Weird people you meet on holiday.

[Diddumz]

1988 - went to Majorca with my family. There was a woman who kept pretending she was drowning in the pool.

Have you met any oddballs on holiday?

@Benjispruce5

There’s been a few. Years ago before we were married we went to a Greek island. We met a couple and went out a few times with them. One night we asked the waiter to take a photo and he misunderstood and got in the photo with us, put his arms around us all and asked another member of staff to take it. It always makes us laugh.

Haha that's brilliant!

Not weird people, but a weird coincidence.

A couple of years ago, we were on holiday in the Isles of Scilly. We went along to an introduction to walks there and, as we were sipping a drink, a lady came over to us and said she remembered us from a coach tour holiday in the Canadian Maritimes 2 years previously!

I was thinking we could qualify as weird people you meet on holiday but then I read this and thought, no. We are nowhere near these levels. Phew. I’ll now say I have loved all the connections I’ve made while away from home. New thinking is what holidays are all about. Thank you all:)

My first girlie holiday, to the Dominican Republic. I was 19 or 20

We got friendly with a group of guys, one I really fancied and actually ended up visiting a couple of months later when back in the UK. One of the others was the biggest bullshitter ever, he was there on his own as he’d allegedly broken up with his partner. He’d been in a plane crash, he was covered in scars from where he, again allegedly, worked as a bouncer and if someone threatened to bottle him he would bottle himself my friend fancied him like mad, god knows why

Then there was the very odd one, who was another on holiday alone, who was very much like Screech from Saved by The Bell. He just latched onto us, and told me that he was going to phone me at work when I got home. I worked in a Travel Agent at the time, and was just all “yeh yeh”. About a week after I got home I had a call transferred to me, and yup it was him!

He’s actually on my Instagram now! I looked him up one day

Bit late to the party, but my husband and I were in the USA and got chatting to a charismatic older guy with a mullet at a bar (we'd had a few). After a couple of drinks he told us he was a millionaire and wanted us to sign a contract that he could buy our future babies. He would have been sorely disappointed by DS 😂

Went snowboarding to Andorra back in 2001.
There was a very respectable-seeming couple who kept chatting to us during the week. The bloke was reading a book called "Pecked to death by ducks" - the title intrigued me at the time.
Anyway, they seemed normal until the last night when most of the Brits in the hotel got absolutely hammered on absinthe. Someone put their head through a plasterboard wall for a start. A large group had obviously decided they were just going to party all night as the bus for the airport was leaving at 5 am.
Respectable couple wanted to sleep (although they had also drunk loads during the week). At some point in the night the woman completely flipped out and went into the corridor. She started beating various young lads around the head with her ski poles. The police were called and she and her husband were carted off to the police station never to be seen again.

I have no idea what happened to them. They weren't on the flight home!

@stillcoolhonest

Wtf what did he want to buy them for? Can’t help but imagine you as a normal looking British couple with a guy who looks like Joe Exotic trying to buy your future babies.

On holiday in Spain, every night for the kids mini disco they would play Mambo #5. A Russian couple would remove all the kids from the dance floor and ballroom dance to it. They were so intense. The kids were crying. Then it’d finish and they’d leave the dance floor and sit down like nothing had happened. They wore ballroom gowns and suits for this one song. They absolutely petrified me.

We tend to avoid people on holiday, but DH was approached by a Russian couple once when we were in the Caribbean. I could see that he was brushing them off, but I was busy with the kids (3) and they would have been 4, 7 and 9ish.
DH became strangely attentive to our children and I found out that evening the Russian woman had thought I was the nanny and they were asking DH is I would look after theirs too!

My DH and I went on holiday to Majorca just after I had had an ectopic pregnancy after trying for a few years for a baby. We sat next to a couple in a restaurant who we got chatting to. In the middle of the evening the woman grabbed my hand and said ‘I feel your sadness but it will be ok. I see your 2 children, long limbed and beautiful running in your garden’. I remember her exact words. I was a bit spooked because, as far as I was aware I was being totally normal, happy to be on holiday relaxing with DH. I now have 2 children.

