Just read sad article on BBC Online News re Prague now considered a tourist trouble hotspot by the Foreign Office, massive influx of stag and hen parties has led to Brits needing a disproportionate amount of consular assistance, more lose their their passports, get arrested or taken to hospital than in any other destination in the world (figures proportionate to visitor numbers). 24% of those on stag/hen parties needed assistance.
This has been said many times before but Prague is a lovely place, if you intend to travel there please do us all a favour and behave.
|||
Many thanks for that!
Luckily Prague has become more expensive and the girls are not that %26quot;willing%26quot;, that there are not as many here anymore. And we don%26#39;t miss them...
|||
When we started going to Prague 7 years ago this was true but not anymore we are 4 females aged 24-72 you get the odd few but nothing to worry about and those that are there probably dont come out untill you are in bed. I think Prague has got more expensive to eat and drink [still cheaper than here though] so I think they have started looking further afield for their cheap days away,we love Prague and even when me and my mom go on our own without my daughters we have no fear walking out late at night but we do feel great embarrasment when we do see the odd rowdy Brit but there are other nationalities that are worse behaved .Just read through this forum and I am sure that the cultural visitor far outweights the stags these days.
TORII
|||
if you read the article the detail puts the headline into perspective. the embassy records when travellers need consular assistance such as when they lose their passport, when they are arrested or when they are taken to hospital. the embaassy figures say that out of 813,000 British travellers abroad, the total of 845 needed consular assistance. there is no split of the 845 between those who lost their passports, those who were arrested and those who needed hospitalisation. I would suspect that the vast majority of the 845 either lost their passports or had them stolen
845 cases equates to less than 3 cases per day or 0.1% of visitors, but the headline suggests that Prague is something like a dangeous warzone or full or drunken fighting Brits.
I have said on many occasions on this forum (and been shouted down for it) that British stag parties are ruining Prague and for locals there are now many places where I would not take my family now, not because they are dangerous, but because I would have to explain the behaviour of people to my family when they are shocked at what they see. However, for those that have doubts, unlike in perhaps Tallinn and Riga, the city is large enough that if you stay in the right place and do the cultural tour, thankfully, you will rarely see the drunken hoards.
the interesting thing is that the czech tourist authority is looking at the problem that unlike with Paris or Rome, say, most people come to prague and never come back. The number one reason was not miserable locals, rip off taxis, money changers or restaurants, dirty streets (which all exist), but drunken British stag parties; in other words the behaviour of other tourists, which the local authorities cannot really do much about
|||
Peb7, whilst i admire your views and extremely useful information, i must say that i find some of your views regarding British Tourists quite inflammatory and derogatory.
Yes, there is a problem with a small percentage of tourists (as you pointed out), and most travel-savvy British Tourists will acknowledge this too. But you constantly tar us all with the same brush. I am not quoting from just this post alone but several others too. You are not the only culprit as i have come across this too from other users, some who claim to be Prague experts too.
I have visited Prague yearly for the past 5 years, twice yearly in fact, and i come to eat, drink, take in the culture and see the sights. I can categorically state that i have never seen a drunken British Stag party. You will probably mock me, but this is true. Maybe i don%26#39;t visit the same places as these revellers but if the truth be told you may want to look closer to home when it comes to drunken yobs who pray on tourists no matter what time of day.
|||
jimbo. it is not just my view, but the view of many others here and many people who visit Prague that British stag parties are ruining prague and many other cities in eastern europe. even your own national newspapers write this (see the following article from today%26#39;s newspaper).
www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2007/aug/02/1 headlined
%26quot;Prague counts the cost of Brits behaving badly%26quot;
I think a lot of it comes because what is deemed to be acceptable behaviour or more to the point, what is not challenged or is put up with in the UK and is merely termed %26quot;having a good time%26quot; may just seem friendly bositerous behaviour in the UK, but in countries which do not have as much of a yob culture, such %26quot;acceptable%26quot; behaviour to those concerned is in fact well over the line to the locals who live in the city where such behaviour carries on. In other words, we are judging by two different standards. the only standard that should matter is the standard of the country in which you are a guest in (reference dropping litter in Singapore).
I would challenge anyone who has come from the UK (unless every time you fly British Airways) that they have not come across a British stag party which they would want to turn their family away from, either at the airport or in the old town. thankfully though, as said on other posts, unlike riga or tallinn, prague is large enough that there are places, especially mala strana where you can avoid these people.
I would also challenge your comment %26quot;.... if the truth be told you may want to look closer to home when it comes to drunken yobs who pray on tourists no matter what time of day.%26quot;. Which drunken yobs?
