Tour Guides Share Their Idiot Tourist Stories
Going on a guided tour of a museum or nature site while you're traveling is a great way to learn more about the world.
A good tour guide is an invaluable resource of local info and fun trivia to tell folks back home. So it's surprising that so many tourists immediately forget all their manners as soon as the tour starts!
We asked seasoned tour guides from around the world to dish on the rude, dumb, and just plain idiotic tourists they've had to put up with.
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47. Don't pull the plumage.
I was working on a tourist island in Australia when this man pulled out almost all the back feathers of a peacock because he wanted to keep one.
He sneaked up behind it, and grabbed a huge handful and yanked them all out. He was immediately escorted off the island.
The peacock had a huge bare patch and most of its beautiful feathers were gone.
46. Those fish aren't friendly.
I had a guest, snorkeling try and grab the tail of a barracuda as he swam up behind it. Luckily I was able to hit the guest with a dive fin from the boat to stop him before he got ahold.
If he had grabbed on, I’m sure he would have been ripped to pieces by that fish.
45. Can't take it with you.
Was on a tour of a small cave system somewhere in west Texas. It was really beautiful and right after the guide told us how long it took for all the stalagmites and stalactites to form she turned around to move on and some guy leans way over and snaps off a small one and shoved it in his pocket!!! I was so surprised I just stared at him and he smiled and winked at me like we had really gotten away with something and I was a co-conspirator or something
44. Repels everything, including bears.
In Wyoming it is common to buy bear spray (highly concentrated pepper spray) when heading into Yellowstone.
One tourist believed it was bear repellent, lined up his family and sprayed all of them. Chemical burns for everyone!
As a raft guide we regularly got asked whether we would be passing the same spot/going through the same rapid later in the journey. We would reply "
why yes, this is actually one of the only circular rivers in the world!"
