CF Tourists - is it worse ??

[WeWillLookBack]

We have just got back from a few days in Cornwall - we live in Devon, so spend a lot of time in both counties and are very used to tourists and holiday makers. We stayed in a 'pub with rooms on the beach, which was lovely. However - I am utterly gobsmacked by the level of CF we have witnessed in the 3 days. It feels like peoples entitlement is off the scale. I don't know how those in hospitality are dealing with it.

Wednesday - Woman went mental at the poor young lad serving in the beer garden - insisted she had booked a table outside. Very politely told her that they do not take reservations for the garden, just the restaurant. Screaming ' Are you calling me a liar'. He went in, and didn't come back out.

Friday AM - they serve breakfast for guests 8am-9.30am, then open for breakfast at 9.30am (lots of signs saying open at 9.30am). At 8.30am a group were outside - rattling the door. Member of staff opens the door, and lets them know they open at 9.30am. Lots of moaning - insisting they can have breakfast now etc. She says no - very polite. So he tells her it is disgusting that they allow guests to sit in the window eating when others can't ! ( and to make up for their error, they should serve them breakfast too)

Friday evening - Family of 6 rocked up - no space in the beer garden. Started shouting - so the owner came out. Man very angry - they had driven for 6 hours - and the kids needed feeding. The owner was great - polite but firm. The man actually suggested the owner walk around the beer garden and checked when people were leaving so they could secure a table. He said no. A lot of swearing. Asked to leave.

Drive home Saturday morning. Along a winding road along the coast - car in front just stops. Man gets out and stands looking at the sea. Single lane - so I cant go around him. After a few moments I beep - he stomps over to my car and says 'Can I help you' ... I say you have blocked the road - could you move please. To which he responds 'I am looking at the view - maybe you could just be kind' FFS !!!

Table next to us in a restaurant last week, man spent a good 5 minutes telling the waiting staff off for their poor service after he’d finished eating. Really ridiculous, the service was fine and the staff friendly, I told them so in the man’s hearing , he just huffed at me.

Mother in a long queue with 3 year old in a cafe. There was a large glass fronted display of cakes / biscuits. Mother spent over 5 minutes trying to get overwhelmed 3 year old to choose a cake. Rest of queue getting crosser and crosser. 3 year old ran off. Mother went after her. Next person in queue gave their order. Mother reappeared and started going over the choices with 3 year old again, someone in queue asked politely if the rest of us could be served while the girl made her choice, Mother blew up at us all. The whole queue ended up waiting about 12 minutes for the poor girl to decide. The cafe staff were so patient through all this. Dread to think how that poor girl will turn out.

We have an airbnb in a tourist city. Over the years I have learned how to spot the most entitled CF sometimes before they arrive and head them off at the pass. Including the one who wanted a third shower installed before their proposed booking in two months time.

Some slip through the net - the one who was incredulous we didn't have a vegan chopping board. This was compounded by the fact she was an NHS worker and so in need of a stress free holiday. We didn't have a digital tv in every bedroom. We don't have off street parking for three large cars.

The majority of guests are lovely but honestly some people.

Blimey! So many questions. Do you take notes? Do you pack a special book and glittery pens for that? Does it have a section for tourists who behave in a praiseworthy manner? Do you not consider yourself a tourist at any time and can you honestly say you haven't been a bit annoying to the locals on any occasion? Did you manage to fit in anything else on your holiday?

So can I, having gone along the A303 past Stonehenge countless times and seen people stop/slow right down to take a selfie. I'd like to set up a "Speed" time arrangement there - drop below 30mph and your car explodes.

type not time

@Sellorkeep. It’s a v small site and has to be booked and paid for up front. They sell wood, but I’m not sure if there’s anything else much to buy, so clearly no need to have a card machine.

Well if you want to visit a tourist attraction that requires wellies, the thinking man would pack, among other things, wellies.

If I'm planning to visit such an attraction before I leave home then of course I'd take them. However I don't research every tourist attraction before going away. Sometimes I like to be spontaneous - see something and think "oh hat looks interesting" so I wouldn't be prepared, but equally wouldn't make a fuss if told I needed wellies and there were none to hire.

Some of the best places I've been to have been those I had no idea were there before visiting an area.

We’re currently in Greece staying in a hotel/apartment owned and run by my DHs lovely nephews. They have excellent stories. The best one this week is the family who booked an apartment for two adults and two kids and then turned up with four extra kids!! So two adults and 6 kids to squeeze onto one double and two pull out beds. The family should have booked two apartments but were trying to save money and thought nephews wouldn’t notice the four extra kids as check in! Nephews were very kind about it (not sure I’d be) and managed to sort out an extra apartment at a discount to fit them all in.

