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Weird people you meet on holiday.

329 replies

Diddumz · 02/08/2021 17:04

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?

OP posts:
ManorMouse · 06/08/2021 12:23

Alarm bells rang when they told me they had packed a large joint of beef as they didn't want to eat "foreign muck".

My brother is a big F1 fan and wanted to see a race. Me, no interest, but his family paid for my trip so I could keep him company. We went to the Italian GP as part of a package tour.

One of the other group members nearly starved himself over the 4 days as he refused to eat anything "Foreign." and sustained himself on a diet of Snickers and Mars bars which he had brought with him.

Someone asked him if he'd even try pizza to which he replied that he couldn't eat an Italian pizza but liked the "Make your own pizza" from his local supermarket as that was "Proper pizza" (sic). The rest of us were dining at a nearby trattoria every evening which had delicious pizza for a mere pittance.

When we were on the coach leaving the hotel for the airport, we travelled down a street about a block or so from the hotel and passed a McDonald's. From the rear of the coach came a loud groan followed by "Oh God! I could have eaten in there!"

HumbugWhale · 06/08/2021 12:47

@StorminaBcup

Years ago I went on holiday with a then bf to Zante (I think) and we ended up chatting to another couple, the gf was having an awful time and her bf was a complete idiot. She spent the whole holiday by the pool and he went out every night getting drunk. Shortly before we were due to come home the bf shows his gf what he thought was a henna tattoo of a Le Coq Sportif logo on his chest, saying he did it to wind her up as he knew she hated tattoos….. It was a real tattoo. He was devastated. It looked shit too!
How on earth can someone not realise they are being tattooed? Surely it hurt? He must have been really pissed. Sounds like it served him right though.
StorminaBcup · 06/08/2021 13:08

@HumbugWhale you’d have thought so wouldn’t you - I don’t think he actually knew the difference to be honest until we’d asked him how it was done.

woulducouldushouldu · 06/08/2021 13:53

@Saidtoomuch

We were probably the oddballs. The last all inclusive we went to was a cheapie in Tunisia. England were playing Tunisia in the football that week, so lots of England flags drapped from hotel balconies. We got wind of the British group as soon as we arrived- they were hanging about in a very loud group, mopping up other Brits, being rude to staff. We pretended to be French when they were around and befriended the rather lovely staff, who thought we were hysterical in pretending to be French. The staff treated my dh and I like royalty the last night, much to the raised eyebrows of the other guests.
We've done a similar thing. Went to Barcelona back in the 1990s and it ended up being the weekend of the Leeds Stuttgart European championship rematch. The bars stopped serving English and Germans. Spent the whole weekend speaking french to each other
billycat321 · 06/08/2021 14:15

Chatting with another couple in airport departure lounge. They told us that they had booked their holiday on the spur of the moment. In their unforgettable words 'We came out of the tops of our heads' Imagine the mental picture this conjured up!

teawamutu · 06/08/2021 14:19

In a nice hotel in a European capital.

American guy traveling alone started talking to us. He'd just split up with his partner and got custody of the European trip. From City One, he'd had three day trips to other European capitals (flights and everything).

His main objective in each city was to visit the American Embassy and go inside. Most put out when they didn't all let him in; I'm a veteran and a citizen etc etc etc.

Commendable energy, I suppose.

thanksforyourcommentrandomman · 06/08/2021 14:20

@SynchroSwimmer

My heart sinks every year when I visit the same hotel in the Canaries, no matter the date, there is always the same group of Germans, 3 vivacious couples, mostly naked, they single me out for the most public, over-enthusiastic, cringeworthy “welcome”. I always assumed they were national TV personalities, in media, on the stage or theatre or similar as they are always so completely OTT.

Met another friend on the beach who confessed they moved to a different hotel just because of this intolerable group - who are all swingers.

In Turkey, I had to rescue a young Russian girl, as an errant older man was pressurising and insisting (falsely) that she was on a naturist beach, and there was no option other than remove her swimsuit.

Various strange men on deserted beaches doing very inappropriate things - so for known previous offenders I now get my companions to pose as though I am taking a scenic photo - deliberately as these men “walk into shot” Once they realise I have “ammunition” and evidence - it proves enough of a deterrent to put a stop to it.

