Have you dreamt of moving to the Big Apple your entire life? Starting each morning with a bagel in your hand and the sound of angry New Yorkers shouting at taxis and slow-walkers as you make your commute to work. Or perhaps Paris is more your speed? A buttery croissant and the scent of urine on the streets might be your preferred way of waking up. As much as we enjoy taking vacations to these popular tourist destinations, the experience of being a local is quite different than what we might imagine.
So to help visitors understand what the locals are begging them to stop doing, we’ve consulted this Reddit thread where the residents of popular getaways dished about what drives them crazy, and even reached out to the person who sparked this conversation in the first place, Winterbeers on Reddit. Below, you’ll also find interviews with travel expert and creator of the blog The Invisible Tourist , Alyse, and a representative from the sustainability organization, The World Counts . So if you’re planning your summer holiday right now to a tropical beach or a sprawling city, keep these tips in mind to avoid being angrily chased out by locals. And then if you’re looking for even more insight from residents of popular vacation spots, check out this Bored Panda piece next.
Caribbean island … people who complain that they can’t get a Heineken or a Bud Light here. People who complain that they can’t get fast food or chain food here. People who basically are angry that a tiny sland in the Caribbean isn’t just like the Houston suburbs. If you want everything you have in the US, stay the fk in the US. Also infuriating during the pandemic: “Your island requires masks and negative tests!? Well if you keep that up we will NOT be visiting and will take our money elsewhere!” Fine. Go elsewhere. We don’t want you on our island, where the entirety of our healthcare is a small clinic with five beds. Don’t threaten people with money, f***g entitled assholes.
SpicelessKimChi , Asad Photo Maldives Report
Leave. The. Wildlife. Alone. And this doesn’t just extend to tourists but to people that live here too. 45+ coyote attacks last year in no small part because of people giving them food leading to a cull, bears getting habituated to people because they’re being given food leading to them getting killed, otters and sea lions getting fed. They’re not cute cuddly things. They’re wild animals and will kill you and then, because they’re doing what they do, they’ll get killed because they’re “dangerous to humans”. When in reality they’re only dangerous to ignorant rubes with no respect for nature.
Jennyferr0412 , Becca Report
I live in Alaska. My home is a rustic log cabin build and sits about 1/2 a mile off a major hiking trail. Despite the NUMEROUS no trespassing signs and a gate, I still get tourists coming on my property and even getting so bold as to sit in my rocking chairs on my porch. My house overlooks the chugach mountains and has a great view….but that’s my view… that I pay a mortgage on.
ALASKAHAIRY , Claudette Bleijenberg Report
Clean up your fg trash. I used to live in a spring break destination which was a small surf town. After spring break, people would be cleaning up pounds upon pounds of beer cans, broken bottles, needles, used condoms…fg revolting. Edit for you nitpickers: I meant “stop throwing your garbage on the ground.” There, now get off my cheeks.
MiniatureWendigo , The Tampa Bay Estuary Program Report
There are a lot of really good points and suggestions, but people forgot to mention the most important thing. Don’t expect everything and everyone to be or behave the same as where you came from. I see so many tourists complain they can’t have this or that, how shocked and insulted they are by someone’s behavior… You came to a different country with a different culture and no you can’t have a free refill just because that’s how you do it in USA Karen.
tranc3rooney , Erik Mclean Report
Don’t fricking carve your name on stuff!!! The amount of people who need to carve their names onto historical buildings and statues are just crazy. Don’t be an a*s. You are ruining the place. And respect peoples properties. Yeah, it’s a cute street with cute houses and charming gardens. But that does NOT give you the right to enter peoples private properties to peep in their windows, walk in their gardens and try to open their doors. A colleague is selling his house because he’s tired of people peeping in their windows and trying to open their door to have a look inside. He got yelled at for beeing inappropriate while he was sunbathing in his own garden by a tourist who let themself in the gate and walked around the house to have a look at his garden.
Frequent_Artichoke , zeze57 Report
I live in Berlin and this goes for German and international tourists: please don’t run, take selfies, play hide and seek or sit on the holocaust memorial ffs.
Lenaturnsgreen , Chad Greiter Report
For your sake, STOP TRYING TO PET THE BUFFALO! Or don’t, some of us are entertained by the videos of you flying through the air.
WyoPeeps , Vincent Ledvina Report
Deciding they like it so much here that they are going to purchase our homes for over market value so they can turn them into AirBNBs. And in turn, pricing the locals out of ever owning homes in their own town.
