This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of DoubleTree by Hilton. All opinions are 100% mine.
This year is a presidential election year in the U.S. Negativity fills the airwaves, conversations with friends, my Facebook feed. Now, more than ever, it’s easy to forget to be nice.
But as a traveler, I try to remember how grateful I am for the kindness of strangers — people who help me when I’m in a new place, vulnerable, lost and confused. I always try to be that kind of person when I travel, an ambassador, defying stereotypes that people may have about my country and culture, the kindest and best traveler that I can be. It’s hard, especially when I’m grouchy and tired, but important.
Some of my best travel memories are the people who helped us out when we were stuck and surprised us with kind gestures to let me know that they care.
Here are just a few examples of nice people I’ve met & travel memories that I’ll never forget.
The smiling young couple we met on Thanksgiving morning, on a ferry from Maui to Molokai Island, Hawaii. We chatted for about ten minutes and the guy invited us–total strangers–to his parent’s house to join their Thanksgiving dinner.
These charming old guys I met in a small town in Malta, as they hung around outside of the local watering hole–they were so excited to have their picture taken! After I mailed one of the guys a hard copy of this photo (he doesn’t use “The Internet”) he sent back a handwritten note and a local Maltese-language wall calendar filled with black and white photos from his hometown.
This is Tony, a guide we hired in Jamaica, turned friend. Two years later he still emails me every few months to find out how things are going, to wish us a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year, and so on.
The time a stranger, a fellow diner, came over to our table at a Tokyo restaurant to give us this bottle of sake, as “a welcome to Japan.”
The candied salmon (yum!) that our Canadian vacation rental host in Tofino, BC gave me to apologize for arriving late.
The Hungarian guy who, after talking for a few minutes while our niece played with his dog “Shiva” in a Budapest park, told me something equally happy and heartbreaking–that we had changed his outlook on Americans because we were “so much nicer” than the other Americans he had met.
Making Travel “Nice”
The hotel brand DoubleTree by Hilton, reached out to me to ask me to join a campaign they are doing to promote nice gestures in travel, called “#NiceTravels“. They are famous for their own “nice” gestures, notably, giving free hot chocolate chip cookies to each guest at check-in–a simple thing, but so memorable!
In that vein, DoubleTree is encouraging travelers to share the love, by doing something nice for others and to share the proof with the world.
Share Your #NiceTravels moment — and Win!
To kick off the campaign, DoubleTree by Hilton is giving away free one-night hotel stays and tins of the brand’s signature chocolate chip cookies. Entering is easy–just share the love by uploading a photo representing “everyday acts of kindness” to Instagram or Twitter, or directly to NiceTravels.com. Use the hashtags #NiceTravels and #ContestEntry. That’s it!
You can see the entries so far in this photo collage. Upload your picture to win –> Click here to see how Nice Travels
Absolutely people can be so nice and so helpful all around the world!
Nowhere do I remember the kindness of strangers more than one weekend in France a few years ago where I had rented a car and was so grateful to two nice guys. One guy helped me get the car out from between a couple of boulders at a roadside stop because I just could not get the car to go in reverse and it kept inching its way forward to a boulder. He got it back out on the road for me and wished me a good trip. Very next day I pulled up to a gas station to fill the same car up and the pumps would not accept any of my American debit or credit cards…and the station was unattended. The man next to me put his card in the pump and let me fill up (I was able to repay him with cash) and it was such a help as I was hours from my hotel with no other way to pay for the fuel!
I love your stories of the kindness of strangers. They are so nice to hear when, as you say, there has just been so much negativity filling our social media feeds lately.
People everywhere are helpful and kind to strangers. I hope we are as kind to others when they visit our country.
Kindness is every where if one looks for it! A few years back- I had “met” a woman from Athens online while planning our trip. She said she would meet us at the bus stop! Well, our plane was delayed and I called her from Frankfurt. She called my landlady to relay the message. The landlady was leaving town. So our internet friend went to our rental, got the keys, went to the store and bought cheese, bread, and milk, and then waited for us at the bus stop and walked us to our house!!! Not THAT is kindness!! We still keep in touch until today.
Absolutely wonderful article on your recollections of kindness. A veey needed idea. I have found people in this country are cautiously friendly. Traveling as a single retired woman is different from traveling as a young couple. Somehow, older couples want nothing to do with me when I’ve camped in southern RV parks where snowbird couples congregate. The friends I’ve made are usually singles, young people, men traveling on their own. An exception was a couple in Florida that I camped next to last winter who invited me for a glass of wine sitting around their campfire. I consider myself outgoing, friendly and a conversation starter. Another memorable friend I met hiking in the hills of San Jose while cat sitting for you. If he hadn’t agreed to let me tag along on his hike, I would not have ventured so far into the park for fear of getting lost. In exchange, I taught him geocaching and together we found many caches along the trails. Thanks for a very uplifting article!