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18 Cultural Differences Between the USA and EUROPE

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Drew Binsky turned a six-week European bender into an 18-point culture-shock cheat sheet for Americans.

By the time he sat down to edit “USA v Europe | Biggest Cultural Differences,” Drew Binsky wasn’t working off a tourist’s first impression. The American travel vlogger had just wrapped a six-week trip across the continent, and it capped off a run in which he’d set foot in all 45 European countries and logged more than a cumulative year living and traveling there. He released the video, also distributed on Facebook as “18 Cultural Differences Between the USA and EUROPE,” in December 2017, framing it as a rundown of the everyday friction points American travelers hit the moment they land.

• Binsky released the video in December 2017 after a six-week Eurotrip that pushed his cumulative time in Europe past one year, having visited all 45 countries on the continent.
• He says compiling footage, writing the script, and producing the final cut took the full six weeks.
• The video zeroes in on paying to use public restrooms, paying for water at restaurants instead of getting free tap water, and Europe’s more permissive, more “fashionable” attitude toward cigarette smoking.

Six Weeks, 45 Countries, One Video

Binsky’s credibility on this subject is the whole pitch: this isn’t a two-week backpacking trip talking, it’s someone who has physically checked off every country in Europe and then some. That’s the same well-traveled-American lens he brings to pieces like 15 Things They Don’t Tell You About Traveling In Europe, and it’s why the video reads less like a listicle and more like a debrief from someone who’s paid the toilet fee in a dozen different currencies.

The Small Fees That Surprise Americans

The two habits Binsky leans on hardest are the ones that catch first-time visitors off guard at the most inconvenient moments: needing coins to use a public restroom, and ordering water at a restaurant only to get a bill for it instead of a free glass of tap water. Neither is exotic to anyone who’s actually done the continent-hopping, but stacked next to American norms — free restrooms, free tap water, refills without asking — they land as small, repeated reminders that you’re not in the States anymore.

45 countries, a cumulative year on the continent, and six weeks just to cut the footage together — that’s the resume behind the “you have to pay for water?” gag.

Smoking, Shorts, and Social Habits

Binsky also spends time on cigarette smoking, framing it as both more socially tolerated and, in his read, more culturally “fashionable” across Europe than it’s become in the U.S. He pairs that with lighter observations on clothing choices, including how differently shorts get worn and perceived depending on the country, plus broader notes on daily routines and living conditions that separate a European day-to-day from an American one.

Punctuality and the Handshake-vs-Cheek-Kiss Divide

Rounding out the list are the etiquette basics that trip up first-timers most: punctuality expectations that don’t always match American scheduling habits, and greeting customs where a handshake in one country is a cheek kiss — or two, or three — in another. It’s the kind of detail that sounds minor until you’ve misjudged it in front of someone’s family.

The video circulated widely enough that other creators built reaction content directly off it, including “American Reacts to USA vs Europe Cultural Differences,” which walked back through Binsky’s own list point by point — proof that the restroom-fee gag and the tap-water bill still land the same way no matter who’s reacting to them.