The Family That Tried To Put Their Kid On A Bear, The Rock Pooper, And 24 Other Incredibly Entitled Tourists
We asked members of the BuzzFeed Community to tell us about the most entitled tourists they've ever encountered. Their responses were, of course, veryyy troubling and anger-inducing. Here are some of the worst:
Warning: Some stories contain mentions of animal cruelty.
1."I worked for the Mouse as a character, and one day, a family came up to take a picture with me. Their teen son tugged at my costume while their little girl took off the velcro portion of my 'feet' (the fur coverings are velcroed down to padded shoes). I whispered to the host that these kids need to stop it and to get them out, and the parents just laughed and laughed. They wouldn't stop. Other people came up to take pictures and they kept getting in the way, still trying to disrobe me. The final straw was when the teen son smacked my nose really hard, causing the head to come undone and turn completely around, hurting my neck in the process. They got taken to Disney 'jail' for that. The fact that they saw nothing wrong and allowed their kids to keep doing that...UGH. And many tourists did things like this A LOT."
2."A woman was annoyed that an elk standing next to the walkway wasn't in a picturesque position and she proceeded to kick the elk in the face. She was surprised and upset when the elk got (justifiably) mad and started to act aggressively toward her. 'I just wanted a picture!' she cried as the elk chased her down the boardwalk toward her car."
—Anonymous
3."When visiting the UK, we observed families spreading picnics on the stones of Stonehenge, and allowing their children to use them as play equipment! Since that time, they have installed barriers to prevent this type of idiocy."
—Anonymous
4."I worked at a cafe in Canada and an American tourist INSISTED I take his USD money because it was 'real money' and ours wasn’t. I tried to explain that I did not have to take his money because we were in Canada and asked him to please pay another way or leave, but he just wouldn’t understand."
5."I was on a Shinkansen (bullet train) between Osaka and Tokyo. I had been doing my best throughout the whole trip to be as quiet and respectful as possible because I know Japan gets some rowdy tourists and I know the reputation of Americans abroad. So, while I'm huddled in my seat, trying to make sure that my bags take up as little space as possible, a large European family got on and started doing the opposite. They took their shoes off and put their feet up on the seats. They had their seats fully reclined and were encouraging their kids to lay down, each in a different row of seats. The kids were roughhousing and climbing around. The adults were shouting loud enough that I could hear them through my headphones and over my music. And, they made a big mess with their snacks. All of this was on a fairly crowded train."
"I saw so many people come into the car, see how they were behaving, and immediately leave to find another car. Eventually, though, the train got full enough that people were having to sit in our car. Despite the crowding, did they take their feet off seats or move their luggage into the racks or ask their kids to sit up? Not even once. I was infuriated at the disrespect that they showed to their fellow passengers, but (selfishly) also really hoped that the locals didn't think they were Americans."
6."I live where Home Town on HGTV is filmed, and the amount of people who find the houses that are on the show just to walk up to their porches/doors/windows is unreal. This is not Disney. People actually live in these homes, and you looking into the windows is creepy. Not to mention, it’s trespassing. I’m glad that the small town is being revived, but tourists have zero respect for people who call it home."
7."I think the single worst thing I ever witnessed was a family attempting to place their child on a black bear for a picture. The bear wasn't happy, but thankfully didn't harm the child or foolish parents. Otherwise, the bear would be at fault and killed. If you want to visit my CO resort town, please be mindful of the wildlife. Do not harass, annoy, or approach it. Even deer and elk are dangerous. This is especially true during mating season or fawning season. Be a good observer and follow the rule of thumb: If you can't block your view of the entire animal with an outstretched thumb, you are too close."
—Anonymous
8."I worked a roller coaster at a large theme park (you know the one), and at least once a week someone tried to smuggle a baby/toddler on the ride under a jacket or even IN A BACKPACK because they didn’t believe that the ride was actually dangerous and didn’t want to have to do a rider swap."
9."I just got back from Turks and Caicos, so this is fresh in my memory. I was in an all-inclusive resort, and this couple came up to the restaurant for lunch, grabbed their own menus and silverware, went over to a table that hadn’t been cleared off yet, put their stuff down, then went over to a waiter, tapped them on the back, and told them to go clear the table so they could sit there. Mind you, there were other tables they could have sat at, but they had to have that specific table because it was a better view. Also, the woman went over to the waiters' dishwashing area and asked them if she could wash her hands there. Like, UGH. The waiters didn’t come back to serve them for several minutes, obviously."
10."My husband and I were at a resort, and a woman outside was FURIOUS that one of the workers only spoke Spanish...in the DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. She was trying to barge into the restaurant in a soaking wet bathing suit to get crackers for her bratty child who wouldn't stop screaming. She was livid that 'you spend thousands of dollars and the staff can't even speak the language.' Come on Karen, you're the one who doesn't speak the language!"
11."This happened last November at Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia, USA. In the rear garden of the Governor's Mansion there is a trellised 'tunnel' you can walk through and some benches where you can rest in the shade. There was a couple (old enough to know better) in their 20s that started carving on the historic wood. I didn't see it happening until my travel partner pointed it out. I turned to them and asked, 'Do you REALLY have to do that?!' They both jumped as if stung, turned around, and fled in the opposite direction. I couldn't believe that people still did such things."
