On the Greek islands, restaurants and bars squeeze the most out of foreign tourists. So, during a vacation in Greece, a couple of British tourists refused to pay a bill of more than 520 euros. The travelers’ order consisted of only two drinks and a small number of snacks.
According to British media, the tourist and her 19-year-old daughter were shocked after receiving a bill at a restaurant on the island of Mykonos in the Aegean Sea. According to the woman, they spent several hours on deckchairs and during that time ordered two cocktails and a portion of crab legs. But when they brought the bill, they saw staggering figures: 520 euros for food and drink (about 16,000 hryvnias) and 78 euros (about 2,400 hryvnias) tips.
Complaining about the huge bill to her travel agent, she admitted that they used the sunbeds for several hours, but could not believe that a short vacation on the beach could be so expensive. The price list was nowhere to be found. It turned out that the tourists were not the first to receive a bill for a huge sum in a restaurant by the sea.
“We had a great day at the beach, but please warn your future clients that the restaurant-bar we visited took 600 euros from us for two cocktails and a portion of crab legs. Although we expected that the bill would not exceed 200 euros (6,100 hryvnias), suddenly the waiter asked us to pay three times more,” the traveler was indignant.
Greece is highly dependent on tourism: one in four people work in tourism. This is not the first time that foreign vacationers are perceived as a bag of money and fools are fooled by locals. This is especially easy when guests do not speak Greek.
For example, in the reporting year 2019, a tourist in a Mykonos restaurant got angry after he was charged 591 euros (18,200 hryvnias at today’s exchange rate) for just six pieces of squid. In the same year, a group of British tourists paid 82 euros (2,500 hryvnias) for eight soft drinks after visiting a restaurant in Rhodes. In 2017, a British traveler claimed that he and his elderly parents had been deceived and received a lunch bill of 17,000 hryvnias for lobsters and oysters at the Trattoria Casanova restaurant in Venice although the guests did not even order them.