US tourists are going viral on TikTok for claiming that Europeans don't drink water. Europeans are saying they're ignorant.

• US tourists are going viral on TikTok for claiming that Europeans don't drink enough water.
• Many viewers are upset that these users seem to not have done research before traveling.

Several US tourists have gone viral on TikTok for claiming that Europeans don't drink water. Europeans, meanwhile, say these tourists are ignorant.

The drama began with a video posted on June 24, which has over 4.6 million views as of Thursday. In the video, 18-year-old Isabella Sweet — who is from Howell, New Jersey, and goes by the TikTok username @bellasweettt — is standing on a balcony in Athens, Greece, and chugging water with the caption, "Everytime I get back to the hotel room because Europeans do not believe in regular water consumption."

Several viewers appeared to agree with Sweet's criticism. "Not to mention having to pay to use the restroom," read one comment, which has over 4,000 likes.

Another comment, which has over 4,500 likes, read, "I took a NINE HOUR flight to Paris and got 2 shot glass sized cups of water the entire time."

"I lived in Spain and my gym DIDN'T HAVE A WATER FOUNTAIN," read another comment with over 6,800 likes.

Sweet, who posted the video while she was in Athens on her way back from a trip to Leros, Greece, with Rutgers University, said she made her video because she and her peers from school kept making jokes about how they had to ask for water and pay for it at every restaurant they went to.

"A lot of the times they would bring sparkling or just forget about bringing us the water completely," she told Insider.

She said that on the day that she filmed the video, she and her friends found it difficult to find water after spending the entire day walking around. "I came back to the hotel and made that video as a joke for my study abroad friends to laugh at," she said.

But it didn't take long for viewers to start criticizing Sweet.

"In Europe we only have water in hotels! We often rent a hotel room to get water! Otherwise... We go with buckets to rivers every saturday!" joked one sarcastic viewer.

But Sweet isn't the only TikTok user to make this joke. On July 3, Kate Kennedy, who goes by the TikTok username @katekennedy1, posted a video of herself and her friends dancing in the streets.

The video, which has over 865,000 views as of Thursday, shows the group holding bottles of water alongside the caption: "When water costs at least 2 every meal in euro. So we bring our own bottled water to fancy restaurants. Don't take tap water for granted."

"Maybe just ask for tap water it's free," commented one viewer.

"Do you not think we tried that?" replied Kennedy.

Kennedy did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

One TikToker said that she thinks people from the US are 'getting scammed in Europe' if they're indeed buying water

On July 17, Nina, a 22-year-old who is half French and half Czech, and who goes by the username @ninii.nemc on TikTok, posted a video complaining about US tourists who said they brought their own tap water to restaurants.

In the video description, she wrote, "Americans are getting scammed in Europe and it shows." In her video, she said, "I never paid for water in one single restaurant in my life in Europe. What the heck are you talking about?"

It is a misconception that tap water is free everywhere in Europe. While restaurants in France, the United Kingdom, and Spain are legally required to provide free tap water, it is not a legal requirement across all of Europe. In several countries, including the Netherlands, Germany, and Italy, it is not customary to ask for tap water at a restaurant.

And while tap water is generally safe to drink across Western Europe, there are some places in Eastern Europe where you should take some precautions. Some of the countries where it is recommended that you buy bottled water include Albania, Belarus, Montenegro, and Ukraine, according to vacation-planning website TripSavvy.

When Sweet saw how many people were watching her video, she said she began to get "obsessive" because she felt like the comments were "attacking" her. She also felt like people thought she was "making a joke about their country and way of living" because she had suggested that they don't drink water in her video.

Nina told Insider that she's unsure where the idea that Europeans don't drink water comes from. "To be honest with you, we are told all our life that Americans don't drink water at all and that they will only drink Coke or sodas," she said.

She also said that she thinks people from the US typically "fall into tourist traps way more than Europeans," and that restaurants probably take advantage of this and try to push sales by making them buy water.

This isn't the first time that viewers have criticized US tourists on TikTok for not doing their research before traveling to Europe. At the beginning of July, a woman from Denver went viral after she said that traveling to the Amalfi Coast in Italy was "literal manual labor" in a video. Viewers criticized her lack of preparation and suggested that "watching TikToks" wasn't enough.

"Americans in Europe rarely have an authentic European experience," said Nina. "But then they come back to the US and act like what they saw as a tourist is a general intangible fact, which contributes to misconceptions about our lifestyles as Europeans."

How much water you're actually supposed to drink each day varies based on your location, activity level, and age

On average, the average daily fluid intake for men is 3.7 liters per day for men, and 2.7 liters per day for women, according to Mayo Clinic. About 20% of this comes from food, and about 80% comes from drinks.

The easiest way to check whether you should be drinking more water is to check the color of your urine.

"If you notice that your urine is not pale yellow in color, you may need to drink some water," Brenda M. Davy, a registered dietician, nutritionist, and professor at Virginia Tech, told Insider in 2021.

If you consume a lot of salt, sugar, or alcohol, or you're living in or visiting a hot climate, then you may need to drink more water.

Despite the backlash she received from her video, Sweet told Insider that it "really was a joke," and that she thought only her school friends would see it. She said, "I absolutely loved my first time in Europe and am planning to go back as soon as I can save up!"