20+ Tourists who were unprepared for their trips: 'While traveling in Paris... Mom wanted to know why the signs weren't in English'

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Jul 13, 2025 11:00 AM EDT

There's nothing like traveling to another country to make you feel brand new again. After spending weeks planning and packing, you finally head to the airport and your worries melt away. You leave behind your job and all your responsibilities, and for a few days, you're totally free to live the good life. For some people, the dream is heading to Paris to eat croque monsieurs and snap photos under the Eiffel Tower. Others can't wait to travel to Italy and sightsee by gondola. Everyone's dream destination is different, but sometimes things don't live up to the hype. Maybe the Louvre is so crowded on the day you visit that you barely get to enjoy the Mona Lisa, or you're underwhelmed by the Italian architecture that just isn't interesting to you. Some tourists can find fault in anything, as the people below can tell you all about. 

There's a certain type of tourist who expects everyone to cater to them all the time, no matter how far from home they are. If they're in France, they still want everyone to speak English, accept US dollars, and make them exactly what food they're craving. At least some of these tourists got taught a lesson that they'll remember for next time they travel the world! 

Next, read about people who are having a rough day, like one person who "bumped into this guy who was holding 15 milkshakes." 

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  • 01

    "What's the DUMBEST thing you seen a tourist do?"

    On a late, rainy night in Venice two weeks ago, I saw a middle age American man lose his cool on a couple of Indian workers at a kebab joint. Why? Because they would not take his five dollars AMERICAN. Literally, I have never seen such a hissy fit in my life for something so completely stupid.
    via u/PhonieMcRingRing
  • 02
    On top of that, he was angered that the two workers could not give him proper directions in English. These two had hard enough time with Italian and for him to expect them to pull English out their respected makes him the dumbest tourist I have seen in a long time. Your Story?
    via u/PhonieMcRingRing
  • 03

