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.”
According to the Daily Mail, she was charged approximately $777 for her three-night stay, telling the outlet that she was “shocked beyond belief” when she was asked to tip further.
“In all my years of travel, I had never seen anything like this. I also believe that if I were Greek and not Canadian — often mistaken for American — I wouldn’t have been asked,” she told the outlet, adding that she’s a “generous tipper” if she enjoyed the service, but not when it’s forced.
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.
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.
“What made the island popular in the first place has slowly been replaced with overinflated prices and entitlement,” she said of Mykonos. “I can afford to pay for great food and service, but no one likes to be ripped off or taken advantage of, regardless of their budget.”
The Post has reached out to Ford for further comment.
