WordPress asked me this question, and I couldn’t resist answering.
Even though it can hardly be described as a “town”, the friendliest place I’ve ever been to is Seville, Spain. I only went there once but the experience was very memorable. On my first day there, I went out for a stroll and immediately got lost in the maze of tiny little streets.
“Excuse me, how do you get to street such and such?” I asked a passerby.
“Ah, you must be a tourist! Where are you from? Canada? You will love our beautiful city. Let’s go, I’ll take you to the street you need. Ah, here is the coffee-shop of my friend Francis. He makes the best coffee in Sevilla. Hey, Francis, come here. This is my friend from Canada, give her some coffee. And bring churros, too. Have you tried the real Spanish churros? You’ll love them. Hey, Francis, don’t be stingy, bring her some more to take back to the hotel with her. Have you seen a bullfight yet? No? You need to see one! Look, here is a ticket for tonight. I was going to use it myself but you need it more. Take it, and here is an invitation to another cool place. Money? What are you talking about? We are friends, aren’t we? Hey, Maria! Look, this is my friend from Canada!”
“Ah, you are from Canada! What have you got here? Churros? From Francis’s place? Nah, these are no good. Let’s go to Pepe’s cafe and you’ll taste real churros there. Hey, Pepe, this is our friend from Canada. Give her some churros. No, give her more to take to the hotel with her. What’s your name? Clarissa? We have a party tonight, Clarissa. I’ll pick you up at your hotel at eleven. Hey, Jose Miguel, look, this is our Canadian friend Clarissa!”
At the end of the outing, I returned to my hotel with my hands and bag full of tickets, invitations, souvenirs, and churros.
What’s the friendliest place you ever visited?
Clarissa's Blog 
That’s really cool! I am surprised that the nicest town was in Spain of all places. 🙂
LikeLike
Nishinomiya, Japan. My own host family was lovely, of course, but I went out to get to know my neighbours, since so many of them seemed intrigued to have a foreigner living in the neighbourhood. They were all so kind, eager to get to know me, and every day when I came home from school, I would find a gift basket with fresh vegetables, jars of pickled plums (my favourite food) and various other treats.
LikeLike
Everywhere outside of tourist attractions, Egypt.
LikeLike
People have been friendly every place I’ve gone, but probably the friendliest place was Greece. We stayed a week with a total stranger in Athens who lent us a free room; and in Lesvos we booked our hotel for a time when they were actually closed for the winter (the website we booked through should not have allowed us to do so)…when asked if there were any other place to stay, the proprietors allowed us to keep our reservation even though they had left for Athens and had someone they knew back in Lesvos let us in…we were the only people in the tiny hotel.
LikeLike
This leading tourists around is a flourishing business in Paris.
Locals approach foreign tourists and try to navigate them into cafés and other spaces where a simple cup of coffee costs 12 € (I am not shitting you). The local who brought the tourists gets a buck or so for every person he or she lures into it.
LikeLike
This wasn’t a business. 🙂 Nobody took any money from me. 🙂
LikeLike
Well, of course not. I mean, they were not french, where they ?
LikeLike
People keep telling me that the stereotype of the cheap French is true. I really wonder now…
LikeLike
Aachen, Germany. I’ve never met so many genuinely friendly people in one month elsewhere.
LikeLike
Aachen has a pretty cool geographical location.
Both the border to the Netherlands and to Belgium are easily reachable with a bike.
LikeLike
S.F., CA.
LikeLike
Really? That wasn’t my impression at all on either of my trips. Interesting.
LikeLike