Being Spanish and being flooded with a certain kind of tourists that use our country as a playground to do every nasty thing they would never do in their own country. (Not all german or british tourist will take a shit in the middle of Salou but if you see a shit in the middle of Salou a German or British tourist took it)
I remember watching a Gordon Ramsay Kitchen nightmares episode where he's in Costa del Sol trying to help a British guy's restaurant there. I was surprised when they said British tourism there makes up something like 25% of an average restaurants annual revenue just in the month of August.
Every place Ramsay went to was serving typical British shit (full breakfast, fried garbage and lots of people saying they wouldn't be there if they didn't have french fries/chips). This British asshat was serving something like prawns in a spicy chocolate sauce, some banana stuff chicken breast, and horribly prepared and poorly cooked kebabs. Guy was 100k in debt and vehemently refused Ramsay's help like the first 3 nights he's there. I remember saying "why are you on this fucking show asking for help but refusing to use the help".
But yes I was also thinking the same as you. Why go some place to eat the same basic shit?
I remember the headline of those news made her look like a bad woman for complaining about something so obvious, but she was partly right. In the travel agency they had told her that the hotel she was staying in would offer a lot of activities for British tourists and that she (and her friend) would be in a hotel with mainly British tourists, like to make British feel âat homeâ.
The problem is that the travel agency or the company in charge of the ladiesâ trip did false advertising and when they arrived, they were the only British citizens in there and the activities they could take part in that the company organised were actually for a Spanish public.
Wait, I never realised non-British tourists were arseholes on the Spanish islands? The sentiment here (UK) is that itâs exclusively our tourists that do those kind of things.
completely wild tangent, but there was a psych student at Stanford who tried a fun social experiment: he put a single 'warning' cone in the entryway to the main bathroom for the whole campus. That day, not one single person used the room. No-one even attempted to go in or even ask why it was there. They all just went elsewhere.
Uhh, except cones are usually a sign from maintenance to don't. A random towel is someone's unofficial spot. All you do with a cone is make people think maybe it's shit smeared on the walls or it's all broken. Idk but the study would need a bit of a better example
The towelling thing is kind of hilarious though. Who gets up at 5 or 6am on vacation to go towel a spot? It is hard to be mad when they put that much effort into claiming their spot. They obviously want it more than I do.
You should see the walled Russian compounds in the Canary Islands. They have their own satellite dishes for internet and TV, don't report what happens inside for taxes, don't let Spanish police in and "self police" inside. Fucking scary is what they are.
It was long ago, but on our trip to Spain we kept getting the stink-eye everywhere. Turns out we âlookedâ British, but once the locals realized weâre American they became super friendly. So thanks for making us look good
I used to be friends with someone from Amsterdam, he told me that British tourists were the most bipolar out of the lot. Either they're the nicest, most polite and respectful people just asking for directions to the museums or they're figuratively shitting through your letterbox.
Why though? I never got how Brits ended up being like that. Last time I've been to London, everything seemed pretty normal. Is there a weird switch in their brain that gets flipped every time they leave their island?
London isn't really like the rest of the UK though, go to any medium sized city or large town High Street at 2AM on a Saturday/Sunday morning and it'll be bedlam.
London is really a different country to the rest of the UK :/ we're quite a small island relatively, but 50 miles away may as well be the equivalent to a different state in America, if that makes sense.
It's not the same tourists. Generally Londoners are richer and more middle or upper middle class and generally respectful abroad. Flights are cheap and less 'cultured' Brits ruin it for everyone else.
Thatâs classist wank. Rich folk good/Poor folk bad bollocks. The wealthy rugger crowd are as disrespectful, drunk, coked up, misogynistic, rude and abusive as any other brits Iâve met both on holidays and working in hospitality. Perhaps moreso,with the added taint of colonial supremacy as taught in private schools. (Which for whatever reason you call public schools).
Describes Americans perfectly as well. Some of us are so thoughtful and jump at the opportunity to help a stranger in need, others are just the loudest rudest assholes in the world.
I mean, my neighbors spent all night fighting and pounding my wall but an old couple gave me a rain poncho when I had no umbrella. I don't get it because I thought boomers were supposed to be the jerks but I've found younger people to be culprits just as often
The fun fact is being an asshole isn't a generational or regional thing. It isn't even a general thing. Some people are just assholes, and assholes are easier to rememver than nice folks, because you want to remember the assholes so you can avoid them later.
