Brits Abroad on Holiday - how others see us

[Earlybird]

www.nytimes.com/2008/08/24/world/europe/24crete.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Any thoughts or comments?

[Hethbell]

It makes it embarrassing to be a brit but unfortunately a lot of this is true. I lived in Europe for a while and people were shocked that i was normal, they expected the lager ladette not a normal mum. this is one of the reasons we no longer live in the UK. I don't want my kids exposed to this and thinking it is acceptable behaviour.I blame the parents!!!!

[layda]

I think people are always embarrased by the impression their country makes on others. I am Australian and am frequently and at how crap we are at losing at sport, it's so inhospitable to boo a team that has travelled to your country to entertain you (and won) not a good example for the kids. I think we are sometimes racist too but just my personal opinion. I hope though that there are other aussies out there who are giving us a good name. Same with that article, it can be embarrasing but I think in general Brits have a fun and friendly reputation, and the rest of the world can tell the difference between a few brats and the rest of you.

[ninedragons]

I hear Tiajuana is just delightful around Spring Break time. All croquet and cups of Darjeeling in the afternoons.

Getting wankered is what 20-year-olds from western countries DO on holiday. It may not be the most civilised thing in the world, but it is a bit much for the writer to imply vague causal connections between social repression at home and drunkenness on holiday. It is certainly not unique to the British.

[poshtottie]

Hethbell,

I live in the UK. My children aren't exposed to this kind of behaviour. I soppose it depends on which area you live.

[TheBlonde]

It's not just the Brits though
Swedish youth do the same

[3andnomore]

I blame the cost of alcohol in Britain....people wouldn't have such a urge to binge as much as soon as they can get stupid cheap booze if it wasn't so expensive over here...

but on a more serious note...layda had a good point.
I am german and there are things I am serious embaressed about.....

[Anna8888]

Oh God, it's all so horribly true. But unfortunately the "Brits on holiday" thing is just as true in the UK. My partner and I stayed at a variety of hotels in the UK this summer and were extremely shocked at just how much drinking went on, even in expensive and quite chic establishments.

British women are also, on average, a lot fatter than other European women. Some are really grossly fat. It doesn't look good.

I don't know why the British don't have more self-respect and self-control...

[Hethbell]

Poshtottie, kids were not exposed to this sort of thing YET! Sure it would happen though. In my job i saw people from every socio-economic background it didn't make a difference to there behaviour. Money doesn't make you well behaved but neither is poverty an excuse for bad behaviour!!!

[poshtottie]

Hethbell, I see you live in Oz. I spent several months there and witnessed just the same happening where I was but I wouldn't class the whole country the same.

[Earlybird]

Agree to some extent that this behaviour is 'simply what twenty year olds do'. But why do the British have the reputation? We don't see articles in International newspapers about wasted Italians, Dutch or Spanish (pulling random nationalities out of the air).

Is the British binge drinking somehow worse than what goes on in other countries?

[southeastastra]

because it's cold here and we all go loopy with a bit of heat

[Callisto]

Because the sort of Brits who go on these holidays dress so appallingly badly...

[Showmeheaven]

I have French & Italian friends and they never drink to get drunk. Thats the difference. They will have a few drinks, but you never see them getting wasted.

[FluffyMummy123]

Message withdrawn

[Earlybird]

cod - I just assume they got cheap package holidays, but I may be wrong.

But even with cheap package holidays, wouldn't it be expensive to get plastered? Would think alcohol in large quantities would be costly...

[FluffyMummy123]

Message withdrawn

[Earlybird]

mmj - so you think the places are making money on quantity of booze consumed, so serve dodgy quality and then entice with low offers?

[Earlybird]

Not sure that explanation holds though.

The offers are available to anyone, and presumably there are visitors from other countries there.....so why is it overwhelmingly the Brits that seem to go too far?

[3andnomore]

alcohol is stupidly cheap in most Holiday countries....unlike over here....

Brits are used to start drinking as early as possible because Pubs closed always so early....this is a problem with squaddies in germany....they still start going out as early as possible, but don't reckon with the early mornings...i.e. in Germany clubs being open till early morning...so onstead of drinking from say 7-11pm, they drink 7pm to 5am the nest morning...and that is the ay often in a lot of Holiday countries, too....

Brits are used to get as much alhohol inside them as possible....

[TwoIfBySea]

It has been like this for decades when my mum went to Spain in the 60s the reputation was not so much about Brits as English girls - which made my mum very glad to be Scots! And it wasn't boozing actually but something else they were known for.

You think the Brits are bad try sharing a hotel with the Finnish. Now they can drink.

[3andnomore]

well, aren't all the scandinavian countries also very expensive with alcohol?

[Earlybird]

Actually, that is an interesting point - why the wide price differential in cost of alcohol in various European countries? Is it simply taxed more elsewhere? And if so, why don't we tax it more here, when binge drinking is perceived as such a problem?

[Lilymaid]

DS1 has just returned from Hungary - stayed at a resort on Lake Balaton which he described as the German version of Faliraki - ie. full of boozed up youths misbehaving. So it is not just the Brits!