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Original poster

Travel agent has sent us to the most awful place :(

195 replies

Bethanyg25 · 25/05/2019 16:01

Me and my mum booked what we thought would be a lovely little break in Majorca with my 9 mo dd. Nice hotel right by Palma. However we are actually in Playa de Palma and she failed to tell us that this place is basically owned by Germans. We are the ONLY English here. Went for a walk along the beach and didn’t even hear any Spanish. Nothing but German. Noisy stag dos, very tacky that sort of thing. Now I’ve got nothing against Germans but when I imagined my relaxing holiday to Majorca this is not what I had in mind. Feel mega out of place and awkward!! Just wanted to have a rant about it.

OP posts:
Prokupatuscrakedatus · 25/05/2019 21:51

@Passthecherrycoke
I must second that - I think abroad they belong to the same human variety called "tourist" , there are differences in drink choices and clothing style but apart from that .....

BarbaraofSevillle · 25/05/2019 21:55

I've also heard that German people expect high standards, but it's likely that they're similar to other nations where some people want to go for a drinking and clubbing holiday and might be on a limited budget and others want quiet luxury and every other combination in between, hence the need to do your own research so you don't end up somewhere lively if that's not what you want but also if you do, to make sure you don't end up somewhere with more museums and castles than bars.

Passthecherrycoke · 25/05/2019 22:08

It’s a stereotype.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

Behaviour & development
BabyDueDecember2019 · 25/05/2019 22:18

Hmmmmmm

PenguinsRabbits · 25/05/2019 22:24

I only booked a holiday through a travel agent once in about 1999. Was an experience I won't be repeating. They recommended DH and I to go on a Shearings holiday to Lake Como and I asked if it would be full of old people and assured me no. Went and it was like a nursing home canteen at meal times, average age was about 80 and food resembled 70s school dinners. View was lovely but has to be the worst holiday we have been on. Nowadays its so easy to research though.

Quite happy to be with other nationalities though would hate to be by stag dos but if you use tripadviser etc or booking.com reviews screening for fakes its easy. Or Tripadviser country forums are great.

SnotttyNosedSheila · 25/05/2019 22:31

Yeah. We went to Majorca for a week. Can Picafort. Full of Germans. It was bloody brilliant! They were great company, lovely friendly people. Far better than the English arseholes I've had the misfortune to share resorts with.

Ohyesiam · 25/05/2019 22:36

Just out of interest op, did you vote leave or remain ?

Mother87 · 25/05/2019 22:49

LittleAndOften - is it flippen-floppenGrinGrin thought it was schlappen-footenBlush

Prokupatuscrakedatus · 25/05/2019 22:57

it is "Jesus-Latschen", or was when I used to wear them.

LittleAndOften · 25/05/2019 23:33

@Mother87 Grin nope, definitely flippen-floppen WinkWink

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 25/05/2019 23:38

LittleAndOften - is it flippen-floppen grin grin thought it was schlappen-footen blush

I know that windscreen wipers are Flippenflappenpoopenschpreddenkinderscushen if that helps to clear up any confusion at all.

Well, that's what they're colloquially abbreviated to, anyway - the official term is much longer.

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 25/05/2019 23:44

Genuinely, they do use some English hybrid words, but not ones that we'd recognise with the same meanings.

Oldtimer is a veteran car, and not a pensioner.
Dressman is a male model, and not.... well, something else.

Moreover, contrary to how an English speaker would assume from the sound of the word, German grandfathers' personal wind production is, on average, neither any more frequent or pungent than that of any other member of the family.

BadLad · 26/05/2019 00:30

OP, are there towels on all the best sun beds?

Passthecherrycoke · 26/05/2019 00:36

Oh come on badlad. It’s 12.30am, I expect they’ll wait until at least 4am to start setting up the German towels Wink

BadLad · 26/05/2019 00:57

According to this, you're right.

OP, do this

m.youtube.com/watch?v=LuIJqF8av6I

Pinkvoid · 26/05/2019 05:38

Foreigners abroad! Disgusting.

Grin

German’s are preferable to loutish Brit’s abroad, I think anyone is tbh. Amazed people blindly book through travel agents in the era of the internet/trip advisor...

BadLad · 26/05/2019 08:37

Also the mention the war. Look you’ve made her cry.
I didn’t - it was you. You started it!
No - the Germans did!

Is there something wrong?

Will you stop talking about the war?

Me? You started it.

We did not start it!

Yes, you did. You invaded Poland.

CherryPlum · 26/05/2019 08:50

I don't think the OP is coming back

TapasForTwo · 26/05/2019 09:12

Is it a Tui holiday 😂?

MaybeitsMaybelline Tui have upped their game in recent years. We have just returned from fabulous holiday in Madeira with Tui. The hotel was a converted manor house, and the guests were a mixture of English, French, German and Dutch, and quite possibly a few others whose language I am unfamiliar with. When our return flight was delayed by 17 hours Tui paid for us to stay overnight in a really nice hotel.

We have also holidayed in an upmarket hotel in Sicily, and a very upmarket hotel in Sirmione with Tui. Not all of their holidays cater for English xenophobes or hen/stag parties Hmm

I research our holidays very carefully using Trip Advisor, other reviews and google street view. Sometimes it is cheaper to use a tour operator. It is always easier when it comes to airport transfers and troubleshooting, and I can understand why many people prefer to use them. Not everyone has to pare down holiday costs to the bone, has the time or inclination to do all the donkeywork or has the confidence to go it alone.

Passthecherrycoke · 26/05/2019 10:24

Lots of ignorance and stereotypes on this thread. You know when you book ie a tui holiday you are in the same resorts as the oh so sophisticated abroad Germans? And the Dutch, Swedish and Flemish. They’re just tourists like the British Hmm

aurynne · 26/05/2019 10:40

If you wanted to see Spaniards... why the hell did you go to Mallorca?

Missillusioned · 26/05/2019 10:52

I think a lot of people on this thread are so keen to show how cosmopolitan they are they haven't actually read the OP properly.

It seems to me the OP wanted a quiet Spanish holiday with more traditional Spanish culture. Where in fact it is full of German stag dos. This isn't the same as being against foreigners while abroad! It is quite reasonable to expect Spanish culture while in Spain and there are plenty of areas of Mallorca where this is possible, but she hasn't been booked into one of those areas.

This is the fault of the travel agent, if the OP specified wanting a quite family break with Spanish culture. The travel agent should have known this area didn't fit the bill

PollyShelby · 26/05/2019 10:53

The travel agent sent you?

Didn't you get a choice?

That's scheisse.

Missillusioned · 26/05/2019 10:58

Oh and there is nothing wrong with a package holiday. Many times they can be cheaper than going it alone and they also offer greater security if flights are changed or cancelled, so you don't risk footing the bill for accommodation you can't use.

I am a single parent of 3 children and I appreciate the extra reassurance of the promise of assistance if things go wrong and transfers etc. I only travel independently to places I've been to before and am familiar with when with the children. 3 children is a lot to manage away from home on your own and I want to make things as easy as possible - it is supposed to be a holiday, not an endurance test!

It is very possible to get packages to nice areas without the 'brits abroad' stereotype.

Frazzled2207 · 26/05/2019 11:03

Not unreasonable to use a travel agent but yabvvu to suggest she "sent" you somewhere you did not research properly yourself.

It ought to have been fairly clear the hotel was not in Palma itself?

We ended up in a French campsite last year which was full of Germans. I was surprised by this but they were all very friendly and pleasant. Ideally I would prefer to be somewhere with an international mixed crowd but one of my worst nightmares would be somewhere with only Brits abroad.