IowaAL , Karsten Winegeart Report
Stop trying to hike up a mountain in flip-flops! Also, don’t try to use an air mattress as a mode of transport between islands. Several of these every year…
JoetheGrim , Evan Krause Report
Deface world heritage sites for souvenirs or internet clout. For example: The Colosseum in Rome has graffiti carved into it’s walls by arsehole tourists and Stone Henge is closed off to the public because arseholes were chipping pieces off for souvenirs.
Bedlamcitylimit , Faith Crabtree Report
Amsterdam. Walking around like they’re at Legoland, blindly stepping into traffic, oblivious to the fact that people actually live here. We use the bike to get to work, to get groceries, we’re not just aimlessly cycling around for the fun of it.
bidluf , Robin Ooode Report
[Bangkok - Thailand] dating and f#cking girls half or less your age. Yes, there are many, many old pervert men here.
Koetjeka , Crew Report
Stopping dead in a crowd in the middle of the sidewalk.
ScoobyJoobyDigDog , Hert Niks Report
Please visit local businesses. COVID hit them hard. I know they aren’t as big and well known as Disney and Kennedy Space Center but they have a lot of charm, too.
lilybear032 , Mike Petrucci Report
Stop buying all the houses and pushing out locals.
soulsteela , todd kent Report
Stop feeding the damn seagulls…
AlwaysPhrasing , Lucas Sankey Report
Stop disrespecting the spot you’re visiting. Every time I go to places after tourists have visited all I see is rubbish, names carved into monuments, gum stuck to the path and I especially hate it when they’re loud
Wryxon , John Seb Barber Report
Edinburgh Scotland- I do not want to hear your best attempt at imitating my accent to my face, American Tourists. The castle is on a hill in the middle of the city, if you can’t see it, turn in a circle. It’s that big thing on the hill. Walk towards it. I’m late for work, please, just read the bus timetable and don’t stop and quiz the driver of EVERY BUS “do you go to the castle?!”
Fatherchristmassdad , Marjan Blan | @marjanblan Report
I used to live and work in one of the UK’S university towns. Most of my research work was in one of the college libraries which was built in about 1580. In the summer especially we would have endless streams of tourists trooping through, shouting at the top of their voices. The library was in a private/no access zone and marked clearly with “Private - No Admittance” signs. The tourists could be quite abusive when asked to leave because they had ‘paid’ for their tour; which meant they were entitled to go anywhere they wanted, take pictures of all the students and shout to each other about how ‘old and cute’ everything looked. People live and work here you morons! Can’t you understand that? And the littering and smoking. In a library full of rare books.
AchillesNtortus , Trnava University Report
Haggle on every single item you buy. I’ve seen tourists wearing Rolex’s try haggle down a price for a painting from a street artist. Wanted to pay 2 dollars for a piece he had likely spent an hour working on. It’s f*****g embarrassing and insulting for everyone involved.
russel0406 , Andrea Natali Report
Iceland here. Stop sg absolutely everywhere. Nobody likes your fg drone. Learn to drive and do not stop in the middle of the road after a blind hill and turn off your lights to watch the northern lights in the dark. Do not park your camper vans in residential parking. Respect the landscape and for f**s sake listen to the warnings about sneaker waves in Reynisfjara. People risk their lives to save you when you can’t listen and respect nature
G3ML1NGZ , ArtHouse Studio Report
Stopping their cars in the middle of the road to take in a view. WTF?
Duality_is_my_prison , Nathan Dumlao Report
Taking pictures of locals (African)
judymaina , Annie Spratt Report
Generally being loud. A big party or multiple families just don’t care when in your favorite restaurant, park or attraction. Live in a tiny town with a resident-only beach on a lake that is very quiet. Second home owners come in and just are loud and don’t control their hoards of kids. You can just tell who is local who is not. Also airbnbs are ruining the area. People living for 30+ years in very wooded/private lots but have to hear constant partiers every summer night now. Literally is ruining peoples lives…
Shrinking_Violette , Hannah Popowski Report
Driving drunk. I live in Sonoma County, California. Make sure you’ve got a sober driver ffs. The roads around here are never more dangerous than winery tasting room closing time on a sunny weekend. Edit: So many fellow locals in this thread! Hello neighbors! Be safe out there, no matter where you are.
XinaRoo , Maxwell Ridgeway Report
Using Airbnb. I live in a tourist city which has basically been taken over by Airbnb. Rental occupancy rate is something like 0.3%. It’s a mess.
Cheduss , Stock Catalog Report
Stop walking out into the middle of an active downtown street to take group pictures of yourselves in cheerleading outfits on the spot where Kennedy was shot.
stupidlyugly , Cristina Zaragoza Report
Stop laying down next to the stars on the Hollywood walk of fame! Hollywood is filthy. Oh you laid down next to your favorite star? Congratulations. You’re now covered in homeless person p**s and jizz. You should burn those clothes.
