Brit Reacts to My British Mum's Honest Final Opinion of America!

Added: 2026-05-13

[00:00:00]my British mom's honest final opinion of America. Very excited to get into this and see what we got. Before we do, appreciate if you guys can subscribe button. Yeah, let's check this out.

[00:00:12]>> Hi and welcome back to my channel. So, before my mom headed back to England, there was one final thing that she really wanted to do in America, right?

[00:00:21]And weirdly to some people, it wasn't a huge tourist attraction or popular major city.

[00:00:28]>> Eat barbecue food.

[00:00:31]Ever since her friend had visited Virginia Beach, she's wanted to see it for herself. Now, we got close to here when we visited the historic triangle earlier in her visit. We never quite made it. So, as the final part of her trip, we did make it here. Managed to find a reasonably priced hotel room overlooking the beach itself. And we got up to see the sunrise, which was amazing. watching the sky slowly turn orange while the beach was almost completely quiet.

[00:01:02]>> Hey, this is always beautiful whenever you go abroad on a beach holiday like for me it's like Spain or somewhere in Europe and he's looking into the ocean and you got the sunset. Gorgeous, man.

[00:01:13]>> That peaceful coastal atmosphere, the massive open beach, people already out walking, jogging, drinking coffee, it just felt calm. And I think moments like that are what my mom is probably going to remember most about America. Not just big attractions, but the atmosphere around them.

[00:01:35]>> One thing she kept saying throughout her >> What are those other two? Are they Virginia flags? Is that Is that what they are? Or West Virginia flags.

[00:01:41]>> Her entire visit was just how friendly people are here.

[00:01:46]>> And I know anytime you say that online, people instantly jump in saying not everywhere. Right.

[00:01:53]>> Obviously, America is huge. Every state, city, >> I had that experience when I went to New York as well. Like the Americas I was meeting was just so friendly, so chatty, talk to you, tell you their stories, and like you don't get that in the UK.

[00:02:07]>> The town has its good and bad areas, but from our experience, people are genuinely so warm and welcoming. Whether it's servers in diners stopping to talk to Isabelle, strangers chatting to us when we're out and about or people just randomly asking where our accents are from. There's a friendliness here that really stands out to us Brits.

[00:02:29]>> Yeah. Well, you don't get it in the UK.

[00:02:32]That's why that's why we're so shocked and so surprised when stuff like that happens because like we're like whoa.

[00:02:38]Like in the UK, nobody will be talking to anybody, right? And if somebody's talking to you that like they might drop something. I I don't know, >> bro. But >> and I think one of the biggest differences is that in America, people seem much more comfortable starting conversations with strangers.

[00:02:54]That's something that my mom really really loved. And one of the main reasons that she really enjoys her visits here and wants to come back.

[00:03:03]Another thing she could not get over was the food. Not just the portions, but the savory and sweet combinations. They're just not what >> America knows what they're doing when it comes to like savory and sweet. Like, you actually do. Like, savory and sweet in the UK is not a thing, bro. Like, you'll never get chicken with pancakes.

[00:03:26]Then again, we don't really have pancakes, but like you'll never get like meat with pancake, bro. Bacon and waffles is unbelievable with syrup. Oh my.

[00:03:36]>> America, you know what you're doing.

[00:03:38]>> Her British used to. Before coming to America, she thought these food concoctions were mostly an exaggeration, >> but they're not. One place we went to at Virginia Beach was called Pocahontas Pancake and Waffle Shop.

[00:03:53]>> And if you ever visit Virginia Beach, I genuinely recommend it. The portions were >> Look at those pancakes.

[00:04:01]I've showed pancakes in the UK. Oh my god. Look how big the salt figure is.

[00:04:05]I've showed you pancakes in the UK before. I'm going to show you again cuz every time I show Americans, you guys lose your mind. UK pancakes. Let me Let me show you. Let me show you what our pancakes are. Right. Hold on to your chairs.

[00:04:20]Hold on to your chairs. These are our pancakes right there.

[00:04:27]They're our pancakes. Look how flat they are compared to yours. That's how our pancakes look absolutely nothing like yours. Nothing alike.

[00:04:37]>> Very generous. The food was the same and the staff were great. We've lived here for almost 2 years now. So, bacon and sausages with our syrup drizzle pancakes and huge portion sizes are normal and pretty standard for us now. But for my mom, this is still a huge thing.