    Come on, Mom

    notonemyself While traveling in Paris with my parents. Mom wanted to know why the signs weren't in English.
    via u/notonemyself
  • 04
    [deleted] Saw an Australian eat the plastic grass partition on a sushi tray meal on Japan Airlines.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 05
    jnjs I was at a Buddhist temple a bit off the beaten path somewhere in East Asia. At the time, there was a complex ceremony being performed at the main shrine, and my friends and I watched from a respectful distance. Suddenly, a group of tourists and their young kids arrive on the grounds. All of them
    via u/jnjs
  • 06
    are talking loudly, and the dad is lecturing from his travel guide while his kids. look bored out of their minds. The dad also has this huge SLR, and, while the monks are chanting and
    via u/jnjs
  • 07
    praying/meditating, he runs up between the statue of Buddha and the monks and starts taking pictures of them with his flash on and his loud-as-f camera. I guess he really wanted to remember his "cultural experience" with the natives.
    via u/jnjs
  • 08
    abeuscher It's not quite as "Offensive American" as a lot of these, but I grew up on Nantucket, which is a vacation resort in the states. I used to bike to remote beaches every day during the summers, and got to watch these two items occur:
    via u/abeuscher
  • 09
    1. A guy walked onto the beach with his dog and a brand new Aerobie. To the uninitiated, Aerobies are like Frisbees only they have a hole in the middle and go much farther. It says very clearly on the package, "flies up to three football fields". So the guy removed that packaging, gestured to his dog, then threw the thing straight out over the ocean. It flew about 200
    via u/abeuscher
  • 10
    yards then just sank like a stone. His dog never even moved toward the water and I, the only other person on the beach, couldn't stop laughing no matter what I did. Dude just looked all p ed and walked back off the beach.
    via u/abeuscher
  • 11
    2. A woman drove her Jeep over a sand dune and caught it on the top - so it. was see-sawing without any traction for any tires. I was alone nearby on the beach and about 11 years old at the time, so when she asked me to help I agreed but said we probably couldn't do it
    via u/abeuscher
  • 12
    alone. There was a guy swimming by, and she yelled down to him and asked him for help. He said "no - problem only I'm buck nked. If you guys don't mind, I'm happy to help" so me and the woman agreed to be cool. And that's how me and a n ked stranger helped save a damsel in distress when I was a boy.
    via u/abeuscher
  • 13
    smiggy Backpacking and passing through Rome in 2008, we randomly met up with some other like-minded travellers. One of their friends was a very loud Northern Australian girl who had a been there, done that type mentality, along with a grating self importance that could wear down even the hardiest of listeners.
    via u/smiggy
  • 14
    We spent a day walking around the old city while attempting to block out our new temporary companion's shrill voice, who insisted on squawking useless recommendations about how to spot tourist traps and how we should always travel on a strict budget. At one point she became very excited and bounded over to an alley containing some men sitting at a cardboard box while proudly stating
    via u/smiggy
  • 15
    that "here's the easiest way to double your travel budget!". She kneeled down, handed over 50 euros to the street hustler to try and pick which cup had the ball in there and lost. Undefeated, she turned around to give us a courageous wink, then put down 100 euros to the now smiling hustlers which was again instantly lost. The
    via u/smiggy
  • 16
    scam-shanty was de- constructed incredibly quickly and all the scammers left in different directions after having made an entire day's work with just one sucker. TLDR: A loud mouth backpacker lost 150 euros via the oldest scam in the book -
    via u/smiggy
  • 17
    AdShooter I was somewhere near Tatopani in Nepal, one of many small villages set in the Annapurna Mountains. It's monsoon season, not a very busy time for the tea houses that cater to the backpackers. I had become rather accustomed to the politeness of Nepali's and wasn't really missing westerners in the least bit.
    via u/AdShooter
  • 18
    As I'm sitting in one of the tea houses, a girl walks in with another female backpacker and orders a large meal. Mind you these meals are prepared immediately and too order. As the old woman who runs the tea house is cooking, she checks on the girls at the table to see if they need anything else beyond their meals. The more belligerent of the duo declares that she
    via u/AdShooter
  • 19
    wants fresh fruit... in the Himalayas, during off/monsoon season. The older Nepali women apologizes and explains that it is hard for them to have fresh fruit that time of year. Immediately, the western girl stands up, slams her hands on the table, looks at her friend and in Spanish says something and they both leave... meals unpaid for due to their unreasonable
    via u/AdShooter
  • 20
    request. The old women looked sad as she started throwing their food away... I felt bad and paid for their meals (it wasn't much... it was just the principle of seeing somebody who has very little treated so rudely). I never did see these girls on the trail again... but had I... | would have given them a piece of my mind about being a visitor in another country.
    via u/AdShooter
  • 21
    rinnieangel My friends started a "U-S-A, U-S-A" chant in a bar in Paris. I was really embarrassed!
    via u/rinnieangel
  • 22
    Cheezburger Image 10528716544
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 23
    C Maximus Ok, this wasn't first hand, but my husband (a helicopter pilot) likes to tell the story of the drunken Las Vegas tourist who took a flight with him to the Grand Canyon. They landed at the bottom of the big ditch and she asked if she could take a few rocks home as souvenirs. He said sure, and didn't think much more of it.
    via u/C*******Maximus
  • 24