Didn't talk to them but on a campsite in France a few years ago a small, really old caravan and car occupied by a slightly unkempt man in his 70s accompanied by a young , 18-20ish young woman of colour who was seemingly caring for him.
I was convinced something was really amiss as they never smiled, seemed to talk much except when he gave her instructions.
Really odd

Oh I fear I might have been the weirdo. A few years ago on a business trip staying in a holiday hotel another guest confused myself and my female colleague for a couple. We were too British & polite to correct her mistake so we just pretended to be for the next 3 days. We'd check both ways getting out of the lift and then dash to our individual rooms for fear of being caught not sharing

I've escorted group tours through my job on which we have a regular single male client in his 70s. He's entirely harmless but always carries a plastic 'bag for life' with him every day. If anyone ever enquires what he's got in his bag he replies deadpan 'it's full of johnnies'. He's quite the character

We were on holiday in a really nice hotel in Tenerife.
One day one of the dads suggested football for a group of boys including my grandson who was about 7.

He split the boys into two teams. One team was most of the boys and the other team was himself and his two sons.

The sons were barefooted and obviously had been to some football academy as they were phenomenally good, running rings around the other kids dominating the game and had full control of the ball. Because they had no shoes on they were getting kicked by the kids with trainers on and the father kept shouting at them for bad gamesmanship !Everyone soon got bored and did not want to play.
Suddenly the father flew into a rage and screamed at the other kids, saying they were jealous of his kids and other stuff too.. much too much to remember.. all dreadful.
By now my grandson had moved off the court and we stood and listened to him rant and rage over basically nothing.
It was one of those situations where later on you wondered if it had really happened.

Once went on a camping holiday, and did not realize that the site was adjacent to a naturalist (nudist) colony property. Gave me a bit of a start, that did. We (no kids with us) adjusted, and always spoke politely when meeting the residents (fairly frequently). It was hard making casual conversation, though...what do you say? "Nice seeing you?" "Hope to see more of you?" (God, you've seen ALL of them already!). "See you again soon?"

I had a younger partner who was 10 or so years younger than me. I looked much younger than my real age at that time. We met up with another couple that looked about my real age and got to know them quite well. It seemed like I was their age from our education and work histories. We started talking about age differences in relationships and other people's preconceptions on how unequal the relationships were.

I made the mistake of getting it wrong and assuming the husband was a few years older than his wife. The wife was really offended because she was much older than him and looked so much younger whereas he looked his real age.

I'm still not really sure why she was so offended. It seemed to be more because I didn't recognise they had such an age gap rather than because I was suggesting her husband looked his age. They blanked us as a couple for the rest of the holiday although the husband would see us alone in the morning and act normal with us.

@Inastatus

My DH and I went on holiday to Majorca just after I had had an ectopic pregnancy after trying for a few years for a baby. We sat next to a couple in a restaurant who we got chatting to. In the middle of the evening the woman grabbed my hand and said ‘I feel your sadness but it will be ok. I see your 2 children, long limbed and beautiful running in your garden’. I remember her exact words. I was a bit spooked because, as far as I was aware I was being totally normal, happy to be on holiday relaxing with DH. I now have 2 children.

So glad of the happy ending!

On the topic of holiday things that are a little bit woo...

DH & I were in a UK city while on holiday, & a well-to-do family came towards us. I particularly noticed the woman as I like lapiz & she had a gorgeous lapiz necklace which was set off by the colour of her classic clothes. I was just thinking that it was all so expensive & they looked such an upright family & I could never be that perfect, when they drew level with us & inside me I heard/felt the words, "Get me out of here," as plain as day, & I knew it was her. It was so damned freaky. It came out of nowhere & it was as though I'd read her thoughts. It amused me that I was feeling shabby in contrast to these up-together people, & she just wanted to escape! (This sort of thing doesn't generally happen to me, which is why it made such a big impression.)

Holidays & weird happenings: fusion MumsNet. I expect there was a CF parking badly nearby, too.

@ARabbitisaBunny

Twin sisters staying in our hotel. I would say they were in their sixties, dressed identically and finished each other’s sentences. We were having drink in the bar and they engaged us in conversation which was quite normal until they brought up the subject of Neil Diamond. It soon became apparent they they were completely obsessed and went into great detail about all aspects of his life and their passion for him. Then, one of them leaned forward, touched my knee and asked if I was also a fan. I replied that, while I quite liked his music, I wouldn’t describe myself as a fan. I don’t think they could have been more offended. They slammed down their drinks and swept out of the bar in disgust. The upside was they didn’t talk to us again for the rest of the week!

Convinced I've seen these two a few times at 70s weekends in Somerset, I've never seen a set of twins dressed so absolutely on point identically!

