dutyfree

These are great stories-keep them coming!

schnauzer

Not quite so ghastly as some of the stories beforehand but as it happened in the "breakfast" area where so many of these horror stories take place I thought I would just add my bit.

We were having breakfast at the Del Senato in Rome last year and at the next table to us a group of American ladies (very strong accents no doubts there) began to discuss in very loud and graphic detail their thrush/candida problems. It was a very long discussion and as each new person joined the table they joined in with the topic. To say it put my husband off his breakfast was an understatement. Some things are best left unsaid;at least at breakfast.

Rillifane

Being an American I suspect I notice the bad behavior of other Americans more than that of others. Its a sense that they are letting down the side by doing so.

I recall being in a little restaurant in Italy, off the tourist track, or at least as far off as one can be in a major Italian city.

My companions and I were enjoying a leisurely meal. There were no English menus and no English speaking staff but my rudimentary Italian was sufficient to read a menu and order.

Six American tourists entered (maybe we weren't that far off the tourist track) and proceeded to demand English language menus, complain that the staff spoke no English, and then resorted to calling for spaghetti and meatballs, speaking loudly and slowly in the way that people do in the expectation that non-English language speakers will suddenly grasp what they are saying.

I walked over to their table and sorted them out about the situation and then helped them order. I was forced to return several times to deal with their grumbling and complaint's and finally to review the bill at meals end. Mercifully, they ate with the speed of people who have lived their lives subsisting on fast food and were quickly done. Their exit restored calm to the premises.

When my party, eating at a more Italian pace, completed our meal, paid the bill and were about to leave, the waiter gestured for us to remain seated and produced glasses and a bottle.

Pouring drinks for all, himself included, he smiled and said "Italia, America, Friends!"

We stayed and closed the place, conversing as best we could in a mixture of school boy Italian, broken English and gestures. More than a quarter century later we all still recall the moment with great fondness.

The moral of the story is that those who behave badly punish themselves with their own dyspepsia and the anger and dislike of others. Those who try their best to behave well are often rewarded by kindness and friendship.

JimSteel

Not wanting to add to the foreigner bashing as I am a foreigner to the rest of the world- but as a brit is it my national duty to take a shot at the French. While in Cape Town last November my wife and I were waiting for the cable car up to Table Mountain. We were first in the line when a large group of French tourists arrived and as the cable car arrived all rushed the entrance, not even allowing those on to get off. They all positioned themselves by the open window for the best views of the mountain and Cape Town. Imagine my joy when the cable car started to revolve, should have seen their faces. Alias this still didnt not stop them holding on for dear life until put in their place by the car operator.

Kate

Jim, that reminds me of the NUMEROUS times I've had to tell tourists off who charge onto Tube trains without letting off the passengers first. A cardinal sin on the Tube, which runs smoothly with vast numbers of people because we all know how to behave, where to stand etc. I would like to point out at this time that American tourists are some of the few that politely stand back and follow the rules

dutyfree

Remember....we are not bashing any particular tourist group-just strange and weird "doings" of tourists that you have seen!

USNR

In my years of working with tourists, the group who IMHO have been the most ungrateful, pushy, demanding, thankless, and downright rude: Israelis. How often I have seen them stuff brochures, folders, photos, and travel literature into their pockets only to dump them on the sidwalk just outside our office door. Why? I suppose because this material was free of charge.

Curt

Madison they were performers for the evening show and had to keep their strength up

pat

We were at the temple of Delphi, and some idiot american starting climbing up on ancient attractions. The guards did yell at him and he got down. Drunken americans on a train in Italy, loud, obnoxious and throwing up. every one in the train car looked shocked, including us, and I was wishing I wasn`t an American. They kept running to the bathroom, and believe me, no one else went into that bathroom after them.

tomboy

What I find interesting in this thread is the lack of assertiveness evidenced. I can recall only two incidents above of anyone admonishing the boors. Is everyone afraid of saying, "the rules prevent that" to anyone else? How else are ignorant people going to become educated if we all wait for "the next guy" to say something.

Madison

Tomboy - Unfortunately, some of us have had run-ins with those that don't speak our language or if they do they act as though they don't, they just give you that blank stare.

TorontoSteven

I have an example, but with a good ending. In Florence, an older American woman with her husband and grandaughter, sat beside us in a restaurant. They were obviously very well off. During the course of the meal the "lady" announced in a loud voice that she thought it was pretty rich that the U.S. paid to defend Europe so that all these Europeans could swan around enjoying the good life. Dead silence. Another gentleman at another table stood up and started towards her. I leaned over (with my wife rolling her eyes knowing what was coming) and mentioned that perhaps Europeans did not asked to be "defended". Her husband, with a great deal of grace, said that his wife did not mean to offend and agreed that the US did not defend Europeans so that they could "swan" about. The other gentleman turned around. I was quite impressed with the husband - I am sure he paid for it later.

Poohgirl

Probably so, TorontoSteve. You know what they say - no good deed goes unpunished.

