French tourists voted worst in the world

by Scott Carmichael on

OUCH – If you are French, I recommend that you stop reading now, as this is bound to hurt.

The French have been voted worst tourists in the world, in a survey of 40,000 tourists. The results paint a pretty bleak picture of the French, calling them “penny-pinching, rude, pushy and terrible at foreign languages”.

I’ll leave my own opinion of the French out of this, as the survey seems to reach the same opinion I’ve often come to.

The survey was carried out by research firm TNS Infratest on behalf of Expedia, and asked hotels to rank their guests in 9 different criteria.

Joining the French at the bottom of the list are Spanish and Greek tourists. The best tourists come from Japan, followed by the Candians. US tourists got high marks for their generosity when it comes to tipping, most likely the result of the insane tipping etiquette in their own country.

The results are very much in line with the same research done last year, which obviously means the French don’t care too much about their bad reputation.

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Which countries *cough* smoke the most?

Brits continue to self-congratulate on cleanliness

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Brits are the best-behaved hotel guests, according to a survey by TripAdvisor. More than 3,000 participated in the study, and the results are certain to reinforce stereotypes. Forty-three percent of hotel guests from the UK make their own beds every morning … which is nothing compared to the 79 percent who put their clothes neatly in the closets.

But, tidiness comes with a price. Travelers from the land of the stiff upper lip are also the most accident-prone. They tend to break things and block up the toilet – the latter distinction shared with the Germans.

Shockingly, the French are the quietest (fewest noise complaints), and those from Spain are most likely to dip into the mini-bar without paying. Italians are both the worst tippers and most likely to leave underwear in the room.

Here’s the best part: 10 percent of all survey participants admitted to replacing minibar items with cheaper, store-bought stuff.

Group vacations – French villas are hot!

by Annie Scott on

Want to make all your friends swoon? Rent out a villa in the south of France for an affordable, peaceful vacation.

Want to make all your friends love you? Take them along!

French villas have become one of the top destinations in the great tradition of group vacations. I love group vacations; it’s like an extended party. Get everyone you like together and watch them interact for a week. It’s fascinating, often scandalous, and makes one feel like they’re in some 17th century comedy of manners, or an old-Hollywood movie.

One villa I recommend is Villa Plantat, near the small town Quissac. Villa Plantat (plantat means “to plant”) is an elegant house set on 400 acres of beautiful grounds with an orangerie and a private spring-fed swimming lake, and is located close to both historic Roman ruins and the Mediterranean sea (just 35 minutes away).

Villa Plantat can provide a private provencal chef for just around $20 per meal, and they also have twice yearly yoga retreats (2 hours of yoga per day plus special events; not yoga boot camp) in May and September. $1380 per person includes accommodations, wine (!), and classes.

Villa Plantat is available year round for $4,200 per week (price drops by $500 for additional weeks) and sleeps thirteen. That’s just $323 per person. Or, for ten people, $420 per week.

Save up your miles and get to the south of France. It’s an idyllic, quaint, and quintessentially lovely experience you won’t forget.
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Expedia survey rates the world’s worst tourists

by Abha Malpani on

The French, Indians, and the Chinese have been voted as the world’s worst tourists by a group of 4000 hoteliers, in a survey conducted by online travel search engine Expedia. On the other hand, the best tourists are 1) Japanese 2) British and Germans.

Yup, looks like the annoying and continuous photo taking of everything in sight by the Japanese, and the drunken stag parties of the British and the Germans do not lay room for complaint, thanks to their wonderful behavior, manners, generosity, willingness to integrate themselves into a new culture — criteria on which the nationalities were rated.

Interestingly enough, a similar survey was conducted by Expedia 6 years ago and it tagged the British, Danish and Irish as the worst. The British were voted as the “rudest, worst-behaved, most linguistically incompetent and least adventurous holiday makers.” Ouch. What’s for that drastic change from best to worst?

Anyway, I hate such generalizations because I think an entire race can’t be blamed for the misdoings of a bunch of people. Surveys like this are interesting insight, but nothing more.

Pirates release cruise ship hostages

by Iva Skoch on

Call me naive and uninformed, but I honestly didn’t think that pirates still operate in the world the way they do in the movies. That is obviously not the case.

According to this IHT article, the International Maritime Bureau, which tracks piracy, says that global pirate attacks rose 10 percent in 2007, marking the first increase in three years. Pirates seized more than two dozen ships off the Somali coast last year alone, AP reports. The U.S. Navy has led international patrols to try to combat piracy in the region. Last year, the guided missile destroyer USS Porter opened fire to destroy pirate skiffs tied to a Japanese tanker.

Just last Friday, pirates seized control of a French cruise ship off the coast of Somalia. Attackers stormed the 288-foot Le Ponant, in the high seas in the Gulf of Aden, as it returned without passengers–but with 30 crew members–from the Seychelles, in the Indian Ocean, toward the Mediterranean Sea. Elite French troops were sent to East Africa to bolster efforts to free the yacht captives.

According to the latest update from AP, pirates just freed those 30 hostages. The French government would not say whether any pirates were captured nor whether the vessel had been retaken.