In Budapest, the hot spring baths, I noticed a local following me around and at close quarters, also noticed through my diving mask that he was doing things with his hands and genitals under water - had to report that to the attendant - with plenty of pointing and gesticulating in his direction.

In Turkey some UK Luton-based extremists were refused entry to the country and forcibly put on our returnThomas Cook flight home in spare seats. They loudly announced that the plane “would be going down”, the aircraft captain refused to take off. There were later convictions in a UK court case...

An Arabic French speaking chap, who thought I was walking the beach alone in Spain, started verbally and aggressively threatening me (he didn’t know my friends were following). I squared up to him and replied assertively in poor Spanish - he was a bit floored to think he had picked on a “local” - and backed off. I am still frightened now.

The list goes on...

Why do you keep going back to the same hotel in the Canaries then lol?!
Letsallscreamatthesistene · 06/08/2021 14:20

@Diddumz

I remember another one - on honeymoon, another couple kept hinting, heavily, that they were swingers and that they might offer the perfect way to spice up our newlywed fun.

Another couple took their cat with them and it had its own lounger. A dead cat. Stuffed.

Where tf were you going on holiday?!
TheChosenTwo · 06/08/2021 15:01

Well I’m glad you’re enjoying the tale of the crazy kipper night out Grin one of our other friends actually peed herself laughing once they’d left! To be fair, the whole group were good fun, we had had a great time talking and then kipper man took it up a notch by trying to show off to my beautiful friend and fucked it all up Grin
Also, if any of my friends read MN and recognise this story, apologies for mentioning the pants pee!!

alphasox · 06/08/2021 15:14

When my youngest was only 1 we were at a hotel in Bali that was full of groups of Chinese ladies all in their 50s/60s (roughly, guessing). They were obsessed with my baby, kept surrounding him like Paparazzi on the beach and taking photos and speaking very excitedly. I tried to speak to them but very few had any English and my Chinese is non existent- I eventually found one who said “We love the fat foreign babies!” 🤣🤣🤣

Diddumz · 06/08/2021 15:43

@Letsallscreamatthesistene

Turkey!

OP posts:
sueelleker · 06/08/2021 17:01

@popcornfrenzy

Not so much weird people but over friendly and quite imposing. As a single parent I was feeling overwhelmed so when my DS went to stay with his dad for a week I booked an AI to Egypt (I'm a scuba diver).

Anyway a family decided that Egypt was no place for a single white woman to be on her own and tried to 'adopt' me - they accosted me at every point to join them for dinner and saved me a sun lounger next to them. I was too polite to tell them I just wanted to have time to myself and did the typical English silent rage thing. I was 32 at the time so not the naive young thing they thought I was - it was quite bizarre behaviour from them and I've always remembered it

Like the film of Shirley Valentine, with the couple who insisted Shirley sat with them for dinner!
1FootInTheRave · 06/08/2021 17:28

Possibly one of my fave ever threads this is!

Have met some fabulous people on holidays over the years. Some horrors too of course.

Lanzarote 06 - nice german family but the Dad's wardobe consisted of short shorts and belly tops. He looked like the blokes out of the 118 ads.

Same hol as above - essex couple that were not a good combo. He was like a fat, over keen labrador. She was a bleached blonde nightmare, clearly only with him for what she could gain. After a few drinks in the family bar, pulled a wrap of coke out of her bra and told me all about their 'enterprise' back home.

Menorca 10 - couple and 2 daughters. Joined us (uninvited) on our first night. Pleasant enough but a very odd vibe about them. Almost amish like. The father was very much in charge and was a boring fucker. Avoided them after that as I was so uncomfortable.

Rhodes 07 - nice couple from Liverpool (we always meet folk from Liverpool and have a blast tbf). Massive oversharers within 2 hours of meeting.

sueelleker · 06/08/2021 17:50

On a Mediterranean cruise, and an American couple at our dinner table insisted on saying prayers before each meal.

