If you are going to go abroad try to broaden your horizons. Check out some local restaurants and local food. Don’t just order ‘egg and chips’ or ‘bangers and mash’.

LIVE A LITTLE, you traveled all that way, emerse yourself in the culture and enjoy it

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That’s the trouble with abroad. It’s full of foreigners.

Don’t worry about the language. If you speak s l o w l e y and LOUDLY the foreigner will understand you.

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“I struggle to understand why holidaymakers would want to go abroad, and have breakfast, lunch and dinner in an English pub, eating English food, watching English sports, and drinking English beer. They make no attempt to speak the basics of the local language and expect everyone to speak English.”

Because the beer is cheaper and the weather is better!

I think the mentality your talking about is inbred in us from the days when we had an Empire and ruled the world. We think we are superior to everyone else.

I have to admit that sometimes I’m embarrassed to be British when traveling abroad, especially in Europe

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As a Yank, I won’t comment on British holidaymakers. I’ll leave that in-family.

I do, however, wish passports would be re-fitted for wallet or money-belt use. They often fit in the latter, but that makes its size a bit big for under the clothing. The States just implemented a passport card (size of a credit card) for travel to Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean. I’d love to see that implemented worldwide. It would take time, but electronic stamps are possible with today’s techology. I’d also combine the driver’s license (making it international) and passport into one card.

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My pet hate is being around holiday makers who have very little regard for the local people that work in the resorts, local bars or restaurants. It is true that most Brits do not tip and I find this frustrating, more so in countries where an employees annual income may be less than the cost of the holiday we’ve paid. If you can’t afford a tip, or can’t speak the local language, why not smile and show some appreciation, this universal language goes a long way, it may not always be required, but give it a go.

I think the younger generation are more open to new experiences and book their travel with a different mind set to the “brits abroad” places that you talk about Darren.

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Brits Abroad, Did anyone recently see the Top Geat highlights. England V Germany where they had Three German Presenters against our Intrepid Three (Clarkson,May and The Hamster + The Stig)? Our Intrepid Three arrived at The Race Circuit in Spitfires (Or Similar) and the Last Race involved driving Over The Finish line and then racing to put Sun Towels on Sunbeds!! The Germans Won of Course( Or were allowed to to proove a point

Actually It’s The Brits that are the worst for this, Towels down by 6 in the Morning, Off to Breakfast and then not seen till 11.00a.m

Gennaro Highlights an interesting Point, Slightly off Topic, I miss My Stamps in a Passport When travelling,Electronic Stamps would be brilliant, you could download them to a Scrapbook, Facebook etc. Great Idea.

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In France, the only people who do tip are the foreigners. The French rarely tip in restaurants, and none of my local restos can believe it when they get tips, especially the generous ones left by most Brits.

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Brits abroad are actually very friendly and happily enjoying a pint. I never have a problem with them. As I am an American, I know how the world describes us in foreign lands. Much worse than Brits. The Irish, Scots, and Brits all know how to have a good time. Sometimes it can get out of hand, but they are on vacation. Let them embarrass themselves if they must.
Katie

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As a Brit living abroad, the thing I notice most is how much Brits moan about things. Even when they are having a really really good time. It’s not in a mean way; it’s in a mild “we really do it better” superior way. But at least the Brits do travel abroad.

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I think everyone has pet hates about there own countrymen. As a Brit married to an American we both cringe at our own fellow nationals.

We have both said at sometime “it makes me ashamed to be……..”

“The British seem to think they still have an empire and the Americans just have to realize that they do not” to quote a friend of mine.

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Oh come on, most young Brits are not even aware that we had the greatest empire on earth! That’s got nothing to do with anything!

Germans and Dutch are just as bad as well, its not just Brits!

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…and not to mention American tourists who are even worse for shouting English!

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I think it’s a bit off to tar just the working class with the ‘British Bastard Abroard’ brush. I’m a middle class professional and I went to Greece once and behaved no better than an ape. When I wasn’t roaring drunk, fighting, or chasing foreign skirt, I was arrogantly shouting orders at waiters and other service-industry types in a language they didn’t understand. The behaviour of myself and my companions (all middle class professionals, including two doctors) would have been familiar to Attila the Hun and his chums. We were swines.

