Least informed Locals
 

What countries have you travelled to where you found the locals to be least informed and least helpful? In Some countries the locals are incredibly helpful and full of knowledge(Germany, Israel, etc)

We just came back from a tour of Spain and Portugal. We found that whenever we asked the locals questions about local history/monuments/opening hours/directions/etc, the answer tended to be: "I don't know, he don't know, she don't know". This became infuriating. We took a tour that involved a visit to the circus, because we don't speak Spanish we asked the tour guide to ask one of the trainers how old the elephants were. The tour guide and the trainer talked on and on for what seemed like 5 minutes, then the tour guide turns to us and says, "She don't know"

If you can't speak Spanish, this is doesn't surprise me at all of the Spaniards. They're embarrassed to use their poor English.

I'm actually finding your views on customs and culture to be infuriating and annoying.

So you ended up with a rotten tour guide. And your tour confirmed EXACTLY what I think of circuses that use animals (that they are rarely well cared for and kept in awful conditions as well as being overworked and exploited... if you were a little more informed you might have realised yourself and not contributed to a miserable business. I watched a documentary on BBC4 a couple of nights ago about a Shangahi Circus School and was in tears over the harshness of the training the children had to cope with, and their trainers genuinely cared about them, my heart goes out to animals given no choice in the matter).

There are uninformed locals everywhere.

You really need to re-think the way you travel and stop making these awful generalisations.

I've been to lot of places in Spain and have relied on many strangers to help me. My impression is the opposite of yours, most folks are friendly, knowledgeable and helpful, comparable to being in Japan.

Seriously, ditch the guided tours, they sound dreadful and are doing a marvellous job of narrowing your mind.

This might be a topic for OMNI, but as the OP is not OMNI-qualified, I am going to close this thread.
Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator