News, US tourists in Italy call cops after being charged $50 for ice cream
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51 reviews on TripAdvisor including 48 1-star reviews. Of course I wouldn't have checked TA if I had only wanted gelato.
If I was thinking of travelling somewhere and fid out that I'd have to check TA at every stop on my trip so I don't get ripped off by greedy locals, I would simply choose another destination. Stories like this one are one of the main reasons I wrote off Egypt as a possible travel destination. Seeing the pyramids doesn't seem worth being harassed by locals looking for baksheesh every time you turn around.
The worst experience I have ever had with this kind of thing was being charged $6 CUC for a bottle of cerveza while having lunch in a local restaurant in Varadero, Cuba. Like the tourists in the OP, I assumed the cerveza would cost somewhere closer to the going rate of $1-2 CUC. However, $6 for a bottle of beer is a long way from $50 for ice cream. Tourist trap or not, that is a scam no matter which way you want to slice it, and something I have never seen the likes of despite travelling all over Canada, the United States, Cuba and Ireland (the glaring exception being the cab drivers in Las Vegas. What a bunch of ignorant, lowlife shysters!).
51 reviews on TripAdvisor including 48 1-star reviews. Of course I wouldn't have checked TA if I had only wanted gelato.
Those reviews are pretty wild. The feedback is still frequent enough that it must not matter much for business. I guess since they're close to the Trevi fountain people are probably just passing by without being aware. I hope they get pranked hard.
I have noticed very frequently Americans will just order stuff without even looking at prices. They will just go to a bar and say "give me a beer" etc. How do you know that beer is not $40? In an airport sometimes I will ask the bartender how much the beer costs because there are severe markups and I need to know the price before I decide whether I will drink or pass on it. But the bartender and others around me always look at me funny when I ask how much it costs... like I somehow don't have the money for it, LMAO!
Call me paranoid but I don't want to order a pint of lager at an airport and get a bill for $20 for it...because I think that is daylight robbery and some places have no shame in charging that much!
No, they don't check the price because somehow in American culture it signifies being cheap to check the price... then later they have issues.
I have noticed very frequently Americans will just order stuff without even looking at prices. They will just go to a bar and say "give me a beer" etc. How do you know that beer is not $40? In an airport sometimes I will ask the bartender how much the beer costs because there are severe markups and I need to know the price before I decide whether I will drink or pass on it. But the bartender and others around me always look at me funny when I ask how much it costs... like I somehow don't have the money for it, LMAO!
Call me paranoid but I don't want to order a pint of lager at an airport and get a bill for $20 for it...because I think that is daylight robbery and some places have no shame in charging that much!
No, they don't check the price because somehow in American culture it signifies being cheap to check the price... then later they have issues.
Please don't paint all Americans into the same corner. I assure you that we are not all ignorant. Most places have the prices squarely on the menu or a board on the wall both in the US and abroad.
By the way, I have seldom run into an airport with markups any higher than the average local restaurant.
There's plenty of blame to go around here. Yes, you ideally would check the prices before you buy anything. No, you don't deserve to be ripped off if you don't.
These places that prey on tourists just give the place a bad name. I'm always surprised when the locals don't get more mad about it, but just seem accepting that it's what happens to tourists.
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