Tuesday, July 08, 2008
The Best and the worst
Second place on the top ten list of most embarrassing holiday destinations was Tenerife. The holiday destination Brits are most likely to keep quiet about visiting was Benidorm. At the other end of the scale, according to a survey carried out for Boots, Paris was named as the city Brits were most proud of visiting, with New York the second top holiday hot spot.
This really says more about the best and worst in people, as Julie comments: "Funny that! I find the British tourists in Tenerife swilling alcohol like they expect to fly back to prohibition, fighting and throwing up in the streets of Las Americas pretty damn embarrassing too." Having lived in Tenerife for 16 years, believe me, no-one is more embarrassed by British holidaymakers' behaviour than an expat, sick of being tarred with the same brush and treated disrespectfully.
Anyway, it just happens that I've been to all four places: Benidorm (twice, in fact, and even Benidorm has its pretty bits, when you make an effort to get out and explore) and, I've also been to both Paris and New York.
All have their good and bad points. All have their over-developed bits, but all offer the chance to escape to the surrounding areas (if you can be bothered); they all have something cultural, as well as tacky, touristy parts selling crappy souvenirs. You'll find "undesirable" British tourists at all of them too.
Criticisms of Tenerife and Benidorm are often in reference to them being too developed, yet what are the other two? Yeah, humongous cities.
Resorts tend to offer cheap holidays, of course, and you'd think that, with ever rising prices, people would be glad of a bargain, but they're not: they're even more embarrassed if their holiday only cost a couple of hundred quid.
Is this because people can't discern quality these days and believe that things like higher prices or destinations farther away (i.e. quantity) equates to it?
Generally, the cheapest ways of travelling; backpacking, smaller pensions, bus, bike, walking ... are the ways to see the most and get closest to the reality of a destination, which is actually a far more quality experience.
As Big John says, in his Rules for real life: "Travel is supposed ‘to broaden the mind’, so remember that when you are laying in a pool of your own vomit outside a Benidorm bar." (Or a Tenerife one.) You can get just as drunk in Paris and New York (well, you needn't, as I tested that for you too), so it's not places people are embarrassed about, it's the behaviour. Their own behaviour.
People are strange. Of course, it's all about fashion and snobbery and not about reality. Most, if they've been to Tenerife and Benidorm, probably made no effort to get outside the confines of their hotel, let alone the resort, so their perceptions of what these places are all about, are decidedly clouded. Those who really know would not be embarrassed to say that they had travelled anywhere, when they've taken the time to explore it properly.
But, I guess, if you're even reading this, you know that already.
Photos: 1. New York City Skyline, 2. Paris - Eiffel Tower, 3. Benidorm Levante, 4. Parque Las Mesas (That's Santa Cruz, Tenerife's capital.)
