In my time travelling I have been fortunate enough to meet some wonderful people who I genuinely believe I will class as friends for life. I’ve harped on enough in the past about how great it is meeting new people whilst on the road and so on, but what about the negative side? You can’t get on with everyone and sadly enough from time to time, you do meet the odd person who you can’t help but think is an absolute dickhead.

Although these people are nowhere near as common as the great people you meet; they do unfortunately exist. I’ve touched on this subject previously, with my post about the worst people I’ve ever shared a dorm with. However with more travelling experience behind me I’ve met a lot more people (for better and for worse), and I think I’m now in a more qualified position to talk about the worst types of people you encounter on your travels.

The Tourist Who Hates Tourists

I do realise the irony of starting a post about nightmare tourists with this point, but I’m happy to be called a hypocrite.

Arguably the worst type of person I’ve met since I’ve been travelling. This particular person seems to live in self denial and genuinely thinks that – despite packing their life into a backpack and travelling South East Asia like thousands of other tourists – they aren’t tourists.

Yoga on a rock in the middle of nowhere – just how they like it! Photo courtesy of Business Week.

They can often be found complaining when they see another white face, moaning about how much they hate anywhere that has even so much as ever been mentioned by a tourist, and waxing lyrical about the six months they spent at a yoga retreat on a remote island off the coast of Outer Mongolia that no one has ever heard of. It goes without saying that nothing you have done will have ever come close to the “serenity” and “real life” that they experienced there.

Whether they like it or not; these people are tourists – and completely insufferable ones at that.

The Tourist Who Moans About Everyone

This particular tourist often spends a lot of time on the Islands in the South of Thailand before heading off for a working holiday in Australia. They come to Asia for a few weeks for the cheap boozy beach parties and quite rightly have a whale of a time. There’s nothing wrong with that at all and I loved my time at the Full Moon Party.

How could you complain about this?

What is irritating, however, is when said tourist gets frustrated at the Asian ways and spends their time complaining about how slow things are, how annoying the hawkers are and how the burgers in McDonald’s aren’t as good as at home. It’s like these people come to Asia expecting it to be exactly the same as home, and are sorely disappointed when it isn’t.

I once met a guy who complained that he wasn’t able to get a kebab at 3am in Luang Prabang in Laos. The same chap wouldn’t eat street food because he “didn’t want to get hepatitis”. Need I say more?

The Tourist Who Knows It All

You might as well not bother making any plans when this type of person is around, as they’ve been everywhere, seen everything and, 95% of the time, thought it was all crap.

Similar to the Tourist Who Hates Tourists, this chap will always offer you an alternative to the guidebook so that you can see the “real” *enter country name here*. More often than not, they’ll also have a good giggle and give you a patronising, discerning look when you go to and enjoy something that they’ve told you is crap.

This tourist often “has a friend” in the city that you’re in, or at the very least has visited numerous times before so is more than placed, in their mind, to tell you exactly what the score is. Tosser.

I’m getting angry just thinking about these people – rant over!

Disclaimer: Whilst I do find these people annoying, the post is ever so slightly tongue in cheek too. If you honestly feel like you fall into one of these categories – don’t be offended!

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