Christopher Columbus made his name over 500 years ago, but a new crop of Europeans is discovering America during the 2026 FIFA World Cup, posting rave reviews of comfort food and rural hospitality on social media.
World Cup matches are scheduled across the country, with Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Kansas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia, Seattle and the San Francisco Bay area all hosting matches.
Oxford Economics reported that 1.24 million international visitors are expected to visit America for the World Cup.
The company added that it expects the tournament will "spark a powerful rebound in international travel - revitalizing demand, filling hotels and showcasing the broad economic reach of mega-events."
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It's also sparking admiration in some tourists for American culture.
X user @FreddyLA7, from Germany, has more than 500,000 followers and has been posting enthusiastically about his experience exploring the South. He began his road trip nearly a week ago, according to his posts. He raved about how green Georgia is, writing, "it's crazy," and posted a picture of a Taco Bell and a pile of food, declaring the fast-food chain "The holy land."
Freddy took in some "Stranger Things" filming locations and the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park and raved about his experience at Walmart.
"Just had our first Waffle House experience at 1 a.m.," he posted, along with photos of several plates of food. "Great food, great prices and friendly staff. 10/10, we will be coming back."
Freddy enjoyed a mountain of food that he called "Wendy's escalation!" and joked about the number of soft drink choices he said were "overwhelming."
He captioned a photo of a Buc-ee's, writing, "DUDE LMAO THIS IS A GAS STATION," as well as a photo of the dinner he procured from the travel center at 1 a.m. He also featured Chili's, Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers, Chipotle, Buffalo Wild Wings and Waffle House (again) in his posts.
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"The best discovery of our road trip has been a musician called Ella Langley," he wrote on a post showing his vehicle's music system. "We had never heard of her before, but after hearing her on pretty much every country radio station, we've become big fans. She's basically the soundtrack of our trip."
Freddy called Bass Pro Shop's Outdoor World "another surreal place." He posted a photo of a selection of rifles in the store.
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"I know some people will say I'm too positive about everything I see," he wrote, "but this place was crazy. They had a shooting range in the store."
In another post, he wrote, "I love Americans. We were about to walk an hour to the stadium in the rain to save on an Uber, and the receptionist at the hotel we were parked in front of decided to drive us there."
An X post by user @washghost1 showing a little Norwegian boy ordering at In-N-Out and then delighting in his burger has garnered nearly 900,000 views.
@SkylarSkye3 posted a photo of food from luxury grocery store chain Erewhon.
"I can't lie… the food in America is ridiculous," she wrote. "Everyone talks about portion sizes, but nobody talks enough about how GOOD everything tastes. Even the 'quick' food feels elite compared to what I'm used to in the U.K."
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X user @japan_nobunaga wrote a lengthy post about his experience at an American breakfast counter (though it's unclear if he's in the U.S. for the World Cup or simply to tour the country). The waitress had recommended the biscuits and gravy.
"When the plate arrived, I thought something had gone wrong in the kitchen," he wrote. "I say this with shame. The dish looked like a construction site after rain. Pale mounds. Gray ladle-fall. Speckles I could not identify. In my land, the eye eats first. A meal is arranged like a garden. This meal was arranged like weather."
He said he changed his mind after tasting the Southern staple.
"I must now formally apologize to the biscuits, the gravy, the waitress, the kitchen and the entire breakfast tradition of the American South," he wrote.
"It was magnificent. Warm. Peppered. The biscuit drank the gravy the way a field drinks rain - THAT is why it is shaped like that, you fool - and every mound I had insulted was a soft fold of comfort that my homeland, in 800 years, never once thought to invent."
The same user also humorously documented his experience with brain freeze after drinking a gas station slushy too quickly and the wonders of coleslaw at a BBQ meal.
"One thing I love about the European World Cup tourists right now is that they're not just being dropped off in the middle of Los Angeles or New York City or some overhyped metropolitan hub that most Americans like myself don't even like," X user @realmikolson observed.
"They're being dropped right in the middle of the heart of middle America."
"A wise man once said, 'If you want to hate America, watch the news. If you want to love America, drive across it,'" Olson wrote on the post accompanying the video clip.
Olson said international tourists driving nine hours across Texas and experiencing Auburn University fraternity houses are witnessing "overwhelming American kindness."
"A lot of the locals in these areas have no idea who these people are or why they're even there," he said, adding that there's been very little World Cup news or marketing, particularly in small towns.
Nevertheless, he's heard of instances of restaurant owners driving World Cup fans to games because they can't find an Uber. A deli owner gave British tourists free lunch "just because they came all this way," he said.
Some Alabama firefighters reportedly gave foreign visitors a tour of their fire department and free merchandise.
Olson said that the hospitality that's "shocking" tourists is a direct result of people "living by American values and principles."
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