Only people causing trouble on European holidays are Brits!

[TeenyQueen]

I'll preface this by saying that not all British holidaymakers are causing trouble, far from it. However, my experience is that it is always British people who do cause trouble when abroad by getting too drunk and becoming aggressive etc.

We're currently on a European holiday in a nice 4* apartment complex. We've had a lovely time so far, even managed to get DH off his phone for a change after a serious chat.

HOWEVER, three nights ago a British family arrived and they're staying at the opposite end of the corridor, parents and two pre-teen boys. First the whole family was making an absolute racket every time they got back to their apartment past 8pm, and they were especially loud at 11pm when they seemed to call it a night. They were so loud that I popped my head out and asked them to be quiet. The following night the boys decided to start knocking on our apartment door loudly at 11pm, waking up our baby in the process. I went over to knock on their door to speak to the parents, expecting them to apologise. Far from it! Dad (who was massive) opens the door, swears and shouts in my face and slams the door shut. I obviously contacted reception immediately and I believe they dealt with it because so far tonight it's been quieter. I did see the boys running around the bar and the dad drinking at 3pm this afternoon. The receptionist actually told me that the parents had both been really drunk last night.

Everyone else has been lovely, there are mainly families and older couples here and lots of different nationalities. No trouble with anyone else, so why is it just British people?

Now I'm actually scared of going into the corridor with my children in case I see them. 😧

The plot thickens, last night one of the boys was clearly trying to walk towards our door late at night (I could hear the family in the corridor so looked through the peep hole) but fortunately his mum called him back. No one else on this floor has been making any kind of noises, just going back and forth without any problems. The reason I asked them to be quiet in the first place was that the family was clearly loitering in the corridor for a good 3-4 min without seemingly planning to go in. I was worried they were going to wake my children up because they were so noisy at that point, shouting and laughing loudly.

I was eating lunch with DD and the younger boy decided to sit down at the table next to us and openly smirked at me. He then proceeded to mess around with different tables until I shot him a sharp look. His parents were tanning by the pool at this point.

I do know what British means, I was trying to be polite and not single out the English, but yes the troublemakers were English. We have met some lovely English families with young babies. This is definitely not a drinking resort and it's not AI, it's very clearly marketed to families with children.

the younger boy decided to sit down at the table next to us and openly smirked at me

Oh no! A child “openly smirked” at you! Or smiled at you. One of the two. How very dare they. Definitely worthy of a negative TripAdvisor review.

Lots more people confirming that op is not being unreasonable at all. Likes of you seizing on the rhetorical use of ‘always’ as some kind of victory.

Why?

Should all Ukrainian's be ashamed to be Ukrainian because of that woman who came over and promptly ran off with the partner of the woman who welcomed her into her home?

Should all Pakistanis be ashamed to be Pakistani because some of their men ran grooming gangs and abused children?

Should all Americans be ashamed to American because of how some of their youngsters behave on Spring Break?

I could go on.

Why don't you stop obsessing over this family and try to enjoy your holiday? One child is being an idiot, the adult who was with him kept him under control. Sounds like you're looking for trouble tbh.

Okay, so this one, unpleasant family, who've clearly pulled their DC out of school during an important bit of term, has coloured your view of all holidaying Brits. Riiiight!

On the type of European package holiday OP is referring to, “the troublemakers are always British” is not an unreasonable assertion at all. If you want to do all this whataboutery to avoid admitting this then that’s up to you.

Interesting, so we can wash our hands of the negatives. What about all the good things, the superior “British values” and all that horseshit, the nation’s achievements and successes. By your logic if we’re not going to own the faults then we shouldn’t be “proud” of the good things either.

One of the things we learned during the pandemic when travel abroad was difficult or not an option, was how bad some people from these shores are when on holiday.

Ask any resident of Cornwall.

People having a go at the op need to actually speak with people from abroad . My family is from all over and from Portugal to Spain France Cyprus , Greece English are seen as destabilisers . Off course both me and you know it’s not all English holidaymakers but speak about English holidaymakers in the countries above and they will instant it roll their eyes . In fact I just had that conversation last week while abroad , completely out of the blue we were asked where we were from and we said our country of origin but we lived in Scotland . He went on to rant about English tourists for a good 5 minute and how he cannot understand why Scottish and Irish are so nice but English are so arrogant and bad mannered . This is not exactly my view but this seems to be what most people on holiday destinations think .
I know it can be annoying and offensive to some English people here but maybe it’s something to think about .

Interesting, so we can wash our hands of the negatives. What about all the good things, the superior “British values” and all that horseshit, the nation’s achievements and successes. By your logic if we’re not going to own the faults then we shouldn’t be “proud” of the good things either.

I definitely don't believe in taking either credit or censure for the actions/behaviour of those I share absolutely nothing in common with, except for coming from the same land mass, no. I don't think that's the same as recognising and appreciating, or feeling embarrassment at positive or negative actions from others I share a nationality with though, but either way it has little to do with me or my actions as an individual. I think it very odd to take on a toxic, inner, emotion such as shame and apply it to my nationality - an accident of birth, because a disruptive, random group arrived from a county of my country, while I was behaving well and minding my own business. What can that possibly have to do with me?