[00:04:56]>> Even things like a takeaway box stood out to her. In the UK, you can ask >> that's not really like you can ask for, you know, takeout box to go, but a lot of places might actually say to you, we don't have that. We don't do that. But then again, you don't really get food to do that. You know what I'm saying? So like, yeah, like most of the time, British people are asking for a takeout box, >> for a takeaway box, but it's nowhere near as common as it is in the US.

[00:05:24]servers coming up and being so attentive and topping your coffee up was once again something we have become accustomed to, right? But felt alien to her. It was a nice surprise for her and it is something that may take some adapting to when we actually go back to the UK this summer because so used to this amazing service.

[00:05:44]>> Another thing that surprised my mom was just how much space America has. bigger country.

[00:05:50]>> You don't appreciate this country's geography properly until you >> see I see that and I see in like all the vlog I see how big and every time I even try and realize how big America is, it does blow my mind even more and more.

[00:06:02]I've seen quite a few videos like how big your roads are, how big your car parts are, how big like you just have space, bro through it. The sheer distances we drove that have become normal to us felt very strange to her, >> right? Every time I mention a 1-hour drive in the UK, I see Americans in the comment section saying, "What do you mean a 1 hour drive is long? A 1 hour drive for me is long. Long 1 hour 2 hours very long. 2 hours plus I want to do it, bro. I want to do it."

[00:06:36]>> Driving from our hometown in Pennsylvania to South Carolina is almost the same as driving the length of the UK.

[00:06:43]>> Wow. And because everything is spread out, every trip feels like a bit of an adventure here and still feel like you've barely scratched the surface of one state. I think that's why America fascinates so many Brits because it feels familiar in some ways, but so different in many other ways. And after spending time here, I think my mom finally understood why we enjoy living here so much.

[00:07:11]>> Oh, you're making me jealous.

[00:07:13]you make. Every time I watch her videos, her videos are so good. Every time I watch him, I get so jealous that I'm not living in America, man.

[00:07:21]>> Not because it's nowhere is, but because there's just something about the atmosphere, the places we visit, the friendliness, and the experiences you can have here that feels very different from back home. love that >> we definitely do more as a family here because the US is more geared towards supporting a family setting whether that be restaurants, attractions or events.

[00:07:49]>> And honestly, I think finally seeing Virginia Beach for herself was the perfect >> Okay, this is Virginia, not West Virginia, right way to end the trip from walking along the beach and the lovely prominard to grabbing pizza in the downtown area. What's a prominard? Never heard of that before. What is a prominard?

[00:08:09]>> And exploring some of the history nearby. Okay.

[00:08:12]>> It just felt like such a memorable place to visit.

[00:08:16]>> We unfortunately didn't make it to the first landing site itself, which is actually one of the reasons we're already planning to come back to Virginia Beach. Hopefully some >> Is the first landing site of Virginia is that when um the explorers first came to America? Is that where is they first landed? That's my guess.

[00:08:38]>> Someday soon. But >> Columbus, right? Yeah, Columbus.

[00:08:42]>> On our way here from South Carolina, we actually made a stop at the Bentonville Battlefield State Historic Site in North Carolina.

[00:08:51]>> Because I really wanted Mum to experience some proper American history while she was still here. And even if you're not massively into history, it's one of those places that makes you stop for a second and realize just how much happened here.

[00:09:07]>> Bentonville was the site of the largest battle fought in North Carolina during the American Civil War, taking place in March 1865.

[00:09:17]>> It's crazy to think that like a a massive battle just happened right here.

[00:09:22]That's mental. just weeks before the war finally.

[00:09:26]>> Like when you think about like battles and stuff like that, like you you can imagine it, but like when you actually see the location the battle was, it's like hard to like believe like, oh wait, yeah, this many people fought right here. Like why not, you know, why here and not like in McDonald's car park? You know what I'm saying? Like obviously McDonald's wasn't around, but like you know what I mean?

[00:09:49]ended. Thousands of soldiers fought across these fields and walking around it now is kind of surreal because it's so peaceful and quiet and another great place to bring kids to learn about the history of the US.

[00:10:04]>> Similar to the Gettysburg battlefield, there are plenty of interesting trails to walk, an auto tour, and of course, a gift shop. What mom kept saying was how beautiful and well preserved everything was. In the UK, obviously, we have a huge amount of history, too. Castles stood out to her here was the amount of space. You can actually walk through the battlefield, see the old farm buildings, the monuments, the preserved land, and really take it all in properly.

