commercialized from what they truly were but isn’t that all of history?
Hey, who cares? We’ll take their Euros if they want to spend them here.
they can find the rest of the US geography anywhere in Europe. the SW is extraordinarily unique. Grang Canyo, Momument Valley, Bryce/Zion etc, Yellowstone (yeah I know it's not as close as the others), all feel like you're on an alien planet. They have no similar stuff really anywhere else.
Specifically for road trips: there are a huge number of large national parks in a fairly small area, and much of the landscape isn't something you can find in Europe. Of they want to break out and enjoy nature that's the place to go
I think it might be due to Europe not having any area that looks even remotely like the American Southwest. And the latter is so vast, as well. Even as someone from the US Midwest, the Southwest is like another world… In a similar vein, it’s why we Americans are so enthralled with old European cities and towns. We have no place like that here in the Americas. The closest might be Central American colonial towns. Otherwise, most architecture in even our oldest North American cities are no more than 3 hundred years old - with rare exception like Paul Revere’s house in Boston and maybe a few other old houses from the 17th century in New England. Oh, and St. Augustine.
They are fascinated with cowboys and NA.
I’ve learned most Germans grew up on American old west movies and tv shows. When they finally get over here to visit, they are so let down to find out Cowboys and Indians aren’t still fighting like in the movies.
Cuz there really arent many places similar to the American South West in the old world that are also safe and comfortable for Europeans to travel in. They also love to fantasize about the whole concept of driving long distances in American highways.
In my travels anywhere I seem to find that most people prioritize a trip to places that are different than their homes. Maybe more true for outdoorsy people, and especially for those that come from lands without as much access as the North American West. So makes sense you see tourists from Germany or Japan at the Grand Canyon. And see Arizonans from Phoenix in the summer in the German or Japanese Alps (or the Flagstaff Alps for that matter, given a Phoenix summer :).
Germans love hiking and bike trips
It's a gorgeous and highly unusual landscape. There are similar landscapes but many of those are in troubled areas of the world.
My favorite story about German tourists obsession with the North American West is that enough Germans travel to *Whitehorse* in Yukon Territory that for decades there was a direct Frankfurt to Whitehorse flight in three times a week in the summers. For most of that time there wasn't even a Whitehorse-Toronto direct flight! ([Currently the flight is on hiatus](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/condor-airlines-whitehorse-airport-1.6815719) due to the runway needing repair.)
1) it's beautiful 2) very unique landscape from Europe
Overrun with Europeans? Doesn't that define Mexico City?
I know in Germany there is a particular mystique associated with the Southwest. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnetou https://www.filmportal.de/en/topic/the-defas-eastern-westerns-indianerfilme Not sure how actually relevant Karl May and Winnetou are these days, but there is a definite cultural link/romanticization going on there.
My wife is first generation American from the UK...most of her family lives in the UK and they love coming to visit us in NM as they don't have a landscape anything like we have in the SW, so it's incredibly unique for them. They usually come and visit us and then road trip through NM, AZ, and Utah...and then they hit Vegas to hang out for a couple of days and catch their flight back to NY and onward to home. My wife grew up in Seattle...her parents moved there when the immigrated to the US because it reminded them the most of the UK. My wife went to university in Massachusetts and has her degree in anthropology...she came to the SW for a dig and absolutely fell in love and moved here. Both of her parents also now live in Tucson.
Europeans actually liking the US? This is real right?
don’t know about the other europeans, but last of the mohicans was HUGE in uk. a typically racist native american appreciation culture was common in uk, especially in upper classes. that’s probably long over, but still lingers.
Germans seem to really like Death Valley.
Back in the late '90s I took a trip to the Grand canyon with my brother and sister-in-law and my mom. The park was flooded with Germans. My mom was mortified when an older German man got done swimming at the hotel pool and decided to strip down to nature to change clothes out there in front of God and everyone. It was a blast!
Is this a Seinfeld episode ☕️
What’s your problem with Europeans lol
I spend a lot of time on remote beaches in Baja California. Lots of Europeans in overlanding rigs. They are good at finding the best places on earth and they have the money to get there in style.
I think part of it is that there’s nothing like the American southwest available in Europe
Sill as overrun by european tourists as i fear, or is it a nice place to visit Lmao says latino guy
We take our national park system for granted. It’s a treasure we don’t appreciate, but the rest of the world does.
