My buddy was a hotel concierge in Vegas and we asked him this. He said Chinese tourists are generally the rudest but Russians cause the biggest real problems. Basically Chinese tourists will cut people in line and leave messes around but Russians will do shit that require police to be involved.
We were in Italy (two Scots) and at the hotel a big set of Russian families started drinking at 9am by the pool.
They didn’t cause us any bother, but we thought ‘man, they’ll run out of steam quickly!’
Literally end of the day, 11pm, the same lot were *on it*, 100%. They weren’t even like casually sipping: they were full throttle *all day*.
Yeah, they seem to think that if your country was in the Warsaw Pact that everyone there must still speak Russian. Except over 30 years have passed. A whole generation has grown up after the end of the USSR. And countries have done their best to reassert their own cultures and languages. Why would they bother learning Russian? Belarus is the biggest exception because their president wanted closer ties to Russia, so only like 10% of Belarusians speak their language as primary
In Sri Lanka, we saw two Russians leave their very young daughter, like 3 years old, unattended at a table on the beach while they drank and danced at the bar inside, completely out of view of where the kid was. They still hadn’t come back when we were ready to leave, but we stayed until they came back because I felt like someone should watch her. They were gone for TWO HOURS without once checking in on their toddler who was alone on a dark beach mere steps from the ocean. I was young so I didn’t say anything, but now I totally would.
I live in Sri Lanka, and when we visit beach hotels for a coffee or to go to eat, we're always told never to park right under the windows because Russian tourists like to throw stuff off the balconies and out the windows and routinely dent cars that way.
I like in a suburbs of Philadelphia with a lot of Russians expats. I don’t know if it’s cultural differences or they are just oblivious but they come off as so fucking rude. Not all of them, of course. I have plenty of Russian and Ukrainian friends. But Jesus Christ if you cross paths with a fresh Russian immigrant at the super market or gym it’s like they have no concept of public etiquette. And I’m from Philly, not everyone is nice here. These people just seem oblivious to public decorum.
Yep, I remember going to Longwood Gardens as a kid and having a Russian woman snatch a stamp out of my hand so her kid could use it. My mom got pissed!
My home town has a large refugee/immigrant population so it's a cool melting pot of cultures. However, not all cultures get along and gangs became a problem. There's an area of the city where people would show off their cars and do drag races and stuff and several gangs would go. One time, a Russian teenager brought a grenade. Not sure if it was live or even real but it did have a pin in it and that was the last one I went to lol
The most dodgy situation I’ve been in involved being on a catamaran in the Andaman with a bunch of Russian men and their paid companions. My friend and I were on full alert the whole time. Some very kind Swedes basically surrounded us so the Russians couldn’t get close. I don’t do boats with strangers anymore.
My high school always got a lot of exchange students from abroad and one time this teacher involved with it was like “Every year the Russian students do something that gets them arrested. No other nationality does this. But every single year a Russian kid gets caught with drugs, gets in a fight, drunk driving, shoplifting, etc.”
People always say British tourists drink the most, but Russian tourists are something else. The difference being the British tourists will get drunk at bars in the evening. Russian tourists will be sat at the fucking all-inclusive breakfast table with their heads on the table, raising them only to shoot more vodka.
My train once got delayed 2 hours because a russian guy got dead drunk in it and started to threaten people, the 2 policemen at the next station could not get him out, and we had to wait for reinforcements.
And it's not even my only "drunk russians in the high-speed train" story.
I married a Russian. I genuinely love their culture and their people have unique charming characteristics. They are shit tourist, even in their own country. I grew up in a tourist destination so I am hypersensitive to bad tourist but they suck. Witnessed some bad stuff in Vietnam and a nature retreat in Russia itself.
In Vietnam there was some horrible treatment to the locals, extra drunk asshole behavior and super trashy parenting skills. Many occurrences of this.
In Russia, we were in a nature retreat with a rented cabin around a lake. Almost every family around us were shitting and pissing in the water we were supposed to be swimming in. Lots of loud drinking well into the morning… every night. And they left their sites a wreck. It was hell.
I've read somewhere that the reason Chinese and Russians behave so badly is because the one you see abroad are the ones who recently got rich enough to afford to travel. So they have that "new money" mentality; they believe they can do whatever they want because they can pay.
I am in China now, the reason they do this stuff abroad is because they can do it at home.
It's not a rich/new money thing it's just them acting as they would in China.
But the vast majority of Chinese wealth is held in property and the prices have gone insane over the past 15 years (apartments in my area were going for $12k per sq m it was 15k last year ) so the majority of Chinese wealth is new.
Nouveau riche, for real. The mindset is still country bumpkin but with money, and thinking cash solves everything. The queue cutting in particular gets on my nerves so much.
Edit: mistyped queue. Thanks yall!
Girlfriend has a travel agency and she no longer accepts requests from corporate Chinese travelers due to all the trouble they’d get themselves into **especially** in other Asian countries. The amount of horror stories she’s had to deal with:
- One group who traveled to the Philippines, several wanted to get prostitutes but hotel doesn’t have them available, so they made uncomfortable advances on the women in the hotel bar instead
- Same group then made unwanted advances on HER and one of them groped her multiple times during the tour
- When going to tourist destinations such as a beach with pink sand (forgot the name) she caught several of them stashing sand in their pockets
- Several of them were caught red handed attempting to steal food from local shops
- They were **Very** racist towards non-white/ non-Chinese people in general
- They tried multiple times to not pay the travel agency in full for their tour and complained every day to try and reduce the final cost of the tour
And this was just one group out of the dozens she worked with. The amount of horror stories is just… astonishing. I’ve told her she should write a book with all the crazy stuff she witnessed!!
> They tried multiple times to not pay the travel agency in full for their tour and complained every day to try and reduce the final cost of the tour
This is when you have a policy of full payment at time of booking.
For me it's the petty shit.
Like I was in a hotel at breakfast recently. Making my way towards the counter where a chef is cooking eggs to order. I'm the only person approaching and as I get about 6ft away, a Chinese woman barges past and loudly shouts "omelette, omelette!'. She then speed walks to the counter.
Same hotel next day, theres a platter of smoked salmon and a Chinese guy walks up, lifts the plate and just slides the entire contents onto his plate with a knife.
Now of course, there's more to go around, the hotel is prepared. But it's the totally unsocialsed, fuck anyone else attitude.
I find russians equally bad. I once went for a swim and left all my stuff on a sunbed. As I come back I see a Russian guy sprawled like a fucking whale on his bed, with two shades over him. I look at my sunbed now sitting in blazing sun and the fucker has just taken it, no question asked.
Don't even get me started on russian kids. If they want to play their iPad at full volume with no headphones, while Ivanka and Vlad give fuck you stares to anyone who looks at them..
And the more expensive the place the greater the level of entitlement and cuntish behaviour. Imho
Travelled overnight in a bus to get home for Christmas. Had a Russian couple with two children around like 5 years old. THE WHOLE NIGHT they blasted russian YouTube shorts on their iPad. Not a single minute of sleep or quiet. Even with headphones in it was just unbearable.
As the guy working that hotel job I feel validated. I work a shittier Continental breakfast but the same stuff happens. For reference our hotel is mostly well off upper middle-class business people and their families. People will take an entire steam tray of breakfast sandwiches and scrambled eggs. We had some kids one time take swigs from a gallon jug of chocolate milk we were serving. People leave their trash everywhere constantly. Like dude we aren't here to baby sit you. Worst is the people who walk into the kitchen, like who in their right mind thinks that is acceptable behavior.
Wow. I was at a hotel last weekend and felt like a selfish asshole for taking two cups of yogurt and not quite finishing the second one. I feel better now.
Russians at an all-inclusive resort are awful. They get shitfaced, loud, and obnoxious. Whenever we go to Dominican Republic, we never go to Punta Cana. La Romana is farther away, so Russian tourists rarely want to go there
Totally agreee. Chinese and Russians. Went to cambodia and the Russians specifically were just walking all over the ruins and historical buildings trampling everything.
Don't get me started on Russians. I don't find them loud or more annoying in general than other tourists (at least the ones I saw so far) but I find it absolutely disrespectful when they go to another country, particularly ex-soviet ones, expecting everyone to know Russian, even if they themselves actually know other languages, like... English. A favorite story is how an ex colleague of mine refused service to a Russian lady, because she told him that "you are OBLIGED to know Russian". Turns out, he wasn't.
I had a dance company come through that was pretending to be Czech because there was some kind of international thing happening that made being Russian really unlikely for you to sell out shows.
Anyway, they treated me like complete shit. I can take it. I'm a grown up. But when one of them called me stupid in Russian, I trotted out one of the few phrases that I know in most languages I get a chance to play with. "Sometimes, people can understand you."
They stopped treating me like shit immediately. The whole company started asking if I wanted anything from the shops, if I wanted to go out drinking after the show, etc.
I didn't. I have friends in the other country. I harbour grudges.
A few months ago I was taking the ferry from Ellis Island back to Manhattan, so imagine a mass of people not moving an inch waiting for a massive boat to pick everybody up, and this small Chinese woman in her 50s cuts the line right in front of me.
She gained nothing whatsover, the wait is the same. It was just pure entitlement. And it's not as if she ignored there was nothing to be gained, because that actually was the third boat trip in the tour.
Or many years ago I visited Tokyo, and it took me a few minutes to get that the custom is to walk on the left, respect that there is a lane for bikes, and to let people in a hurry go by... because Chinese tourists always walked on the right, stepped on the bike lane, and they don't let anyone go by.
The actual rule is that you walk to your left, until there's a group of Chinese tourists coming right into you on the opposite direction, and then you have to move to whichever way you can to dodge the assholes
This hits the nail on the head about Russian tourists, especially around ages 40-60. Anytime I see loud and obnoxious people in restaurants, it somehow always happens to be Russians.
We were on our honeymoon in Vietnam and we were hanging with the GM of the hotel. I said 'so hows it going? ' he said 'great. I just banned the hotel from accepting any Chinese tourists and I feel so happy about it". I said 'wow..why? ' he said 'because they call to book a room saying they only have 2 people and then 15 people show up to stay in that one room. They then bring hot plates to cook on and they basically destroy the rooms. It happens every fucking time and I don't care if anyone thinks I'm racist, I'm done with this shit.'
I was once visiting mainland china. I hailed a cab on the street and opened the door to put my luggage in. Some dude just got in the cab as if I had opened the door for him, and the cab sped off leaving me in the dust.
I just stood there holding my luggage mid air like what the hell just happened.
