Victorian holidaymakers weren’t all that different from travellers today, taking away their must-have gadgets, touring the world’s most iconic cities – and complaining about the hotel breakfasts.
While 150 years may have passed, many of our experiences are surprisingly similar and we even have some of the same travel gripes.
A new Hotelclub.com infographic reveals hat Victorian travellers moaned about passport control, unsatisfactory food and the need for host countries to speak English as much as we still do today.
The hilarious comparison charts the cultural problems Britons encountered abroad, some of which remain today.
Whether it is complaining about the lack of good tea, the modest size of the hotel breakfast or the cramped conditions for travel, it seems we were never a nation of good travellers.
Even 150 years ago, Britons had to show a passport to travel to Europe and it caused no end of headaches.
The Times newspaper even declared: ‘An Englishman believes that his presence in the shape of five feet nine of respectability is proof enough that he must have been born and had a name.’
The whole idea of customs was also criticised as ‘a tyranny most repulsive to our British notions’.
While the golden age of travel is often considered an exotic phenomenon, transport could often be cramped and dirty – especially in stagecoaches – which is why many paid extra so they could ensure a larger compartment.
It is a system not unlike modern flights, with passengers complaining that there is not enough legroom and paying extra to ensure more comfort.
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Source: Sarah Gordon (2014). Cramped travel, bad hotel breakfasts and passport control gripes – how holidays haven’t changed since the Victorian era, Daily Mail Online http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-2593290/Travel-trends-How-holidays-havent-changed-Victorian-era.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490 published Mar 31, 2014. Viewed Apr 01, 2014.