25 Of The Most Clueless Things Tourists Have Said About Someone’s Country

Going on holiday is an option for anyone who has the means and the will. But as one clever commenter noted, “No matter how lightly anyone packs for a trip, they still bring all their stupid”.

#1 Holy s**t I live in Hawaii and one time a tourist asked about turning the waterfalls off to clean them. I wish I was making this up.

Image source: Shoddy_Bus4679, Nick English

#2 There were a couple of tourists who decided that it would be a good idea to stand directly in the path of the Queen’s guard to take a selfie with them. Those guys don’t stop for anyone, they will walk through you if they have to.

Image source: FiercelyDidactic, Lorena Kelly

I’ve seen so many videos of it happening online but I never thought I’d get to see it with my own eyes. Man, the look on their faces when they got yelled at to move out the way… it was like a weird mixture of terror and offence. Like they completely expected them to stop and pose or something.

It always baffles me that people seem to forget that they are actual soldiers and not just some guys playing dress up for the sake of tourists.

#3 Had a dude come up here to Canada. We are talking business and what not then he says “too bad you guys are completely communist now.” Like dude, I don’t think you even know what that means.

Image source: pigonthewing, Andre Furtado

#4 Was asked if we had electricity.

Image source: Hot-Blueberry7888, Pok Rie

Was told we don’t have central heating in our houses.

Was told ‘i just love your queen’.

I’m Irish.

#5 Am Australian asked me when the igloos would go up and did we have move our work and school into them every year? while in Vancouver, BC, a location in Canada with similar weather to Seattle.  Edit: she was very serious, she was a young teen from a small town, visiting on a school trip. Aside from whatever airport she left from, Vancouver was one of her first visits to a city.

Image source: foxtongue, Kamil Pitonak

Bonus: An American asked me, while I was in the States, if I was impressed by the bridges. I was not in a place with any famous bridges, I was in Idaho, so I asked him why he asked. Because Canada doesn’t have any, he replied, in a This Is So Obvious Voice. Baffled, I prodded him to continue. He believed that because Canada was frozen, everyone just drove over the perpetually frozen rivers. .

#6 An American couple on holiday in the same hotel as my mum told her they’d visited England and seen the Eifel tower.

Image source: Ravnak, Chait Goli

She told them that was in France, and they condescending said “no ma’am, its in London.”

She agreed it must be and walked off.

#7 In Thailand, berating locals for eating Italian food because Thai food is “so tasty”. B***h, Thai people eat Thai food every day. Going out for Italian is like you going out for Thai food in your home country.

Image source: whatdoihia, ABHISHEK HAJARE

#8 This is coming from the other side, but I’m from the US and had someone come back from a trip to Italy saying “Italians are stupid. I don’t know what’s wrong with them, but they don’t know how to talk”

Image source: Unkindlake, ABNER LOBO

The way she said it made me think she didn’t even know that other languages exist, and so many Italians speak English my first thought was that nobody wanted to talk to her rather than no one spoke English.

#9 “I’ve been here three days and I haven’t heard the British accent yet” Yeah… That’s because you’ve heard *several.* We are a multitude of accents and dialects, like every other country. There is no *one* ‘British accent’ ?.

Image source: EnigmaMissing, Pixabay

#10 When my British friend said he didn’t want to visit me in Seattle unless he also had time to visit New York. Had to explain to him that’s like saying you can’t visit Dublin if you can’t also make time for Istanbul.

Image source: d_gorder, Josh Fields

#11 That Norway is the capitol of Sweden.

Image source: Past_Echidna_9097, Raphael Andres

#12 It wasn’t about the country exactly but I was working in a hotel reception in a Mexican beach and an American women told me that the water of the sea was very hot, if I could do something, I thought OK maybe I didn’t understand correctly can you speak slower and she repeat the same question. Of course I did a Mayan dance and the water was colder afterwards.

Image source: pellojo, Aviv Perets

#13 “Everyone here speaks such good English!” *In London*. Also – I’ve been asked repeatedly what my plans for thanksgiving are.

Image source: ExpectedBehaviour, George Milton

#14 I’ve heard multiple tourists plan to take “day trips” to places in the US that are on the other side of the country.

Image source: gayscout, Dino Reichmuth

I also watched some Asian tourists try and get a selfie with a black man, who was just trying to ride the subway in peace. He looked so uncomfortable.

#15 I was talking to a lady in a bar in NYC once and told her I grew up in Malaysia and she genuinely asked me “Do you guys use money there or trade stuff?”.

Image source: HiThisIsMichael, Pixabay

#16 Where do you keep the vikings? An American tourist visiting Denmark… left him very confused and a little dissapointed by telling him the truth about Vikings and that we did in fact not have resevations or anything.

Image source: hyllested, Pixabay

#17 “If it wasn’t for us, you’d be speaking German” -Some stupid yank, in Germany.

Image source: Legal-Software, Maheshkumar Painam

#18 “So, I’ll be able to make it to New York in a few hours from here.”

Image source: Madame_Kitsune98, Luca Bravo

Ma’am. You are in Southern California. You’re talking about driving to New York. That is the complete opposite side of the country, and it is a long way from here. You have no concept of the scale of this country. You’re gonna be really upset when it takes you a good six hours to get across Riverside County, let alone the other five days, maybe six or seven, to drive to New York.

No, you cannot get to New York in a few hours without flying.

#19 Both of these overheard in a souvenir shop in Amsterdam:

Image source: ConstableBlimeyChips, Pixabay

Cashier: That’ll be 30 euros, please.
American tourist: What’s that in real money?

(Different) American tourist: What do you mean you don’t accept dollars?

And not really something anyone has said, but still worth mentioning; apparently some Americans don’t realize they can’t just take their firearms with them to Europe.

#20 Just yesterday: “I don’t want to follow Italy’s traffic laws. What’s the best way to get away with driving a vehicle I’m not licenced to drive?”

Image source: RomeVacationTips, Olga Vunder

More funny than offensive:

“Where’s the Parthenon?”

About 800 miles that way.

#21 “We’re here for a week, so we thought we’d drive out to the Grand Canyon, stop in Vegas, and then see the Golden Gate Bridge.” They landed on the east coast.

Image source: Lugbor, Pixabay

#22 Heard an american couple behind me be completely outraged that the italian restaurant we were in would not accept them to pay in dollars. “Wait … you don’t take … AMERICAN dollars???” with a huge emphasis on “american”. It was pretty funny how dumb those people were.

Image source: FrenchManc, Viacheslav Bublyk

#23 When I was bartending in college I had an American woman insist Iceland was so safe because everyone was carrying a gun at all times, like she didn’t just say it once, she kept contradicting and arguing with me after I told her Iceland has insanely strict gun laws compared to the USA and definitely does not allow everyone to open/conceal carry.

Image source: picnic-boy, ArtHouse Studio

#24 I love this part of England. While in a store in Edinburgh. Edinburgh the Scottish capital.

Image source: ascotindenmark, Lewis Ashton

#25 I overheard an American woman saying that she was surprised at how well us Australians spoke American, although the accent made it a little hard to understand.

Image source: tahsii, S O C I A L . C U T