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Oz Government Closes Desert The Size Of Iowa Because It Can

November 21, 2008 at 9:05 AM | 0 Comments

The South Australian government has stepped in to save dumb tourists from themselves by simply closing a whole desert. The 56,000 square miles of the Simpson Desert will be "closed" from December 1 to March 15 next year because the heat makes it just too dangerous.

With summer temps heading over a hundred degrees Fahrenheit and often up to 120, it's risky for anyone to head out into the wilderness, but unprepared tourists who need expensive (and dangerous) rescue missions are all too common. So for the first time, they've simply shut up shop on the desert with a A$1,000 ($650) fine for those caught there.

As far as deserts go, Australia has four of the top twenty largest ones, so they probably know what they're talking about. Dying of thirst in a desert is not high on our list of ways we'd like to go, so we won't be going desert-bashing this Aussie summer.

Related Stories:
· Too Risky: Simpson Desert Closed for Summer [SMH]
· Won't Get Fooled Again? [Jaunted]
· Australia Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: jwbenwell]

Accidental Travel: The Wrong Sydney

September 25, 2008 at 9:00 AM | 1 Comment

We always have a good chuckle about travelers who end up on the wrong continent by making an online booking to someplace with the same name, but we shouldn't laugh too much--there's just as good a chance we'll do the same one day.

In a recent incident, an Argentinean woman tried to book a flight to Sydney. We'd be thinking Australia, and so was she, but her flights took her to Sydney, Nova Scotia.

The funny thing is that tourists have ended up in the Canadian Sydney by mistake before. Perhaps they should start selling toy kangaroos in their souvenir shops and apart from some unexpected weather, maybe nobody will notice.

Related Stories:
· Accidental Tourist Ends Up in Wrong Place [news.com.au]
· Sydney, Australia Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo of Sydney, Nova Scotia: dmealiffe]

Dumb Tourist Travel: Norwegian Taxi Fare From Hell

August 18, 2008 at 9:00 AM | 1 Comment

We've done our fair share of ending up not exactly where we planned when traveling by bus or even taxi in foreign countries, but the Spanish couple who just spent a fortune on two long taxi rides in Norway have far exceeded our attempts.

Headed for Olden to re-join a cruise ship, the taxi driver misunderstood them--apparently--and took them to Halden instead, 380 miles away from their intended destination. They spent the night in a hotel there and only realized their mistake when no cruise-ship awaited them--and they taxied on to Olden. Round trip bill: €3,870 ($5,680) for a scenic trip between the northwest and the southeast of the country.

We wonder why the taxi driver didn't double check the destination, unless he deliberately tricked them; we also don't get why the Spanish couple didn't notice that the journey seemed to be taking a really, really long time. Then again, they were the cruising kind who usually just come ashore with a nametag, so perhaps their travel skills were lacking. In any case, they've given a couple of taxi drivers a big income boost.

Related Stories:
· $6,600 Cab Fare Lost In Translation [The Age]
· Norway Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Narisa]

Can I Swim To Britain From the US?

January 8, 2007 at 1:51 PM | 0 Comments


It must be hard to keep a straight face in those tourist information offices with us travelers constantly coming in and asking really stupid questions. In Britain this week they've revealed some of the best clangers from visitors to London and Norwich, and probably even we wouldn't be dumb enough to ask all of these questions. But someone did ask "Is Wales closed during the winter?" and "Are there any lakes in the Lakes District?".

In Norwich, people often call in for help in finding where they've left their car; they've even had a prostitute drop in with brochures to advertise her services to tourists in need. Other tourists who've visited before often want to know the name and location of some nice place they remember: one woman was sure that by identifying a farm she stayed at twenty years earlier as "having a cow outside it" the tourist officers would be able to help her. But our favorite question was actually asked of the helpful tourism reps up in Scotland:

What time of night does the Loch Ness monster surface and who feeds it?
Wouldn't you like to know.

Related Stories:
· Bizarre Questions For City Guides [Norwich News]
· Tourists Ask Strange Questions [Ananova]

Won't Get Fooled Again?

September 14, 2006 at 9:30 AM | 0 Comments


Australia's a really big and really empty land, so getting lost is understandable. A 50-year-old Briton had this problem last week in a station a couple of miles north of Alice Springs where he went bushwalking without a hat or sunscreen and with hardly any water. Three days later, when he was still definitely lost, he called for help on his cell phone, and was located after an air search. A bit of a bill for taxpayers, a lot of sunburn, and a whole lot of embarrassment was the result.

What would you do next? Well, our friend here decided to take one last walk in the outback before flying home. The result? He got lost again. This time three helicopters were needed before he was found, and now he's resting in the hospital with dehydration.

To head out there twice, we think he must have really been looking for something. Perhaps one of those killer big bananas or the nightmarish giant koala? We highly recommend taking a more regular tourist route when you're in Oz, or at least remembering your hat and suncream.

[Image via faz./Flickr]

Related stories:
Outback Tourist Rescued Twice in a Week [Sydney Morning Herald]
Koalas: Cute When Small ... [Jaunted]
This is a Banana [Jaunted]