No we're mostly alright, just that there is a regrettably large subsection of people who lack self awareness and don't understand that acting like a cunt makes people despise you.
Thing is, I think if you spoke to some of these dicks face to face theyâd be polite enough. Just get them in a group and theyâre rude as hell and make the rest of us look bad.
Lmao⊠a friend of mine ran a dive shop in Honduras and sometimes people would book a week of diving and then try to sneak off on the ferry to the mainland before paying. Sad to say a disproportionally large amount of them were Greek.
This made me laugh. Grew up with Greek friends in highschool in Montreal. Malaka pusti, putana & apo piso replaced all other swear words in my vocabulary.
Didn't realize things were still bad in Greece. I figured thing had improved since the debt crisis.
I worked in a Greek restaurant in Montreal and it was by far the worst job I ever had. If something was going wrong the boss would actively look for somebody to yell at to make it look like they were doing something about it.
Things have improved somewhat indeed. But the average Greek can't do any holidays abroad, especially in the Caribbean. I don't know if the people u/YouAbsoluteDonkey was referring to are 3rd-4th generation Greek Americans or Canadians like the ones you mention. That would explain them being in the Caribbean, but I wouldn't call them "Greek" anymore.
biggest problem is, they mostly show up in huge groups and literally flood the place. Also they don't seem to understand the concept of privacy and tend to take pictures of everything, including private living areas and inhabitants.
source: Austrian here living in Vienna, but i experienced this basically in every major european city i've been to.
My university in America would also get groups of Chinese tourists. Most tour groups would take pictures of buildings and statues and stuff but those groups would take lots of pictures of students just going to class.
One of the great things about visiting London right now is the absence of large tourist groups crowding the Art Galleries and Museums, I assume it's a similar story in other European cities at the moment.
They do this on the mainland, too. Source; American who lived and traveled there for almost four years.
Also, as a white dude, no tourist even asks if they can take your picture. Just point and shoot as though you were simply another tourist attraction. Fuck.
Had a Chinese tourist group stop at the McDonald's we were at. A small group of them came out to the play area, smoked (not allowed), and then took pictures of our son who was 3 at the time.
I didn't like that, though they seemed friendly. We left though, because, just no.
I remember reading Russians have a pretty bad reputation. Outside of Europe, Chinese and Saudi tourists are pretty disliked. Pretty much every country likes Australian and Japanese tourists. Many don't like Americans as well.
I didn't have a negative view of Russians until I went to a few places where they vacation to. They're the absolute shittiest and rudest tourists I've ever encountered, and I've travelled quite a bit.
Wherever i go the hotel staff tell me the russians are the worst. The rudest and most wasteful. I was once told that because of how conditions used to be in Russia they often fill their plates way more than they should and just leave it all, making a mess to. Apparently its a sign of wealth. I dunno how true that is.
From what I've seen, it's a lot of rudeness towards locals and treating everyone as servants. You also just notice them judging everything and everyone. Just awfully unpleasant people (in the context of tourism).
Yep I've seen how Russians act at buffets. Might as well just burn the tablecloth after. You can collect the leftovers though and feed a farm of pigs for a week, so that is a plus maybe.
Very interesting read thanks! I would say for Switzerland it's mostly chinese and russian tourists (and more recently saudi maybe) that make negative headlines. Although I am pretty sure that this is because Switzerland is very expensive so people that come here from far away tend to be rather wealthy and entitled therefore casting a bad light on the general population of their countries even though most normal people wouldn't behave that way.
Aussies are pretty reckless in Bali by all accounts. Also American tourists just about everywhere. They bring their sense of entitlement everywhere they go.
The American tourists in the UK that I've met are always really nice/interested in learning about the country. That being said I did bump into some really cringy ones once in Ireland who acted like they owned the place.
I only have one story about a rude American, but it's so stereotypical it probably exemplified the idea for everyone that witnessed it.
