Travel Weekly Blog

Having just come back from a long weekend away, I'm full of the joys of travel - but having been in a big city at the start of tourist season, I'm also full of the dippy and downright rude things of which (we) travellers are capable.

So here are seven things that will henceforth be punished with instant repatriation:

1. Disrespect in religious buildings
   If they asked you to cover your head, don't just remove the scarf as soon as you're through the door. You're going into a place of worship, not sneaking beer into a music festival.
2. Using flash photography anyway
   They told you five times. There are signs everywhere. If you don't care about this stuff why are you coming to see it?
3. Dropping litter
   What is wrong with you?
4. Reading maps in the middle of a thoroughfare
   As tourists, it is our divine right to check the map every ten paces and not be laughed at. In exchange for this privilege, we agree to consult the map out of the way of foot traffic.
5. Expecting waiters/hoteliers to remember you
   "We came here five years ago..." You had the fish, right? Feels like yesterday.
6. Saying, 'They do it differently at X'
   Of course. It's a different place.
7. Leaving your headphones on
   If you don't know what a place sounds like, you haven't been to it. Sorry.

Okay, I'm only half serious. Possibly even less. But if you have any gripes of your own post them in the comments section - maybe we can come up with a definitive seven.

Nathan Midgley, web producer