15 Most Annoying Travelers In The World

a woman standing in front of a leaning tower
image from Thrillist

There are many kinds of annoying travelers that you might cross paths with all around the world. For me the worst kind, are the overly loud, obnoxious know-it-alls. These kind of people tend to annoy me in all walks of life, not just travel.

When traveling, there are many situations where you can pretty much expect to find irratating people. Don’t get me wrong, we have met lots of interesting and nice people around the world. But there are types of annoying travelers that you are pretty much guaranteed to run into on the way to or during a trip.

Two of the most annoying to me are:

  1. Seat Pullers: You’re sitting comfortably in your seat on the plane and the person behind you has to give a big tug on your seat each time they get up or sit down. I don’t know what it is, but this seems to happen to me on just about every flight.
  2. Tour Group Participants: While visiting a busy sight, you want to see whatever it has to offer (or just walk by) but the main event is clogged/ blocked by a huge tour group. To top it off, you have to listen to the tour guide speaking way too loud through a microphone.

Thrillist came up with a list of the 15 Most Annoying Travelers In The World.

Check it out:

  1. The guy who complains about everything to get free stuff.
  2. The pool and hot tub hoggers.
  3. The embarrasingly underdressed traveler.
  4. The backpackers going to “find himself” in Southeast Asia.
  5. The Instabragger
  6. The Facebooker who checks in everywhere.
  7. The infrequent flier
  8. Problem passengers
  9. The unappreciative diner
  10. The European non-tippers
  11. The hyper-haggler
  12. The boring traveler
  13. The newbie traveler that suddenly knows everything
  14. The children draggers
  15. The overtly overly-friendly couple

While looking over the list, I thought most of the examples were pretty lame but there were a few that I (kind of) agree with. The under-dressed traveler is easily spotted and usually worth a laugh. The know-it-all traveler doesn’t always have to be a newbie. Either way, I’m not sure that most of us are interested in hearing their commentary.

What do you find to be the most annoying kind of travelers?

Find out about each of the “15 Most Annoying Travelers…” according to Thrillist here.

12 thoughts on “15 Most Annoying Travelers In The World

  1. Leslie- I don’t really take offense, I just stand behind kids traveling/ flying 100%! Oktoberfest can be a family friendly event! Lucas had an incredible time attending at a little over 1 1/2. He even learned prost (cheers) there, using his sippy cup! I got very lazy and never wrote a post about our experience but still plan to do so at some point!

    Darth Chocolate- Good one! As someone that prefers the aisle, I hear ya!

    Joey- YES! If the IFE is unresponsive, I am always careful to try not to tap it too hard. I’m all for tipping in restaurants when it is expected (mainly in the US) but when other countries do not have this kind of culture but try to get tourists to leave tips, that is just wrong. (BTW- I did like the ease of not tipping in Japan.)

    JakePB- I am totally cracking up! I include the row walking tuggers in the same category as the seat pullers but maybe I shouldn’t. Both totally annoy me but the main difference is that if you have a seat puller behind you, you can expect that sudden jolt around 3-4 times during your flight.

  2. I’m with you when it comes to the seat pullers…why they can’t just use the arm rest to push off is beyond me. The pullers are followed closely in my book by the row walking tuggers – they yank on every aisle seat as they walk up and down the aisle. How do they normally manage to walk? When in a restaurant that’s crowded, do they go from seat-to-seat like negotiating rough seas by going island to island?

  3. I absolutely hate it when the passenger behind my seat press the IFE way too hard in a longhaul flight that I actually feel the tug. This tends to be done by kids though, in my experience.
    As for tips, I think it’s overdone in USA as well. I like the Japanese way of thinking that tips are insulting (you’re basically implying the employee needs the money because you think they don’t make enough $$$.) It’s their job and I think restaurants should pay them appropriately here in the USA.

  4. On long haul flights, the idiot in the window seat who has the urge to open the shade every 15 minutes to see where they are when people are trying to sleep.

  5. JD- This list was written by Thrillist. I’m not really sure if they are “frequent flyer elitists”. I don’t agree with all of it either…

    Brian- Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us!

  6. The most annoying are travelers who thinks everyone is annoying and always have something to complain about.

  7. It is interesting to see what frequent fliers elitists find annoying. I wouldn’t agree with a lot of this.

  8. Leslie H- I slightly took offense to child draggers being included! All kidding aside, our son goes everywhere (including Oktoberfest in 2013) but at 2 it is still easy for him to be entertained just about anywhere.

    Jake- Good one!

    Geoff- I see your point but if tipping is the way things are done in the U.S. why should it be OK for tourists to stiff waiters when tips are expected?

    1. Too funny! I try not to take offense because there are a lot of kid travel haters out there. Awesome that you did Oktoberfest. I’ve heard it is totally a family friendly event until about 8 pm anyway – I was just researching doing it with kids yesterday. It’s on my list of can’t miss events in the next 5-10 years.

  9. Obviously and unfortunately written from an American standpoint with regards to the non tipping. How does that make a European a bad traveler yet make the sometimes culturally unnecessary American tipper a good traveler? Tipping is out of control enough in the States as is, we don’t need to corrupt other countries with our crap.

  10. Pretty good list. As someone who (mostly) travels with kids, I have to say the description of the “Children Draggers” is pretty good: “On your many travels, you may cross children slumped over in their restaurant chairs at 10pm on a Tuesday. Or screaming kids with no appreciation for Van Gogh. Or little ones passed out in the stroller at a late-night concert in the square. We’d like to think they should be in bed but, ultimately, we aren’t the parents. Apparently, neither are the selfish adults dragging them around.”

    Travel with your kids, but definitely try to keep them on a reasonable schedule. And take them to places where they will be interested most of the time. It’s okay to try to expand their horizons, but most of their travel needs to be age-appropriate or it’s time to leave them home with grandma.

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