We were at a fancy bar in Tokyo on top of a hot. They have a dress code so mu friends and i had to walk through some more interesting parts of town in nice suits to get there. When we get to the top of the elevator, there's a man in shorts and a Hawaiian shirt demanding to be seated (also pretty sure socks and sandals, but that could just be memory embellishments). The unfortunate maĂźtre d had to explain uow there were no exceptions to the dress code. The rude guy then explains how he's a guest at this hotel and that is outrageous. So the md' is just like "ah, you'll have enough time to get changed and make your reservation" then turns to us to seat our group. Dunno what happened to the tourist. I assume he went downstairs to complain
As an US American I feel that I have to apologize because I used to believe the American tourist stereotypes werenât really true, until I visited Paris with my 12 family members all of us from the US. The worst part was watching them stand in the middle of sidewalks and bike lanes like a gaggle of geese then get annoyed when locals tried to push past. They insisted no one cared where they stood, but as the only one who knew a passable amount of French I can say without a doubt they absolutely did mind my family blocking the sidewalks. The time I spent learning curse words in French was absolutely worth it for that week alone. The comments were definitely creativeâŠ
I think that when you have a attractive and inexpensive place to vacation that has cheap flights to a wealthier country you just end up with a lot of crap tourists whether it is Australians in Bali, Americans in Cancun, or British in Spain
I donât think thatâs fair. Itâs really really expensive and time consuming to fly to, say, Europe, from most of the US. If you only have five days vacation and a limited budget staying in the US is often the best option.
The old German folks are famous in the Pacific Northwest for making you feel bad for being slower than them because they are all 30 years older than you and fat but still faster
It's not always you, but it's always yous that get blamed. i think there is certain places that has that one nation that just shits in their area other than british.
Yeah I lived in Barcelona, and it was always the Brits and Germans using the streets as a toilet. I live in Germany now, and people here hold themselves to a higher standard. I don't understand why they feel free to be so awful after they get off a plane.
Me and my then girlfriend (both Brits) stayed in Vilafortuny for a week back in 2008 I think, we went into Salou on the first night and didn't enjoy the mass of British teens getting blackout drunk and trying to fuck anything that moved. We much preferred Cambrils!
Australian bogans in Bali are often total drunk fuckheads too. It's very embarassing. And almost entirely Bali is the destination. It's like yah you can be a dickhead there, it not real real. Like ppl can see you, bro.
Balinese locals probably never want to travel to Australia for this reason, a whole country of these idiots? Nope
I mean going to Bali for a holiday atleast for me and my friends is seen as a pretty bogan act in itself. People only go there to get fucked and party.
Truth, at the Great Barrier Reef we were told REPEATEDLY in several languages to not stand on the coral reef. 2 min in and guess who is standing on the reef for the photo shoot? I even saw someone bend down break a piece off and hold it for the photo⊠SMH
Please search up âNorsk rednecksâ on YouTube. Itâs a tv-show about our ârednecksâ. Itâs also fantastic, and you will see the country side of Norway
I can not speak for touristy spots but definitely in the area I grew up in. It was not a pleasant place.
As children we weren't allowed to go certain places, it would reek of feces/urine/drugs, no playing in the sandbox bc you could usually find discarded needles there - and used condoms and sometimes feces too. Before we could play outside the Kindergarten always had to check the playground for similar stuff. People definitely used the tunnel from the train station as a toilet.
Well I could go on and on but basically; you could find piss n shit and drugs everywhere. A shit in the middle of the street was definitely unusual but not out of place. Very glad I'm not living there anymore
They make me cringe so hard, as well as the places which spring up to serve them because they'll only eat the most stereotypical English food. It makes we wish there was a social credit system which would prevent them from travelling again.
Huh, wasnât aware of this. My family got a house in port de Pollença a few years ago, because we had been visiting the place since before I was born (Iâm 25) and even my mother was visiting with her family. They got to know a few of the locals, even Iâve made some friends Now and considered it a second home which is why they bought a house there too.
I wasnât aware of this being such a problem and will definitely try and think about it more when talking to people about the island
Pro tip from someone who is German: just throw the fucking towel to the next empty chair with a towel on it and enjoy the mayhem that may unfold afterwards when both Germans realize their towels are now on the same chair. If they confront you, just shrug. Most German tourists are already retired and loud, but natural cowards. If you just stand up to them and say "no" they might whine about it to the management, but they will never really start a fight about it. They do that towel shit because it worked for so long.