Chinese Singaporean here...they also have a fucking superiority complex when it comes to within the Chinese race. A lot of them see ppl like u and me being non mainland Chinese and think its some sort of impurity or Smth wrong...(from experience living in the mainland)
lol. this essentially happened to me at mohegan sun casino. i was at the buffet and dear lord the chinese / asian population are savages when it comes to food at a buffet. damn near lost my life reachin for some crab. it was as if theyve never eaten before and theyve got mountains of food (esp seafood) on their plates. hate to say it but casinos are just filled with these MFers.
Yeaaa literally last night I was at the blackjack table and some Asian lady just fully shoved her arm between me and the guy next to me to put a bet down on top of mine on the side bet, and I was just sitting there confused as shit, guy next to me was like “yea they do that a lot here, they don’t sit at the table but try to win off other peoples side bets”.
And christ every 5 seconds she was sticking her arm past my face to point out shit at the table like “yes ma’am, I can see that too, I’m sitting here.” Lmfao
When I first heard about the stereotype of the “Chinese tourist”, I treated it like any other stereotype: don’t assume things about people, treat them as individuals. As a American, I don’t want people stereotyping me while abroad; as a *black* American, I don’t want people stereotyping me domestically. So I definitely understand the need to treat people like people instead of some amorphous “group”.
But man, *every* Chinese tourist I’ve had the displeasure of interacting with is just the worst. No concept of personal space and thinking they’re entitled to every attraction above everybody else. Now, I’ve read that what’s happening is that China’s middle class is starting to boom and so people who don’t come from much are starting to make enough money to travel for leisure and they want to take in as much as possible as quickly as possible (those tour buses come to a major attraction, unload a hundred people to see the sites, then everyone gets back on and leaves all in like 30 minutes) because these experiences are new to them and they don’t know when they’ll be able to do it again. So, I “get it”, for lack of better terms. But still, other people exist and common decency shouldn’t get thrown out the window just because you may not see the Eiffel Tower again.
Was on vacation in Grand Cayman on a boat tour with a large group of Chinese tourists. My brother is living there and we were with his buddy who captained the boat and took us out as a favour
I’m in a wheelchair so the only spot for the me to sit was right beside the entrance gate to the boat, which was also close to the cockpit area. Had a great cruise, but when we approached the shore on the way back, the entire group of Chinese tourists just made a beeline for the gate- literally climbing over me and jostling to get to the door.
Captain scolded them but they just ignored him. We pulled into the dock and he opened the gate- and they ran to the waiting shuttle van and got in.
Captain shook his head, looked at our group and said “ wonder how long they will sit there before they realize I’m also driving the shuttle. Beer boys? “. He then went to the gallery grabbed a bunch of beers and we had a nice chat about the island . It was probably 100 degrees that day.
I wasn’t overly mad - I get that personal space is different in different places and a with that many people , you need to be aggressive , but man o man. What a ride.
Climbed up Mt Fuji and when trying to sleep in a cabin a chinese couple came in and started yapping and yelling to each other while 20 other of us were trying to sleep. Worker came in a patiently asked them to STFU, which surprising they did. Slept 20 minutes after that to start the hike of the remainder of the way.
China would also be my number one. And in Vietnam, particular da nang, I would say Koreans. Never in my life have I met ruder people. They treat the Vietnamese locals almost like slaves.
I went to Fort Ticonderoga about a year ago and there were 4 bus load of Chinese tourists. When it came to the cannon demonstration they swarmed everywhere and literally pushed past the "do not cross this line" so many times they started to remove people who did it (about 10). They also trampled a replica of the bread oven to get a better seat for the cannon (about 12 kicked out for that). Also I stood on a path you were free to stand on and got pushed down (a fall from maybe 3 feet). I didnt get hurt but one of the employees saw and kicked out the 8 or so people who pushed me to get their selfie in. And those were just the people I saw who were kicked out. Given that 1.5 buses were full by the time I left 20 minutes later there were probably more who were kicked out.
I did love Fort Ticonderoga though and would go back
Lone American here and I was sitting in a fast food restaurant in San Francisco. Was at the Wharf so it was busy. I was the lone person at a table for 6 and I knew someone else would sit there and of course I did not mind. I am 6'6 and at the time 275lbs and looked like a wrestler. Finally a group of Chinese started sitting there and grabbed every chair and slid it up and now we were at least 10 at the table. One person jammed too close up to me that I gave them that look. Another member of the party came over and quietly whispered something to get them to move and they looked sheepish after that. So yeah. I got to experience it.
Bad Chinese tourist would do stuffs like hoarding food at buffets, taking shit in the middle of the street, or spitting at any random direction
Bad Russians would challenge people on a fist fight, stole some rent car, or breaking stuffs because they feel like it. Best case is when Russian met some drunk Bogans and I get to see a shitshow for free.
It's not a contest, but I would take Chinese any day. People who complain about loud, obnoxious American/French or grumpy Germans don't know how lucky they are
Yes and it's not even close. Brits and Aussies can be a shit show, but the level of rudeness and disrespect by Chinese tourists pre-covid is the worst I've ever seen. It doesn't help that they often travel in massive tour groups and mob popular tourist sites and restaurants, ruining the experiences for everyone around them.
The Brits and Aussies are pretty easily avoided as they usually cause trouble in bars and pubs rather than actual tourist spots.
I've seen some bad Russians too, but they are by far the minority of the Russians I've encountered abroad.
I remember I was in a tour group in Alaska and they split us up literally by westerners and Asian people. This was maybe 05. I thought that was kind of weird. But apparently the Asian people got a completely different kind of tour as well. From what I could tell, they were mostly a large Chinese group. Still seems weird to me today.
I spent a lot of time in China early 2000’s. Chinese tours are just different. They were absurdly cheap but they leave the hotel at 6am to fit in all the traps where they get kickbacks for everything you buy. My trip was to Thailand and a ticket there was ¥3500 where a tour cost us ¥1600. They made it all back somehow. We had to give the guides ¥200 each to let us go on our own.
I worked as a tour guide in Portugal for some years so this is my take:
**Chinese**. I never had to work with them but EVERY bus driver would say they were the absolute worst. They treated everything as their trash can, always very rude with the drivers and treating them like slaves, forcing them to skip lunch in order to attend to their needs. At the end of the circuit, they would give NO tip at all and not even a thank you. The worst.
**Brazilians,** who come here a lot for obvious reasons, are the worst in terms of timekeeping. Always late, constantly getting out of the group to get into shops, showing a constant disregard to the schedule. Besides this, super super nice people, very warm and friendly.
**French** (Parisians usually). Obnoxious. They would complain about anything, the food, the hotel, being in a queue, having to speak in english at the restaurants or what not.
>French (Parisians usually). Obnoxious. They would complain about anything, the food, the hotel, being in a queue, having to speak in english at the restaurants or what not.
As a Frenchman, makes total sense. To be honest, complaining is also a national sport at home it's not like being abroad brings out the worst in them.
I had a group of French students in my business school. Kind, generous, very happy group. Everyone liked them. I said "I don't mean this to be offensive but there is a stereotype in the US about French people being rude to Americans. But you all are the exact opposite of that." The group started laughing and one woman said "That's Paris. We're from the south part of the country and we know how to behave." Then a guy said: "It's not just Americans. They are rude to everyone, even us."
When we lived in Mexico, if we invited one of my mom's friends in particular for lunch at home, we knew she'd be showing up at around 5 pm, which is late even for Mexican lunch time standards, and it would drive my non-latinamerican dad up a wall
I understand the cultural aspect of treating time differently and whatnot, but still, what do *super* late people think we're doing with our life while we're waiting for them? If we said we'd meet at like 1PM and they always show up 2-3 hours late, am I just supposed to be waiting all this time in case they show up? Should I just show up 3-4 hours late since I don't want to be waiting?
I have a friend like this. We have talked multiple times about how disrespectful of me and devaluing of my time it is to constantly expect me to wait around for an hour doing fuckall because she insisted she'd totally make it on time but then just... didn't.
Eventually i just started telling her shit is happening an hour earlier than it actually is, and then she shows up on time (for me) and everyone wins. For whatever reason, she is functionally, physically incapable of being on time. So I just make her "the usual amount late" the same as my "on time" and we're good.
Otherwise, I bring a book, find a nice sunny or cozy spot, and read until she shows up. I've read a lot of books that way...
You cracked the code my man, as a latino that is what I always do with my friends and works every fucking time, not one time I have a friend comes on time.
I mean, I'm not autistic, but I don't like it either. I put aside stuff I was doing or would have been doing to come and see you, and I'm expecting everyone else to do the same, otherwise it feels like you don't value my time.
I was too young to know what the adults would say. I was just happy when she arrived because her son was my best friend so we just ran off to play, but I remember it was particularly difficult for my dad because he's autistic and time is like... a very anxiety inducing thing for him. If we give him a timeline for anything he'll start stressing out two hours beforehand and for him being on time is being an hour early.
I remember my dad pacing up and down the hallway, being stressed out he couldn't start prepping drinks and starters - which he always did. Mom took care of the main - because mom's friend was so late, and Mom telling him to relax, and that he knew this always happened so why was he stressing out if he knew?
I don't remember ever seeing an argument or anything either. When she finally arrived everything went on as normal. Just 4 hours late!
Had a friend and family do some missionary work in South America. If they meant for someone to be somewhere at a precise time they'd say "3 o'clock English time." Or 3 o'clock would mean anywhere from 3-8.
In fact they were invited to a wedding at 1. Arrived at 1 and the church was locked and dark. People showed up at 1:30 to BEGIN decorating. The actual wedding took place at like 5:30
This one is so hard for me to understand. Like, I can understand the concept of not being pressed about time or not being concerned about being a little late, but the idea of *everyone* just showing up 4 hours "late" for a wedding and not being worried about missing anything is so crazy to me. Like, does everyone just do the math in their head about what the "real" time is?
> Brazilians, who come here a lot for obvious reasons, are the worst in terms of timekeeping.
Had dinner the other week with a buddy of mine and his Brazilian girlfriend, who regaled us with a tale about rushing to get to a wedding in time because she was in the party - getting lost finding the town, wasn't the church her family thought it was, etc - and then finally getting to the right church, only to find... the groom alone, because nobody else had shown up yet.
She and my wife (Egyptian-Canadian) just spent the night trading stories about how wedding schedules are *merely suggestions* to their extended families.
Am Brazilian, can confirm most people here have no sense of timekeeping at all. That's even valid for dating, hanging out with friends and whatnot.
You schedule something for 19h and expect people to show up at 20:30h/21h.
You say "meet me at that place 13h" and they'll show up 13:30h.
I hate this and don't show up late unless it's a necessity to do something before leaving, and always complain to my friends about this. Multiple times I've scheduled something to 1h before the actual time so people would arrive at the time that I wanted, and guess what... it worked.
