Brits on holiday abroad - perceptions of us

I think it totally depends on the type of holiday. If you go to Amsterdam, Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Ibiza or one of the other 'stag and hen do' hot spots you will see a fair amount of bad behaviour - what usually is seen as the 'norm' for Brit behaviour abroad. I know when I was in Amsterdam not long ago I was highly embarrased by the amount of drunken men in union jack shorts heading into the red light district.

In contrast if you go to Lake Garda, Sorrento, which are also shortish haul destinations these are much more couple or family orientated holidays, and you won't get the same beahviour. Most holidays we take are long haul now, and we have seen very little bad brit behaviour, but again I think this is the places we choose to travel rather than it being a long haul/short haul thing.

When I saw the title of this, I was just going to make the comment 'it depends' where you go: Faliraki in Rhodes would make you ashamed to be British, a place I stayed with my sister on the same island a few years back had nothing but nice things to say about the visitors there.

On the backpacking circuit, us Irish have a reputation for drinking, as the brits have for being a bit lairy, and both tend to be quite true.

From the clips I saw I'd never go on holiday to Benidorm or the like purely because of the behaviour of 'lager louts' and Brits abroad. It would be my idea of hell. I don't see the point in flying to spain to sit in a del Boy Cafe drinking pints of Tetley watching re-runs of Eastenders from 1980.

Oh it definitely depends on where you go - for instance, all the british people I have met on holiday while camping in various parts of France have been pretty respectable, but then I think that's probably quite a middle-class/middle England sort of holiday ?

I've never been to anywhere like Faliraki, Benidorm etc. (why does that sound so snobish? I don't mean it to be, I just can't seem to phrase it so it doesn't) and have only seen the stereotypical "brit abroad" on TV, where obviously the TV producers have a story they want to tell, and get the footage to illustrate it, ignoring the rest.

I did cringe the other week in Granada when a group of young girls (presumably on a Ryanair break) stumbled through one of the main squares screeching, obviously hammered. It just really isn't the done thing in Spain. That said, they weren't doing anyone any harm, just showing themselves up (though I worry a bit about their safety in that state - it would be very easy for someone to take advantage).

What does really annoy me is people in places like Turkey and Egypt wandering around half-dressed (this applies to men as well as women). It really does present a very poor image of us (and a particularly bad one of European women, which then has an impact on perceptions of me even though I dress properly) and offends the local people. That said, the Russians are worse for that than the Brits.

I think it depends on the age/demographic of the holidaymakers on the whole. I've been to Malia in Crete (thankfully only for one night) which is almost entirely populated by British teenagers on cheap package holidays and it was disgusting. I think in places like Greece/Spain/Turkey we have a deserved poor reputation, thanks to the binge drinking/full English breakfast/Turkish toyboy contingent.

But in Corfu, for example, there are resorts which mostly cater for Italians and whilst you don't get as much drinking/vomiting you do still get a lot of arrogant twattery and I have no doubt that they are just as despised by the locals as we are. ?

I agree with others - it does depend on where you go.

Last year we went on a family holiday to Turkey. We took my 17 year old SS with us, so we did all inclusive to this resort which was basically geared for him. It was massive and full of Brits. I was shocked. People were just getting drunk, loud and anti-social. There was even a huge fight at one point, and don't ask me about meal times! I could totally understand why other's have set perceptions of us, but it was only until we went on this sort of holiday that I got it!

Normally H & I book some where off the beaten track and organise everything ourselves. Thinking about it when we went to Cyprus a couple of years ago - again with SS, we went to the touristy bit and last for about 40 minutes ?

I dunno - maybe I am a holiday snob!

I agree with all this.

Ms S, on the "wandering around barely dressed" thing I've always found Italians much worse than Brits ?

Living abroad, one thing I was surprised by was how much the British reputation for football hooliganism endures.

I've also been to Benidorm and it's actually pretty staid compared to the worst of the Greek islands. It's nothing like actually being in Spain of course, but it is family oriented and most people are on the beach or eating their roast dinners ?, instead of shagging in the street like they are in Kavos etc.

I've been embarrassed by Brit behaviour. The inlaws used to have a villa in Spain at a quiet resort where there were hardly any Brits - mostly Spanish from the inland holiday there. We went there many times and hardly saw any British people the whole time there but we were not far from lots of popular resorts. One time, we decided to go to a theme park and by the end of the day I was thoroughly embarrased to be British. Despite there being signs everywhere that shirts must be worn at all times, it was only the Brit men that were going round topless. The language was awful as was the way they seemed to constantly scream at their children. At lunch, we went to a self-service restaurant and witnessed a family purposefully not paying for their food and being aggressive with the staff. There were people from many nationalities there but I felt it was the British that were the worst behaved.