Carpedimum · 06/08/2021 17:52

@Saidtoomuch

We were probably the oddballs. The last all inclusive we went to was a cheapie in Tunisia. England were playing Tunisia in the football that week, so lots of England flags drapped from hotel balconies. We got wind of the British group as soon as we arrived- they were hanging about in a very loud group, mopping up other Brits, being rude to staff. We pretended to be French when they were around and befriended the rather lovely staff, who thought we were hysterical in pretending to be French. The staff treated my dh and I like royalty the last night, much to the raised eyebrows of the other guests.
Absolutely love this! Bravo! 👏🏻
ThingsThatMakeYouGoHmmmmmmmmm · 06/08/2021 17:58

Holiday on Crete, me and DP. Met older Scottish couple, very clingy to each other. First night we got chatting at bar. Very,very much alcohol later he confided to us ( in front of her) that " He didnt love her at all, you know "
Last seen the next day walking on the beach, silent,about 30 feet apart.......

Yorkshiretolondon · 06/08/2021 18:01

Every European holiday we have ever been on at least one person has shouted accross the pool /reception area ‘hey Bob’ at my husband then fallen around laughing. My husband takes in form, smiles and waves, it is however a tad bit annoying when it happens again and again.
Just to add my husband is black and has long dreads but looks nothing like Bob Marley and is not from Jamaica …..

Diddumz · 06/08/2021 18:26

The kipper ... ending myself laughing 😆

OP posts:
Whu020 · 06/08/2021 18:28

In 1987 we went to the south of France on a beach holiday and this young German couple use to come down to the beach every day, when they arrived they use to beep their car as if to say they were here, then on the beach they use to perform acrobatics with each other, her doing cartwheels ave him catching her. Being naeive Brits in 1987 we just sat their with our gobs wide open! Lol

riceuten · 06/08/2021 18:41

[quote Galassia]Cough! Cough!

[/quote] This is my favourite one of these characters

"...or my hotel...the one you're sitting in at the moment??"

bossyrossy · 06/08/2021 18:47

We stayed in a cottage which adjoined the landlords property. After a couple of days of feeding the electric meter we realised we were paying for his electricity too. We decided to let it run down and have a candlelight evening. He couldn’t watch his tv and soon came round to put money in the meter.

skybluee · 06/08/2021 18:47

In Menorca I encountered possibly the rudest person I've ever met. Just on a short break (thankfully) for some winter sun for a week. The first I saw of her was I heard a load of screaming and she had dropped some kind of tuna melt sandwich on the floor and kicked it and went "ahhh! c*nt!!" at the top of her voice right in front of a group of children.

She got friendly with me and we shared a taxi to get to the seafront. On the way back the driver asked us not to take drinks into the taxi so she grinned manically and then hurled her drink out of the open taxi window. It hit a bin and exploded everywhere. She just sat there snorting and laughing while I apologised to the taxi driver.

She was really bored and wouldn't leave me alone. It got to the point that I stopped using the balcony and would sit inside or go out to avoid her.

To top it off though, the day before we left she ran into me at the beach and sat down next to me. She must've been drinking a lot as she said she was bursting for the loo but there were no toilets. I suggested going in the sea but before I finished the sentence I looked across and she was literally pissing onto the sand through her swimming costume. I got up and walked off and avoided her for the rest of the holiday. Yuck.

Letsallscreamatthesistene · 06/08/2021 18:55

@sueelleker

On a Mediterranean cruise, and an American couple at our dinner table insisted on saying prayers before each meal.
This isnt weird though, is it? Its just them following their religion in a pretty standard way. Ive been lucky enough to stay with 3 american families in their homes and they all have said grace before eating.
Letsallscreamatthesistene · 06/08/2021 18:58

Smelly kipper is an insult I could get used to using

Puzzledandpissedoff · 06/08/2021 19:08

It wasn't who I met on holiday, but who I went with - my eccentric cousin, who nobody else would holiday with so like a fool I risked it, only to find she carried on offending everyone even when away

Highlights were:

(To the hotel staff) "Are you all really poor?"
(To a tour guide, who'd mentioned her FIL lived with her) "So you've got two men to look after? It'll be better when FIL's dead won't it?"
Worst of all, in a church where a much loved local saint lay in a silver coffin: "Ooooo that must STINK!!!"