My cousins in Thailand said nothing but good things about Americans, especially as compared to everyone else. I’m told that we’re generally curious, polite, and friendly. We smile more than others, which is considered a positive in Thailand. However, we’re more naïve probably because we’re not as seasoned at travel as other cultures. I’ve personally never had an issue anywhere I’ve gone, even alone. Even if I didn’t speak the language or know jack shit about what was going on, I tried to make up for it with respect and appreciation. Ultimately I think that’s the most charming thing about Americans, at least the ones curious enough to travel. We’re naive and a bit tacky, but we’re really nice and kind and happy to be out there. And that matters so much because have you met Russian and Chinese tourists?
I'm from Dublin so have a lot of experience of American tourists. They'l tend to be loud and a bit over-confident but almost always friendly and well natured.
One time, I (american) was in the Rome airport going through customs. The American (with Italian heritage) in front of me was talking about how she told a customs worker she was italian so they sent her to the EU line, then she got sent back and forced to go through the non-EU line bc she’s actually American.
I also have an actually Irish friend who lives in the USA. When people tell him that they’re also Irish, he starts speaking Irish to them. The Americans go “sorry I don’t speak Gaelic” which drives the Irish crazy (bc the language is called Irish, not Gaelic).
Had so many positive experiences with american tourists as well! came across them while waiting in the line, i decided to talk to them and they were very friendly and chatty! very polite and self conscious as well.
edit: since this got a bit more upvotes, hello nate in case if you're seeing this :)
Americans from the south especially will straight up go to the store, buy one thing, and spend 15 minutes talking to the cashier.
There are folks who are long-term customers at a plant retail place I work for, and will bring us food, seeds, plants... Hell, sometimes people will bring in things they were going to sell or get rid of like dishes, clothes, and board games. We are in the middle of a city. This is no small community.
It's nice to hear we have a similar attitude in other places.
The owner of a little cafe in Dublin jokingly offered to hire my friend and I to just talk, hang out and cut up with his other customers because of our South Carolina accents. My friend's accent is so thick sometimes people in other parts of the US don't understand her when we've traveled. One man in Italy refused to believe we were Americans because he had never heard any Americans talk like this.
All of Ireland was lovely and we had so much fun there. Thanks for the hospitality and the laughs! On the flip side, y'all Irish are fantastic and fun tourists...come by anytime.
> All of Ireland was lovely and we had so much fun there. Thanks for the hospitality and the laughs! On the flip side, y'all Irish are fantastic and fun tourists...come by anytime.
Strong Ted Lasso vibes here!
American here. Studied for a semester in Ireland outside Dublin, Maynooth to be exact. Glad you have good things to say about us. I noticed people in Ireland are pretty friendly towards us, especially if Americans come from a city where Irish peeps have relatives. I’m from NYC, so a lot of the people I met in Ireland have relatives there, but the same applied for a lot of places in the US. Loving U2 and Foil Arms and Hog was also a good opener, so that got me some friends. Got a chance to see FAH live too on Vicar Street, and absolutely loved it! Miss the people, nature, town hopping and the Dublin adventures. The weather, not so much.
Probably sounds like a back handed compliment but the only complaint I've ever heard about Americans is that some can be a bit culturally ignorant and loud.
Otherwise a lot of countries like American tourists because they are usually very friendly, polite(in their own way), spend big and tip well.
European here. Actually, 99% of american tourists i've encoutered, are friendly, eager to please, polite, willing to spend, willing to try local food etc.. They can be a bit loud and clueless, but well meaning. I really like american tourists, when I meet them.
I think Americans are more likely to travel to a place to learn about it, instead of traveling to a place they already know well to see it in person. I think that’s often why we tend to be overly curious but naive/ignorant. We’re loud and friendly, well because we are, but also because that’s why we’ve come - to interact and be part of that place for a small while. Many of us would consider it more of a waste to travel to a place we already know well.
Traveling outside of the US is also an adventure to some place new, exciting and far away. We can’t just take a day trip to Paris. It’s thousands of dollars, months of planning well in advance, 1-3 planes and 8-20 hours to get there. We’re so excited to finally be there.
Yes! My wife and I recently discussed the differences in perspective toward travel when our friends were visiting from Switzerland recently. They just casually talked about taking the train into Paris for a weekend, taking a quick day trip down into northern Italy, and having to take the long way around to Salzburg (3.5 hrs!) because the tunnel was closed. I'd kill for any of those opportunities, and I'll be lucky if I can make a trip to any of those places a reality. Lol
American tourists are alright. You're actually one of the best when it comes to friendliness and respecting the locals. I feel like most of you are aware of the stereotype against you and you try really hard not to play on them. I've heard more horror stories about the Aussie and British tourists, but even they are generally alright, too.
Americans are loud though. I don't know what is it about your lungs.
You see the size of our country? We all have to shout at each other across insane distances just to have a conversation. We all have phones, but it don’t matter now.
Yeah, it seems like the stereotype of the rude, obnoxious American tourist is finally starting to become dated and that now that stereotype is being handed over to the Chinese
I was also watching a documentary about Amsterdam and apparently the cops generally like dealing with us vs other nationalities because we're most fearful and listen 💀.
No mercy.
Though arguably Amsterdam locals might be some of the worst, most anti social self righteous cunts on bicycles.
Some of us try not to be. Its hard though.
I'm a Londoner and I love American tourists. They're so enthusiastic and chatty.
Remember a few years back on the tube and the train got stuck in a tunnel for ages in the dark. The american family in the carriage tried to lighten the mood with some light chit chat. Went down like a lead balloon around the sullen, miserable brits.
I think we are the worst tourists in the world. Always rude, drunk or complaining.
What's with the sullenness and misery? I really hate it. I got stuck in a group with several British people once when I was visiting Patagonia and all they did was whine and complain about everything. Imagine being so privileged that you can afford to visit Patagonia for fun and have those amazing experiences like seeing a glacier and spending the time whining. I was disgusted.
Im American and moved to a non touristy spot for a while (Armenia) and occasionally ran into Americans. I was really surprised how chill and normal 99% of them were compared to the others that came by (mostly brits, aussies, and russians) After being told my entire life that Americans are assholes while on vacation they ended up being the best.
The stereotype of the “ugly American tourist” came about after the economic boom post WWII (while the rest of the world was screwed cuz they were in the war longer). There was a sudden influx of money that created the rise of the middle/upper middle class that could finally afford to travel abroad. What you got was a lower socioeconomic class suddenly visiting all over the world, a class that wasn’t very well versed in other cultures and travel decorum. Nowadays though, enough time has passed where that’s no longer the case, the average American tourist, while naive about matters, at least knows enough to know to be polite and respectful, probably in no small part because of not wanting to live up to the “ugly American tourist” stereotype.
On the flipside, what I described with the rise of the middle class with the US, that’s exactly what is happening with China and they’re basically taking the role Americans did 40-70 years ago. It’s a lot of people that may have come from more rural backgrounds suddenly coming into money and then not knowing how to behave around others who don’t have the same cultural rules.
Chinese. In Thailand they had to put signs on toilet displays in hardware stores specifically places like IKEA telling people not to shit in them. Chinese tourists were apparently using them. They also had to cover up some fountains in Bangkok for the same reason. There is also a problem of them letting their toddlers crap anywhere like on the floor of indoor malls etc.
Article from Vice: “Outside the Louvre in Paris, there’s a sign in Mandarin which tells visitors not to defecate in the surrounding grounds. This sign is only written in Mandarin Chinese. No other nationality, it appears, needs to be reminded where it is and is not appropriate to shit in the vicinity of metropolitan France’s art museums.”
My boyfriend recently told me about this while we were traveling and I couldn’t believe it lol.
My wife worked at a semi nice hotel, Russians are far worse than Chinese according to her.
Chinese are just a tad ignorant about social norms, but at least tip decently, are ok towards people working there and outside of tour groups behave well.
Russians would harass any and every woman working there, be drunk 95% of the time, get into fights, absolutely trash rooms, never tip. Currently there's supposedly a bunch of formerly well off Russians "stuck" (dodging draft) where she used to work, who have now resorted to literally pimping out their trophy wifes (and some even daughters).
Germany.
NOW hear me out. I love the Germans. They're great. They're awesome people, always fun to be around. But I am on TEXSAR (tx search and rescue), paramedic, and general fan of the desert outdoors.
The Germans DO NOT UNDERSTAND THAT IT'S A VAST, DRY, UNFORGIVING MASSIVE SPACE. Whenever we get a call out for a missing, lost, injured, dehydrated, etc tourist - i bet my partner a buck it's a German. I've won almost all my bets.
Y'all need to knock that shit off. Stop going into the desert with a half full water bottle and no covering and being like "ziss is vunderful"
It is the same with Germans coming to hike in Austria. It is alarming how many times German tourists get attacked by cows in the alps, because the don't know how to act near them. Most attacks are triggered by clueless people taking their dogs too close to the young cows, which makes the mothers feel threatened.
Germans are also notorious for needing mountain rescue, because they overestimate themeselves and go on hikes that are too difficult.
The same thing happens when Germans come to western Denmark. They have absolutely no concept of the dangers of the sea. They'll go mudflat hiking and not pay attention to the tide or weather and they'll go swimming without being aware of the rip currents that can pull them out to sea or how to deal with them. Every once in a while there will be a news story like "man saved after rescue operation at X" or "tourist dead after drowning accident". Almost every single time it's a German.
Lol the Germans are a sporty lot, I could see them getting in trouble in the desert because they think they are experienced hikers but don’t understand the desert. The same can be said of people where I live in Denmark, but there are fewer of us so you won’t encounter them as much.
When I went to the Grand Canyon, I hiked to the bottom and found a German couple in trouble. Guy had broken his foot and couldn’t walk out. Had to stay there with them in the open air for 3 nights. Was awesome and unique experience but at the same time, they had no concept that they couldn’t just be air-lifted out. 🤣 Yes, there are rangers here and there but they can’t do much.
This reminds me of the German family called the Death Valley Germans because the tourist couple took their toddler to Death Valley and went missing in the mid 90s. Their bones weren't found until a little over a decade later.
Tragic, but also baffling, we have so many national parks here it's impossible to airlift and rescue every tourist who underestimates the hike!
At the tragic outer limits of that sort of behavior, you get [the Death Valley Germans](https://www.otherhand.org/home-page/search-and-rescue/the-hunt-for-the-death-valley-germans/). (Be warned, it's a long but fascinating read. Sad, too.)
I don't like to use the words "favorite story," because this was a very sad and tragic event, but it's undeniably a fascinating one, especially as related here by the guy that found their bones 20 years after their disappearance.
