One avid solo traveler has blacklisted the island of Mykonos after her latest visit, slamming the Grecian getaway for having “a problem.”
Christina Ford, 63, took to TikTok to voice her dissatisfaction with her recent trip, baffled by the island’s tipping culture after she was asked to leave gratuity when checking out of her room — on top of all the other tips she had doled out over the course of her stay.
“This is insane,” Ford, who is based in London, began in the clip, in which she said tipping culture was “getting crazy.” “Mykonos, I don’t know what the hell’s going on with you.”
She was charged over $700 per night for her three-night stay, and was shocked when she was asked to tip further on top of her bill and other incurred fees.
“Of course, I didn’t pay it,” the travel blogger told The Post. “The sheer absurdity of it! But it got me wondering—would they ask a local Athenian for a tip? Not a chance, according to my Greek friends.”
But her hellish vacation didn’t stop there, explaining in another video that she would never advise solo travelers to go to Mykonos because of how hospitality workers treated her.
She argued that they “discriminate against people who travel by themselves” after a bad experience at multiple bars, claiming to The Post they were “prioritizing profit over hospitality.”
Ford wanted to get one drink before dinner and the first bar said they enforced a €100 minimum, while another bar she tried refused to seat her as a party of one despite the restaurant being mostly empty.
“Mykonos, in its obvious desperation to make a buck, discriminates, I believe, against solo travelers,” she told the Daily Mail, adding that servers should “treat the solo traveller the same as if you were a table of 10.”
“They were not willing to seat one person at a table for two, even if the place was empty.”
While some critics called Ford a “middle-aged Karen,” she’s brushing off the hate, which she says was “outnumbered by people who had similar experiences.”
“I would give Mykonos a complete pass. To quote Oscar Wilde, once is curiosity, twice perversion,” she told Daily Mail, recommending islands like Hydra instead.
She also told The Post that she prefers to frequent cities in Spain and Italy, where hospitality service is, in her opinion, much more delightful.
“I absolutely love traveling and believe it’s the best teacher and therapist anyone can have,” she told The Post.
“I believe Mykonos may soon face trouble if it continues this way; no matter one’s budget, nobody likes feeling ripped off or disregarded when there are so many other wonderful places the world has to offer.”
