Travel News: World’s Most Annoying Travelers, Top Summer Destinations and Deals, and America’s Most Legendary Theme Park Is Reopening
What are you biggest travel peeves? A new survey may very well echo your worst complaints. Ready to hit the road for the summer? We’ll share the hottest destinations and deals to get you there. And did you know that a theme park with a reputation (fair or not) for making your skin crawl is opening its doors again?
WORLD’S MOST ANNOYING TRAVELERS
We all have our nominees for the most irritating behaviors that we are exposed to when we travel. Some of us disike chatty seatmates, while others resent seatmates who are unfriendly. Some of us avoid partiers at all costs, while others are always looking for a chance to raise a glass. But Expdia has released the results of its 2018 Airplane and Hotel Etiquette Study (expedia.com) with some findings that almost all of us can agree to.
According to Expedia’s new survey, the most annoying fliers are:
- The Seat Kicker/Bumper/Grabber (with 51 percent of survey respondents in agreement on this)
- The Aromatic Passenger (43 percent)
- The Inattentive Parent (39 percent)
- Personal Space Violators (34 percent)
- Audio Insensitive (29 percent)
Expedia also notes that more than 90 percent of respondents object to passengers going barefoot on a plane. We couldn’t agree more, for reasons of safety, hygiene, and just all-around good vibes.
And the most annoying hotel guests are…
- The Inattentive Parents (with 45 percent of survey respondents in agreement, including, we presume, a lot of attentive parents!)
- The In-Room Revelers and The Hallway Hellraisers (41 percent)
- The Complainers (29 percent)
- The Party-goers and The Bar Boozer (27 percent)
TOP SUMMER DESTINATIONS
Our friends at AAA (aaa.com) always have interesting seasonal data on the travel habits of American motorists, and we’re admittedly fascinated by the most popular summer travel destinations. Nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of American who are planning a family vacation are expected to do so via road trip this year. Based on current AAA bookings for trips June 1 through August 1, the current top domestic summer destinations are:
- Orlando, Florida
- Honolulu, Hawaii
- Anchorage, Alaska
- Seattle, Washington
- Los Angeles/Anaheim, California
- Maui, Hawaii
- Fairbanks, Alaska
- Las Vegas, Nevada
- Boston, Massachusetts
- Salt Lake City, Utah
PRICELINE’S 20 DAYS OF DEALS
Speaking of summer travel, Priceline (priceline.com) is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a gift to travelers: Check out the 20 Days of Deals running through May 19, which will help travelers save more than $50 million on flights, hotels, car rentals, cruises, travel packages, and credit card rewards across much of the world, with a new deal going live each day at 6am Eastern.
AMERICA’S MOST LEGENDARY THEME PARK IS REOPENING
We don’t make a habit of poking fun at travel destinations. So, when we heard that Beech Mountain, North Carolina’s cyber-bullied Land of Oz theme park is reopening for six days in June, with one-hour guided tours that include live-action role-playing with guest participation, we wanted to do our part to talk it up. The park’s unfortunately creepy reputation has been largely due to years of social media photos of the empty park, which opened in 1970 and has been closed since the mid-’80s. If those old photos of ruined buildings and remnants of the Yellow Brick Road are to be believed, the tours may very well be on the creepy side. But maybe in a good way? Let’s remember that the classic 1939 movie adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s popular children’s book, with its green-faced, fire-wielding witch, talking trees, and flying monkeys, doesn’t exactly win any awards for sensitivity, does it? Tickets to the Land of Oz theme park ($25) are on sale now at landofoznc.com/journeywithdorothy.