I live near a touristy city. I generally stay out of it during the summer season, but sometimes needs must. I went in on Sunday on the Park and Ride. There are all sorts of roadworks at the moment so there was a bit of a wait for the bus back to the car park meaning it was a busy service. A group of 4 got onto the bus and took 4 seats near the front, except one chap who stood in the aisle fiddling around with his tickets, wallet, etc, blissfully oblivious to the building queue and that people couldn’t get on. I said “excuse me” so we could get past and he looked straight at me and ignored me, so I asked again and he grudgingly moved slightly (though not actually out of the aisle). As I squeezed past he deliberately put a foot out and tripped me up. I glared at him but didn’t say anything and he shouted “Be kind, you fucking bitch”. I absolutely despair about what goes through people’s minds. Why would he think that was a reasonable response to someone quietly asking him to move out of a gangway on a busy bus?

Do you not consider yourself a tourist at any time and can you honestly say you haven't been a bit annoying to the locals on any occasion

Not intentionally. Some holiday makers are just plain nasty, others are attention seekers. Or both!

We have recently been into a bar and a pub while on holiday and were studiously ignored (the first time possibly not right demographic) so in the end we walked out. We weren't rude though, we just moved on and in both cases found somewhere else nice to eat. By the sounds of it, others would have started screaming at the staff. What's the point? Spend your money elsewhere.

I live in Devon, and love the two counties and am fully aware that we need tourists.

But you are a tourist in Cornwall too. Don’t you think some tourists from Devon behave badly in Cormwall too?

And I doubt Cornish people would see you as one of their own.

I've worked in hotel reception, and struggle to believe these examples. I never saw anything similar. The vast majority were very courteous.

Even the rudeness, with was few and far between, was fairly low level (eg queue skipping, being curt about taxi prices)

@limitedperiodonly - you seem nice .... bad day ?

I find my memory is just fine - sorry if you struggle with yours. And I try to be polite and nice - not snarky / sarcastic / rude. I find people are nicer to me when I am nice to them. Try it.

And I had a lovely time and did loads. Thank you.

My white towels have been covered in shit and engine oil.

That must’ve been some party!

Well if you want to visit a tourist attraction that requires wellies, the thinking man would pack, among other things, wellies

yes if you have planned it in advance. But how many people do? We generally wake up, think what shall we do today, and think of somewhere. The only time we might plan in advance would be if we wanted to do an outdoors thing and the weather forecast said it was going to be a particularly good on one day. But even then probably only once we'd got to the destination, not before we travelled.

Re the googling thing..if someone starts an AIBU thread with a question they could quickly Google, then fine, maybe not the quickest way to get the info but the poster who asked what the NC500 was was participating in a discussion with people who clearly did know and so asked, as you would in a normal conversation. I think it's a bit twatty to, in those circumstances, point to Google and not actually answer the question.

I know there have been a few posts about it, but it really isn't too much to explain briefly what it is. Because if you google NC500 and you're not in the UK you get several different answers. And as pp said - if you're asking for recommendations (although not the case here) telling someone to google* is a dick move. If you can't answer, just move on and let someone else answer (same as the Amazon thing where you can ask questions of people who have previously bought the item. One answer i once had was "i don't know, i bought it for my kids as a present and we haven't opened it yet")

We live in an area that gets a lot of tourists and they just park outside our house any time they feel like it, and then we can't get our cars out to go to work. I've had people towed away several times, there are signs up because it's a no-parking area, and we have our own sign up too, but no. CFs just want to park there because "it's free and convenient". Well tough tits. Getting your car towed is really expensive.

@phishy - I know I was a tourist in Cornwall - not sure what your point is ? I did not suggest I knew where any of the rude / entitled people were from. I was just disappointed and sad that there appeared to be so many.

Some Devonians see themselves as from Devon. Some Cornish see themselves from Cornwall. Some from each county see themselves from Devon & Cornwall. It is very much a personal thing.

Even things like people complaining staff were chatting when they went up to get served

It's not waiting a few seconds while someone finishes their conversation and comes over to you. It's waiting in a queue to be served, with one person serving, and being ignored by other staff as the queue gets longer. More of an issue in retail probably.

Mother blew up at us all. The whole queue ended up waiting about 12 minutes for the poor girl to decide. The cafe staff were so patient through all this. Dread to think how that poor girl will turn out.

But the staff are at fault there for not firmly but politely telling them to either choose now, or let others in front until child had changed her mind. It's like a pp said - experienced customer service people would probably have said something like "lots of other children like X, how about that one, yes?" and pretty much got it out and on a plate before the mum could object instead of standing helplessly while a lot of their customers got annoyed and possibly left.

I do wonder if some people's mental health has been severely affected during lockdown. This rage for no good reason can be a sign of PTSD.

When you think about it, people were suddenly shut up with their immediate families, their freedom restricted, expected to work and take care of their kids, or to worry about where their money was coming from. People were dying, and they were expecting family and friends to become seriously ill and die.

