One Traveling Man’s Weak-Dollar Dating Survival Kit

02.13.09 | 10:09 AM ET

Travel to distant cities has always carried a whiff of romance for American men. Separated from the dull restrictions and routines and workaday life, we can embrace the spontaneity of each moment, express ourselves more passionately, and (let’s face it) hook up with the kind of women who’d never go for us back home.

Though at a certain level we’ve been able to woo these exotic beauties through our distinctively American charms (optimism and good humor, superior dentistry and an endearing inability to grasp the local language), paying our way in dollars certainly hasn’t hurt our romantic odds. Until now.

Indeed, with the euro and the pound pounding the greenback, traveling with a full wallet just isn’t as sexy as it used to be. Fortunately, this doesn’t mean we have to condemn our romantic ambitions to the corner pub back home. With a little bit of local knowledge and romantic savvy, it’s still possible to woo women within most any urban economy. 

This in mind, here’s some weak-dollar romantic advice for American men in four great world cities:

Paris

Why it’s a good city for meeting women: The most beautiful homely women in the world live here.

Put your average Parisienne in a police lineup, dressed in a ball cap and sweatpants, and you wouldn’t find her all that remarkable. Perch her atop a bicycle in a sundress along Boulevard St. Germain on a warm spring day, however, and you’ll swear she’s a knockout. Poise and attitude count extra in Paris, and French women carry themselves through the world with a rapturous sense of confidence. 

Cultural catch-phrase to keep in mind: Cinq a sept.

Literally “five to seven,” this refers to the time of day when married French people can rendezvous with their lovers and blame it on “extra work” at the office. What this means is that you’re not just competing against the cÃ(c)libataires in Paris—you’re also competing with married guys for the attentions of local women. In short, everyone is fair game in a town where even elderly men and women check each other out on the street—and if you aren’t being romantically bold in Paris, you won’t be keeping up.

Tip to remember: You can’t really win, so just be your cowboy self.

If Gallic attitude makes French women more beautiful, be warned that it also makes them more difficult. Even if you’ve been practicing your French verbs since the 8th grade, odds are a typical Paris femme will find your American accent contemptibly ridiculous. Moreover, you may be a whiz behind the mesquite grill back home, but you still don’t cook as well as her little brother—and even your clever references to Baudrillard and Foucault will only merit a dismissive wave of her hand. Leave the Parisian affectations to the moody French man-waifs who live there, and just be your beefy, boorish American self. The French delight in simulacra, so the right amount of drawled English, baseball talk and firearms knowledge should be enough to make a Paris lass swoon (or at least slum it with you for a night or two—if only to confirm her prejudices about how rough and unsophisticated you are).

Rio de Janeiro

Why it’s a good city for meeting women: Rio is where Sao Paolo women go on holiday.

Brazil’s iconic beach-lined cityscape might have a reputation for beautiful bodies in teeny bikinis, but the Rio girls aren’t the real attraction here. To be sure, Cariocas are every bit as stunning in their “dental floss” as you might imagine, but the real catch along the shores of Rio are the cosmopolitan lovelies visiting on holiday from Sao Paulo, Brazil’s booming commerce capital (less than an hour away by plane). Not only are Paulistas every bit as attractive as their Carioca counterparts—they also speak great English and have interests that go beyond the beach.

Cultural catch-phrase to keep in mind: Ficar.

Body language is a manifestation of culture anywhere in the world, but nowhere is personal space less of an inhibiting factor than in Brazil. Americans might consider it shockingly forward to lean in for a kiss 10 minutes after meeting a woman in a nightclub, but in Rio it’s simply the polite thing to do (she knows you want to kiss her, and she wouldn’t still be talking to you if she didn’t want to kiss you back). Ficar literally means “to stay,” but its meaning is more like “to play”—casually making-out because, let’s be honest here, it beats the hell out of idle chit-chat in a noisy nightclub. Keep in mind that a quick ficar session doesn’t necessarily mean you’re getting to second base any sooner than back home; it’s just a legitimate and enjoyable way to pass time on a warm Rio evening.

Tip to remember: Don’t try to pick up Brazilian girls on the beach.

A walk along the sands of Ipanema might rekindle your worshipful reverence for the female form, but that doesn’t mean you should swagger up to random sunbather vixens and ask them if they’re Capricorn or Sagittarius. In Rio, the beach is sacred territory, and trying to pick up a sun-worshipping hottie is as intrusive (and ineffective) as attempting to woo women in the middle of a church service. Save the beach for recreation, and take your romantic ambitions to the budding nightlife district of Lapa near the city center. Here, the bars and nightclubs spill out onto the streets, infusing the whole neighborhood with an ebullient block-party vibe.

