What's the biggest tourist rip-off you know?

[seagully]

I was going to say Dalaman, probably the same company.

This, absolute rip off

 

[Rugrat]

Another vote for Venice ... f*****g awful place imo

 

[16bha]

There's no place like NSC to vent your fury so here goes:

Just come back from a lovely week in Languedoc with the family to escape the gloom of an Austrian winter. The only downer? Our trip to the Pont du Gard, the magnificent Roman aqueduct outside Nîmes.

18€ to park! Didn't matter if it was for five minutes or five hours. Impossible to park in the roads around. An obscene amount IMHO.

My question to you - what's the worst tourist rip-off that you've experienced?

Agree with the Pont du Gard. Great architecture but bloody expensive. Should have ventured east slightly to Avignon. Pont d'Avignon is free and Le Palais des Papes is a great visit.

Guy in Hammamet, Tunisia offered to take a pic of me and missus with my camera, then tried to charge me the equivalent of about £5!

 

[daveinprague]

The 'old town square' in every city in the world.

 

[vegster]

The biggest rip off is the £72.00 price for a UK passport

 

[nicko31]

Petra, Jordan USD50, a disgrace..

 

[Butch Willykins]

I always feel sorry for tourists arriving at "London" Stansted then realising they are practically in Cambridgeshire and face a £40 train ride into London. Gutted.

 

[mooey]

There's no place like NSC to vent your fury so here goes:

Just come back from a lovely week in Languedoc with the family to escape the gloom of an Austrian winter. The only downer? Our trip to the Pont du Gard, the magnificent Roman aqueduct outside Nîmes.

18€ to park! Didn't matter if it was for five minutes or five hours. Impossible to park in the roads around. An obscene amount IMHO.

My question to you - what's the worst tourist rip-off that you've experienced?

Berlin 10 euros for a hot chocolate and this was a xmas stall no better than the burget van outside falmer station.
Corsica for a sd card about 2g 22 quid.least turpin wore a mask

 

[Bwian]

The Barbican. A small bottle of London Pride and a vodka and coke-£9.90. Robbing bar stewards.

 

[Captain Sensible]

Car hire at Malaga airport. Charge you straight off for a tank of fuel at twice the price of local stations. Also added insurance charge which was according to them optional, but if you didn't take it they debited your credit card for 700euro!! Not just authorised, actually debited and then you had to apply to get it refunded when you returned the car.
Original price £190 for 2 weeks, ended up £340!! Total rip off.

 

[Cian]

Centerparcs. Apart from the great pool, its a rip off as you pay a lot and then pay again for nearly everything else. Expensive average grub and just ok accommodation. Horrible place.

The Dutch ones are great - food is crap everywhere there but the supermarket's cheap as is the bar and the entertainment stuff there (pool, airhockey, bowling). Didn't try any of the other facilities, wasn't there with kids, but they *seemed* relatively cheap.

Bit more crowded than the UK ones I believe though - as in more villas for the space.

Paris in general was the worst for me. €3 for a vending machine can of coke - 11 years ago!

 

[clapham_gull]

Many tourists in London still seem unaware of the Oyster Card system. The genius simplicity of the Tube map unfortunately masks the fact that it often quicker to walk.

So my vote goes for a cash single from Leicester Square to Covent Garden.

At £4.50 for 250 metres, I understand it is officially the most expensive train journey on earth.

I've just worked that out at £29 a mile.

If Richard Branson got away with that a ticket to Manchester from London would come in at around £6,000.

 

[Raleigh Chopper]

I love Centreparcs, and we would go more if we could.


But it is incredibly expensive. The bills add up, and the stack of debit/card slips at the end of the holiday, add up to small fortune on top of the villa cost.

But great for cycling, no cars, and the kids are in heaven.

Fair enough maybe a little over the top, but I do hate being ripped off. Nice countryside, open spaces, good for kids and walking, and the pool/slides/ warm rapids at Longleat was something else. But I do stand by the rest of my rant.

 

[Raleigh Chopper]

The 'old town square' in every city in the world.

Then go to the Latin or Jewish or bohemian quarter also found in every city in the world, they are slightly cheaper.
Or even cheaper are the Irish Bars (a harp, Guinness poster and some diddly diddly music) also to be found in every city in the world.

 

[skipper734]

The biggest rip off is the £72.00 price for a UK passport

ACTUAL PASSPORT LETTER:

This, apparently, is an actual letter received by the UK Passport Office.