    They loaded back in the helicopter, and she was in the front seat next to him. They take off, and after about twenty minutes of flying, she says "Do you want to see my rocks?" He's currently piloting a two million dollar machine at a thousand feet, but he can multitask (and he likes drink Vegas tourist tips), so he says "Sure." She reaches into her bag, a big monster
    via u/C*******Maximus
  • 25
    I'm-smuggling-a-toddler purse, and pulls out a soccer ball size chunk of stone... Which she promptly drops onto the floor, which is made of glass for optimal Grand Canyon viewing, and the rock smashes a hole into said glass, but not large enough to go through, so now it's clonking around down there, smashing into
    via u/C*******Maximus
  • 26
    delicate thingys and doo- hickies. She says, "Whoopsy" and laughs. My husband, teeth gritted, says, "Pick up your rock, right now." And she freaks out, and starts telling him he has no right to speak to her like that, and her husband/boyfriend starts yelling over the headset that they paid eight hundred dollars for this flight, and how he's going to
    via u/C*******Maximus
  • 27
    get my husband fired. Eventually, she does pick up the rock, but now she's crying, because the other passengers are yelling at her, and her mascara's running all over and she's bawling about she just "wanted a little souvenir" and then she PUKES all over, disdaining the sick-bag for the hole she's made in the glass, and the wind blows it all over her and my husband.
    via u/C*******Maximus
  • 28
    Her husband shuts up fast, and when they landed, he tips big. (I forget the amount, but it was over a hundred.) And then my husband gets to clean lobster buffet/champagne vomit out of the pedals. The woman kept the rock. TLDR: I saw a woman use the Queen of England for toilet paper.
    via u/C*******Maximus
  • 29
    alcaponeben I went to the biggest fish market in the world two months ago - The Tsukijii fish market in Japan, where they auction off bluefin tuna. Tourists are allowed to come as long as they follow their very lenient procedures - Get out out of the workers way, no flash pictures.
    via u/alcaponeben
  • 30
    So there is this big line of a couple hundred tourists that you have to get in to see the auction, and gradually the line goes into this part of the building where about 150 people can stand and watch the auction for a few minutes, then leave so that other people can come in. There was a huge group of Europeans there. There were tons of Japanese men, very politely, asking "No flash
    via u/alcaponeben
  • 31
    please! No flash please!" And they had signs hanging from their next with a picture of a flashing camera with a big X over it, signifying no flash. Well these Europeans completely ignored them, took flash pictures like crazy, thereby half-blinding the auctioneer and the people blinding the fish. You didn't even NEED flash. The room was very well lit. I took
    via u/alcaponeben
  • 32
    pictures, but no flash was necessary. Well the day after, there is a big notice on the news - The Tsukijii fish market will be closed off to tourists for the next month. F ride tourists. We should feel lucky that we were even able to watch the proceedings.
    via u/alcaponeben
  • 33
    n... OK, I deal with US tourists at my business in Vancouver all the time, and while I've met many really great USian tourists, there seems to be a large percentage who don't seem to understand that the US dollar is not legal tender here. A shockingly large percentage. Just had this yesterday:
    via u/namemanresu
  • 34
    US lady: Do you take American money? Me: Sure. I'm exchanging it at par today. US lady: Huh? Me: A US dollar is worth one dollar Canadian. US lady: ummmm, OK ... [hands me a US $100 bill for a $27.95 sale]
    via u/namemanresu
  • 35
    Me: [counting change back to her] 28, 30, 40, and 60 is 100. US lady: Oh, what do I do with this? Me: Those are Canadian dollars, that's what we use here. US lady: Don't you have American?
    via u/namemanresu
  • 36
    Me: A few odd bills, but not enough to make change for you. This is good valid legal tender and you can use it to buy things here. US lady: Oh, OK, I guess so. [walks away with her friend wondering what just happened] Something similar happens about once a week during the tourist season.
    via u/namemanresu
  • 37
    Cheezburger Image 10528716800
    via Dan Novac on Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 38
    angryboy I hate people who go to foreign countries and EXPECT the local people to be able to speak any language other than that of the country in question.
    via u/angryboy
  • 39
    [deleted] I live on the coast of a small town in California. When you look west, besides seeing buildings and such, you can clearly see the ocean. If you know where you are on any map...you KNOW it's the Pacific Ocean. However, while at work (and this has happened on many occasions) tourists, middle aged and older look at me
    via u/[deleted]
  • 40
    and ask "How do you get around that lake? I've been driving for miles, but I finally decided to stop and ask" I really didn't know what to say, other than for them to drive far up north and hope the water levels are at historic lows, so they can make their way across. Fun times.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 41
    [deleted] Not dumb, but funny. I live in the Western Cape in SA and we get a LOT of german tourists. So at one nature reserve while waiting in a queue I have a look at the guest book. Most comments are just compliments with an address, but there are also some long entries. These inevitably, are by german tourists who evaluate, note what was good, note what
    via u/[deleted]
  • 42
    was bad, explain their reasoning, back this up with data, a short summary of their travel history and the occasional diagram. And end with suggestions for improvement plus an e-mail address for queries.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 43
    So i get to the front of the queue and ask the woman behind the counter what she thinks of the guest book. 'Oh, we never read those, we just leave it for the guests to look at while in the queue".
    via u/[deleted]
  • 44
    twosteptothatyo Saw a tourist playing 3 card monte on Canal Street in New Orleans. His wife was begging him to stop as he'd lost $200 in a few minutes. She started crying b/c he would not stop playing and losing.
    via u/twosteptothatyo
  • 45