—Anonymous
12."I went to a watershed in Metro Vancouver, which is considered one of the most beautiful places in the world. The location was a serene mountain landscape with a glass-top lake with multiple babbling brooks and rivers flowing into it. Watersheds supply drinking water, so it's very important to keep it clean. There were several signs posted saying that, as well as signs asking people not to enter the reservoir by any means. I saw a tourist take their half-empty plastic bottle and dip it elbow-deep into the water then take a sip. So entitled."
13."We were at the Pearl Harbor Memorial in Hawaii a few years ago, and it is a somber viewing experience. There was a group of 30ish women obviously on holiday together. They were very loud, and everyone noticed. We thought their loudness was disrespectful enough, but then one of them climbed up on a statue of a soldier, posed, and made a comment about finding her 'man.' They all took pictures. They obviously had no idea what the memorial meant. I think everyone there wanted to say something — I know I did — but I decided not to make a bad situation worse."
—Anonymous
14."I was on a cruise ship with my family and we were eating lunch at one of the outdoor buffets. Four women sat down at a table next to us. Their plates were loaded with burgers and fries. This cruise line includes all meals in the price of the ticket. One of the women got up, grabbed a handful of fries and started walking away. The other three got up, and the last woman to leave saw a worker clearing tables. She looked at the worker and waved her hand dismissively at all the food on the table in a 'take it away' manner and left. I saw the poor lady picking up all that food and dumping it in the trash. I was disgusted that those jerks wasted all that food without a care. So was the worker."
—Anonymous
15."I live in the Outer Banks in North Carolina. There are several incidents of tourists feeding and petting the wild horses on the 4x4 beaches. Feeding wild horses is strictly forbidden. The horses can die if you feed them apples."
16."I was working at an outdoor history center where there were a lot of wild Canadian geese on the grounds. Children were often admonished for chasing or otherwise harassing the geese, but parents mostly didn't care. One day, a boy actually killed a goose by throwing rocks at it. When the security guard found the boy's mother, all she said was, 'Well, young man, that means no soccer for you Saturday.' The guard told the mother that it was a little more serious than that, as Canadian geese are a federally protected migratory bird and the fine for killing one is $10,000, and we were obligated to report it to the government. That family's outing became a bit more expensive than they had planned."
—Anonymous
17."Some of our friends who managed tours to Mexico were sued by a guy (who willingly took a room at an oceanside condo) because he couldn't sleep due to the noise of the ocean waves! The judge threw it out because the guy had been doing this repeatedly to obtain free vacations."
—Anonymous
18."Colorado: People come here for the Fourth of July and ignore or don't pay serious attention to our fire bans. They set up campfires, set off fireworks, etc. I know people think our main weather is snow, rain, or something different one day to the next, but it's not. It's dry, there are high winds, and we deal with fire and smoke/haze pollution."
19."We were visiting a museum in northern California that featured a collection of irreplaceable Native American artifacts. The rooms were dim with special lighting, and they had signs all over forbidding the use of flash to avoid damaging to the antiquities. One guy whipped out his camera (this was back in the day when people used them) and started taking flash photos. Everyone was staring at him and pointing at the signs, and a museum employee told him that flash was strictly forbidden. 'I have to use it,' he said. 'It's automatic; I can't take photos without it.' We were just stunned that he could be so stupid and selfish at the same time. The museum employee told him to put the camera away, and he left in a huff."
—Anonymous
20."Two of my friends went to Egypt one summer and decided to visit a mosque — in vest tops and hot pants. They refused to wear the shawls they were given because 'they weren’t Muslim' and genuinely couldn’t understand why they were turned away when they wouldn’t wear them!"
21."When I was traveling in Peru, pretty much every bathroom had a sign saying to place used toilet paper into the bin and not to flush it, as the plumbing systems got blocked really easily. At a remote rest stop cafe by a small village, an American lady was loudly saying how she refused to do so with her toilet paper. Look, we've all accidentally done it while overseas (myself included), but I couldn't imagine being so arrogant as to intentionally contribute to ruining someone's plumbing and cause an overflow of waste. Don't leave your own country if you can't follow a few simple instructions that are in English as well as Spanish, with pictures!"
22."At the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, there were young tourists jumping around on the cement stones and running back and forth among the columns as if playing tag while laughing and shouting."
—Anonymous
23."My hometown has a huge music festival every year that draws upwards of 150,000 people to our town. I was working at a local restaurant and got in at 9:00 a.m. to start all the cleaning/prep-work for when we opened at 11:00 a.m. By 9:15 there were hungover festival-goers grabbing the deck chairs and dragging them around a table. Then they started banging on the door and asked for menus. I went out and informed them that we wouldn't be open until 11:00 a.m. They refused to leave/move, so I couldn't set up our patio for the day. Also, one guy tried to sneak into the restaurant through the door I had just come out of. Some of the cooks had to escort the guy out. They delayed all of our work so we couldn't even open on time."
24."While visiting Cancun, I overheard an American woman say to her friends, 'God, why does everyone speak Spanish here?' Please, just stay home."
—Anonymous
25."Someone stopped their car in the middle of the road in Yellowstone National Park in order to jump out, run to the side of the road, and attempt to take a picture of a deer. First, it's a wild animal living its life; leave it alone! Second, the person blocked all the traffic behind them. And third, since it's a wild animal, it RAN AWAY as soon as the person got even remotely close to it, meaning they didn't get their photo anyway."
26.Finally: "Poop on a rock."
😩😩😩 What's wrong with people?! Sheesh. Dare I ask, what's the most entitled thing you've ever witnessed a tourist do or say? Tell us in the comments!
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