No-one has addressed the stress people were under, or put anything in place to help them recover. On the contrary, they're expected to get back to normal immediately. Not everyone is coping with that.

@WeWillLookBack I'm a nice polite person and my day has been okay so far, thanks for asking. I will be going out later to the pictures and then to a restaurant. I will definitely encounter lots of tourists and one or two of them will be annoying but probably nothing more inconvenient than dawdling on the pavement looking at things and getting confused at the tube barriers. If I have time I might help them otherwise I will barge past. I am an upbeat person so confident that even if they really annoy me I'll probably just tut. Though probably not because that will make me look like a bit of a dick.

Ratonastick

That's actually assault and a criminal offence so you could have got the police involved though I appreciate it might have been difficult with the bus moving on.

I live in Cornwall; it certainly feels like the new Benidorm!
They don't even like being here often; not really what they want, so they're making our lives/beautiful county hell for nothing.

My MIL lives in a very remote Scottish village in the highlands. She says the tourists have become unbearable this year.

It definitely is getting worse. It may be a minority, but it is a significant minority and it is getting worse. The ignorance, arrogance, entitlement, lack of respect for the place they are visiting and the people who live there, not to mention the sheer stupidity and idiocy of some is quite something.

We live in an area with a fair share of tourists- rural area. The campervanners are a particular bugbear at the moment, on a number of fronts. They are frequently incapable of safely driving their vehicle, or at least not on windy, single track rural roads. Nor can they reverse, it would seem. Many do not seem to know what a passing place is for, or if they do choose to use it totally inappropriately (and dangerously). It is now an almost daily occurrence to see people parked in them- either as a parking space for picnic/taking photographs or viewing the scenery/place to leave your care whilst you wander off for a walk. Some are even parking their campervan in them overnight. When the inappropriateness of this is pointed out, many are incredibly rude. And it’s not even as though they are all foreign tourists who might just about have an excuse for it (a poor one, I grant you).

some tourists have taken to using the entrance to farm road or even up the road itself as a parking place. I have no idea why they think they have a right to use these areas as a car park. We aren’t, it’s rude and annoying- but more importantly it blocks the roads for the larger farm vehicles which is massively inconvenient. When asked to live, most don’t even have the decency to be a bit sheepish- many are annoyed and being asked to move on. We have taken to blocking in such vehicles, as long as it doesn’t obstruct the road. It is amazing how angry people get when they are inconvenienced by not being able to leave when they want- yet seem to miss the point that they were doing exactly the same.

Then you add in the amount of rubbish that is left. We have had to create a covered shelter with lockable front for our bins (end of the road) due to so many people dumping their rubbish in our bins/beside the bin. They were putting inappropriate things into the recycling bins, leaving stuff beside the bins etc and the council refuse to collect when that happens. Not only that, but leaving rubbish beside the bin created a mess- blown about or animals scattering which then has to be cleared up. Then you’ve got the general littering/things been thrown out of windows- if you brought it, take it back with you and find a public bin and dispose of it properly. I mean, even nappies and used loo roll/human excrement left lying out in the open on our land. It is disgusting. I caught one person leaving a nappy beside my bin. When challenged her reply was “well I’m not taking it with me, that’s disgusting”. I pointed out that leaving it for me to sort out was also disgusting. The attitude was a shrug of the shoulders.

locally, there has been a real issue with campervanners/caravaners not emptying their casette toilets in the correct places- we’ve had it in ditches, a few of our fields and the local wardens are reporting evidence of quite a few in local waterways and lochs as well as the forestry. My friend is one of them and they are having a terrible time with the car parks being used for overnight parking with rubbish left and rubbish dumped in the forestry/moorland itself and lochsides. They’ve also had issues with not putting out single use bbq’s properly or lighting camp fires when told not to. It’s dangerous and could lead to a disaster such as forest or moorland fires, destroying ancient woodland and moorland, with the devastation that entails. It’s appalling. I know several local landowners who provide pitches/parking areas are not going to continue to do so due to the issues caused by such behaviour.

we’ve had done real corkers lately, quite breathtaking in their arrogance. We had a family park their campervan in one of our fields (it has a nice view, they said)- field only unlocked as we were going to live livestock into it. Refused to move. We ended up leaving them in overnight as refused to live/ we knew police would be limited in what they could do/ would take a long time to get there. We told them what time we would be back in the morning (early) and that if they didn’t move, sheep would be going in and gate padlocked, we had their reg number and would be reported for criminal damage if they did cause any damage. They weren’t ready when we arrived, refused to get going and said they would come up to the house “when they were ready”. They got locked in until the evening. They called police but as they are on private property, they have no right of vehicular access so nothing to be done. Police were satisfied we would be back within a reasonable time frame (they seemed quite amused).