Can i change this into the most amazing people i met on holiday. Friend and I were on holiday in Paris. First time ever in non-english speaking country.
we were out and about...needed to go back to our room. Standing in the railway map/ticket board/ figuring out out way home in paris....and irish couple came up to us ...asking for help. We basically said we have no idea....just really trying to figure out how to get back to our hotel. Sorry...but we were struggling already. Anyway.....we finally figure it out and get back to hotel.
2 days later.....we were in another part of Paris....after sight seeing....and again in front of the map/ticket booth.....trying to figure out how we would get back to hotel. And then 2 irish travellers asked us to help them.
Same 2 people from 2 days before. !!! In complete other part of Paris. At utter random moment in time.!!!
We acknowledged how crazy it was. But never spoke again.

@Saidtoomuch

Yep, I can kinda relate to that one!

We were on holiday in France and we were in a cafe when two couples turned up and just stood before the seating area waiting to be seated when there was a big queue of people to the side of them ordering food at the counter and taking their trays and sitting down.After they had realised when the staff weren't taking any notice of them that they weren't in a posh restaurant,when they eventually got served,two of them sat down and one of them at the counter yelled "DO YOU WANT A PANINI?" very loudly and then I realised they were English. I remember thinking 'They're only a metre away from you, you don't have to yell!' while we kept quiet, pretending to be French and I pretended to read the local newspaper in case anyone thought we were English and assumed we knew these people.
I sat there cringing as one of them said very loudly later "Ooh, this tea's a bit too hot!"
Saw them later when I went into a shop and as soon as I saw them and turned around and went straight back out again, thinking 'I'll come back later!'

Thankfully that city the English tourists always seemed to avoid for the most part as the guidebooks would tell them to avoid it so that was one of the only times I remember anyone like that as we frequented it.
Also a good few years earlier was on holiday, France again and there was a girl throwing a massive tantrum in front of a lady, I guess a female relative, in an aisle in a supermarket. My friend and I wondered if she was English, couldn't hear what she was saying but it was as she was wearing a knitted poncho (trend of the mid 2000s) as I hadn't seen many French people wearing them. Heard them later on and yes, they were English. The poncho craze never caught on in France, one store ended up selling them 70% off as the French wouldn't buy them and I couldn't blame them, I thought they were awful too!

I prefer to avoid the English abroad as nearly all the ones I've come across abroad are embarrassing!

One more I remember is being on holiday in Austria over Christmas on a coach tour and everywhere was shut as Boxing Day is a bank holiday but the only place open was a Japanese restaurant and my friend overheard someone say "Ooh, we'll get a nice piece of apple strudel in there!" My friend said to me "In a Japanese restaurant? I don't think so!"

I'd say my OH and I are the weirdos. We like to do our own thing and keep ourself to ourself on holiday so we don't really talk to other people lol.

Used to go skiing with our local ski club every year. One year in Austria we skied with another couple a lot he was a good skier as was DP as he had been a ski instructor in the Army. Often when we were queuing for the chair lift locals would just barge in in front by skiing fast into the queue spraying you with snow. There was one particular group that got silly and were obviously targeting us. DP would stick the back of his ski out to stop them then one of them skied right across his brand new skis. Our usually quite Army instructor then spoke to them all in his immaculate posh Berlin German and they nearly shat themselves!! We never saw them again and there never seemed to be much of a queue for us after that.

On our honeymoon we stayed at a hotel and in the restaurant there was an extremely posh elderly couple and the man made audible comments about people around him all the time eg to your left a man with three women what’s that all about.
The comment that has had us howling for years was directed at us - to your right lovely young lady, gentlemen less so - always told hubby he was punching above his weight marrying me 😂😂

I love meeting weirdos on holiday. It's part of the fun. However I do like them to go away when I'm relaxing. The ones that pester you when you're in the middle of dinner or reading a book are the ones that piss me off.

@illuyankas

For me, it's more weird to still remember something that happened 33 years ago and start the thread.

I think it's called a conversation starter!. 🙄 what a pointless comment, just leave the thread if you don't enjoy it

This thread is amazing. Trying to think of some good stories, nothing too mad...

On holiday in California and we went to the bar featured in the film Sideways. Two local women sitting at the bar heard our English accents and said they'd love to buy us a drink, so we accepted. They were clearly quite drunk and kept saying they loved our accents and asking us to say swear words which they found hysterically funny. They kept buying us drinks and we kept swearing loudly in our best posh English accents. They didn't seem to want to get to know us, just listen to us swearing. It was a hilarious, weird afternoon!