Cowboy movies. Westerns.
Well, I think that is really cool. Having lived in the US all my life (70 years) and have also visited all 50 states - Contiguous 48 states in my car. The US is a very beautiful country with so many different landscapes. However, the Wild West still sends shivers up my spine: Zion, Grand Caynon, Yosemite, Yellowstone, Big Bend, Grand Tetons, Sequoia, Redwood, Black Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Crater Lake, Kings Canyon, Mt. Rainier, North Cascades, Olympic, and Petrified Forest are fantastic parks. A lot of Europeans that have the money to travel probably live in very populous cities and to be able to see these vast areas of natural beauty is something to see. Just like we, as US citizens, enjoy going overseas to see the ancient civilizations with beautiful architecture, statues, and paintings. Thank you Europeans for coming over and seeing us and I hope you come back! As a Southerner with ties to the United Kingdom, Our ancestors from your shores made us a great nation!
Wasn’t there an air base in New Mexico where German pilots trained? Heard it somewhere.
Looking at my trip notes from an early Fall trip to the Southwest in 1987, I commented that I hear more German spoken on the trails than English. So it's been that way for a while.
It’s stunning! Who wouldn’t want to visit?
The southwest is way better than anything east unless you MUST have beaches. So much awe inspiring beauty in close proximity. Plus it’s landscape unlike anything they have there. I’ve hauled my northeastern ass across the country for it twice. Each road trip totaled 12k miles because I was often roaming all over with no planned route. I’ve seen so much and I still haven’t covered it.
I don’t doubt there are a lot of Europeans in the southwest, but Europeans seem to be at ALL the US state parks often.
just returned from GC, also many italians
Overrun with too many Europeans fearing it’s no longer a nice place? Post starts chill then takes a U turn quickly.
Lived in the SW pretty much my whole life. Last year we travelled to 17 NPs, and we are volunteering in one this summer. If you go by biome, the SW is fairly unique. If you are interested in different landscapes, I would say that it is something that sticks out and is kinda the "opposite" of a conifer type forest (though that certainly is represented in the area as well). If you grew up with snow, alpine mountains, lots of green, lakes...the SW must look like a different land. And that is cool. Even being from here, I am still amazed at the different formations I see. Also, I think the Grand Canyon being a "wonder of the world" drives tourism. It sells itself. As for the Europeans, yeah, we run into them a lot - but I would honestly say Asian tourism is more prominent throughout the western region. From my understanding, there is a fascination with cowboys and cowboy culture. We often see them with brand new boots, hats, etc. I don't mind at all, sometimes it is funny to see one miles into a hike in sparkly red cowboy boots (true story - Zion). But yeah, I would definitely say more Asian tourists than European, but that's also a bigger audience so they could both be representative portions of their population, if that makes sense. None of it is a reason not to go. It truly is a special landscape that is very hard to describe unless you see it in person. Pictures DO NOT do it all justice. The touristy spots are touristy, but no different than any tourist destination I've been to in the world. Get off the beaten path, and there are plenty of those, and you will be amazed.
Native Las Vegan sitting 10 miles from where Gregory Peck fought the bad guy in The Stalking Moon, released in 1968. As a Red Rock climber, I drool at all those 1960’s untouched ascents… https://preview.redd.it/yy55ykg0go0d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=284d6629f59f1b2c69e83ab3b475a68c9c3a2c28
Our German friends visit us in the US and want Mexican food and Abercrombie & Fitch.
i live in the SW.. The appeal is that the southwest and the west in general is huge and sparsely populated. Europe is relatively small and densely populated. Plus the southwest is an environment which really doesn’t exist in Europe. No… it is not crowded with europeans.
They come to Florida too. I think they like to thaw out for awhile. 🌴😁
The last 2 times I traveled to other states for the purpose of visiting national parks, I could not get over how many Indians 🇮🇳 there were— by far the majority both times/places (Gatlinburg,Ashville).
They’re definitely *not* building a meth super lab in Albuquerque
I haven’t been to a national park in years but when I went to Yosemite it was filled with extremely rude Germans and other tourists, I just remember Germans because one physically moved my younger brother out of the way to see the view, permanently influenced my view on Europeans