New Orleans

Why it’s a good city for meeting women: What happens in New Orleans stays in New Orleans.

Forget Las Vegas and its well-funded promotional campaigns—New Orleans has been a refuge from Puritanism and the epicenter of North American party travel for a good three centuries. Hurricane Katrina and the devastating flood that ensued slowed things down in 2005, but didn’t come close to breaking the festive spirit of New Orleans. FEMA and local officials might have dithered at the worst possible moment, but you can still do your small part for the rebirth of the local economy by buying women drinks (and getting that favor returned) in the French Quarter.

Cultural catch-phrase to keep in mind: Laissez les bon temps roulez!

Admittedly, this Cajun chestnut (which means “let the good times roll”) will get you about as far with the local girls as wearing “Miami Vice” pastels in South Florida. But the local lovelies have been through a lot in recent years, and aren’t as likely to be impressed by your plastic beads and Bourbon Street hurricanes anyhow. In New Orleans, your best chance at romance lies with the women who’ve arrived from points beyond to let their good times roll in the French Quarter. Sure there are better restaurants Uptown and better nightlife in the Faubourg Marigny, but the Quarter is where the tourist damsels venture to indulge in the kind of fun they’d never try at home (and this could include you).

Tip to remember: The girls flashing you down on Bourbon Street aren’t worth your time.

Your “Girls Gone Wild” DVD has been gathering dust since 2003, so why waste your time toddling after teases on Bourbon Street? To meet women who know what they want (and whose vocabulary goes beyond “woo-hoo!”), take your party inside any bar or restaurant that doesn’t serve Jell-O shots, find a table full of dressed-to-kill tourist babes, make eye contact and work your charm from there. The courtyard at Pat O’Brien’s is good for this most any day of the week, though, depending on the night, it can be worth your time to venture off Bourbon to classier places, like Muriel’s on Jackson Square. To try your luck with local girls in the Quarter, go to Molly’s on Decatur—though if you don’t have easily identifiable hipster affectations (fashionably unfashionable clothes, sleeve-length tattoos, etc.) you won’t get very far there.

Seoul

Why it’s still a good city for meeting women: Many of the out-of-your-league women are actually in your league.

If you’re looking to successfully romance a full-lipped, slim-waisted 28-year-old bombshell who speaks five languages and has a Ph.D. in economics, try Seoul. The curious availability of these brainy Korean stunners is the result of a Confucian passion for education, combined with an old-school patriarchal youth-fixation among Korean men. Thus, while the local guys are out chasing after hand-giggling, cellphone-chattering 22-year-old dingbats, all of the elegant beauties above age 26 (damaged goods, by local standards) are yours for the wooing.

Cultural catch-phrase to keep in mind: Booking.

Back in the 1990s, this cryptic Korean-English hybrid slang-word (which can mean anything from “meeting” to “hooking-up” with someone of the opposite sex) came to symbolize the incipient sexual revolution afoot on an Asian peninsula where marriages were once arranged by family members and co-education was a rarity. By the early 2000s “booking clubs” (expensive nightclubs where waiters introduced tables of women to tables of men) were all the rage in Seoul. At an applied level, booking need not take place at a formal nightclub—just keep in mind that the concept has long since been embraced by the savvy women of Seoul. To try out your urban booking skills, give Itaewon a miss (unless you’re a G.I. and it happens to be 1978) and hit the popular nightlife districts in Hongdae and Apkujong.

Tip to remember: Wear your metrosexual uniform, and take an active interest in her.

Korean society is more formal and status-conscious than the West, so leave your old “Bud Bowl” T-shirt and flip-flops at home. If your wardrobe doesn’t already contain a “metrosexual” ensemble (i.e. nightclub-ready clothing that insinuates you do occasionally give a crap about your appearance), brandish your credit card and replicate any given outfit from a recent issue of GQ. The point of this metrosexual gear is simply to prove, on first impression, that you aren’t a chintzy slob. Once you have her respect and attention, use a time-honored American charm-technique that has yet to fully catch on in the patriarchal confines of Korea: compliment her intelligence, encourage her to talk about herself, and listen (a combination far more effective than any tricky seduction strategy or pickup line).

All tongue-in-cheek generalizations aside, taking an active interest in women’s individuality will go far anyplace in the world—something to keep in mind while we wait for the dollar to rally and once again make life easy for American men.

While we’re waiting for that to happen, of course, it certainly can’t hurt to keep up with the dentist appointments.

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