Shotgun_Rynoplasty , Ekaterina Belinskaya Report
Forgetting that people live in the community. We had to move out of a sorta-touristy area because visitors were out of control. Endless partying at short term rentals in the neighborhood. Feeling unwelcome at our regular spots because we have (very polite) kids—the staff was always cool but out of town people always acted like how dare we bring a kid out for pancakes on a Saturday morning.
Good_parabola , cottonbro Report
I was in Belize with a few classmates last year and I asked them how they thought the locals felt about tourists being there. My classmates said they’re probably happy because we bring money with us. Five minutes later we passed a man talking with his friend, complaining that tourists only spend money at trendy places owned by people living in the US instead of spending locally. We spent the rest of the trip eating local as often as possible.
blacksheep_onfire Report
Stop being a belligerent a*****e just because you’re in “N’AWLINS.” It’s still not an excuse to get blackout drunk, litter, and make hell for food service workers.
Beign_yay , Harold Wainwright Report
Stop being stupid about hiking in the desert and getting seriously injured or dying. It doesn’t matter if it’s 75 or 115, you need to take WATER with you on ANY hike in the desert. And, no, drinking a diet Pepsi before the hike isn’t going to cut it! People severely overestimate their abilities and tolerances.
AZHawkeye Report
“I paid a lot to be here” “Change (blank) or I’ll leave a horrible review” Driving like a d**k head, leaving garbage anywhere but a rubbish bin, stopping in the middle of the road to let out your family of 12 instead of pulling into the parking lot. I have a lot of stories. I live in Hawaii and work only with tourists. Best yet, My company was asked to contact the cruise ship company to have them move the ship because it disrupted the sunset.
Ishart_thesherrif , Victor Gregory Report
I live in Phuket. We see everything here. But for sweet jesus titty fg christs fs sake: Wear at least a singlet when you go to a sit down restaurant or cafe that’s not in a direct tourism area. You have bare chested bros swagger into a cafe where Thai office workers are, guns out, pecs out, sweating, and then order their twatacinos and proceed to sit there in ball sweat talking about loud bro things. Oh, and also stop driving drunk you c*s. Yeah, that moreso.
funkidredd Report
Specifically regarding “Movie/TV Houses”. Unless the house is a museum or has tours, it’s almost certainly someone’s home. Stay off their porch, don’t walk through the yard, and STOP THROWING PIZZAS ON THE ROOF! The poor people who owned Walter White’s house had to put up a giant fence, because the dozens of signs about it were being ignored.
Jef_Wheaton , Kyle Glenn Report
Las Vegas- whether it’s your first time here, or 13th time here. A convention, a weekend getaway, a bachelor party- whatever. Remember to be a decent f*****g human being. Sin City does not mean ‘lawless city’.
Working_Station829 Report
Allowing their kids to do whatever they want. I grew up in a small tourist town that does Civil War re-enactments ( Ulysses S. Grant lived there when he won the presidency). Once a year they have a weekend where the Boy Scouts take over the town camping down by the river, taking tours of the historic buildings etc. every year most of the downtown shops will close for this weekend because of how much the Boy Scouts will steal or vandalize while there. Everyone that lives there dreads that weekend because the troop leaders just let the scouts do whatever they want.
m00mrayne Report
In my hometown, it somehow became a thing that tourists would rent mopeds. So when you are trying to get to work, you often get stuck behind a flock of tourists on mopeds, riding at 20MPH in formation so you cannot pass them. We are infested with gawking tourists moped gangs. If they want to rent mopeds, at least go the speed limit, and ride in a manner that allows others to pass you.
Panthean , ichsan wicaksono Report
I’m not from there but it would p**s me off if I was but. In Cornwall so much property is purchased by rich Londoners etc. for Holiday homes These places stay empty nearly the whole year, but I’ve heard it makes life hell for those genuinely looking to buy / sell down there, because the prices have been thrown sky high.
ForeverAddickted Report
Having spent several years as a student at an extremely touristy, photogenic university, for the love of Dog Almighty: 1. Stop taking up all the sidewalk. You’re not fg plasma, you don’t need to expand to fill all available space. 2. Sounds carries, enclosed spaces reverberate, very old buildings don’t have AC, and the raison d’etre of a library is *to be a place where people fg study*. That means when your toddler starts crying while you’re in the courtyard of the main library gawking at architecture, you’re disturbing everyone inside that building who’s trying to work. Please GTFO and give your kid a snack or a nap or whatever, rather than letting them wail for a half hour while the amplified noise comes in through the only source of cooling there is. The old dude snoring three seats down is bad enough!
tremynci Report
Please stop walking in the bike lane, like seriously. There is multiple signs, its a different color, and even a picture of a bicycle painted on the ground and yet you still stand/walk in the bike lane.