Why this is, I’m not sure. Perhaps it’s the British tradition of nipping over the channel to teach the frogs a lesson. Perhaps it’s an ingrained swagger we’ve had since knocking Jerry to the canvas, not once, but twice in the last century. Maybe the British – the largest, most developed, most powerful nation the world had ever seen until our SAVING EUROPE FROM THE GRINDING JACKBOOT OF NAZI IMPERIALISM practically bankrupted our nation (and for which, surprise surprise, we received very little help to rebuild and very little gratitude for our coming to Europe’s aid) – have an arrogance born from the fact that our European neighbours have been unable to successfully take a swipe at us in nearly a thousand years. When you’ve pernicious Catholic nations on all sides, determined to bring your little island back to the fold of nonsense papist control (as happened through a large part of British history), and you’re too weak to ever do it, it’s not unsurprising that a British arrogance towards our neighbours develops.

Maybe if we hadn’t been this way, maybe if our inbuilt sense of our own importance had never developed, maybe if our natural propensity for drinking and brawling and defying nations larger than ourselves had never arisen, then bulldogs like Elizabeth I, Wellington, Nelson, and Churchill would never have existed. When you consider the implications of that – no one to defy the might and brutal supremacy of the Spanish Empire, no one to stand up to the vicious barbarity of Napoleon’s forces, no one to turn round to Hitler and his pack of bullying jackals and say ‘enough is enough’ – then a couple of upturned tables and the odd bit of vomit on an island in the Mediterranean isn’t much to put up with.

It annoys me to the point of foaming rage to hear a Frenchman, or a Belgian, or a German complaining about the behaviour of our citizens on holiday. Let’s not forget that sixty years ago, Germany and Italy (and their allies) tore through the continent on a wave of murderous violence and destruction the like of which the world had never seen. When Britain refused to allow this strangulation to take place on its watch, they bombed our cities (some of the most beautiful in Europe) until they were nothing but piles of smoking rubble. What did we do? We took it on the chin and kept on fighting a war machine that was massively superior to our own. With the help of our allies, especially the Americans (want to know why we have a love of the USA in Britain? World War II, that’s why), we rescued Europe from a fate worse than death. We rescued France and Belgium and Holland and the rest from evil slavery, and how are we rewarded? We’re treated like dirt by the very nations we destroyed our own country to protect. Thanks, very nice of you … cheers for that.

Complain away, by all means, about a few rogue bully-boys having fun on their two weeks off. But remember, while you’re moaning, that if it wasn’t for the little island that sits on the left of your continent, you’d have been well and truly screwed. There wouldn’t be a Belgium, a France, a Holland – there’d be the Greater German Empire for you all to enjoy. You wouldn’t be reading this, of course, because you wouldn’t be allowed to. In fact, you wouldn’t be allowed to do much of the things you Europeans arrogantly think you’re superior at doing. You’d do as you were told … which sounds fun, doesn’t it?

Is that a better prospect for you than a fat bloke throwing up in Falariki?

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I’m not saying us Brits are perfect, far from it.

Even in our own country, I feel embarrassed by the amount of ‘chavy’ youths that has become quite the norm.

However no European country can really judge us for our behaviour.

Sure we get drunk abroad and maybe our behaviour is a little naughty, but we haven’t attempted to take over all of our European neighbours, we haven’t committed genocide and ethnic cleansing against our neighbours and certainly Europeans didn’t mind us when we bailed most of Europe out of world war I and II, yet as stated by another user…we got little to no appreciation for this.

Another thing, how dare people judge us when it’s the foreign bar staff that are dragging us off the street into these bars and literally pouring spirits down our throats( Yes okay we don’t need to go along with it, but why shouldn’t we let our hair down).

Like I said we are not perfect AT ALL, but I know the places in Europe that British go to and go wild.

I agree that we should conduct ourselves better, it is unattractive to see Brits roaring and shouting in bars and throwing up at the end of the night but if you don’t like how the Brits behave then don’t go to places like Benidorm and Magaluf, the resorts and club and bar owners have created that kind of holiday not us.

Also alot of Brits try to use foreign languages abroad but to be honest sometimes this can only confuse things and we dont really get much thanks for trying to speak the language.
English is a MAJOR language in the world and chances are the Greek waiter your ordering from , knows alot more English that we do Greek….so therefore only a please and thank you is usually necessary and I know that ALOT of brits are only to happy to do this.

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