Dear Sirs,

I'm in the process of renewing my passport, and still cannot believe how is it that Sky Television has my address and telephone number and knows that I bought a bleeding satellite dish from them back in 1988, and yet, the Government is still asking me where I was bloody born and on what date.

Do you guys do this by hand?

My birth date you have on my pension book.

It's on all the income tax forms I've filed for the past 30 years.

It is on my National Health card.

My driving licence.

My car insurance.

On the last eight damn passports I've had.

It's on all those stupid customs declaration forms I've had to fill out before being allowed off the plane over the last 30 years.

All those insufferable census forms.

Would somebody please take note, once and for all, that my mother's name is Mary Anne, my father's name is Robert and I'd be absolutely astounded if that WOULD ever change between now and when I die!!

I apologise, I'm really pissed off this morning.
Between you an' me, I've had enough of this bullshit!

You send the application to my house, then you ask me for my bleeding address!!

What is going on? Do you have a gang of neanderthal arseholes workin' there?

Look at my damn picture.

Do I look like Bin Laden?

I don't want to dig up Yasser Arafat, for shit sakes. I just want to go and park my arse on some sandy beach somewhere.

And would someone please tell me, why would you give a shit whether I plan on visiting a farm in the next 15 days?

If I ever got the urge to do something wierd to a chicken or a goat, believe you me, you'd be the last f***ing people I'd want to tell!

Well, I have to go now,'cause I have to go to the other end of the poxy city to get another f***ing copy of my birth certificate, to the tune of £30.

Would it be so complicated to have all the services in the same spot to assist in the issuance of a new passport the same day?

Nooooooooooooo, that'd be too damn easy and maybe make sense.

You'd rather have us running all over the fuckin' place like chickens with our heads cut off, then WE have to find some arsehole to confirm that it's really me on the damn picture - you know, the one where we're not allowed to smile?! (bureaucratic fuckin' morons)

Hey, do you know why we couldn't smile if we wanted to? Because we're totally pissed off!

Signed

An Irate Citizen

P.S. Remember what I said above about the picture and getting someone to confirm that it's me?

Well, my family has been in this country since 1776 ...

I have served in the military for something over 30 years and have had full security clearances over 25 of those years enabling me to undertake highly secretive missions all over the world.

However, I have to get someone 'important' to verify who I am - you know, someone like my doctor ..

WHO WAS BORN AND RAISED IN FRIGGIN` PAKISTAN!

 

[Lyndhurst 14]

Heathrow Express - a total rip off when you compare it to airport / city train transfers in other countries. I thought it had to be the most expensive cost per mile in the UK but Clapham Gull has that beaten with the Leicester Sq to Covent Garden trip

 

[cloud]

Any train tickets where you can't amend the ticket or get a refund
Wembley matchday parking - £30
Arsenal matchday ticket, not that I would ever go

 

[Notters]

Geneva Airport a fortnight ago, in departures, before going through passports/security:

Regular Burger King food for 4, including 2 kids meals, and absolutely no extras ...... £40!

Take it you didn't go into Geneva then. That's very cheap for Geneva.

 

[clapham_gull]

Heathrow Express - a total rip off when you compare it to airport / city train transfers in other countries. I thought it had to be the most expensive cost per mile in the UK but Clapham Gull has that beaten with the Leicester Sq to Covent Garden trip

Reminded me of the other rip that still catches many Londoners out - the Gatwick Express, even worse than the Heathrow one.

Take for example tomorrow Victoria to Gatwick.

I can take the "express" at 10.30 for £19.90 and it will get me to Gatwick at 11.

Fortunately, I'm not stupid. I'd rather wait for a Southern Train at 10.32 which will get me there at 11.08.

... For £5.50 less. I'll take the extra 6 minutes.

Hello sir, we are offering a special on the trains today. We can get to your destination quicker.

Brilliant, how much is it ?

A pound a minute, limited to a maximum of 6.

P*** off
I've known people change at Clapham Junction for Victoria, to get a Gatwick Express. You did what ?

I have absolutely no idea why anyone would use it.

 

[rdigs24]

Heathrow Express - a total rip off when you compare it to airport / city train transfers in other countries. I thought it had to be the most expensive cost per mile in the UK but Clapham Gull has that beaten with the Leicester Sq to Covent Garden trip

So use the tube. Nearly as quick.