    Clueless kids

    Holzmann I saw a group of italian high school students and their chaperones sit at a Berlin subway ticket machine and try to figure out what tickets they needed to buy, mess up and hit cancel, figure out what tickets to buy, mess up, hit cancel, and do this at least 7 or 8 times. Meanwhile a long line is forming of people who just want to take 20 seconds to
    via u/Holzmann
  • 46
    buy a ticket. Both the Italian students and the chaperones were indifferent to everyone around them and just kept on doing what they were doing as if they were alone on the entire platform. Italian tourists make my blood boil in a way no other nation's tourists can.
    via u/Holzmann
  • 47
    loxias44 I was in Beijing a few weeks ago and went to the Great Wall -- stupid American tourist was at the "top" building (the section we were on only went up to 7 or so little towers, then was off limits to tourists beyond that) and decided to start racing his friend down the steps. If anyone here has ever been on the Great Wall, you know that the steps are
    via u/loxias44
  • 48
    incredibly narrow and steep in a lot of places. Well, stupid American tripped and faceplanted about 5 times in between breaking various bones on the way down to the next tower.
    via u/loxias44
  • 49
    OuchLOLcom I was on the Metro in DC, and this helpless tourist has been looking at the metro map for like 5 minutes, and is obviously flustered.
    via u/OuchLOLcom
  • 50
    I asked him what stop he was looking, and he replied "OH, Ive found my stop, but I cant find the damn "you are here" arrow ANYWHERE on this fucking map!" ... We were on a moving train.
    via u/OuchLOLcom
  • 51

    Sheesh

    KarmaKommander When a canadian ordered a cider at a pub i was in, then complained because it wasn't beer
    via u/KarmaKommander
  • 52
    shaggorama Stand on the left side of the escalator
    via u/shaggorama
  • 53
    undrew When I was in Vietnam, one of the idiots I was with commented that 'these people' (locals) were putting their children in danger by "allowing them to ride on their mopeds." The way he said it made my skin crawl. Like they just didn't give a fuck about their children's safety and left the Volvo back home in the garage.
    via u/undrew
  • 54
    r-r-roll At one point, I felt like a pretty fucking dumb tourist myself. 16 at the time, I was in a mall in China (Shanghai) with my mom and step- grandma, and we were going up all the escalators because there was somewhere we wanted to get on the top floor. One of these floors had some construction going on, I think they were renovating
    via u/r-r-roll
  • 55
    part of the floor or something - there were quite a few workers doing their jobs. Anyways, as we were walking through that floor, something behind me caught my eye and I was staring at it (I don't remember what it was now, probably just a nice jacket or something) when I tripped over something in front of me and heard the loud noise of broken glass.
    via u/r-r-roll
  • 56
    I'd stepped directly on a display case that was sitting in the middle of the walkway and smashed it. The first thing that ran through my head was, "How much will this cost me and who will I pay?" I'd frozen up, my foot still in the smashed glass display case, and I looked behind me to see a frozen audience of Chinese workers just staring at me. I think I said sorry out loud, but I was pretty well frozen
    via u/r-r-roll
  • 57
    as well. Then my mom took my arm and dragged me away, up the escalator. My step-grandma was Chinese and she told us not to worry about it - but I have regretted leaving that scene every time I've thought about it. I hope nobody got into trouble or anything.
    via u/r-r-roll
  • 58
    Zalani cleaning fish on a dock in Key West. "What kind of fish is that?", then always, "Can you eat it?" WHY WOULD I BE FILLETING IT?!?
    via u/Zalani
  • 59
    glowinglassrose I was in Italy a few years ago for work. I was traveling with four other people, none of us spoke Italian. We needed a vehicle big enough to carry five people plus a shitload of camera equipment, so we already stuck out like sore thumbs in a van that was easily 4 times bigger than most of the other cars there. We were in Rome trying to find our
    via u/glowinglassrose
  • 60
    hotel, and we didn't know what the exact address was, just that it was very near the Colosseum. The camera guy, who was driving, pulled our giant van up ON TO THE SIDE WALK in front of a pedestrian and yelled out the window at the guy "WHERE-O is the COLOSSEUM-O?"
    via u/glowinglassrose
  • 61
    That guy gave Americans a bad name all over Italy for the whole trip. Another time we were at a restaurant and he wanted a doggy bag for his left overs - so he decided to bark at the waiter.
    via u/glowinglassrose
  • 62
    Telecaster22 While working at the CN tower i was up on the observation deck. If you've never been, it's in the middle of the main pod. One floor above, one below. When I overheard this gem: "OH! I want to see the glass floor! let's go downstairs!" and the ladies husband yells at her "are you stupid!? the glass floor is upstairs!"
    via u/Telecaster22
  • 63
    Now, if you don't get it, let me explain. The glass floor is, literally, a glass floor, on the bottom level of the main pod of the CN tower. below it is a few hundred foot drop down to the entrance. this fucking idiot, went all the way up a tower, to see a glass floor that, he thought, looked down on a completely normal floor with people looking out windows.
    via u/Telecaster22

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