Windy_Beard Report
Oh my god stop just randomly stepping into the street, or just crossing the street without looking. I don’t know what corner of the world you are from where you can just walk out into the middle of a street and not look and just hope that people don’t completely run you over but in the middle of the city you’re going to get clobbered by a bus or a car and I’m gonna have to pick your brain bits off the ground. No don’t stand one foot into the street while you are waiting to cross. No don’t just cross because someone else did. No don’t walk along the side of the street. Don’t sit on the curb and have your feet in the road. These roads were laid out in 1682 they aren’t that wide the bus WILL KILL YOU with little to no remorse. I know that your tiny town of 17 people in the middle of Iowa that bus driver is your sister’s boyfriend’s cousin’s priest or something and you’ve known him for like 87 years and will look for you and stop his route to talk about Little Suzi and Colton but that’s not how that works here. Stay on the sidewalks. They are large and plentiful in the tourist areas.
Lyeta1_1 Report
When driving to Big Sur many people stare at the view while driving. They also camp illegally and have campfires. NO CAMPFIRES IN CALIFORNIA!
12whatnow Report
Stating in windows. I live in a UNESCO world heritage town and people seem to think the whole town is a museum. I’ve had people press their faces against our windows to look inside, or just open the gate and walk right in to my back yard.
J_J_R Report
In New York, if you visit, please walk on the right side of the side walk not the left. Also, if you need to stop and look at your phone or have a conversation with your fellow travelers, step aside. People are walking and if you abruptly stop it usually results in someone bumping into you. Also, do not walk like 5 people side by side and walking slowly. People can’t get around you. It is infuriating. But, please keep visiting NYC!
NYCstraphanger , Cem Ersozlu Report
Spain. We get a shitfuckton of tourists. Very well behaved for the most part where I am. So, thanks for doing it right, tourists. The worst is littering on the beach, which is thankfully pretty rare. I occasionally see someone put a cigarette butt in the sand. A lot are taken away when they leave, but the sand has away of hiding stuff, so a lot remain. I’ll give you tourists one tip. Night swimming. If you put your keys, glasses, etc. down in the sand, they’re gone. Between the sand and the dark, you’ll never see them again.
sbenzanzenwan , NEOSiAM 2021 Report
Stop acting like you’re discovering something for the first time, it’s literally a tourist destination. I overhear these “influencers” talking to their phone/audience about finding a “lil obscure restaurant” honey it’s literally owned by Thomas Keller? I’m from one of those super bougie, Michelin star restaurants everywhere, resort areas a lot of celebrities like to visit. Super popular wedding area, famed for the weather and scenery, compared to Europe a lot etc. Of all the tourists, the influencer tourist influx in my area is so annoying. They just stand in the sidewalks downtown and cause traffic. And it’s a location where you can drink a lot of one specific thing so they get day drunk and messy.
virgonorth , Amy Humphries Report
Acting entitled and like they own the place. Treating me and my dog like part of the attraction. Being yelled at because he’s going to the bathroom (in an appropriate spot) and it’s ruining their trip. And the other part is general littering and pissing everywhere.
Honest-Cauliflower64 Report
Committing suicide. I lived in Vegas and tourists loved to come to town to have one last desperate betting session before taking their own lives. Had a friend who worked security at one of the larger resorts. He said that it is rare that a week would go by without housekeeping finding a corpse, usually messy from their suicide. Do that at home people. Hotel workers deserve some consideration.
eric_ts Report
Smoky mountains in Tennessee, everytime tourists f**k with the bears and get their own dumb selves hurt, they gotta put the bear down. Respect the locals
SevierSnow Report
Going on the black rocks and being swept out to the Atlantic Ocean, risking the lives of first responders and locals many of whom are already traumatized from Swiss Air
bassibear , Milo McDowell Report
Not really something that effects me, but I wish I could tell all the people visiting Los Angeles to avoid spending the day at the Walk of Fame on Hollywood Blvd. It’s been built up by media, but in reality it’s a grimy dump surrounded by hellaciously overpriced novelty museums and restaurants designed to gouge your wallet. Plus it costs like $25 dollars just to park in the huge lot for the day. There’s so many better things to do in LA that don’t destroy your bank account and are actually interesting and cool.
wheresmychin , Olenka Kotyk Report
Toronto: Stop driving. Leave your car at the hotel if you drove here and just take one of the multiple transit options. You’ll probably get where you want to go much quicker if you’re doing stuff downtown. If I see one more SUV with New York plate getting stuck in the Spadina streetcar right-of-way, I’m going to lose my mind.
runtimemess Report
Getting shitfaced/ coked up and getting up in people’s business or pick fights with the doorman or bar staff. Or talk about weed and getting stoned the entire time. Or ask me where the Red Light District is while standing in the Red Light district. Or renting a bike when the last time you rode one was in preschool.
