My least favorite tourists are those East Asians that have no cultural idea of personal space. Maybe Chinese? For instance if you are in a cable car lift with them and in a prime spot they will come right up and stand RIGHT next to you or even try to slide by you to take your spot. I have to assume this lack of personal bubble is a cultural issue as it is seriously one of the rudest things.

Oh - and Indians. They seem to not believe in lines even when they are literally in a line (eg airport).

I live in Lucerne, a very touristy city, and here is my list of the most unpopular tourists:
1. Arabs (they ignore driving bans and all traffic rules with their rental cars anyway and are very unfriendly to every woman they have to interact).
2. Indians (mostly rich and think everybody they meet is their servant, also very loud and messy)
3. Chinese (they will overrun you with their whole gruop if you happen to be near them).
Americans are not on my list.

Oh come on people - Americans are total snobs! We are one of the most rich and uneducated cultures in the world. Why would we make good tourists? I've also been everywhere and suggest that, there's good and bad folks from every country. It's not the nationality but the person. However, from a statistical, cultural, analytical perspective, when you have so many uneducated Americans abroad, yeah, we're pretty bad!

On a recent trip to Paris, three American woman stepped into the hotel elevator on my way down to the lobby. An older woman who was likely the mom of two adult daughters. One of the adult daughters proceeds to go on a vent about how the food in France sucks and she needs to find American food. Her exact words were, “I’m not eating anymore of this French crap.”

The kicker was that she complained about a couscous meal the night before.

It astonishes me that this woman probably acts so worldly when she returns to her small town but she wouldn’t know culture or class if it bit her on the a$$. She did not care that she was in the lift with a complete stranger who might have been French, listening to her trash a country where she is a guest. I read about people like this but seeing it in action was really disappointing.

Anonymous wrote:We were in Paris recently and have traveled to London in the past year or so, and didn't notice any obnoxious American tourists. Just A LOT of a tourists in both cities.

15+ years ago we were at the Tower of London, inside the White Tower building. A group of southerners (we could tell by their accent) were complaining at the top of their lungs: God damn this place has too many stairs! Why are there so many stairs? More stairs? Jesus! My H and I laughed...yeah, you're visiting a building built in 1100.

I laughed when I read your post because I could easily envision what you saw. Good natured complaining is a very Southern thing to do, commonplace and in jest and no one takes it personally. It's like sitting on the porch and fanning yourself and complaining about the humidity to your best friend.

I lived abroad for years and have been an intrepid traveler and Americans are far from the worst tourists. If anything I'd rank Americans as among the better behaved tourists as nationalities go.

One of the great things about globalization is that American tourists are no longer the bad ones. I mean have you been on a Ryanair flight with British tourists to anyplace where the sun shows itself? Or seen Australians in Bali? Or Chinese tour groups anywhere, which might only be made worse by Indian tour groups. My own personal antagonism is toward people from Latin countries - all of them. Whether Italians or Spaniards or Brazilians. Why do you even leave your country? They're just dawdling and being clueless in a different piece of geography. And don't even get me started on Israelis. Why do you even bother to travel since you are going to spend the entire time yelling among yourselves?

Americans at least have a purity of intent.

Anonymous wrote:America tourists are as bad as Chinese tourists. That’s saying a lot.

American are rude or are ignorant of local culture or norms. But they are no where near as bad as Chinese especially in Southeast Asia. Chinese tourists behave like they own the place and treat locals servants. Chinese tourist overcompensate for historical poverty by making sure the locals know how rich they are. They only think about themselves. They are like locust and will decimate everywhere they visit.

We were in Paris recently and have traveled to London in the past year or so, and didn't notice any obnoxious American tourists. Just A LOT of a tourists in both cities.

15+ years ago we were at the Tower of London, inside the White Tower building. A group of southerners (we could tell by their accent) were complaining at the top of their lungs: God damn this place has too many stairs! Why are there so many stairs? More stairs? Jesus! My H and I laughed...yeah, you're visiting a building built in 1100.

I think most tourists behave decently in Europe (except for a few locations that cater to drunk Northern Europeans). It’s really more the amount of people that descend on popular locations each year that ruins it for the locals and other travellers. Santorini being a good example, but there are dozens if not hundred of places that get mobbed. So really, it’s never just one group of people that ruins it, it’s the totality that destroys places.

America tourists are as bad as Chinese tourists. That’s saying a lot.

I have lived in Europe and travel there frequently. Americans are not (typically) the loudest or rudest, by far.

Americans are used to customer service and IMO, that is not always found in Europe.

Anonymous wrote:I'll take young Brits over arrogant rude Russians any day.

But how about those Dutch, can we all agree they are the worst? j/k! Stereotyping is kinds silly even though there are definitely underlying reasons.

Dutch people are blunt but not rude. Russians are the smelliest. Brits are the loudest. Americans are the fattest and most likely to only go where Rick Steves has approved so pretty easy to avoid.

Well, the Americans running the country now hate me too so I might as well be on vacation.

Anonymous wrote:People all over the world already have negative feelings towards the US. Americans behaving badly abroad is making the sentiment worse. DC was in Europe over spring break and saw some American teens being super obnoxious. We seem to export some "not our best people".

https://www.yahoo.com/news/american-tourist-climbs-over-fence-055248475.html

That's nothing. Have you ever seen British tourists? Or Japanese tourists? Or CHINESE tourists? Yikes.