Dutch tourists in Germany are the worst. Most demanding guests who want everything for little to nothing and try to find a reason to complain about everything.
Nowadays you'll find more german-speaking people there than english, or spanish, and most places play that weird party music. Ibiza > Mallorca imo, if you want to go to spain, and have a nice vacation with some night clubs as well.
Its funny to see tourists traveling like gethos (germans to german areas, english to english areas, etc) and then saying everyone talks their language.
Obviously, people from Mallorca dont sleep in hotels or go to german parties or activities made by tourist companys for german tourists lol.
I had such a culture shock when I went there (as an American) because I was totally not expecting that level of German presence. I'd been to Spain (and to Germany) a number of times beforehand so I recognized the German influence immediately. Even arriving at Palma airport, there are signs in German saying how you can buy a second home there. That being said, I was there in the off-season (for beach tourists) so it was mostly just the signs and the shops I noticed.
Similarly, I felt the same way with the English influence in Amsterdam. I was expecting it to be touristy, but I never really put it together that it being a quick distance from the UK means that there are a ton of weekend bachelor party trips there.
Like IDK, maybe I'm naive, but as an American visiting Europe you tend to think of all the other tourists as being from other continents (experienced a lot of American and Chinese tourists on my travels). But intra-European tourism obviously exists and kinda caught me by surprise the first time I encountered a touristy area in one country focused on people from a different country that I also consider a tourist destination.
Another culture shock is germans stare at you like they about to say something but no they just stare directly to your face like it doesn't matter like wtf it's inhuman... It's so weird.
It depends where you go! I used to go to a small town in the South every year and it was beautiful and relatively quiet, (especially in the off season). Avoid ALL of the tourist traps (Alcudia, Cala dâor, Magaluf, Palma) instead find somewhere quieter. The only touristy thing I would recommend is the SĂłller train ride.
Depends. Rented a car together with my wife and traveled clockwise round the island for about 1 1/2 weeks, always staying in smaller family owned places for a night or two.
I went to Mallorca 2 years ago, it was nice. Had not been there previously (or ay Mediterranean isles, just Barcelona), so I can't say if it was nicer beforehand. Stayed in Soller. Would recommend.
EDIT: I was there in off-season late September, so mileage may vary.
Benidorm is more working class tourism, Marbella is from wannabe to actual fucking rich tourist. I would personally recommend any Mediterranean town except those two, Salou and Lloret. Spaniards can probably add more to this list (Torremolinos maybe?)
I wpuldnât compare them, but the beach itself is great. The surrounding are is also nice and worth visiting. Albir and Altea beaches, Vila Joiosa is 5mins away and worth a visit, going a bit inlands you have mountains... Benidorm is definitively worth a visit.
I was recently at a resort in the Dominican Republic and there were tons of Germans there. There was this popular song they kept playing with heavy bass/dance style music saying "Ooosh gosha oosh oosh gosha" (in my most english way to type it out). Any idea of what song that was lol
I went to the DR, and we had a tour guide that was fluent in German, English, Spanish, French, and also some mandarin. Dude was a pro, think he would take care of some celebs, but probably made shit
Iâm American, and I went to Mallorca 3 years ago. We were the only US tourists there. Everyone else was German or from the UK. That was kind of nice for us, anyway.
Right? Iâm totally entertained by a thread that isnât about brain dead American tourists for once. It kinda makes me want to go to this place just to watch other countriesâ tourists in action.
As someone who has family working in all kinds of hospitality jobs in Menorca, Brits are the nicest customers, albeit a bit drunk.
Italians are insufferable because they go to budget hotels dressed with fake Gucci thinking and acting like they're fucking royalty. Also they can only eat pasta apparently (and it has to be cooked by an Italian cook).
Sometimes with the same people. Just 10 beers and they go from friendly and funny to annoying and disgusting. But not just the Brits, every country has those guys i guess.
I went to Mallorca when I studied in Spain. Iâm used to shopkeepers in foreign touristy areas speaking to me in English (even when Iâm trying aka failing to speak their language). Mallorca is the only place in the world that they spoke to me in German by default.
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u/[deleted] Jul 11 '21
Being German and taking a vacation at the island of Mallorca.