I'm from the UK. When I'm travelling within the UK I'll go to Starbucks / Costa / Cafe Nero or Madisons depending on whatever happens to be nearby. Madisons is my favourite but the local branches shut down a few months ago, sadly.

If I'm at home, I don't bother with chain coffee shops too much - I'll usually nip in to JD Wetherspoon (a chain pub) and have a filter coffee there. It's half the price of a similar coffee at a proper coffee shop, and they use the same brand of beans that I do at home, so I know I'll like it

When I'm abroad, I'll do a Starbucks on the first day (too tired to try to navigate anything unfamiliar), but for the rest of the time I'll look for independant places that look like they get a lot of local traffic. I've found some nice places by doing that, but had a few bad experiences too.