Why Brits shouldn't go abroad: From airport pranks and getting trapped in a bin to burying themselves in the sand and getting chomped by bears... the UK tourists who should have stayed home

Daily Mail​

25-05-2025

Mischief, mess and madness. British tourists have a steady reputation abroad, not always for the right reasons.
But after being buried in 8ft holes, stranded on buoys and mauled by bears, many do at least have the good humour to laugh it off and pick themselves back up.
From the kayaker who became lost in the Channel for two days to the bored holidaymaker detained in Greece for taking over an airport loudspeaker system, sometimes we do only have ourselves to blame.
These are the lighter stories of British adventurers getting it wrong and returning home with a story and little more than a scratch to show for it.
Found stranded on a buoy off the coast of Thailand after 'morning swim'
A British tourist in Thailand 's notorious city of Pattaya came unstuck after he became trapped on a large sea buoy after going for an early morning swim.
Video from March 2023 showed the tourist clinging to a buoy, apparently intoxicated, off the Thai coast.
The young man did not seem particularly unsettled by his predicament, however, and smiled with a thumbs up at a passing boat in an effort to catch a ride.
The tourist, who did not give is name, wobbled slightly as he launched himself off the buoy to swim to the boat.
Video showed him clambering onto the boat and staggering on the deck while trying to catch his breath.
The young Brit, who appeared unsteady on his feet, told the captain of the boat: 'I wake up, I go 'oh good idea for a swim'.'
'I swim, swim, swim and then,' the Brit said before stopping to catch his breath.
Boat captain Charawat Rasrikrit said the young man was unhurt and he returned him back to his hotel on the beach.
'I see a lot of tourists get into trouble here,' he said. 'I thought that maybe he had been out partying the night before and was still in a good mood in the morning.
'He was probably still a little bit drunk. A lot of tourists behave strangely when they come here.'
This is the bizarre moment a British tourist who was clinging to a buoy two miles of the Thai coast flagged down a boat after he thought it would be a 'good idea' to go for a morning swim
Rescued from waste container after getting stuck during 'drunken' prank in Malaga
Emergency services had to be pulled away from their work after a British tourist became stuck in an underground waste container during a 'drunken' prank in Malaga in 2023.
A local bar owner told police that the group of rowdy Brits had been taking it in turns to open up the lid of the underground ecological waste container and climb inside before one of them got trapped.
The man's friends were heard shouting, 'Make yourself small' and 'Listen to me, your leg, get your leg up' as they realised getting out was harder than getting in.
Tiggy, as his mates appeared to be calling him, seemed to be unfazed by all the attention, emerging with his shirt off but a smile on his face after being pulled out by firefighters to cheers from the crowds that had gathered round.
One Spaniard observing the moments leading up to the successful rescue and its happy ending said: 'There are stupid people and then these.'
'They've put a lad in an underground waste container and they can't get him out. They've been trying to get him out for around the past half-hour.
'I don't understand these people who get drunk and do these sorts of things.'
He added as 'Tiggy' emerged with a smile on his face: 'Here's the guy. My God, my god. Drunkenness, eh!'
A local bar owner told police that the group of rowdy Brits had been taking it in turns to open up the lid of the underground ecological waste container and climb inside
Rescued after 8ft hole dug on beach floods
'All that was going through my head was, this is it. I really thought I was going to die that day,' said Jensen Sturgeon, recounting the time he got stuck in an 8ft hole.
Jensen, a baggage handler at Gatwick airport, was spending his 22nd birthday with friends in Rio de Janeiro in April when he became trapped.
The group decided to spend the day on the iconic Copacabana Beach and, while his friends sunbathed, Jensen began digging a hole in the sand.
Jensen was submerged in sand by the time he struck water, and feared for his life as the sand began to collapse around him.
'We got about eight feet deep and then obviously found water at that point and then it all just came down on me,' he told MailOnline in May.
'My head was even under the sand. I was trying to shout for my mates and I knew they couldn't hear me.'
After fighting against the sand, Mr Sturgeon managed to free his head and call for help, with some 30 people gathering around him in a bid to get him out.
