Too many darn tourists

Packerjohn

Packerjohn

Packerjohn
Location
Canada
Have you read some of the news stories about local people in some "hot" tourist places just fed up the the tourists? I am talking about Venice, Barcelona, Cornwall, England & Amsterdam just to name 4 places.

Venice has cruise ships coming in & when the tourists land there is just no room to walk.

Barcelona has had protest marches by the locals to keep the tourists out.

Cornwall, England is thinking about a tourist tax. Amsterdam has about 18 millions tourists each year & the locals are not happy.

Seems that only hotels & restaurant owners are happy. The streets are crowded, the beaches are running out of room & there are line ups everywhere.

We were in Italy a few years ago in May hoping to "beat the rush". Not a chance. Lineups everywhere. Does such news make you want to stay home or at least keep away from these tourists "hot spots"?

I have seen some of the modern cruise ships in place such as Puerto Vallarta & Sydney, Nova Scotia. They scare me. They are 10 stories high & the length of 2 city blocks. They seem like cities floating on the water. I often wonder about the waste & sewage from these ships carrying over 7,000 passengers.

What in the world is happening? Doesn't anyone work anymore?
 

I luv the cruise ships and have been on several. They seem to have solved most of the problems of which you speak.

It's a wonderful break for most folks no matter what age. Some cities and/or towns WELCOME the ships AND the passengers

with open arms.
 
I know what you mean Packerjohn... London is a nightmare, trying to get to work is horrendous...all year round!!


We bought a house on a gated community abroad...never occurred to us that half the owners would rent their homes out to visitors..so while we lived there full time, the constant rumbling of suitcases being hauled by strangers and their kids coming through our private gates, got to be very irritating .

Our fault for not doing our homework properly obviously... because we too are tourists in other countries..and yes we've noticed particularly over the last few years that everywhere just seems to be a lot more crowded than ever before!!

BTW Cornwall ( only one of many holiday spots in the UK) ..would have a flaming nerve charging a tourist tax..it's almost as expensive as London to take a holiday there...with much less amenities!!
 

Well FINALLY I'm making the world a better place....I've never been to Europe and have no plans to go :D. I've never been on a big cruise ship either but I've been to many of the Caribbean islands, by plane. I felt that I wasn't welcomed there but my money was.

One time, I spent a week with my children in St. Thomas and I thought it would be fun for my children and I to to experience the culture so instead of getting a taxi from our hotel to the shopping area, we boarded one of those cute little local open-air roof-topped buses (no windows). There were two seats where a local was sitting in the middle. I asked politely if she would mind moving over so I could sit there but she ignored me. She wouldn't even look at me so I stood the whole way.

The next day we called for a taxi and I shared my experience with the driver. He said, "That's because the locals want you to spend your money on taxis. I was shocked that he was so blatantly honest and shocked at the lack of humanity.

I also noticed the locals were so friendly down at the harbor marketplace where the cruise ships come in but inland not so much.
 
Maybe tourists are flocking to holiday destinations before terrorism gets worse.

Or maybe it's the baby boomer population having retired with money to spend and time to spend it.

Or maybe it's social media and everyone taking travel pics with their iPhones that's making them all want to travel to get their selfies.
 
Apparently foreign visitors have discovered that they can rent RVs in the USA and see the national parks and other attractions. Many complaints on the RVing forums about all the prime camping spots being taken by the vacation rentals and all the national parks/forests being overrun by foreign tourists. So it sounds like a better economy is allowing people to travel.
 
Luckily, I spent almost 4 years in Europe, while in the USAF, from 1961 to 1965. I learned to speak German, and traveled extensively all over Europe. Back then, it was quite nice, and not crowded with tourists. Now, that is history. We flew over there about 7 years ago, when my wife's mother passed away, and it was a far different Germany than I saw decades earlier.

Anymore, we just limit our "travels" to our local area...visiting the kids and casinos, and about once a year we go to Las Vegas....at least that city is well equipped to handle massive numbers of tourists.
 
It will never happen, but I've always yearned to visit Europe, not just for a week but at least a month or maybe two. That ship sailed some time ago and maybe it's for the best. I couldn't take crowds and standing in line now.
 
Hey, I spend eight months of the year in the Orlando Florida area. Talk about tourists? We have tourists. Lots and lots of tourists.

The rest of the time, I'm in the North Carolina mountains, where all you see are us Floridians trying to get away from the tourists, but becoming tourists ourselves. Oh, the irony......
 
Where I live in the middle of the country, all the people we know are all going to British Columbia this summer regardless of the fires there. I am so glad that I am going to Quebec the opposite direction. Don't like to follow the lemmings & the "Me Toos".
 
Packerjohn said:
Where I live in the middle of the country, all the people we know are all going to British Columbia this summer regardless of the fires there. I am so glad that I am going to Quebec the opposite direction. Don't like to follow the lemmings & the "Me Toos".
Click to expand...

I have never been to the western provinces though I'd love to do so someday. I love the Maritimes, however.
 
Right now we are staying in The Plateau area of Montreal. This is a Air BnB place & we enjoy the beautiful park next door called "Laurier Park". No tourists here which is fine with me. However, down in the old part of Montreal at Place D'Armes, it is a real zoo. Thousands of tourists lined up to get into the Basilicia Nortre Dame. Many tour groups from China & many seniors following a tour guide with a flag. We have found very few tourists our age traveling independently. We wonder why?
 
I get a kick out of this.

Complaints about tourists and every website and newspapers are offering deals and inviting them.

i told my friend I would love to go to Italy to see the Roman ruins.

