Do you live in a major tourist destination? And if so, what do tourists do that annoys you? I’m curious about what peeves the folks in other major tourist centers (I’m in DC), and I figure this thread might even be useful - hey, I’ll know not to do these things if I’m ever in your neck of the woods.
I’ll kick this off by referencing my post in the other thread:
Tourists are annoying as shit. Thankfully, I left LA for a vast, frigid shithole that nobody bothers to visit. They’re slow, chronically confused, stop in the middle of busy sidewalks to wade through their fanny packs to wind up their disposable camera so that they may photographs the goings on of a real life big city. Outta my way, jerks, I have places to go.
Of course, those are only the obvious ones. I’m sure I’ve sat next to many a tourist on the train, or passed them by on the street, without noticing because they weren’t engaged in stereotypical touristy behaviors. I guess that’s what we’re talking about here, though, right? The stereotypical ones? Because I don’t care if you’re just visiting, walk at a normal pace, and have figured out the miracles of transportation like everyone else.
Dear Tourists, if you’re taking a picture in the middle of a crowded public area, don’t get offended and yell if someone walks between you and the subject of your photographic desire. First, you’re using a digital camera. Just push the damn button again. It’s not like you’re wasting film. Second, not everyone on the sidewalk has the time to wait patiently off to the sides as you frame the perfect shot, adjust your settings, adjust your settings some more, pull out the camera manual, and then, finally, take your picture.
Chicago tourists at the train station: Hi, I like tourists, really. I also think it’s neat that you’re choosing Amtrak to travel the country. However, for the love of all that’s good and holy, please do not stop immediately at the top of the escalator. Yes, I know there’s a lot of cross-traffic. See, you’ve hit rush hour, and those are Chicago workers eager to get back to their homes after a long day at work.
Anyway, the problem with stopping at the top of the escalator? Yeah, see, I’m another worker who’d really like to get home, except you’ve stopped in my path with your luggage, and the escalator is propelling me smack into you. So move it before I feel compelled to plow straight through you and undoubtedly give you the impression that I’m a rude local for not wanting to trip on the still-moving escalator stairs and probably hurt myself pretty badly.
Visitors in RVs, please learn that we have a state law that requires you to pull over and let people pass you when they are backing up behind you on a two-lane road (so long as it’s permitted and safe to do so). We have many mountain roads that twist and turn and until the highway department gets around to making them all flat and level (damn their hides) please realize that you aren’t moving near the speed limit but the rest of us would like to do so.
In normal life I like tourists and delight in sharing interesting things about this place. On the highway, behind them, especially if on the motorcycle, I might get cranky.
What few tourist we get out here in the Hinterlands generally make the mistake of expressing the opinion that rural, small town life in one of the “flyover” states consists entirely of cow tipping, shooting at road signs and cruising past the Dairy Queen. It’s true but you still shouldn’t say it. Maybe now that the Huskers have joined the Big 10 and we’ll get the chance to stomp Michigan into the turf on a regular basis, we can start to shake some of that.
Where I live has a picturesque, much visited old town but I cannot single out tourists for much of the annoying behaviour - most of what annoys me is that I want o go from A to B and there are a lot of able-bodied people who simply don’t get a move on, in my way. Most of them locals, I don’t doubt.
The annoying touristy behaviour that I observe almost everywhere concerns taking photographs. The person taking the photograph being wilfully slow and stupid about it, and the persons being photographed chattering with each other while slowly arranging themselves into a group. In both cases, instead of efficiently attending to the business of photographing and posing. Any problems with framing and the best posing can be quickly solved by taking multiple shots - megabytes are cheap, for God’s sake!
Also annoying: both photographer and photographee with their backs to walls, i.e. you cannot pass behind either of them.
I’m in DC as well. My biggest unmentioned peeve is the tour buses. I hate getting stuck behind one of them in Old Town Alexandria or Capitol Hill. The streets are narrow and weren’t designed for cars let alone those monstrosities. Just to add insult to injury they will stop in the street and block traffic unless you can get around them. Luckily, both places have a grid system of streets so I can just make a turn and get away from them.
With the exception of the tour buses, I don’t mind the tourist. They tend to stay near the Mall, and I can avoid going through there most of time. We just avoid the museums in the summer and visit in the winter.
I, like most in Las Vegas, love tourists - it is our bread and butter for many who live here and the more the better. Actually, tourism numbers are not horrible even with this economy. (People don’t gamble as much, but they keep coming in droves!)
That said, we are lucky that 99.99% of all tourists stay on The Strip or Downtown - where locals rarely go. I would venture to guess few locals run into to tourists at all, unless they work in those locations.
I do admit you would often see drivers with rental cars coming from the airport who had no clue - either they were bad drivers at home as well, or just really, really nervous about driving on a freeway in a large city. But if you have to drive in that area, you get used to it quickly and are prepared for idiots driving 35 MPH as they enter the freeway and have blinkers going in all directions as they frantically look up, hoping to see something that will point them to their hotel.
