As a Northeast travel writer, I come across certain themes that aren’t common in other parts of the country. In my region—the upper Hudson Valley—I frequently hear residents complain about a singular phenomenon: the citiot.

A citiot, in the most reductive terms, is a city dweller who travels to a rural region for vacation, but persists in behaving exactly as if he/she were still in the middle of a large, densely populated city. Yes, the term is pejorative. Yes, there are few things rural residents dislike more than citiot behavior. But no, not all city visitors are immediately labeled citiots, and it is possible—and, in truth, really not all that difficult—to avoid being mistaken for one.

To address the phenomenon, I wrote this piece for Fodor’s. I immediately got hate mail and tweets from a handful of people, including one who demanded I tell him “more specifically” where I live, so he could avoid visiting, and another who declared she would no longer spend her money on people who “don’t deserve it.” Hey, nobody enjoys hate mail, but in this case, I consider my job well done.