10 polite manners that are actually rude in certain cultures

You travel. You try to be as polite and respectful as you can with the people of the place you’re visiting. But sometimes, you don’t understand why, they don’t seem to appreciate your efforts. They even look offended! What have you done? We tend to think many of our customs and manners are universal, but the truth is they are cultural. This means we can unknowingly offend someone with our best intentions if they belong to a different cultural background and we’re in their country, where those “universal” manners are different to ours.

This is one of the main reasons travelers should do some research about the place they’re visiting in advance. Fortunately, the guys at SilverDoor Apartments have made it all much easier for us by researching the topic themselves and gathering all those common mistakes we make abroad in this useful infographic.