To feel a bit like everyone hates me when I'm a British tourist in Europe now

It's a language difference. We say please and thank you when Spaniards wouldn't. It marks you out as 'British person speaking Spanish' rather than how the locals speak.

Try going to South America and saying that. Or go to north or west Africa and ask what people think of the french....

Well I'm as English Rose as can be and toured Andalusia twice last year as well as Gran Canaria and everyone was lovely even with my dreadful Spanish and holding people up because I had the wrong bus ticket etc.

Perhaps it's you OP.

Europeans don't hate us. There's tension in parts of Spain because holiday rentals have put pressure on the housing market, and locals are priced out in a lot of touristy areas. Some people take it out on tourists rather than the actual people who could sort it out- their local politicians.

You're right, @ObelixtheGaul . There was a thread on here about holidays in Cornwall, some Cornish people posting were quite stinging about tourists.

I think the problem, here, to an extent, is the feeling that it's about US. It isn't. It's about the experience and feelings of the local people.

Let's be honest, if you live and work in a touristy area, you'll mutter about 'bloody tourists'. Doesn't matter who it is or which country you are in. They are on holiday, they have all the time in the world and they don't really appreciate that the pretty little village they are gawping at is home.

It's not about who colonised who, generally, or even about stereotypes, it's about reaching a point where you just want to go down to the beach near your house when the weather is good and have enough room to sit on it.

People know perfectly well that tourism is a big part (the only part, in some places) of their economy. It doesn't make it any easier to live with. I really don't like the 'well, if it wasn't for my money' brigade. People with that attitude tend to be the least understanding of the simple fact that people who live in these places still need to be able to do the stuff people do in their home towns and villages.

If you ask people what pisses them off about tourists, it won't really be what their country did. It will be how it takes three times as long to get to work in the season. It will be how there's nowhere to park. It will be about the assumption that you have as much time as they do. It will be about your kids finding used condoms on the street, feeling less comfortable going out at night, being kept awake at night.

It's what happens when suddenly, in peak season, your sleepy little town/village/island quadruples in numbers of people. And for some places, like the Canaries, there's no respite any more. It's year-round.

SOME people make a lot of money. Most people just work ridiculously hard in a notoriously poorly paid industry with very long hours.

It's not your fault. You just want a nice holiday. But it's hard work for the locals, even if they aren't working in the industry. People living in tourist areas in the UK find it hard, and it's a short season, here and most visitors speak the language and know how to drive here (well, in theory). But even 'staycationers' who have only gone 200 miles up the road seem to think the 'rules' are different in a place that caters for tourists. That somehow, because you are on holiday, it's OK to do things you wouldn't do at home. That effect is magnified abroad.

I doubt very much whether that will happen.

You can "lol" all you like. Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz 80 years ago.
You should read some books on the Nazi colonisation of Europe, which included Poland. Horrifying.

That is not my experience at all and I have travelled all over the world and make frequent visits to European countries.

Your description of English people doesn't match anyone I have ever met.

And "overly polite"? WTAF is that supposed to mean? I have literally never heard anyone say "Why can't English people be a bit ruder? It would make them so much more likable"...

They did colonise Poland.

You're wrong. Admit it.

Get better sources. They did not colonised Poland. Occupation and colonisation are not the same thing.

And lol at "liberation by soviets".

England is far from the only country that has that reputation. The English are also not uniquely criticized in tourist hotspots.

Can't say I've experienced this either, but I don't doubt it's possible.

Maybe you smell?

Not true IME with the Scandinavians IME, it's family and friends anecdotally but what parts of Europe are you referring to- continental?

Rub him up and down with the soft pillows!

That's another thing that doesn't make sense.

People never seem to remember that Scotland also invaded places and took land.

Yet scotland doesn't have that reputation. Their reputation is "the good guys who didn't do anything in history'

People remember selective things.

Noooooooooo not the comfy chair!! 😱

Haven't noticed, been to Spain and Italy recently and everyone so friendly. But we're Scottish and most countries seem to like us!

Bring out the comfy chair!

Oh you didn't get the joke, damn!!

Indeed, until it's liberation by Soviet troops in 1945.

You’re overthinking it.

DP is Italian and whenever we go somewhere that isn’t Italy he will speak English to people, all my European friends are the same. Polish and Portuguese people will go to Italy and speak English.

They are often more impatient when people in tourist areas don’t speak English! They say “I had to learn English so should you!”.

Impacts the world to this day