[00:10:36]>> Do we have any places like that in the UK? I suppose the whole of the UK was a battlefield at some point, but I don't think we actually have like any like preserved fields. It was a B. I could be wrong. I could be wrong, but I don't know of any.

[00:10:50]>> There are also walking trails that take you right alongside the original trenches and earthworks from the battle, which honestly makes it feel even more real when you're standing there looking at them, knowing they were built during the Civil War. And I think that's something America does really, really well. There's such a strong effort to preserve these places so people can still learn from them generations later.

[00:11:15]>> That is interesting, especially if you're into your history, which most people are. Like when you go to a new country, it is nice to check out the history.

[00:11:23]>> It's not just a random field with a plaque stuck somewhere. It genuinely feels cared for and respected. And standing there really reminds you just how much history there is in America.

[00:11:35]history that people outside the US maybe don't always think about.

[00:11:40]>> Yeah. When people talk about America and history, a lot of people that don't live in America just assume automatically because America is such a young country, they don't have history, which is crazy because not only does America have history, but it's some of like the most popular history ever. Like like on TV, movies, games. I'm talking mainly of like Cowboys, right? That's my favorite when it comes to like American. Like, don't get me wrong, I love the Romans and stuff like that and checking movies of that, but I love the Cowboys as well.

[00:12:15]So, like, of course, there's big history.

[00:12:17]>> And something else we noticed here was a lot of the history is told from the Confederate perspective, which felt very different compared to the historic sites we'd visited before while living north of the Mason Dixon line. Right.

[00:12:31]>> Not in a political way, just >> Do you know what's crazy as well to think about? Like, you know how like when it comes to history, a lot of people don't really like look at America as being historic, but other countries, you know, in like 4 500 years, they're probably only going to talk about American history. Like, think about how dominant America are in the world. Like, everybody speaks, you know what I mean?

[00:12:55]that everyone speaks about America, America content, America this, America that, America this, America has import, you know, globally, especially when it comes to like, you know, wars. Is Is my camera going blurry?

[00:13:06]Why am I tripping? Cuz I've seen No, I think we're good. I think we're good. I don't know if it was or not. I don't know. But where was I? Yeah. Yeah. like America's history like that is going to be the main topic of conversation of humanity in like 500 years which is crazy to think about how it's going to flip right or I could be wrong maybe I could teleport 500 years in future and let you know >> in the sense that you're hearing a different perspective of the war and the people who fought in it which made the whole experience feel even more interesting and eye opening >> right >> I don't know I'm Pretty sure even unless my eyesight hold up. Unless my eyesight is going very very very blurry. I'm pretty sure this was going blurry. I'm looking at myself on the camera here.

[00:13:54]Right.

[00:13:56]Yo, if this video has been going in and out blur, I apologize.

[00:14:00]>> Also didn't shy away from discussing slavery and the impact that had on the local areas.

[00:14:06]>> That's a big part of history as well.

[00:14:08]Massive part of history. And I think that stop at Bentonville actually summed up a lot of what my mom thought about America overall. Right before visiting, I think like a lot of Brits, she had certain ideas in her head about what America would be like from films, social media, and the news. That's where we properly experiencing it for herself. I think what stood out most to her wasn't really the big attractions at all.

[00:14:37]>> It was the warmth of the people. It was the diversity of the geography. It was the opportunity that this country offers, random conversations with strangers, the feeling that there's always something new to see just around the corner.

[00:14:51]>> Amazing. I love how this like America is just full of different landscapes and places. And yeah, you could just you could stay within America and just experience so many different things. And I think that's why so many people become fascinated with America once they actually spend time here because no matter how much you think you understand it from the outside, being here feels completely different. And even though my mom is definitely happy to be going home to England, I also think a part of her is already thinking about her next trip back.

[00:15:22]>> Hell yeah.

[00:15:23]>> After almost 2 years of living here myself, I completely understand why she wants to come back.

[00:15:28]>> She's living in America. never going back to the UK. I could tell. Amazing video. Love this. Every time I watch her videos, I just get jealous I'm not living in America. I really wish I could. But yeah, let me know what you guys think in the comment section. If you guys enjoyed this, make sure you leave a thumbs up, subscribe for more content. I'll see you all in the next one. Peace.