'I was quite scared,' Mr Sturgeon said. 'At one point I looked behind me and I could see a huge pile of sand. I thought if that fell on me that would be it.
It took three hours for the crowd to rescue the tourist, using piece of wood, shovels and lengths of rope to pull him up to the surface.
Stuck in the hot sun, well-intentioned onlookers handed him a beer at one point, which he drank.
Mr Sturgeon said: 'When I got out I couldn't stand properly. Everyone was trying to talk to me but I just had to sit back down. My legs were so sore for the rest of the holiday.'
Despite his ordeal, the Brit said didn't seek medical attention and will probably do it again.
'I think it's just a guy thing where you go to the beach and dig a hole,' he said. 'I feel like I will end up digging another hole on a beach.'
Mauled by brown bear after stopping for photo
A British woman's holiday in Romania took a horrifying turn as she was mauled by a brown bear from the supposed safety of her car.
The 72-year-old woman from Scotland was driving on the Transfăgărășan mountain road in Argeş County, on April 22, when she came across two bears.
She had stopped the car in the road to take a photo of the roaming beasts when one leaped up onto its hind legs.
Undeterred, she then rolled down her window to get a better look, jolting the bear into pouncing forward and mauling her arm.
The driver quickly accelerated away, but not before the bear could wound the passenger.
She was taken from the scene to a nearby hospital for treatment, and later told reporters her arm was 'sore' after the run-in.
The traveller did manage to get some stunning close-up photos of the animal - but it was a lucky escape from a potentially horrifying encounter.
Hijinks at Greek airport sees mischievous Brit arrested
A mischievous traveller in Greece was arrested after commandeering an airport loudspeaker system to - falsely - tell passengers their flights had been delayed.
The British tourist was filmed jumping on the microphone at Zakynthos Airport in Zante in August 2022, informing passengers their flights had been pushed back by up to six hours.
Video captured by a fellow passenger showed the playful Brit leaning into the microphone to announce to fellow passengers that the flight to Gatwick, which he intended to board, had been delayed.
He said: 'The flight to Gatwick has been delayed by six hours.'
He followed it up with more false flight information, adding: 'Unfortunately, the flight to Manchester has been delayed by six hours.'
This announcement raised some confusion, as there was no flight from the Greek airport to Manchester scheduled on the day.
But the fun ended as a security guard stormed over to confront the man.
A police officer - equipped with a gun that at one moment he seemed to unclip - followed to back up the guard before escorting the cheeky passenger away from the gate.
Sam Wilson, who filmed the video, said the prankster was ultimately released after being held briefly in an empty room.
But he was not allowed on the plane back from Zante afterwards - a lesson for any copycats.
Dislocated ribs after backflip goes wrong at Thai waterpark
Callum Ryan's holiday to Thailand took a horrifying turn when the then-21-year-old landed badly from a backflip at a water park and dislocated his ribs.
The tourist from Milton Keynes was at the Grand Canyon waterpark in Chiang Mai when he decided to try the inflatable assault course.
The idea was simple enough: he would jump onto a big bouncy cushion and fly up into the air, spinning mid-flight before landing safely in the water.
But as soon as he came down he knew something was wrong.
'I swam up underwater and the second I hit the air, I had a handful of blood,' he said.
'Straight away within two or three seconds, I coughed up a handful of blood and that went on for 30 minutes.'
Callum's 'dodgy landing' had pushed his lungs into his ribs, causing his lungs to bleed.
He and his girlfriend, Beth, left the waterpark, but it would be another three-and-a-half hours by coach before they reached Pye.
He was so unwell when he arrived that he was taken to hospital - but it was shut.
After what must have been a difficult night, he returned the next day and was X-rayed, for doctors to tell him he had dislocated his ribs and damaged his lungs.
The agony would not end there, however, as Callum was told he would need to find another hospital to treat him.
After another long coach journey out of Pye, they eventually reached Maharaj Nakorn Chiang Mai Hospital Hospital, where he could be dosed up on painkillers and helped.
