Tourists Speak Up About What Surprised Them Most When Visiting the United States

For some visitors, the strangest part of paying at a restaurant is watching a server walk away with their credit card. In many countries, the payment machine comes to the table, so the card never leaves your hand. In America, that little disappearing act can feel like an amazing amount of trust.

This habit comes from older restaurant payment systems, where servers brought the card to a central register to swipe it and print a receipt. The U.S. was also slower to adopt portable chip-and-PIN terminals than many other countries. Even as technology changes, the old routine still lingers in many restaurants.