Amsterdam has a new Ad campaign telling young Brits looking for a messy night out to stay away

[OldHouseLover]

It's pretty bad when there had to be an actual ad campaign?

Do you think it's fair that only British people are targeted?

Places like Dublin, York and Brighton..now they are awful. The Stag and Hen do's ( Hen do's being worse of the two) make them really uncomfortable places to go.

This is very true. We were in York a couple of year ago just as the pandemic restrictions were ending and the races started again. Our visit started on a Friday which was a race day and also clearly the most popular day to start a hen/stag weekend.

5pm and there were people literally falling over drunk, puking in Mickelgate and urinating up alleys. The following morning we walked back into town the same way and the mess... not just litter, but puke and broken bottles everywhere.

Admittedly we were not in Amsterdam on a weekend but saw none of that. It's not compulsory to go to teh red light district, the rest of the city we found clean, friendly and easy to get around on fabulous public transport despite the roadworks which were everywhere. Kerb crawling isn't a thing in Amsterdam because few people drive - can you kerb crawl on a bicycle?

I visit Dublin for work about 6 times a year. I stay centrally in the city centre & since the clamp down on hen & stag parties in temple bar I don't find it even a fraction as noticeable.

A number of years ago I worked part time in Temple Bar & it was overrun with huge parties of British men & women on stag & hen parties. They were getting cheap flights over & running riot in that area.

It was really really ugly & really spoiled the place for anyone else to visit. In the end there was a big clamp down & the bars banned the big groups. But a lot of damage was done to what was the cultural quarter during that time.

These days I visit temple bar occasionally to visit some of the galleries but I'm rarely there at night. It's v touristy but doesn't seem as bad as it was with regard to the hen & stags. I used to see half naked women teetering drunkenly on huge heels with inflatable sex dolls, blow up penises everywhere. Gangs of men roaring & shouting & fighting with pints in hand. Making lewd comments if you had to walk by etc. And people trying to bring their children to events etc. It was eye-opening & depressing. And yes the majority were British.

I'm not surprised Amsterdam is clamping down

I'm not surprised, to be honest. British tourists have a pretty bad rep in Europe, especially young men who come for stag parties and engage in antisocial behaviour. (If you don't believe me, ask anybody who actually lives in one of these heavily touristed areas.)

Obviously British tourists are not the only ones who cause problems abroad but in countries like Spain there are simply so many of them that it's more noticeable. I've read that some other destinations are looking to restrict the amount of British visitors they get, so it's not just Amsterdam.

But I doubt this ad campaign alone is going to have any impact. Putting up the cost of flights from Britain to Amsterdam would probably be a more effective deterrent. As well as more effective policing of antisocial behaviour. But of course the UK stag parties are just going to go elsewhere - it just becomes somebody else's problem.