The only time I can recall drunken yobs which were local praying on tourists was George Foulkes was attacked sitting in the old town sqaure having a beer last year (and he probably deserved it through selling his business to a Lithuanian). Czechs do not have a yob culture, they do drink quite a lot, but at closing time, everyone just goes home peacefully instead of starting a pitch battle on the street outside
|||
Is the problem with %26quot;stag parties%26quot; mostly over weekends? I%26#39;m planning a family trip to Prague next April %26amp; would like to avoid these groups if possible?
|||
there are more stag parties over the weekends, but during the week they are also here. many stag parties come to prague because of cost and the low cost airline tickets are cheaper in the week, so there are still stag parties here during the week.
as said above, if you stay in the castle area, this is thankfully quite devoid of stag parties and more suitable for families with children
|||
Peb7, with regards to quoting headlines in newspapers, can you give me an example when the tabloids actually gave a positive headline about anything?? Sensationalism sells papers and thats their business they%26#39;re in. I mean would you buy a paper that read,
%26quot;British tourists behave normally%26quot;
No, you wouldn%26#39;t, you would want to read about the people that get drunk, vomit, sleep with prostitutes, pass out on drugs and end up in hospital at the Czech%26#39;s peoples expense. You will then use these reports against every group of tourists regardless of if they%26#39;re on a stag do or not. You don%26#39;t seem to look at the bigger picture here Peb7. I have no problems or qualms about you having your say because as you say its only your opinion. But if your opinion actually causes offence then maybe they%26#39;re best kept to yourself, i%26#39;m sure thats how many of histories wars and battles have started, due to he said/she said!
Anyway, i will continue to travel to Prague and enjoy myself to the full. I would like to add that i have not and never will visit Prague as a member of a stag do as i feel it retracts from my previous experiences, all of which have been very memorable and make me return year after year after year.
|||
I too read this article on the bbc website and agree that it has been taken out of context. Here is the link if anyone wants to read it in full:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6926569.stm
Peb - I check the Prague message boards fairly frequently and I will be honest, I do find the information you post very useful and I am sure others do too. It is obvious that you have a lot of knowledge on Prague and you do try to respond to every post, regardless of if you are in favour of the subject matter or not. Some people seem to have a problem with the way you respond to queries as you appear to be sarcastic at times, I actually like this as it%26#39;s quite funny and straight to the point. I do agree with some people when they say that some of your answers are unnecessary though and you do pull some people down unjustly. You don%26#39;t seem to like stag parties, and you are well within your rights to have this view, but, and I know this has been said on these forums a lot, you can%26#39;t paint all stag parties with the same brush. Yes, some stag parties create problems for the local people and other tourists. but the majority of groups will not. Nearly everyone has been on a stag break (if you ahven%26#39;t ever been invited, maybe that says something about you) and people go along to celebrate the fact that a friend is getting married. To slag these groups of as one seems totally unfair, as they are made up of normal people who have been asked by a friend to attend a celebration. I do respect the fact that in a small number of groups there may be one or two people who to behave inappropriately and cause a nuisance for local people and other tourists, and this is unacceptable - but it is a small number of people, from a small number of groups. What really irritates me on these forums though are the amount of British people who jump onto the %26#39;have a go at British stags%26#39; bandwagon. I am sure that these have been away to Europe on stag/hen parties (again, if you ahven%26#39;t been invited to a friend%26#39;s stag/hen party abroad, maybe this says something about you anyway). I am also sure that they were well behaved and respected the local area and other people. In fact, their whole group would have been the same, but if one or two people within their groups did behave in an unacceptable way, yes you would feel embarassed and try to have a word with them, but do they then start to regard themselves as what they accuse every stag aprty of being on these forums?
I have been to Prague a couple of times and have seen stag parties (not as many as some people claim mind, but still at elast a couple one very trip) and I can%26#39;t understand how some people say they ahve never seen them because they are clearly there. I have seen some get quite drunk, but never behave disrespectfully to the local area or people, and that is the god%26#39;s honest truth. The only time I have seen this in Prague was actually a couple of drunk locals who must have been no older than about 18, shouting abuse at some young British tourists, who may have been on a stag group but it was only a group of four, stag groups are usually much larger. In fact, the only times I have ever seen any trouble when I%26#39;ve been away anywhere in Europe was the one mentioned above, once in Budapest (a guy getting arrested, I couldn%26#39;t tell what nationality they were), a local getting kicked out of a club in Tallinn, and a local getting kicked out of a club in Berlin. I might be walking around with my eyes closed, but I%26#39;ve never seen any British stag parties in trouble in any of these so called places being ruined by British stag parties.
I am sure that a torrent of abuse will follow this post, which I am well prepared for.
One other thing, although I do like you Peb as I find you to be quite witty, I took serious issue with this comment:
%26#39;The only time I can recall drunken yobs which were local praying on tourists was George Foulkes was attacked sitting in the old town sqaure having a beer last year (and he probably deserved it through selling his business to a Lithuanian). %26#39;
I might be missing the point, or there could be more than this first appears to be, but no-one deserves to be attacked for selling their business to someone of a certain antionality. In fact on the face of it, this is an extremely racist and offensive comment. I am sure there is some kind of misunderstanding on my part and I look forward to you clearing it up.
|||
%26#39;The only time I can recall drunken yobs which were local praying on tourists was George Foulkes was attacked sitting in the old town sqaure having a beer last year (and he probably deserved it through selling his business to a Lithuanian). %26#39;
That is a little Peb joke probably aimed at me and very very funny.
Btw Peb George Foulkes was chairman of Hearts with a very small stockholding,he resigned after mr Romanov went too far in his sacking of George Burley.
No comments:
Post a Comment