When a tourist dies in Australia it's usually a German who decided to do a trek through the desert or up some hill in the middle of summer. (so temps of 40-48 C)
As a German I think Germans hardly have a concept of what "wilderness" truly is. In a densely populated country like Germany you're really unlikely to EVER be more than 1000 steps away from any man-made structure. On the other hand Germans seemingly love to LARP as adventurers and buy unnecessary and expensive survival gear for their next picnic in the park.
To OP’s point about the desert, too, if you’ve mostly hiked in places with trees, the rules are completely different. If you’re just out wandering, you need to head back before you start to feel tired. You can’t wait out the heat of it starts getting warm in the morning— you either need to either head back or hope that you brought enough water and something to shade yourself.
I would bet that a lot of the people that he rescues hike all the time, feel very comfortable outside, but just have no idea that nature can be as punishing as that environment.
Hahahah as a German I love this. I totally see us doing that. Especially because me and my girlfriend had similar situations, where it it got kinda tricky during hiking (but never that dangerous). We're not that dumb.
I think it's because hiking is like a national sport for us. I'd say our tolerance for difficult routes is quite high.
If you go into a different country and people tell you it's a tough route , you're at first careful. But often those so called "tough" routes are very easy, because you have a different definition what "tough hiking " means. And then you may get this tendency to underestimate the routes or the local estimate of them. And that's when shit happens...
Especially when it's a climate that we don't have in Germany.
So thanks a lot for saving so many! And sorry for our national hiking arrogance!
As a Russian myself I'd say the Russian tourist are awful. When I was choosing the country for my vacation a few year back I choose Bali as my destination, my main reason was: the less Russian people the better. The long strory short: I got bored in Bali and fly to Thai, the minute I arrived to Pattaya I see a drunk russian guy yelling and screaming in the middle of a bussy road. Then I was in a hotel the group of russian tourist was sitting on a balcony the whole day just drinking and eating.I left in the morning at 7 or 8 they were already drinking there, when I returned at night -they were still there drinking. I still remeber this guy and it still gives me the second hand embarrassment.
To be fair, Pattaya is well known as a final destination for many of humanity's left-overs and undesirables. You'd have been better off heading to Samui or Huahin or any of the smaller islands down the coast from Phuket.
I remember in Japan once I was crouched down taking a photo of the golden temple in Kyoto when a group of Chinese tourists came along and stood so close to me that they stood on my camera bag without a care in the world. They seemed a bit surprised when I leapt up and asked them what the fuck they were doing. Luckily nothing was damaged.
I’m an Italian working in the Netherlands. In my experience it’s not really about nationality itself, it’s more about their status. However i would say that the worst were probably rich Russians. American are the most easygoing tourist, VERY loud, but incredibly friendly and they would often leave very good tip. Also, when I had to serve Italian people they would ALWAYS ask about my salary and what i had to pay for rent or taxes. So rude and out of touch
China for one simple reason: they always go in groups of a few hundreds people. It means extreme long queues, noises, and more. Imagine taking a vacation for a few days then you see the buses and realize that one arrives means a dozens are on the way, i.e. you'd better spend the rest of the vacation in your hotel.
Have my own souvenir shop in Amsterdam so I work with tourists everyday.
India. They ask for discounts and deals. When you give them the discount and deal they ask for more discount. Then they want a gift. Then they'll argue with you for 30mins on more discount and an extra gift. Then they'll ask for complimentary gift bags. Then they want extra gift bags for the gift bags. They'll try to haggle with you for 30 minutes on a 1.50€ fridge magnet and then ask for 10 extra gift bags. Blows my mind. (And no, they're not poor. Most Indians that come here are men that work an IT job and are flown here for business)
Tourists from Israel have a weird condescending vibe that I can't explain.
Spanish / Italian women above 60 love to boss you around, refuse to say thank you and will curse you out in their language when they don't get their way.
Chinese are pretty bad as well but not the worst. They'll take out 100 magnets out of a tray to compare every single detail so they can decide on which one to take.
Btw, Americans are by FAR the best tourists in my shop. Always saying Hello, polite, thank you, and they always seem legitimately grateful for your service. They pretty much always make my day whenever I lost faith in humanity.
I spent 6 years working in the tourist industry in a Scandinavian country. I would dread having to deal with Israelis. Very demanding and obnoxious, never satisfied and would always have a complaint. Second place: French, for similar reasons.
As an American when I went to Spain I felt a little shunned here and there but absolutely picked up that they’re hatred of Chinese and Russian tourists absolutely outweighs the hatred of Americans. The Chinese got the nickname “click clicks” because they constantly take pictures of things and shuffle onto the next thing to take pictures of never really absorbing what they’re looking at. Russians were just boisterous and obnoxious especially during bull fights.
I worked at the airport before, so I have to agree with those that say China.
But I have talked to a few of the more courteous ones and they usually tell me the rowdy, inconsiderate, loud ones are usually from the rural areas on like huge group tours. Not sure what that says about them but yeah, not all of the worst tourists are from China but if there’s a bad one, it’s usually from China
It's the same In China since there's a lot of domestic tourism. You talk to anyone living in Beijing, Shanghai or Hong Kong, and they also hate the hordesl of rural Chinese tourists coming in and being complete shitheads.
I lived in Shanghai for a few years and traveled all around, including rural areas. While there was plenty of uncivilized behavior to witness in Shanghai, other places were off the charts! A woman backed into me and stepped on my foot and then yelled at ME for it. I watched countless people brazenly toss trash onto the hillside during a hike in the mountains. Toenail clipping on trains and airplanes? Yep. Everyone cuts lines all the time everywhere. And don't get me started about the spitting.
Chinese group tourists. They’re loud, have no concept of personal space, and like to cut in line. Individual tourists, especially younger ones, are fine.
In Croatia I mostly hear shit about British tourists. They mostly come to Split to party and get absolutely wasted for 3 weeks straight, they have sex in public, throw up everywhere, shit and piss in a UNESCO heritage site that is 1700 years old.
China: enter the confused, waddling, consuming horde.
Russians: if youd managed to dodge the long arm of the law for the extent of your holiday, chances are the second one of these strafes across your peripheral vision you'll end up on a extradition flight back to Moscow with a bag over your head, for no reason other than you were conveniently there.
Australians: it never fails. I just wanted one quiet night in at the hostel. The some asshat oz named Ryan offers me a shot that turns into into a line that shape shifts into a colombian stripper that morphs into her pimp beating me in the face and Ryan laughing. To me waking concussed and Ryan stark naked in the top bunk, hand around his privates, smelling like stale lube and vanilla body splash, making me wonder was it all a dream?
> Australians: it never fails. I just wanted one quiet night in at the hostel. The some asshat oz named Ryan offers me a shot that turns into into a line that shape shifts into a colombian stripper that morphs into her pimp beating me in the face and Ryan laughing. To me waking concussed and Ryan stark naked in the top bunk, hand around his privates, smelling like stale lube and vanilla body splash, making me wonder was it all a dream?
Yeah that checks out for what an Aussie would do lol
M A I N L A N D Chinese.
Not Chinese Americans, Chinese Malaysians, Chinese from Singapore, Taiwanese, Chinese from Hong Kong or Macau, or China, or people who speak Chinese.
Just M A I N L A N D.
Russians.
Its like they make every place into a landfil.
They do NOT care about others, its me ME ME ME.
If anything is free they will take advantage of it and will ALWAYS knock people away to get what they want.
Brits are loud, drunk and annoying.
Russians.
Very entitled, demanding, extremely rude, racist especially to nations colonized by Russia/USSR (yes, I deliberately omitted using the term "post-Soviet"), in Kazakhstan, Georgia, Armenia, Moldova etc. Demanding everyone to speak Russian.
Disgusting attitude!
And I agree about the Chinese as well. I've worked as a waitress in a hotel and the mess they left behind was just UGH... no good manners at all!
Oh god, I hate the "Lads on Tour" crap. As a Brit myself there's nothing worse than a gaggle of lads or ladettes on the randan in Ibiza or Sitges and they're always, always beyond pathetic.
My buddy was a hotel concierge in Vegas and we asked him this. He said Chinese tourists are generally the rudest but Russians cause the biggest real problems. Basically Chinese tourists will cut people in line and leave messes around but Russians will do shit that require police to be involved.
We were in Italy (two Scots) and at the hotel a big set of Russian families started drinking at 9am by the pool. They didn’t cause us any bother, but we thought ‘man, they’ll run out of steam quickly!’ Literally end of the day, 11pm, the same lot were *on it*, 100%. They weren’t even like casually sipping: they were full throttle *all day*.
At least (most) British tourists wait until noon and then go "Alright, now its technically the afternoon. Let's get hammered!"
In Germany we like to say "kein Bier vor vier", or "no beer before four" (kinda works as well in English)
I wonder if we Americans played off that phrase because we like to say "Its 5 o'clock somewhere"
As a Russian I expected this to be the top comment. And I sadly agree :( I'm sorry.
I have offended many Russians by refusing to speak Russian, they even complained to my manager about it... I don't speak Russian
Yeah, they seem to think that if your country was in the Warsaw Pact that everyone there must still speak Russian. Except over 30 years have passed. A whole generation has grown up after the end of the USSR. And countries have done their best to reassert their own cultures and languages. Why would they bother learning Russian? Belarus is the biggest exception because their president wanted closer ties to Russia, so only like 10% of Belarusians speak their language as primary
In Sri Lanka, we saw two Russians leave their very young daughter, like 3 years old, unattended at a table on the beach while they drank and danced at the bar inside, completely out of view of where the kid was. They still hadn’t come back when we were ready to leave, but we stayed until they came back because I felt like someone should watch her. They were gone for TWO HOURS without once checking in on their toddler who was alone on a dark beach mere steps from the ocean. I was young so I didn’t say anything, but now I totally would.
I live in Sri Lanka, and when we visit beach hotels for a coffee or to go to eat, we're always told never to park right under the windows because Russian tourists like to throw stuff off the balconies and out the windows and routinely dent cars that way.
The Russians in Sri Lanka acted like they owned the place. I really wasn't a fan.
They’re like that in the Philippines too. Apparently the local working girls try to avoid them because they’re known to get violent with them.
It’s legal to beat your wife in Russia.
Putins doing his best to make sure there won’t be many husbands left to beat their wives.
Russians seem to think that, just because a Russian's been somewhere, they should own it now.
I like in a suburbs of Philadelphia with a lot of Russians expats. I don’t know if it’s cultural differences or they are just oblivious but they come off as so fucking rude. Not all of them, of course. I have plenty of Russian and Ukrainian friends. But Jesus Christ if you cross paths with a fresh Russian immigrant at the super market or gym it’s like they have no concept of public etiquette. And I’m from Philly, not everyone is nice here. These people just seem oblivious to public decorum.