He said save money. Take off your clothes and stand in front of a mirror.

I didn't have a comeback.
 
Keesha said:
:shussh: Not many tourists because people don’t realize just how lovely Canada is.
Lets keep it that way:hide: lol
Click to expand...

LOL...I think people realise Canada is beautiful, but they just don't want to have to travel for hundreds of miles between each beautiful site...especially in the snow...:rofl:..both my husband and Daughter have visited Canada on many occasions..one spent a lot of time in Lake Louise, while conversely the other in the cities.. WE also have relatives in Toronto
 
Keesha said:
:shussh: Not many tourists because people don’t realize just how lovely Canada is. Lets keep it that way:hide: lol
Click to expand...

There is a "triangle" in Western Canada....stretching from Jasper, Alberta, West to Kamloops, and back SE to Banff, that has some of the most spectacular mountain scenery in the world. Halfway between Banff and Jasper is the Columbia Ice Field, where tourists can go onto the glacier. If I were filthy rich, I would have a Summer home in Kenora, Ontario, or Edmonton Alberta, and a Winter home in Las Vegas.
 
Packerjohn said:
Have you read some of the news stories about local people in some "hot" tourist places just fed up the the tourists? I am talking about Venice, Barcelona, Cornwall, England & Amsterdam just to name 4 places.

Venice has cruise ships coming in & when the tourists land there is just no room to walk.

Barcelona has had protest marches by the locals to keep the tourists out.

Cornwall, England is thinking about a tourist tax. Amsterdam has about 18 millions tourists each year & the locals are not happy.

Seems that only hotels & restaurant owners are happy. The streets are crowded, the beaches are running out of room & there are line ups everywhere.

We were in Italy a few years ago in May hoping to "beat the rush". Not a chance. Lineups everywhere. Does such news make you want to stay home or at least keep away from these tourists "hot spots"?

I have seen some of the modern cruise ships in place such as Puerto Vallarta & Sydney, Nova Scotia. They scare me. They are 10 stories high & the length of 2 city blocks. They seem like cities floating on the water. I often wonder about the waste & sewage from these ships carrying over 7,000 passengers.

What in the world is happening? Doesn't anyone work anymore?
Click to expand...


Peple like to travel year round. Believe me; I am very sure about this. As a pilot for 34 years, I can tell you that my planes were probably averaging about 90% full overall. So, you take a B-767 that seats close to 300, well, you do the math.

And, BTW, you are a traveler yourself. You think people are going to stay home so that you may be able to travel in peace? It’s actually getting worse as airlines are adding planes to their livery, so that they may carry even more tourists and business passengers. The problem that airlines are now facing is getting more qualified pilots. In the next 10 years more than 25% of pilots today will be retired while the airlines are now looking for an additional 20,000 “experienced” pilots.

Airports are busting at the seams so much that many are in expansion programs. Some are even building new airports and from my viewpoint, there are many airports that should be replaced due to old technology and that too darn small. Additionally, Air Traffic Controllers are in demand. Next to having experienced pilots, having ATC’s is probably just as important. I was always able to tell when I had a newbie guiding me in or taking me out.

You may as well capitulate to the idea that over-crowding at the more popular tourist sites are only going to get worse. Heck, according to Condé Nast Traveler, thousands are traveling to even the less popular travel sites. I logged over 10,000,000miles in the air. I enjoy being home, but my wife wants to travel. Thank goodness we get free air travel.
 
hollydolly said:
LOL...I think people realise Canada is beautiful, but they just don't want to have to travel for hundreds of miles between each beautiful site...especially in the snow...:rofl:..both my husband and Daughter have visited Canada on many occasions..one spent a lot of time in Lake Louise, while conversely the other in the cities.. WE also have relatives in Toronto
Click to expand...

Don M. said:
There is a "triangle" in Western Canada....stretching from Jasper, Alberta, West to Kamloops, and back SE to Banff, that has some of the most spectacular mountain scenery in the world. Halfway between Banff and Jasper is the Columbia Ice Field, where tourists can go onto the glacier. If I were filthy rich, I would have a Summer home in Kenora, Ontario, or Edmonton Alberta, and a Winter home in Las Vegas.
Click to expand...

Well this is true hollydolly BUT some of the traveling routes are breathtakingly beautiful. You see all kinds of bears, rams , mountains with mountain goats. The Banff springs are amazing.
Yeah ok. We have a very spacious country but there are worse things to have like lots of snow :lofl:
Ok! OK! Check.
 
I haven't been out of the country but even smaller attractions in the US can become over crowded. This past June my daughter and I traveled up through the New England states. We stopped at Bar Harbor Maine. It was wall to wall people. We just got pushed along on the sidewalks. It took us about an hour in traffic to get out of there. Also stopped at a national park. Some of the side parking lots were filled to capacity just to view the scenery and that was in June. I can only imagine what the rest of the summer was like. Of course the two of us were part of the problem.We all want to be the only ones enjoying the sights and in this day and age it just can't be.
 
I'm glad I traveled the world as a young guy and saw what I wanted to see, except for a very few spots I had on my list. Even then, the places I went to were hardly ever crowded, as I never was attracted to most of the "must see" spots. The two notable exceptions: When I rounded the corner, and there stood the Coliseum! When I got off the Metro, went up the stairs, turned around, and there stood the Eiffel Tower! Yeah, those two tourist spots were truly impressive, truly worth seeing, for me. I have no great desire to ever leave the US, again, but my woman wants to see Costa Rica, so we'll be there next year, for a bit.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top