After two days of recovery in hospital, Callum was able to carefully go back to his life, continuing with Beth on their four month trip around Asia.
Left clinging to buoy for two days after losing kayak
A British kayaker had to be rescued after two days stranded in the Channel in 2022.
The man, believed to be from Manchester, was rescued after being spotted by fishermen.
He was taken for emergency treatment and authorities assessed he 'suffered from hypothermia, general fatigue and dehydration but given his good physical resistance, his general state of health is quite good'.
Orlane Saliou, spokeswoman for the Maritime Gendarmerie, the French equivalent of the Coastguard, said it didn't appear that he was experienced.
She added that his good physical fitness and the timely rescue had 'saved his life'.
But she rubbished some media reports that he could have been lost at sea for as long as 12 days - as this would have been impossible to survive.
'His motives concerning this crossing are not very clear but it would seem that a sporting project should be discarded,' she said.
The captain of the rescuing fishing boat said they were being mindful of getting too close to the buoy when he 'saw something crazy moving' near it, he told local media.
Mr De Boer grabbed a pair of binoculars, and to his surprise saw the exhausted and distressed Briton wearing only a pair of swimming trunks 'waving at us like a madman', according to De Telegraaf.
He was suffering from severe hypothermia when he was brought onboard with a body temperature of just 26C, Het Urkerland reports. A healthy human adult body runs at around 36C.
A British man whose kayak had capsized when crossing the English Channel to France was rescued yesterday morning after fishermen found him clinging to a buoy for dear life
Brit plunges into mud after trying to 'take a shortcut' during Maldives trip
Martin Lewis was most preoccupied with not getting his sliders and cream trousers wet when he ended up completely submerged in a muddy gorge in the Maldives.
Martin, from Somerset, was on holiday with hi wife, Rachel, on Fuvahmulah in 2021 when he misjudged a 'shortcut' and plunged down into the muddy water.
In the clip, he can be seen slowly walking across mud before deciding to take off his slip-on shoes to avoid getting his feet getting stuck.
'I don't know how I'm going to get across, see my trousers are getting dirty,' he can then be heard saying in the video filmed by Rachael.
'Look at the state of my feet I've got to try and get over there.'
Martin then takes a step forward into the murky brown water, but he then plunges into what is actually a huge waterlogged hole in the ground.
His whole body is completely submerged in the water below for a few seconds as bubbles appear above.
A couple of seconds later the unlucky holidaymaker reemerges at the surface - caked head-to-toe in mud.
Martin's wife can be heard laughing hysterically as her husband clambers out the muddy swamp.
'I'll be honest, I knew that my feet were going to get wet, I even considered that perhaps the bottom of my trousers may also get wet and I thought it could make an amusing video, so my wife proceeded to film,' he said of the event.
'It was a total shock when I disappeared into the hole, and I kept going down, I think the hole may have been nine to 10 foot deep.
Afterwards, he clambered out and sat composing himself - while his wife 'laughed for a good 10 minutes', he said.
American exchange student has to be rescued after getting stuck inside giant stone vagina
We are not alone! British holidaymakers may have a reputation for getting themselves into trouble, but mischief knows neither boundary nor border.
In 2014, an American exchange student found himself in a bind after getting stuck in a stone statue of a vagina in Germany.
He apparently wanted to take a 'funny photo' inside the campus art installation at Tubingen University, but was unable to wriggle free, pictured lying helpless on the floor.
The scene caught the attention of a number of passersby - especially when a large contingent of emergency services were called to try and free him.
His friend at the scene was also amused enough to take a few photos and post them online.
Five emergency vehicles and 22 firefighters were said to have helped free the stuck student.
The images were posted on Imgur under the title: 'My Friend Got Stuck in the Vagina Statue in Tubingen'.
The sculpture was created by Peruvian artist Fernando de la Jara and is located outside Tubingen University's institute for microbiology and virology, in southwest Germany.
Photographer Erick Guzman explained that his friend 'just wanted to take a funny picture in the vagina statue'.
'The Germans told us it was a normal thing to do!'
The fire department found it less funny, Guzman conceded.