I guess it does depend where you go. We went to a resort on the Costa Blanca recently (luckily was pretty far from Benidorm). Most of the holiday makers were British yet everyone seemed pleasant and I didn't see any shameful behaviour.

This has just reminded me of some women who were staying in the same Riad as us in the old town in Marrakech a couple of years ago - they had obviously done NO research about where they were going at all. As we were coming in from dinner one night about 10pm, they were just coming out, making loads of racket in really skimpy outfits, high heels etc etc. I can only assume they thought they were going to go out and paint the town red, but it was just mortifyingly inappropriate and as far as we could see, pretty much the whole city had packed up and gone home by that time. I hope they had anyway or I dread to think the responses they would have got - I got looks for having bare arms one evening and covered up pretty swiftly after that.

I've been to Benidorm with my ex's family and it was awful. We spent the whole time trekking round looking for which bar had the cheapest full English, no exaggeration. The worst holiday I've ever been on was to Tenerife, it was like a vision of hell and made most of the "Brits abroad" footage look tame ?

I'd like to optimistically believe that 99% of British travellers are respectful of where they're going and that the other 1% are on the Costas showing us up, but sadly I don't think that's true.

(ETA: that all sounds horribly snobby and it really isn't meant to be at all, it just makes me sad that people don't respect the cultures of the places they're visiting. And also a bit embarrassed ?. I know in reality most Brits are lovely when they're away but those who aren't really do make the rest of us look bad. And I also think that as flights to far flung destinations are more readily available, the sorts of places which would have escaped it - like Marrakech - are becoming another destination for "the masses" IYSWIM??)

I wondered if this was largely what the consensus would be, and agree with you all. Have been on package tours to Benidorm right the way through to Sculpture Trust trips to Italy and behaviour varied vastly, suffice to say, in the Costa del Sol type places my experience was that Brit behaviour was as described by everyone on here and a real eye opener. Completely agree with the ignorance of what to wear/disinclination to care about local culture/custom of Muslim countries and have been utterly embarrasssed to witness some of it.

I have found that I've even tried to distance myself (subconsciously)from other Brits abroad sometimes by staying quiet, behaving impeccably (I hope) and hoping I don't look British!

Even in some of the better parts of Greece and Turkey, there still seems to be a misconception that all Brits are Fools-and-Horses watching cockneys who consider a good meal to be several pints of lager and a bowl of ketchup with some chips floating in it.

? I know what you mean. I've lost count of the number of Svetlanas I've seen tottering round archaeological sites in their micro-minis and six inch heels.

G&T is very sensitive and owns a wide collection of headscarves - I remember being stopped by a couple of bank security guards in Luxor who commented on how she looked every inch the modern muslim woman.

That said, when she went out for dinner in Cairo wearing a slightly low cut dress (still v. modest by UK standards) she actually stopped traffic. ?

well, i d answer that by saying the further people go, the smaller numbers there will be, and the more expensive it is etc, thus meaning that its likely there will be less tattooed, shirt-off-lager-swilling-commoners.

Cheap holiday resorts attract cheap people imo.

I've never been to any of those "resort"-type places, and tbh I just don't get why anyone would want to. I really don't. The whole thing is a total mystery to me - I suppose because there isn't really a SAn equivalent so I haven't grown up with it.

? 'tattooed, shirt-off-lager-swilling-commoners' I couldn't agree more. Though, at the moment, our budget does not stretch to a holiday without the 'commoners'. We went to Majorca this year and there were plenty if the aforementioned but we didn't let it ruin our holiday. You don't have to join in with them, and if you are really imaginative it is pretty easy to escape them. Even on an island like Majorca.

It's also a mystery to me, but I grew up in deepest, darkest Hertfordshire (and far too close to Stevenage ?)

I think people go on these kinds of holiday because they are cheap, close, easy to arrange, non-threatening and there's usually loads of no-strings sex available. ?

? Nick's back then

My parents own a holiday house in a bit of Spain which is now entirely full of Brits. My dad calls it Essex del Mar. I think Foo is right about places like that; they're not really "foreign" but far enough away from home, and with enough sunshine and cheaper booze, for the inhibitions to go. Last time I was out there, about 4 years ago admittedly, all the women in the internet cafe were discussing how brilliant it was now they had an Avon rep so they could buy proper cosmetics. One of my parents' neighbours kindly took me to a "fabulous" restaurant, which was basically a shack in the desert which served a 3 course roast dinner, including sprouts, in August heat in Spain. With Sky sports on the TV. That level of insularity just bewilders me actually - why go and live abroad if you're determined to import Avon face cream and Heinz big soup? And it's far too cheap a shot to point out how many of them have left the UK because of all the immigrants...