And everyone I know says that the French are horribly rude and unwelcoming and that too was my experience in Paris when as I approached the ticket office at the train station, the official behind it aggressively slammed the screen shut and refused to serve me and my children although we were last in the queue. My hairdresser is bilingual and had the opportunity to study there a year but didn't as she said the several times she visited she just couldn't deal with the dreadful rudeness and was frightened she'd be a young adult alone there with no friends for the whole year.

Do I now write off the entire French nation and did I go and start a thread to detail these anecdotes and use them to write off the entire nation? No because that would be utterly ridiculous and disgustingly xenophobic.

Why are you reluctant to share your country of origin @TeenyQueen ? You've been asked several times now.

@Keyansier because perhaps I'm concerned that information about my nationality would be outing? Would you purposefully out yourself on the internet?

There are numerous European countries with relatively small population, such as Luxembourg and Iceland (300 k). If I was Icelandic and living in the UK, that would actually be quite outing.

I'm mainland European. All my colleagues and friends are English and they are all smart, kind and educated people. My DC are technically English, so this is by no means an English-bashing exercise. We live in a pretty affluent MC area in England so I'm just not used to this kind of behaviour.

Lol, sure. I can't see how an anonymous Internet forum - one of the few where you can name change as much as you like - would be "outing".

Plus, the level of detail you've given in this thread and the descriptions of the various characters involved, including that of you and your own family, doesn't match up to your worry about being "outed".

Very convenient that you're reluctant to share this Utopian country you hail from where the citizens are always complete angels on holiday and never ever cause anybody any bother.

@TeenyQueen -
Read the measured and intelligent posts from @LondonWolf -
stop stereotyping, you wouldn't like it.

Good points, @Keyansier .

@Keyansier because perhaps I'm concerned that information about my nationality would be outing? Would you purposefully out yourself on the internet?

Oh come on that's absolute bollocks and you know it! 😂

You've freely shared your DH's job, his massive earnings (top 5%), your own job and countless other things but the country you're from is outing?

I've heard it all now 😂😂

@TeenyQueen Shock! horror! You met some appalling British people on holiday. How will you cope? I hope the weather's nice. I bet they're sunburnt too - common bastards.

We've all done it. I've met some pretty awful Spanish, French and Italians too. If I travelled regularly outside Europe I'd have tales of people of other nationalities who didn't meet my standards.

It's not money - rich people can be cunts too. As well as people who probably think of themselves as naicely in the middle and well-behaved. There was one memorable night in Majorca where a group of middle-class English people thought it was okay to mock us on the grounds that there were two of us and 10 of them.

The stand out holiday bastards were a group of Russians who got some of the food in their mouths but spat it out as they chewed and shouted and assorted citizens of countries I'll generalise as UAE. If I started to tell you what dreadful human beings these people were I'd never stop.

All those times were in the South of France but as many Russians and Arabs are rich they tend to travel and come to London where I live so I'm not even safe at home. But there are perfectly nice Russians and Arabs so I wouldn't do what you've done and tar them all with the same brush.

That would be the act of a small-minded person who doesn't get out much.

I never had an issue with the French unless I traveled with British people and then yes I can see rudeness and actual targeting . If you see my reply I actually agree with you , hence why I say it’s nit my opinion , it is however how English folk is seen abroad

And everyone I know says that the French are horribly rude and unwelcoming and that too was my experience in Paris when as I approached the ticket office at the train station, the official behind it aggressively slammed the screen shut and refused to serve me and my children although we were last in the queue. My hairdresser is bilingual and had the opportunity to study there a year but didn't as she said the several times she visited she just couldn't deal with the dreadful rudeness and was frightened she'd be a young adult alone there with no friends for the whole year.

Do I now write off the entire French nation

Unfortunately, the behaviour of a vocal minority does give the entire nation a bad name. Yes, Paris dies have a reputation for rude waiters so people probably do make the assumption that all French are rude (even though French people outside Paris are often vastly different).

A minority of British people behave in a drunk and anti-social way very loudly on a number of resorts around Europe. So in Europe we have a bad reputation as tourists even though the majority do not behave like that. There are probably other nationalities that are loud and anti-social but not in the same numbers so they get away with not having the same reputation.

I would be surprised if British people visiting Asia, South America etc had the same reputation as it costs a lot more to go there so people don't tend to go on the typical AI drink as much as you can holiday. You are more likely to be travelling about and seeing places. You also probably wouldn't hear the same complaints about, eg British holidaymakers in the Dordogne in France because they don't have that type of holiday resort there.

OP I think a detached villa would suit you better .

@Readinginthesun I do agree! We chose a holiday complex this time because it had really good children's facilities and neither of us wants to clean, wash up or cook on holiday.

Other normal noises have been absolutely fine, it's just this one family shouting and laughing, and then banging on our door. Everyone else comes and goes without any problems.

We have got an Indian Ocean holiday coming up soon so we'll be in our own villa there.

Warning Brits - no holidays in villas by the Indian Ocean! Leave it classy, please. 😉

If you're 'mainland European' then you're not Icelandic, are you?

Even in the highly unlikely event you're from a tiny country like Luxembourg, I doubt someone is going to be scrolling down through this thread and saying 'Oh that must be Anna!'

You're just doing the usual MN thing of starting an obviously goady thread to have a dig at English people. It could very well be that lots of posters have had negative experiences about people from your mystery country, but because you are all coy about letting us know what it is, you can continue your goady anti English thread unabated.