SmilingDutchman , Gio Report
New Orleans here, stop pissing and s******g on the sidewalks. Not everywhere is a trailer trash party like Bourbon St.
littlebitafraid Report
Just respect the land! Clean up after yourself. Be very careful about making and extinguishing your fires (because forest fires!). Don’t dump garbage, fuel, gray/black water in ditches. A big one in BC is for tourists to learn how to drive in mountainous areas. Most tourists drive way too slow (leading to road rage), and too many don’t know how to stay right on highways except to pass. Or pull over to let people pass you if you don’t know how to drive on twisty roads.
cabalavatar Report
I love tourists here, and it’s great to live in a city that people pay to visit (plus they basically pay my wages) but god almighty, being in a rush and trying to walk through streets of tourists is frustrating.
Razzmatazz2306 Report
From Nashville TN. Stop walking out onto the road while drunk you will get hit and you WILL die. It’s happened so much it doesn’t even make the news anymore. Also, please stop renting airbnbs in neighborhoods, or if you do please realize you are in someone’s neighborhood. Getting loud and drunk at 2am is very annoying for the neighbors who have to get up and be at work at 8am.
Alybank Report
Please don’t puke all over the streets and public transport. If you st and ps yourself less, that would be nice aswell. Greetings from munich. edit: In case you have been here and got blackout drunk on the oktoberfest, chances are, you find pictures of yourself sitting/lying in your vomit, pee or s**t somewhere around the city. Sometimes even with your genitals dangling around. Go and have a browse on http://www.muenchenkotzt.de/index2017.html, you can browse backwards through the years on the button that says “Jahre” or “Archiv”.
Wyand1337 Report
Look at me like if I am living in a third world country. I live in south Spain and the Brits look at locals like if we are 200 years behind. Another thing tourists could is stop coming here :D (joking of course)
akelge Report
Moving in and trying to change things.
AbolishTheFed1776 Report
Acting like they „own“ your country…. acting like know-it-all‘s just because they’ve read a one-pager on their way over….
MizzyvonMuffling Report
Probably won’t be something that ever stops, but: everyone coming and going at the same time. Turns traffic into a nightmare. My 20 minute commute turns into an hour on Fridays when tourists are clogging up the roads for their weekend getaways. Also, if you’re going to crowd our lanes with giant campers, please know how to drive them.
Mission-Interview-88 Report
If you are thinking about coming to Louisville for the Kentucky Derby, Stop. All the local flavor has been drained out of the event and it is irritating to have road closures and a million drunk tourists in town for a long weekend. If you want to come to Louisville to do bourbon tourism, come on down, but Derby is nothing but a money grab that creates a hassle for the locals.
spinichmonkey Report
Stop meandering on the streets like it’s a pedestrian zone. I get it. We’re a small quiet town. We still have cars. They still go on the road. Get your as on the sidewalk or to the pretty big pedestrian zone we have. On a similar note - stop f*****g driving in the pedestrian zone. I can hear your American as giving a clutch the BDSM gimp treatment in the pedestrian zone from 3 streets over. Asphalt = Road = keep your pedestrian as off it. Cobblestones = Pedestrian zone = keep your motorized as off it.
GrammatonYHWH Report
Clean up your trash cans. Throw away fishing line and chum boxes instead of throwing in ocean. Also jet skis stop burning my fishing flats.
PokemonJoseph Report
The others said the most obvious answers, but have spatial awareness and be considerate for the love of God. Don’t block an entire walkway so you can take your mediocre pictures. Don’t drive a half a mile an hour with your head out of the sunroof blocking traffic so you can look at a famous sign.
Caboose848 Report
Driving like idiots
phadrus56 Report
Most Minnesotans cannot stand the Mall of America. It’s because tourists I swear have to link arms, walk slowly, and seemingly stop and point and talk about every gd window they pass. Have you people never been to a mall before? Get over yourself Also, not just MOA, but all malls, do we really need multiple Dairy Queen’s? God forbid we walk another 30ft for our ice cream cone
natedono1 Report
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