Like attracts like, and thank God it does- all the people who like burning in the sun and throwing up in the street go to places full of other red-faced people throwing up in the street, which means that they don't come to the same places as normal people and spoil our holidays.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8143780.stm Did this prompt the TV story? Pleasant surprise.

I have never been on a holiday to Ibiza, Magaluf or anywhere like that - I can't imagine why anyone would want to.

I agree with Nick - the further afield you go, the more expense therefore the less people you find behaving badly!

Still don't get it. You can do all that stuff in Newcastle, ffs, minus the skin cancer. <shakeshead>

I am sat here nodding my head in agreement with all these posts. Having lived in the Caribbean and worked in the hospitality industry out there for a couple of years I can say that in my experience a majority of the English that came over were really lovely, having obviously spent a fair bit of money to get out and have their 2 week holiday. Only during rainy season, did we have problems and that was from those that had not read up about the islands and would be really mad (at me!) because it had rained every afternoon of their holiday! Unfortunately some of the worst people to serve were Americans, but that is a whole other story.

The problem is the vast majority of the English population think drinking, shouting and causing problems is normal. This can be wittnessed in any town in the UK any weekend evening. So when they go abroad they only get worse. Any area that attracts a vast majority of Brits is going to have this problem.

I don't think it necessarily correlates to cost or distance, more popularity and theme. Thus a ski resort with Brits will not be as bad as a sunny beach resort full of Brits.

Several of my parents' friends are older and wealthy and yet still behave like horrible yobs once they have a few drinks. A 50+ year old man who thinks "the dance of the flaming arseholes" (complete with flaming newspaper and dropped trousers) is appropriate on a Spanish train is just one example I could give.

I don't see much hope for the country in general, since the younger generations don't seem to have much improvement.

What nonsense.

I actually think a hell of a lot of ski resorts are as bad as sun resorts and to some extent I think its snobbery which stops people talking/ admiting/ discussing that.

I'm not sure its so connected to distance. Of course, there are less brits further away, so you loose the pack mentality... but France is close as can be and you don't get typical Benidorm behaviour there. The french would never put up with it- the Euro signs are not enough to make them tolerate this. truth told, in the beginning, they were enough for the Spanish, Greek etc to tolerate it, although I'm sure they regret it now they are more affluent in their own right (and the behaviour has arugably gotten worse)

I do agree with Stelly that you can go into Twons and Cities in the UK on a saturday night and its like a no go zone- fighting, vomiting, people falling over, snogging strangers (and more!) in fact, its all rather Gin Alley isn't it?

Holidays become one long saturday night in that respect. I would most love to see the end of 18-30s holidays and those type of resorts - places where you can buy 1 drink and get 3 free- Yes, we are all responsible for our own behaviour but when you consider the heavy marketing focused on getting plastered in these resorts, the amount of people who are employed purely to get people as blindingly drunk as they can, is it any wonder they get these results? The local governments really need to tigten their own laws. Of course, chances are Brits will find somewhere else desperate for their money who will allow them to act like ferel animals, but they will eventually run out of places. Heres hoping ?

See, this is where having two passports comes in handy ?

I agree a minority of British people behave badly (as do other nationalities) but to say that the vast majority do is just rubbish. I don't know a single person who would behave as Stelly says some of her parents' friends do, and I doubt many people on here do either.

One thing Brits do extremely well is run themselves down.

Talking of other nationalities, TBH In my experience the Germans, Swedish and Dutch are just as bad abroad.

we are great at taking rsponsibility for all these problems, and its not all our fault, nor is it anywhere near a majority of people who act like this. I really think the resorts, holiday companies and local businesses should be taking responsibility for creating this.

I like Turkey and Menorca, although we do go to places that are family orientated and not full of clubs and bars. I don't think a cheap holiday means cheap people, it just depends on where you go.

I don't think it's nonsense at all. Even if people aren't doing the drinking, shouting and mayhem, they've come to think of it as nothing unusual.

In other countries, a spectacle like you'll see in any UK town on a Saturday night would be accompanied by disgust and immediate recourse from residents and law enforcement. In England, people just shrug and go on with their lives. Part of that is because there aren't the resources to stop it, and partly because we've all become immune to it.