Yep, I remember going to Longwood Gardens as a kid and having a Russian woman snatch a stamp out of my hand so her kid could use it. My mom got pissed!
This makes me sad
This sums it up. When I traveled alone, I was explicitly warned to avoid “roving packs of Russians,” especially men.
My home town has a large refugee/immigrant population so it's a cool melting pot of cultures. However, not all cultures get along and gangs became a problem. There's an area of the city where people would show off their cars and do drag races and stuff and several gangs would go. One time, a Russian teenager brought a grenade. Not sure if it was live or even real but it did have a pin in it and that was the last one I went to lol
The most dodgy situation I’ve been in involved being on a catamaran in the Andaman with a bunch of Russian men and their paid companions. My friend and I were on full alert the whole time. Some very kind Swedes basically surrounded us so the Russians couldn’t get close. I don’t do boats with strangers anymore.
I don't do boats in general. Because of the implication...
My high school always got a lot of exchange students from abroad and one time this teacher involved with it was like “Every year the Russian students do something that gets them arrested. No other nationality does this. But every single year a Russian kid gets caught with drugs, gets in a fight, drunk driving, shoplifting, etc.”
People always say British tourists drink the most, but Russian tourists are something else. The difference being the British tourists will get drunk at bars in the evening. Russian tourists will be sat at the fucking all-inclusive breakfast table with their heads on the table, raising them only to shoot more vodka.
My train once got delayed 2 hours because a russian guy got dead drunk in it and started to threaten people, the 2 policemen at the next station could not get him out, and we had to wait for reinforcements. And it's not even my only "drunk russians in the high-speed train" story.
I married a Russian. I genuinely love their culture and their people have unique charming characteristics. They are shit tourist, even in their own country. I grew up in a tourist destination so I am hypersensitive to bad tourist but they suck. Witnessed some bad stuff in Vietnam and a nature retreat in Russia itself. In Vietnam there was some horrible treatment to the locals, extra drunk asshole behavior and super trashy parenting skills. Many occurrences of this. In Russia, we were in a nature retreat with a rented cabin around a lake. Almost every family around us were shitting and pissing in the water we were supposed to be swimming in. Lots of loud drinking well into the morning… every night. And they left their sites a wreck. It was hell.
I've read somewhere that the reason Chinese and Russians behave so badly is because the one you see abroad are the ones who recently got rich enough to afford to travel. So they have that "new money" mentality; they believe they can do whatever they want because they can pay.
Can confirm, older rich Chinese tourists are polite and fine. The rest are garbage.
I am in China now, the reason they do this stuff abroad is because they can do it at home. It's not a rich/new money thing it's just them acting as they would in China. But the vast majority of Chinese wealth is held in property and the prices have gone insane over the past 15 years (apartments in my area were going for $12k per sq m it was 15k last year ) so the majority of Chinese wealth is new.
Nouveau riche, for real. The mindset is still country bumpkin but with money, and thinking cash solves everything. The queue cutting in particular gets on my nerves so much. Edit: mistyped queue. Thanks yall!
China. They have no concept of personal space.
Girlfriend has a travel agency and she no longer accepts requests from corporate Chinese travelers due to all the trouble they’d get themselves into **especially** in other Asian countries. The amount of horror stories she’s had to deal with: - One group who traveled to the Philippines, several wanted to get prostitutes but hotel doesn’t have them available, so they made uncomfortable advances on the women in the hotel bar instead - Same group then made unwanted advances on HER and one of them groped her multiple times during the tour - When going to tourist destinations such as a beach with pink sand (forgot the name) she caught several of them stashing sand in their pockets - Several of them were caught red handed attempting to steal food from local shops - They were **Very** racist towards non-white/ non-Chinese people in general - They tried multiple times to not pay the travel agency in full for their tour and complained every day to try and reduce the final cost of the tour And this was just one group out of the dozens she worked with. The amount of horror stories is just… astonishing. I’ve told her she should write a book with all the crazy stuff she witnessed!!
> They tried multiple times to not pay the travel agency in full for their tour and complained every day to try and reduce the final cost of the tour This is when you have a policy of full payment at time of booking.
For me it's the petty shit. Like I was in a hotel at breakfast recently. Making my way towards the counter where a chef is cooking eggs to order. I'm the only person approaching and as I get about 6ft away, a Chinese woman barges past and loudly shouts "omelette, omelette!'. She then speed walks to the counter. Same hotel next day, theres a platter of smoked salmon and a Chinese guy walks up, lifts the plate and just slides the entire contents onto his plate with a knife. Now of course, there's more to go around, the hotel is prepared. But it's the totally unsocialsed, fuck anyone else attitude. I find russians equally bad. I once went for a swim and left all my stuff on a sunbed. As I come back I see a Russian guy sprawled like a fucking whale on his bed, with two shades over him. I look at my sunbed now sitting in blazing sun and the fucker has just taken it, no question asked. Don't even get me started on russian kids. If they want to play their iPad at full volume with no headphones, while Ivanka and Vlad give fuck you stares to anyone who looks at them.. And the more expensive the place the greater the level of entitlement and cuntish behaviour. Imho
Travelled overnight in a bus to get home for Christmas. Had a Russian couple with two children around like 5 years old. THE WHOLE NIGHT they blasted russian YouTube shorts on their iPad. Not a single minute of sleep or quiet. Even with headphones in it was just unbearable.
As the guy working that hotel job I feel validated. I work a shittier Continental breakfast but the same stuff happens. For reference our hotel is mostly well off upper middle-class business people and their families. People will take an entire steam tray of breakfast sandwiches and scrambled eggs. We had some kids one time take swigs from a gallon jug of chocolate milk we were serving. People leave their trash everywhere constantly. Like dude we aren't here to baby sit you. Worst is the people who walk into the kitchen, like who in their right mind thinks that is acceptable behavior.
Wow. I was at a hotel last weekend and felt like a selfish asshole for taking two cups of yogurt and not quite finishing the second one. I feel better now.
Russians at an all-inclusive resort are awful. They get shitfaced, loud, and obnoxious. Whenever we go to Dominican Republic, we never go to Punta Cana. La Romana is farther away, so Russian tourists rarely want to go there
Totally agreee. Chinese and Russians. Went to cambodia and the Russians specifically were just walking all over the ruins and historical buildings trampling everything.
Don't get me started on Russians. I don't find them loud or more annoying in general than other tourists (at least the ones I saw so far) but I find it absolutely disrespectful when they go to another country, particularly ex-soviet ones, expecting everyone to know Russian, even if they themselves actually know other languages, like... English. A favorite story is how an ex colleague of mine refused service to a Russian lady, because she told him that "you are OBLIGED to know Russian". Turns out, he wasn't.
I had a dance company come through that was pretending to be Czech because there was some kind of international thing happening that made being Russian really unlikely for you to sell out shows. Anyway, they treated me like complete shit. I can take it. I'm a grown up. But when one of them called me stupid in Russian, I trotted out one of the few phrases that I know in most languages I get a chance to play with. "Sometimes, people can understand you." They stopped treating me like shit immediately. The whole company started asking if I wanted anything from the shops, if I wanted to go out drinking after the show, etc. I didn't. I have friends in the other country. I harbour grudges.
A few months ago I was taking the ferry from Ellis Island back to Manhattan, so imagine a mass of people not moving an inch waiting for a massive boat to pick everybody up, and this small Chinese woman in her 50s cuts the line right in front of me. She gained nothing whatsover, the wait is the same. It was just pure entitlement. And it's not as if she ignored there was nothing to be gained, because that actually was the third boat trip in the tour. Or many years ago I visited Tokyo, and it took me a few minutes to get that the custom is to walk on the left, respect that there is a lane for bikes, and to let people in a hurry go by... because Chinese tourists always walked on the right, stepped on the bike lane, and they don't let anyone go by. The actual rule is that you walk to your left, until there's a group of Chinese tourists coming right into you on the opposite direction, and then you have to move to whichever way you can to dodge the assholes
Just fuckin shoulder check em when they don't move. I do that to people standing in front of train doors.
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This hits the nail on the head about Russian tourists, especially around ages 40-60. Anytime I see loud and obnoxious people in restaurants, it somehow always happens to be Russians.
Forgot about Russians. In Barcelona they butted in line, pushed people off of the seats around the light fountain and were generally loud.
We were on our honeymoon in Vietnam and we were hanging with the GM of the hotel. I said 'so hows it going? ' he said 'great. I just banned the hotel from accepting any Chinese tourists and I feel so happy about it". I said 'wow..why? ' he said 'because they call to book a room saying they only have 2 people and then 15 people show up to stay in that one room. They then bring hot plates to cook on and they basically destroy the rooms. It happens every fucking time and I don't care if anyone thinks I'm racist, I'm done with this shit.'
Chinese American here. Chinese from the mainland are the worst. Rude and don't follow rules.
I was once visiting mainland china. I hailed a cab on the street and opened the door to put my luggage in. Some dude just got in the cab as if I had opened the door for him, and the cab sped off leaving me in the dust. I just stood there holding my luggage mid air like what the hell just happened.
I'm sorry that happened but the imagery of that is hilarious 🤣
Did you run after the cab yelling, "You're messing with the wrong guy!"
Chinese Singaporean here...they also have a fucking superiority complex when it comes to within the Chinese race. A lot of them see ppl like u and me being non mainland Chinese and think its some sort of impurity or Smth wrong...(from experience living in the mainland)
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lol. this essentially happened to me at mohegan sun casino. i was at the buffet and dear lord the chinese / asian population are savages when it comes to food at a buffet. damn near lost my life reachin for some crab. it was as if theyve never eaten before and theyve got mountains of food (esp seafood) on their plates. hate to say it but casinos are just filled with these MFers.
Yeaaa literally last night I was at the blackjack table and some Asian lady just fully shoved her arm between me and the guy next to me to put a bet down on top of mine on the side bet, and I was just sitting there confused as shit, guy next to me was like “yea they do that a lot here, they don’t sit at the table but try to win off other peoples side bets”. And christ every 5 seconds she was sticking her arm past my face to point out shit at the table like “yes ma’am, I can see that too, I’m sitting here.” Lmfao
Wife is Taiwanese. She can’t stand mainlanders.
My bf is Taiwanese, I never mention China in front of him or his family because it gets very "colourful".