My guess is that many are also coping with a minimal understanding of English.
On those rare occasions where I do wander The Strip with friends or out-of-town visitors, it is quite easy to create a long lists of complaints - but hey, if I don’t like hanging around tourists, then I shouldn’t be going there!
I used to work at the Smithsonian on the National Mall. My office was in the old Arts and Industries building right next to the Castle. (Imagine having your regular work office in the middle of Disneyland.)
It wasn’t too bad in the winter, but during the summer everyplace in the vicinity was swarming with tour-ons (rhymes with “morons”; this signifies the more oblivious tourists we’re talking about, not the well-prepared ones who know where they’re going and what they’re doing, who I don’t mind).
The most annoying thing is that they’re all moving slowly and *in random directions. *Crowds on the sidewalks in New York aren’t so bad because most people know where they are going, and are hustling along in a particular direction. When I had to get from one museum to another for a meeting it was like being in a game of Asteroids, trying to avoid or get around drifting clots of humanity moving in every direction.
The question from tourists that always gave me pause (generallly asked at the top of the stairs at the Smithsonian Metro stop) was “Where’s the Smithsonian?” I’d have to explain that just about every building they could see besides the Capitol was part of the Smithsonian, and that they would have to be just a little more specific. You would think they would do at least a little bit of research before their visit.
I used to live in Las Vegas. We could quite frequently spot the tourists…they were the ones who were on foot, in the middle of a busy street, looking like they’d never seen a light bulb before. I’ll grant that Las Vegas has some pretty uncommon features (including the slots in the laundromats), but most tourists seemed to have switched their brains off when they got into Vegas.
Also, not everyone in a particular town/area has the same tastes, or is there to work for the primary industry. I live in Fort Worth now, and while I love it, I don’t like country music and I don’t like football.
Yes, Santa Barbara has ocean on the one side and mountains on the other. They are both really pretty, that does not mean you need to drive slow as hell to look at them. I have places to go, like school or work, I don’t want to be stuck behind you while you look at things when you’re supposed to be driving.
I used to commute by Metro to the Dupont Circle station. While not a lot of fun, it wasn’t nearly as bestial as commuting from the Bronx to Manhattan by subway used to be when I lived in NYC.
I’m thinking that a lot of the tourist behavior that drives me batty isn’t from tourists per se, but from clueless people who happen to be tourists. The person who stops at the top of the escalator in Chicago? That’s the same guy in Breaux Bridge, LA that who chats with his friends in the middle of the aisle at WalMart. The lady who stops on a busy sidewalk every 5 seconds to look at the tall buildings? That’s the same woman in Enid, OK driving 35 mph with her blinker on. The person who scowls at you for blocking her photograph in front of a busy office building? That’s the same self-entitled jerk in Pecos, TX who talks on his cell phone while in line at the local Dairy Freeze.
And I agree with other here: I’ve never understood why you’d spend time and money to visit a place and not do just a little basic research before you went there. I guess these are the same people who visit Mexico without learning to say Please and Thank You in Spanish.
Another native DC person here, and I can pretty much echo all of the complaints I’ve seen so far. This is made worse by the fact that I work very close to the mall so I have no real way of avoiding the throngs of clueless tourists.
Recently there was an column printed in the Washington Post that I think should be required reading for everyone coming to DC.
I’ve lived in Florida and Arizona so I’m familiar with snowbirds. The #1 complaint is the, “We don’t do it like that in <insert name of northern state>.”
In Phoenix, I hate the camera toting people blocking the hiking trail while they take pictures. They’ll always pick the narrowest part of the trail to stop and take pictures of them in front of a cactus.
I’m off on Wednesdays, so I like to go grocery shopping that day. But, Wednesday is senior day so I can’t go during the winter. It is easier to pass a constitutional amendment than for the elderly to pick a loaf of bread to buy! Of course, the decision has to be preceded by an hour of whining about the price.
The Arizona Cardinals aren’t a joke anymore. Still, way too many sports bars have the Packers, Bears, and Vikings on and not the Cardinals.
This is it exactly for me. Whether or not you’re a tourist, if you’re in a 5000-square acre park with bicycle/walking/running/skating/dog walking/stroller pushing paths, it’s a good idea to step off the trail to look around at the scenery. Really, the trails take up a very small percentage of the park’s acreage; please leave them to people and things that are actually moving. Meanwhile you can admire the scenery from the very pleasant grassy areas.
Likewise for sidewalks - please step to the side rather than stopping abruptly in your tracks to look at the view of whatever.
I also agree with the concept of preparation. Chartering a sailboat on San Francisco Bay and showing up wearing high-heels, a tank top and carrying a purse with a small dog in it is not the best idea.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=12736551&posted=1#post12736551