10 times dumb tourists did stupid stuff that will make you facepalm hard, boht hard

If there wasn’t already a dearth of stupid people doing stupid things in famous places, the latest to join a very long list of unruly tourists were two men who decided that going surfing on E-Foils in the Grand Canal of Venice was their jam.

Venetian Mayor Luigi Brugnaro appeared to be fuming in a tweet over the incident and offered free dinner to anyone able to identify the "two overbearing idiots making a mockery of the city".

While the two were apprehended, fined, their boards confiscated and expelled from the city, we couldn’t help but wonder the times when dull-witted or ignorant tourists were caught doing the dumbest (and most infuriating) things possible. 

Here is an extensive (but definitely not exhaustive) list of some of those fruitful moments from across the world.

Vandalizing The Little Mermaid’s Statue in Copenhagen

The Little Mermaid sculpture in Copenhagen, a tribute to the Danish fairy tale author Hans Christian Andersen, has been the subject of vandalism multiple times over the years. The mermaid statue has been decapitated, maimed, spray-painted with ‘Free Hong Kong’ and most recently in 2020, spray-painted with ‘Racist Fish’. Luck just doesn’t seem to be having it for Ariel.

Destroying a 3,000-year-old limestone stalagmite

In 2017, a Chinese tourist visited a cave in western China and deliberately kicked a stalagmite, over 3,000 years in the making, multiple times until it was completely destroyed. The 50 cm tall stalagmite was obliterated within seconds and caught on surveillance cameras. Whatever the reasons, the man seemed to have gotten a kick out of it.

Cutting off the ear of an Easter Island statue

In 2003, a 25-year-old Finnish tourist was apprehended after breaking off a piece of the ancient statues at Easter Island. The man apparently wished to take the piece of the Moai statue home as a souvenir of his visit. Surely, Vincent van Gogh would be proud.
 
Defacing the Ancient Egyptian Temple of Luxor

A teenage tourist from China inscribed “Ding Jinhao was here” on the walls of the ancient Egyptian temple of Luxor in 2013. The incident got national attention to the point that the Chinese government issued a nationwide public announcement for citizens traveling abroad to respect the customs and traditions of the places. Bet Ding Jinhao was wishing he wasn’t here after that.

Damaging the Piazza di Spagna's famous Fontana della Barcaccia 

During a Europa Cup match in 2015, a group of drunk Dutch football fans wreaked havoc across the city of Rome. The most unfortunate victim of this hooliganism was the Fontana della Barcaccia, the historic 17th-century fountain. The damage done was deemed irreparable. 

Taking photos of their butts at the Wat Arun Buddhist Temple in Bangkok

In 2017, an American couple and Instagram travel-bloggers named, “Traveling Butts” were arrested after posting a photo of themselves at the famous Buddhist temple, Wat Arun, in Bangkok, with their butts hanging out. The two were fined and handed over to immigration authorities. They’re probably gonna be the butt of all jokes for a while now.

Splashing their butts with holy water at the Beji Temple in Bali

Two Czech Instagram influencers, Sabina Dolezalova and Zdenek Slouka, decided that the most Instagrammable moment from their 2019 visit to the Beji Temple in Indonesia would be to wash their bare butts with the temple’s holy water. The duo faced intense backlash online, prompting an apology and a voluntary contribution to the local village. 
 
Scaling the Great Pyramids of Giza for lewd photos

In 2018, a Danish photographer named Andreas Hvid, woke up on his visit to Egypt and decided that today he would scale a height of 460 feet up the Great Pyramids of Giza and film himself pretending to have sex at the top. Subsequently, he brushed off the matter with indifference and no action was taken against him. Talk about a time and a place.

Falling into Mount Vesuvius, an active volcano

Yes, you read that correctly. In July 2022, a 23-year-old American tourist fell into Mount Vesuvius in Italy, after deliberately straying off the designated path. Thankfully, emergency services rescued him shortly after and he walked away with minor injuries and some fines. 

Stealing a brick from Auschwitz and making a Nazi salute

We could not possibly stress enough just how messed up this is on so many levels. Two Hungarian tourists straight up helped themselves to some bricks at the infamous Nazi concentration camp in Poland. They were slapped with a $400 fine and a year in prison on probation. In a separate incident, a woman was caught making the Nazi salute in what she later claimed was just a “poor joke” at Auscwhitz and was charged with instigating Nazi propaganda.