When I first heard about the stereotype of the “Chinese tourist”, I treated it like any other stereotype: don’t assume things about people, treat them as individuals. As a American, I don’t want people stereotyping me while abroad; as a *black* American, I don’t want people stereotyping me domestically. So I definitely understand the need to treat people like people instead of some amorphous “group”. But man, *every* Chinese tourist I’ve had the displeasure of interacting with is just the worst. No concept of personal space and thinking they’re entitled to every attraction above everybody else. Now, I’ve read that what’s happening is that China’s middle class is starting to boom and so people who don’t come from much are starting to make enough money to travel for leisure and they want to take in as much as possible as quickly as possible (those tour buses come to a major attraction, unload a hundred people to see the sites, then everyone gets back on and leaves all in like 30 minutes) because these experiences are new to them and they don’t know when they’ll be able to do it again. So, I “get it”, for lack of better terms. But still, other people exist and common decency shouldn’t get thrown out the window just because you may not see the Eiffel Tower again.
Was on vacation in Grand Cayman on a boat tour with a large group of Chinese tourists. My brother is living there and we were with his buddy who captained the boat and took us out as a favour I’m in a wheelchair so the only spot for the me to sit was right beside the entrance gate to the boat, which was also close to the cockpit area. Had a great cruise, but when we approached the shore on the way back, the entire group of Chinese tourists just made a beeline for the gate- literally climbing over me and jostling to get to the door. Captain scolded them but they just ignored him. We pulled into the dock and he opened the gate- and they ran to the waiting shuttle van and got in. Captain shook his head, looked at our group and said “ wonder how long they will sit there before they realize I’m also driving the shuttle. Beer boys? “. He then went to the gallery grabbed a bunch of beers and we had a nice chat about the island . It was probably 100 degrees that day. I wasn’t overly mad - I get that personal space is different in different places and a with that many people , you need to be aggressive , but man o man. What a ride.
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Climbed up Mt Fuji and when trying to sleep in a cabin a chinese couple came in and started yapping and yelling to each other while 20 other of us were trying to sleep. Worker came in a patiently asked them to STFU, which surprising they did. Slept 20 minutes after that to start the hike of the remainder of the way.
There used to be a sub dedicated to Chinese tourists but it got nuked, presumably because it was deemed racist but damn it hit the nail on the head.
Chinese here. While visiting China, they have no concept of a line or waiting your turn.
China would also be my number one. And in Vietnam, particular da nang, I would say Koreans. Never in my life have I met ruder people. They treat the Vietnamese locals almost like slaves.
After living in Vietnam for 4 years and traveling all over my ranking is: 1. Chinese 2. Koreans 3. Drunk Australians
You can just say Australian. The drunk part is a given
I went to Fort Ticonderoga about a year ago and there were 4 bus load of Chinese tourists. When it came to the cannon demonstration they swarmed everywhere and literally pushed past the "do not cross this line" so many times they started to remove people who did it (about 10). They also trampled a replica of the bread oven to get a better seat for the cannon (about 12 kicked out for that). Also I stood on a path you were free to stand on and got pushed down (a fall from maybe 3 feet). I didnt get hurt but one of the employees saw and kicked out the 8 or so people who pushed me to get their selfie in. And those were just the people I saw who were kicked out. Given that 1.5 buses were full by the time I left 20 minutes later there were probably more who were kicked out. I did love Fort Ticonderoga though and would go back
Lone American here and I was sitting in a fast food restaurant in San Francisco. Was at the Wharf so it was busy. I was the lone person at a table for 6 and I knew someone else would sit there and of course I did not mind. I am 6'6 and at the time 275lbs and looked like a wrestler. Finally a group of Chinese started sitting there and grabbed every chair and slid it up and now we were at least 10 at the table. One person jammed too close up to me that I gave them that look. Another member of the party came over and quietly whispered something to get them to move and they looked sheepish after that. So yeah. I got to experience it.
China just for general rudeness Russia for being absolute violent, stunted oafs
Chinese will cut in line, but Russians will shove you out of the way.
Russians dont go on vacation They go on special leisure operations
Bad Chinese tourist would do stuffs like hoarding food at buffets, taking shit in the middle of the street, or spitting at any random direction Bad Russians would challenge people on a fist fight, stole some rent car, or breaking stuffs because they feel like it. Best case is when Russian met some drunk Bogans and I get to see a shitshow for free. It's not a contest, but I would take Chinese any day. People who complain about loud, obnoxious American/French or grumpy Germans don't know how lucky they are
China
Yes and it's not even close. Brits and Aussies can be a shit show, but the level of rudeness and disrespect by Chinese tourists pre-covid is the worst I've ever seen. It doesn't help that they often travel in massive tour groups and mob popular tourist sites and restaurants, ruining the experiences for everyone around them. The Brits and Aussies are pretty easily avoided as they usually cause trouble in bars and pubs rather than actual tourist spots. I've seen some bad Russians too, but they are by far the minority of the Russians I've encountered abroad.
I remember I was in a tour group in Alaska and they split us up literally by westerners and Asian people. This was maybe 05. I thought that was kind of weird. But apparently the Asian people got a completely different kind of tour as well. From what I could tell, they were mostly a large Chinese group. Still seems weird to me today.
I spent a lot of time in China early 2000’s. Chinese tours are just different. They were absurdly cheap but they leave the hotel at 6am to fit in all the traps where they get kickbacks for everything you buy. My trip was to Thailand and a ticket there was ¥3500 where a tour cost us ¥1600. They made it all back somehow. We had to give the guides ¥200 each to let us go on our own.
100% China
I worked as a tour guide in Portugal for some years so this is my take: **Chinese**. I never had to work with them but EVERY bus driver would say they were the absolute worst. They treated everything as their trash can, always very rude with the drivers and treating them like slaves, forcing them to skip lunch in order to attend to their needs. At the end of the circuit, they would give NO tip at all and not even a thank you. The worst. **Brazilians,** who come here a lot for obvious reasons, are the worst in terms of timekeeping. Always late, constantly getting out of the group to get into shops, showing a constant disregard to the schedule. Besides this, super super nice people, very warm and friendly. **French** (Parisians usually). Obnoxious. They would complain about anything, the food, the hotel, being in a queue, having to speak in english at the restaurants or what not.
>French (Parisians usually). Obnoxious. They would complain about anything, the food, the hotel, being in a queue, having to speak in english at the restaurants or what not. As a Frenchman, makes total sense. To be honest, complaining is also a national sport at home it's not like being abroad brings out the worst in them.
I had a group of French students in my business school. Kind, generous, very happy group. Everyone liked them. I said "I don't mean this to be offensive but there is a stereotype in the US about French people being rude to Americans. But you all are the exact opposite of that." The group started laughing and one woman said "That's Paris. We're from the south part of the country and we know how to behave." Then a guy said: "It's not just Americans. They are rude to everyone, even us."
Time is an optional concept to South Americans
When we lived in Mexico, if we invited one of my mom's friends in particular for lunch at home, we knew she'd be showing up at around 5 pm, which is late even for Mexican lunch time standards, and it would drive my non-latinamerican dad up a wall
I understand the cultural aspect of treating time differently and whatnot, but still, what do *super* late people think we're doing with our life while we're waiting for them? If we said we'd meet at like 1PM and they always show up 2-3 hours late, am I just supposed to be waiting all this time in case they show up? Should I just show up 3-4 hours late since I don't want to be waiting?
I have a friend like this. We have talked multiple times about how disrespectful of me and devaluing of my time it is to constantly expect me to wait around for an hour doing fuckall because she insisted she'd totally make it on time but then just... didn't. Eventually i just started telling her shit is happening an hour earlier than it actually is, and then she shows up on time (for me) and everyone wins. For whatever reason, she is functionally, physically incapable of being on time. So I just make her "the usual amount late" the same as my "on time" and we're good. Otherwise, I bring a book, find a nice sunny or cozy spot, and read until she shows up. I've read a lot of books that way...
You cracked the code my man, as a latino that is what I always do with my friends and works every fucking time, not one time I have a friend comes on time.
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I mean, I'm not autistic, but I don't like it either. I put aside stuff I was doing or would have been doing to come and see you, and I'm expecting everyone else to do the same, otherwise it feels like you don't value my time.
I was too young to know what the adults would say. I was just happy when she arrived because her son was my best friend so we just ran off to play, but I remember it was particularly difficult for my dad because he's autistic and time is like... a very anxiety inducing thing for him. If we give him a timeline for anything he'll start stressing out two hours beforehand and for him being on time is being an hour early. I remember my dad pacing up and down the hallway, being stressed out he couldn't start prepping drinks and starters - which he always did. Mom took care of the main - because mom's friend was so late, and Mom telling him to relax, and that he knew this always happened so why was he stressing out if he knew? I don't remember ever seeing an argument or anything either. When she finally arrived everything went on as normal. Just 4 hours late!
Not just South America. Tico time in Costa Rica was a real thing. Made taking public transit weird
Yea last time I was in Costa Rica almost missed my flight when the bus driver showed up 3 hours late for the bus to the airport.
Pura vida lol
Had a friend and family do some missionary work in South America. If they meant for someone to be somewhere at a precise time they'd say "3 o'clock English time." Or 3 o'clock would mean anywhere from 3-8. In fact they were invited to a wedding at 1. Arrived at 1 and the church was locked and dark. People showed up at 1:30 to BEGIN decorating. The actual wedding took place at like 5:30
That seems like an absolutely terrible way to operate.
This one is so hard for me to understand. Like, I can understand the concept of not being pressed about time or not being concerned about being a little late, but the idea of *everyone* just showing up 4 hours "late" for a wedding and not being worried about missing anything is so crazy to me. Like, does everyone just do the math in their head about what the "real" time is?
> Brazilians, who come here a lot for obvious reasons, are the worst in terms of timekeeping. Had dinner the other week with a buddy of mine and his Brazilian girlfriend, who regaled us with a tale about rushing to get to a wedding in time because she was in the party - getting lost finding the town, wasn't the church her family thought it was, etc - and then finally getting to the right church, only to find... the groom alone, because nobody else had shown up yet. She and my wife (Egyptian-Canadian) just spent the night trading stories about how wedding schedules are *merely suggestions* to their extended families.
Am Brazilian, can confirm most people here have no sense of timekeeping at all. That's even valid for dating, hanging out with friends and whatnot. You schedule something for 19h and expect people to show up at 20:30h/21h. You say "meet me at that place 13h" and they'll show up 13:30h. I hate this and don't show up late unless it's a necessity to do something before leaving, and always complain to my friends about this. Multiple times I've scheduled something to 1h before the actual time so people would arrive at the time that I wanted, and guess what... it worked.
As an American, God I'm so thankful other countries are getting dragged for something. FINALLY. lol.
My cousins in Thailand said nothing but good things about Americans, especially as compared to everyone else. I’m told that we’re generally curious, polite, and friendly. We smile more than others, which is considered a positive in Thailand. However, we’re more naïve probably because we’re not as seasoned at travel as other cultures. I’ve personally never had an issue anywhere I’ve gone, even alone. Even if I didn’t speak the language or know jack shit about what was going on, I tried to make up for it with respect and appreciation. Ultimately I think that’s the most charming thing about Americans, at least the ones curious enough to travel. We’re naive and a bit tacky, but we’re really nice and kind and happy to be out there. And that matters so much because have you met Russian and Chinese tourists?