DiAblo

Okay, one more… a couple of years ago I flew to England, met with an English pal, and we flew from London to Paris. He was showing me the sights, having been there many times before.
The place we were going to was Funicu Lauire (you can rest reasonably sure that I’ve misspelled that.) We went up a very high hill via tram to a beautiful, “new” church built in 1870.
Outside there was some lady from New Jersey, I’m guessing, eye makeup like Liz Taylor in CLEOPATRA, three or four layers of lipstick some of which was actually on her lips, skin-tight spandex trousers worn high enough to cover her massive belly looking for all the world like a bass drum was concealed in her pants, a cigarette jammed jauntily in the corner of her mouth, going from person to person, braying, “Where’s the main drag? Hey, anybody know where I can find the main drag? Geeze, c’mon, somebody’s gotta know where the main drag is…”
My English friend still relishes telling the story particularly the part where I walked up to her and discreetly said, “Ma’am, from the looks of things I’m guessing that YOU are the “main drag…”
She simply looked at me, puzzling over whether or not I was dangerous, and waddled away, stopping to look back at me at least three times as she slowly---very slowly---faded away on the horizon.

jtrandolph

We have one particular European group of travelers who seem to follow us around.

In Oaxaca about thirty of them arrived to eat in the restaurant where we were waiting to order. They were obviously a tour group and had been expected. However, they systematically kept calling the waiters to their tables to make demands so that it was 45 minutes before we could order and two hours after that before our dessert was ordered.

In Alaska we had arrived at the airport and were picked up by a van from the motor home company from which we had rented. As we circled to leave the airport a woman came out of customs frantically waving and signalling us to stop. She was the leader of a tour group who were also renting motor homes, and we were supposed to keep circling, and circling until her group finished with customs and collected their luggage. It didn't work.

In Denali, when we took the shuttle out to Wonder Lake, a large group of them (or their ilk) talked loudly among themselves in their native language, completely drowning out the narration, almost the whole way out. Almost the whole way, I say, because I had finally had enough and stood up and let them have it. Glares, I got, but at least I could hear again.

I haven't been to Germany yet to pay them back. <grin>

leonberger

We (Americans, sigh) were in the Tower of London, and had just finished the tour. It was time for a "changing of the guard" type moment - I'm not sure precisely anymore, but switching from one group to other on duty.

The Tower Yeoman Warders (highly trained and very serious military people, who give tours while they're also simultaneously in charge of security for the Tower) had politely but firmly herded all of the tourists off to the sides of the main pathway, to make room for the armed-to-the-teeth new guards to march in and relieve their as-well-armed old guards.

An American (sigh again) stepped out into the middle of the paved "road," right in front of the advancing guard. He wanted to "get a good picture" (as he kept telling everyone). We were all appalled, and several of us called out to him and told him he needed to get back with the rest of the us.

The Yeoman Warders came over to move him away, and he tried to "shrug them off," again stating that he just wanted to get some great pictures. As they bodily lifted him to move him from the fast-advancing marching unit (perhaps 25 feet away at that point), he continued to argue with them that he "wasn't hurting anything" and "the best pictures were right there in the middle, watching them come toward me."

About thirty minutes later, we saw him walking on a roped off section of lawn in one area of the Tower. Once again, the Yeoman Warders helped him to "understand" that he wasn't supposed to be there. (He, of course, wanted a specific picture that could only be taken from that patch of lawn.)

Our greatest surprise was that we saw him the second time...why in the world did they let him stay?

Let's just say we weren't real proud of our countrymen at that moment.

Some people....

Gayle

Tracey14

Good point, tomboy, though I must admit that the few times that I have requested better behavior, I have been verbally attacked - and the behavior has continued. This is not a travel example, but I will never forget it: I was at a classical music concert, sitting behind a woman and a little girl. The little girl asked questions during the entire first piece, which the woman answered, therefore encouraging her. Before the second piece began I told the woman that the girl was being disruptive and asked if she could quiet her down (which was obvious, since everyone in our section was in the process of leaving or finding new seats). She was extremely offended. In my experience most boors seem to think that they are entitled to their bad behavior, and that correcting them is boorish.

jo56

DH and I were at Neuchschwansein castle waiting in line for the small bus that goes up the hill. We were second in line and the bus comes back and lets passengers off. The line of waiting people was starting to go to the bus when from the back of the line or somewhere this American tour group leader jumped onto the bus step and comandeered the bus. This is for the Garmisch party she kept saying. The people that had waited in line were about to lynch her. The bus driver, I think had a few words with her, but it made no difference.

shanart

Use your imagination please... I go the the public restroom near Convent Gardens a couple of years agoa around eight in the morning. A woman,very poorly dressed, was wrapped around the hand dryer with one hand on the top of the dryer and the other down her pants, eyes closed...After several minutes I left and other friends went down. Still in the same position.. It was truly the weirdest, saddest thing I have ever seen. I am assuming she was homeless and on some type of pharmaceutical product. And yes, the dryer was running! Or, maybe she was just one of those crazy, fun loving brits!

idgyeaw

Some friends were eating dinner at a nice restaurant in Florence one evening. 2 other American couples who were sitting on opposite sides of the restaurant begin talking across the room to each other. They figured out they went to rival colleges and, as the night goes on, they got louder and louder until pretty soon they were singing their school fight songs at each other.

There was applause as they left the restaurant.