What is it about our fellow countrymen that irks us the most when we travel overseas? Is it the lobster-red Brits competing with the Dutch or Germans for a place right by the pool, or the stubborn Brits swearing at the Spanish waiter for not having crisped the chips enough?
According to our KAYAK study, it certainly appears that Brits are bored of Brits abroad, with nearly 9 out of 10 saying they get annoyed with fellow British holidaymakers while on holiday. We decided to find out what Brits’ biggest holiday gripes are and discovered that while some of us are trying to embrace the local culture, others are choosing to ignore it completely.
British holidaymakers’ behaviour seems to cause plenty of embarrassment with almost 60% of us finding other Brits ‘too drunk and rowdy’ and a further half saying they don’t believe local customs are being respected. Being unable to control their children annoys half of us and ‘complaining about everything’ also featured highly on the list of our greatest holiday gripes.
Other things which irritate us about our compatriots while abroad include ‘shouting when people don’t understand them’, not covering themselves up appropriately and hogging the sunbeds (ah yes, those famous towels). 7% even bemoaned Brits not wearing enough sunscreen, although we think it’s nice that you care.
Having said that: we are British through-and-through, so while we might turn up our noses at that awful stag-party hamming it up over the way, we’ll do so while tucking into a classic English meal. In fact, we enjoy our creature comforts so much that most of us continue to seek out quintessentially British food items and surrounds while we are away. A whopping 80% of us will choose a British menu rather than sample the local cuisine, with over half going for the Full-English or fast food; that figure rising to 70% for those between the ages of 25-44.
Half of us also admit that we never visit any cultural attractions while on holiday with nearly 1 in 10 people that stay in a resort never leaving at all. (That does, however, mean that half of us are visiting cultural attractions, so you can decide if this is a case of the glass being half full or empty.)
And what are our priorities when we finally get to our destination? WiFi is the answer. Over a quarter of us look to get logged on as quickly as possible so we can check-in and update our social media platforms – asap. A good portion of us also try and find that good-old-home-style British food as quickly as possible, while 20% of men, unsurprisingly, said finding the pub is priority number one.