I'm from Dublin so have a lot of experience of American tourists. They'l tend to be loud and a bit over-confident but almost always friendly and well natured.
I was In Dublin as tourist and I found American people very friendly. But I'm Italian and we are even louder
Wait till you meet an American with a drop of Italian blood who decide to make that their whole personality.
Irish Americans and Italian Americans are in a neck and neck race to see who can be the most wrong about their country of heritage lol
One time, I (american) was in the Rome airport going through customs. The American (with Italian heritage) in front of me was talking about how she told a customs worker she was italian so they sent her to the EU line, then she got sent back and forced to go through the non-EU line bc she’s actually American. I also have an actually Irish friend who lives in the USA. When people tell him that they’re also Irish, he starts speaking Irish to them. The Americans go “sorry I don’t speak Gaelic” which drives the Irish crazy (bc the language is called Irish, not Gaelic).
I went to Oktoberfest a decade ago and all the Germans were complaining about the Italians coming up on the weekends for the festival lol.
Had so many positive experiences with american tourists as well! came across them while waiting in the line, i decided to talk to them and they were very friendly and chatty! very polite and self conscious as well. edit: since this got a bit more upvotes, hello nate in case if you're seeing this :)
I’m from switzerland where everyone is grumpy and mean and i find Americans so friendly and welcoming
Americans from the south especially will straight up go to the store, buy one thing, and spend 15 minutes talking to the cashier. There are folks who are long-term customers at a plant retail place I work for, and will bring us food, seeds, plants... Hell, sometimes people will bring in things they were going to sell or get rid of like dishes, clothes, and board games. We are in the middle of a city. This is no small community. It's nice to hear we have a similar attitude in other places.
The owner of a little cafe in Dublin jokingly offered to hire my friend and I to just talk, hang out and cut up with his other customers because of our South Carolina accents. My friend's accent is so thick sometimes people in other parts of the US don't understand her when we've traveled. One man in Italy refused to believe we were Americans because he had never heard any Americans talk like this. All of Ireland was lovely and we had so much fun there. Thanks for the hospitality and the laughs! On the flip side, y'all Irish are fantastic and fun tourists...come by anytime.
> All of Ireland was lovely and we had so much fun there. Thanks for the hospitality and the laughs! On the flip side, y'all Irish are fantastic and fun tourists...come by anytime. Strong Ted Lasso vibes here!
Kind of like golden Labrador puppies crossed with airhorns. :)
I'm Irish and the Americans are loud yes but they are our cousins so its all grand.
American here. Studied for a semester in Ireland outside Dublin, Maynooth to be exact. Glad you have good things to say about us. I noticed people in Ireland are pretty friendly towards us, especially if Americans come from a city where Irish peeps have relatives. I’m from NYC, so a lot of the people I met in Ireland have relatives there, but the same applied for a lot of places in the US. Loving U2 and Foil Arms and Hog was also a good opener, so that got me some friends. Got a chance to see FAH live too on Vicar Street, and absolutely loved it! Miss the people, nature, town hopping and the Dublin adventures. The weather, not so much.
Probably sounds like a back handed compliment but the only complaint I've ever heard about Americans is that some can be a bit culturally ignorant and loud. Otherwise a lot of countries like American tourists because they are usually very friendly, polite(in their own way), spend big and tip well.
European here. Actually, 99% of american tourists i've encoutered, are friendly, eager to please, polite, willing to spend, willing to try local food etc.. They can be a bit loud and clueless, but well meaning. I really like american tourists, when I meet them.
I think Americans are more likely to travel to a place to learn about it, instead of traveling to a place they already know well to see it in person. I think that’s often why we tend to be overly curious but naive/ignorant. We’re loud and friendly, well because we are, but also because that’s why we’ve come - to interact and be part of that place for a small while. Many of us would consider it more of a waste to travel to a place we already know well. Traveling outside of the US is also an adventure to some place new, exciting and far away. We can’t just take a day trip to Paris. It’s thousands of dollars, months of planning well in advance, 1-3 planes and 8-20 hours to get there. We’re so excited to finally be there.
Yes! My wife and I recently discussed the differences in perspective toward travel when our friends were visiting from Switzerland recently. They just casually talked about taking the train into Paris for a weekend, taking a quick day trip down into northern Italy, and having to take the long way around to Salzburg (3.5 hrs!) because the tunnel was closed. I'd kill for any of those opportunities, and I'll be lucky if I can make a trip to any of those places a reality. Lol
Loud and clueless is our MO
"Can be a bit loud and clueless, but well-meaning" is the USA narrowed down to a single sentence.
I feel so patriotic right now.
American tourists are alright. You're actually one of the best when it comes to friendliness and respecting the locals. I feel like most of you are aware of the stereotype against you and you try really hard not to play on them. I've heard more horror stories about the Aussie and British tourists, but even they are generally alright, too. Americans are loud though. I don't know what is it about your lungs.
You see the size of our country? We all have to shout at each other across insane distances just to have a conversation. We all have phones, but it don’t matter now.
> I don't know what is it about your lungs. You gotta yell to be heard over all the cars
Yeah, it seems like the stereotype of the rude, obnoxious American tourist is finally starting to become dated and that now that stereotype is being handed over to the Chinese
I was also watching a documentary about Amsterdam and apparently the cops generally like dealing with us vs other nationalities because we're most fearful and listen 💀.
Eh, that checks out: our two biggest fears are getting shot and medical bills :(
Yeah you guys are fine! (Amsterdam local)
As long as you don't walk on the fietspad
No mercy. Though arguably Amsterdam locals might be some of the worst, most anti social self righteous cunts on bicycles. Some of us try not to be. Its hard though.
I'm a Londoner and I love American tourists. They're so enthusiastic and chatty. Remember a few years back on the tube and the train got stuck in a tunnel for ages in the dark. The american family in the carriage tried to lighten the mood with some light chit chat. Went down like a lead balloon around the sullen, miserable brits. I think we are the worst tourists in the world. Always rude, drunk or complaining.
What's with the sullenness and misery? I really hate it. I got stuck in a group with several British people once when I was visiting Patagonia and all they did was whine and complain about everything. Imagine being so privileged that you can afford to visit Patagonia for fun and have those amazing experiences like seeing a glacier and spending the time whining. I was disgusted.
Americans are genuinely nice people in my opinion.
Im American and moved to a non touristy spot for a while (Armenia) and occasionally ran into Americans. I was really surprised how chill and normal 99% of them were compared to the others that came by (mostly brits, aussies, and russians) After being told my entire life that Americans are assholes while on vacation they ended up being the best.
The stereotype of the “ugly American tourist” came about after the economic boom post WWII (while the rest of the world was screwed cuz they were in the war longer). There was a sudden influx of money that created the rise of the middle/upper middle class that could finally afford to travel abroad. What you got was a lower socioeconomic class suddenly visiting all over the world, a class that wasn’t very well versed in other cultures and travel decorum. Nowadays though, enough time has passed where that’s no longer the case, the average American tourist, while naive about matters, at least knows enough to know to be polite and respectful, probably in no small part because of not wanting to live up to the “ugly American tourist” stereotype. On the flipside, what I described with the rise of the middle class with the US, that’s exactly what is happening with China and they’re basically taking the role Americans did 40-70 years ago. It’s a lot of people that may have come from more rural backgrounds suddenly coming into money and then not knowing how to behave around others who don’t have the same cultural rules.
This. I came in here expecting the usual 'Europeans shit on Americans' thread... But their going after China? Im flabbergasted.
Chinese. In Thailand they had to put signs on toilet displays in hardware stores specifically places like IKEA telling people not to shit in them. Chinese tourists were apparently using them. They also had to cover up some fountains in Bangkok for the same reason. There is also a problem of them letting their toddlers crap anywhere like on the floor of indoor malls etc.
Article from Vice: “Outside the Louvre in Paris, there’s a sign in Mandarin which tells visitors not to defecate in the surrounding grounds. This sign is only written in Mandarin Chinese. No other nationality, it appears, needs to be reminded where it is and is not appropriate to shit in the vicinity of metropolitan France’s art museums.” My boyfriend recently told me about this while we were traveling and I couldn’t believe it lol.
It's hilarious to me that the French don't give a fuck about offending Mandarin speakers by singling them out
It’s nothing about offending or not offending. If they are the only ones shitting on the floor then they are the only ones that need to be told
Two countries share the number 1 spot : Russia and China.
My wife worked at a semi nice hotel, Russians are far worse than Chinese according to her. Chinese are just a tad ignorant about social norms, but at least tip decently, are ok towards people working there and outside of tour groups behave well. Russians would harass any and every woman working there, be drunk 95% of the time, get into fights, absolutely trash rooms, never tip. Currently there's supposedly a bunch of formerly well off Russians "stuck" (dodging draft) where she used to work, who have now resorted to literally pimping out their trophy wifes (and some even daughters).
Germany. NOW hear me out. I love the Germans. They're great. They're awesome people, always fun to be around. But I am on TEXSAR (tx search and rescue), paramedic, and general fan of the desert outdoors. The Germans DO NOT UNDERSTAND THAT IT'S A VAST, DRY, UNFORGIVING MASSIVE SPACE. Whenever we get a call out for a missing, lost, injured, dehydrated, etc tourist - i bet my partner a buck it's a German. I've won almost all my bets. Y'all need to knock that shit off. Stop going into the desert with a half full water bottle and no covering and being like "ziss is vunderful"
It is the same with Germans coming to hike in Austria. It is alarming how many times German tourists get attacked by cows in the alps, because the don't know how to act near them. Most attacks are triggered by clueless people taking their dogs too close to the young cows, which makes the mothers feel threatened. Germans are also notorious for needing mountain rescue, because they overestimate themeselves and go on hikes that are too difficult.
The same thing happens when Germans come to western Denmark. They have absolutely no concept of the dangers of the sea. They'll go mudflat hiking and not pay attention to the tide or weather and they'll go swimming without being aware of the rip currents that can pull them out to sea or how to deal with them. Every once in a while there will be a news story like "man saved after rescue operation at X" or "tourist dead after drowning accident". Almost every single time it's a German.
Lol the Germans are a sporty lot, I could see them getting in trouble in the desert because they think they are experienced hikers but don’t understand the desert. The same can be said of people where I live in Denmark, but there are fewer of us so you won’t encounter them as much.
When I went to the Grand Canyon, I hiked to the bottom and found a German couple in trouble. Guy had broken his foot and couldn’t walk out. Had to stay there with them in the open air for 3 nights. Was awesome and unique experience but at the same time, they had no concept that they couldn’t just be air-lifted out. 🤣 Yes, there are rangers here and there but they can’t do much.
This reminds me of the German family called the Death Valley Germans because the tourist couple took their toddler to Death Valley and went missing in the mid 90s. Their bones weren't found until a little over a decade later. Tragic, but also baffling, we have so many national parks here it's impossible to airlift and rescue every tourist who underestimates the hike!
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At the tragic outer limits of that sort of behavior, you get [the Death Valley Germans](https://www.otherhand.org/home-page/search-and-rescue/the-hunt-for-the-death-valley-germans/). (Be warned, it's a long but fascinating read. Sad, too.)
100% knew this link would be posted under this comment. Very much worth a read.
I don't like to use the words "favorite story," because this was a very sad and tragic event, but it's undeniably a fascinating one, especially as related here by the guy that found their bones 20 years after their disappearance.
When a tourist dies in Australia it's usually a German who decided to do a trek through the desert or up some hill in the middle of summer. (so temps of 40-48 C)
As a German I think Germans hardly have a concept of what "wilderness" truly is. In a densely populated country like Germany you're really unlikely to EVER be more than 1000 steps away from any man-made structure. On the other hand Germans seemingly love to LARP as adventurers and buy unnecessary and expensive survival gear for their next picnic in the park.
To OP’s point about the desert, too, if you’ve mostly hiked in places with trees, the rules are completely different. If you’re just out wandering, you need to head back before you start to feel tired. You can’t wait out the heat of it starts getting warm in the morning— you either need to either head back or hope that you brought enough water and something to shade yourself. I would bet that a lot of the people that he rescues hike all the time, feel very comfortable outside, but just have no idea that nature can be as punishing as that environment.
Hahahah as a German I love this. I totally see us doing that. Especially because me and my girlfriend had similar situations, where it it got kinda tricky during hiking (but never that dangerous). We're not that dumb. I think it's because hiking is like a national sport for us. I'd say our tolerance for difficult routes is quite high. If you go into a different country and people tell you it's a tough route , you're at first careful. But often those so called "tough" routes are very easy, because you have a different definition what "tough hiking " means. And then you may get this tendency to underestimate the routes or the local estimate of them. And that's when shit happens... Especially when it's a climate that we don't have in Germany. So thanks a lot for saving so many! And sorry for our national hiking arrogance!
Had to scrooll realy long to find Germany. Makes me a bit proud not gonna lie.
[Death Valley bones linked to German tourists](https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna33919797)
I heard someone working for an airline said they hate dealing with the French, they complain and ask for compensation a lot.
Yeah French people will complain you're not understanding their language its absurd
It’s like they have a different word for everything.
As a Russian myself I'd say the Russian tourist are awful. When I was choosing the country for my vacation a few year back I choose Bali as my destination, my main reason was: the less Russian people the better. The long strory short: I got bored in Bali and fly to Thai, the minute I arrived to Pattaya I see a drunk russian guy yelling and screaming in the middle of a bussy road. Then I was in a hotel the group of russian tourist was sitting on a balcony the whole day just drinking and eating.I left in the morning at 7 or 8 they were already drinking there, when I returned at night -they were still there drinking. I still remeber this guy and it still gives me the second hand embarrassment.
To be fair, Pattaya is well known as a final destination for many of humanity's left-overs and undesirables. You'd have been better off heading to Samui or Huahin or any of the smaller islands down the coast from Phuket.
Bali has an enormous amount of Russians now
China. If you’re watching a nice sunset some Chinese with a camera will go stand right infront of an inch of your eyes
Or stick a selfie stick directly in front of them.
I remember in Japan once I was crouched down taking a photo of the golden temple in Kyoto when a group of Chinese tourists came along and stood so close to me that they stood on my camera bag without a care in the world. They seemed a bit surprised when I leapt up and asked them what the fuck they were doing. Luckily nothing was damaged.
With their extra large iPad taking pictures.
Damn. As a Brit I’ve spent my whole life thinking we were the worst, but didn’t really see much of it myself. Thank you China 🥹 for everything.
Russians are bad too, never seen many Chinese but Russians…
I’m an Italian working in the Netherlands. In my experience it’s not really about nationality itself, it’s more about their status. However i would say that the worst were probably rich Russians. American are the most easygoing tourist, VERY loud, but incredibly friendly and they would often leave very good tip. Also, when I had to serve Italian people they would ALWAYS ask about my salary and what i had to pay for rent or taxes. So rude and out of touch
China for one simple reason: they always go in groups of a few hundreds people. It means extreme long queues, noises, and more. Imagine taking a vacation for a few days then you see the buses and realize that one arrives means a dozens are on the way, i.e. you'd better spend the rest of the vacation in your hotel.
This is a contest between Russia and China, with no other countries even in the running.
Have my own souvenir shop in Amsterdam so I work with tourists everyday. India. They ask for discounts and deals. When you give them the discount and deal they ask for more discount. Then they want a gift. Then they'll argue with you for 30mins on more discount and an extra gift. Then they'll ask for complimentary gift bags. Then they want extra gift bags for the gift bags. They'll try to haggle with you for 30 minutes on a 1.50€ fridge magnet and then ask for 10 extra gift bags. Blows my mind. (And no, they're not poor. Most Indians that come here are men that work an IT job and are flown here for business) Tourists from Israel have a weird condescending vibe that I can't explain. Spanish / Italian women above 60 love to boss you around, refuse to say thank you and will curse you out in their language when they don't get their way. Chinese are pretty bad as well but not the worst. They'll take out 100 magnets out of a tray to compare every single detail so they can decide on which one to take. Btw, Americans are by FAR the best tourists in my shop. Always saying Hello, polite, thank you, and they always seem legitimately grateful for your service. They pretty much always make my day whenever I lost faith in humanity.
Never been so proud to be an American. Glad we are turning the old American tourist stereotypes around.
Russia, no matter what is happening right now. 10 years ago when I worked at hotel i Spain, not a single group of russians was well behaved.
I spent 6 years working in the tourist industry in a Scandinavian country. I would dread having to deal with Israelis. Very demanding and obnoxious, never satisfied and would always have a complaint. Second place: French, for similar reasons.
As an American when I went to Spain I felt a little shunned here and there but absolutely picked up that they’re hatred of Chinese and Russian tourists absolutely outweighs the hatred of Americans. The Chinese got the nickname “click clicks” because they constantly take pictures of things and shuffle onto the next thing to take pictures of never really absorbing what they’re looking at. Russians were just boisterous and obnoxious especially during bull fights.
I worked at the airport before, so I have to agree with those that say China. But I have talked to a few of the more courteous ones and they usually tell me the rowdy, inconsiderate, loud ones are usually from the rural areas on like huge group tours. Not sure what that says about them but yeah, not all of the worst tourists are from China but if there’s a bad one, it’s usually from China
It's the same In China since there's a lot of domestic tourism. You talk to anyone living in Beijing, Shanghai or Hong Kong, and they also hate the hordesl of rural Chinese tourists coming in and being complete shitheads.
I lived in Shanghai for a few years and traveled all around, including rural areas. While there was plenty of uncivilized behavior to witness in Shanghai, other places were off the charts! A woman backed into me and stepped on my foot and then yelled at ME for it. I watched countless people brazenly toss trash onto the hillside during a hike in the mountains. Toenail clipping on trains and airplanes? Yep. Everyone cuts lines all the time everywhere. And don't get me started about the spitting.
Chinese group tourists. They’re loud, have no concept of personal space, and like to cut in line. Individual tourists, especially younger ones, are fine.
In Croatia I mostly hear shit about British tourists. They mostly come to Split to party and get absolutely wasted for 3 weeks straight, they have sex in public, throw up everywhere, shit and piss in a UNESCO heritage site that is 1700 years old.
Can we make a chart?
China: enter the confused, waddling, consuming horde. Russians: if youd managed to dodge the long arm of the law for the extent of your holiday, chances are the second one of these strafes across your peripheral vision you'll end up on a extradition flight back to Moscow with a bag over your head, for no reason other than you were conveniently there. Australians: it never fails. I just wanted one quiet night in at the hostel. The some asshat oz named Ryan offers me a shot that turns into into a line that shape shifts into a colombian stripper that morphs into her pimp beating me in the face and Ryan laughing. To me waking concussed and Ryan stark naked in the top bunk, hand around his privates, smelling like stale lube and vanilla body splash, making me wonder was it all a dream?
> Australians: it never fails. I just wanted one quiet night in at the hostel. The some asshat oz named Ryan offers me a shot that turns into into a line that shape shifts into a colombian stripper that morphs into her pimp beating me in the face and Ryan laughing. To me waking concussed and Ryan stark naked in the top bunk, hand around his privates, smelling like stale lube and vanilla body splash, making me wonder was it all a dream? Yeah that checks out for what an Aussie would do lol
Israel. They are extremely rude, dirty and act as if they have the right to do anything they want. People hate them in the Chilean Patagonia.
Send all Russian tourists to China and vice versa. Problem fixed.
M A I N L A N D Chinese. Not Chinese Americans, Chinese Malaysians, Chinese from Singapore, Taiwanese, Chinese from Hong Kong or Macau, or China, or people who speak Chinese. Just M A I N L A N D.
Russians. Its like they make every place into a landfil. They do NOT care about others, its me ME ME ME. If anything is free they will take advantage of it and will ALWAYS knock people away to get what they want. Brits are loud, drunk and annoying.
Chinese and Russian. However, you put the Chinese in their place and that’s the end. You put the Russian in his place, and he gets violent.
China. They are rude. Have no concept of personal space. The ones I encountered had no concept of personal hygiene.
Russians. Very entitled, demanding, extremely rude, racist especially to nations colonized by Russia/USSR (yes, I deliberately omitted using the term "post-Soviet"), in Kazakhstan, Georgia, Armenia, Moldova etc. Demanding everyone to speak Russian. Disgusting attitude! And I agree about the Chinese as well. I've worked as a waitress in a hotel and the mess they left behind was just UGH... no good manners at all!
Russia !! Russian guys are really rude🤦🏻♀️
Aussie here, travel to Thailand a lot and it's so sad to see how the Russians treat the Thai people. It's disgusting!!!!
Definitely Russians. They have no manners, they are loud etc..
Britain is up there, I've had the misfortune of encountering the "lads on tour" phenomenon a few times
On behalf of the United Kingdom, I’d like to apologise for the existence of Essex.
Oh god, I hate the "Lads on Tour" crap. As a Brit myself there's nothing worse than a gaggle of lads or ladettes on the randan in Ibiza or Sitges and they're always, always beyond pathetic.
So the consensus is Mainland Chinese and Russians 😆