A tourist has revealed why visiting Egypt quickly turned into one of the worst travel experiences of her life.
Grace Cheng, better known as @gracietravels, spent a week in northeast Africa visiting the Great Pyramids of Giza and other historical landmarks but felt unsafe the whole time.
Her holiday was ruined by ‘aggressive’ scammers lurking around ‘everywhere’ in attempt to rid innocent tourists of their money.
‘I felt so uncomfortable visiting Egypt… Scamming is a big issue here and I didn’t really know how big it was as a first timer,’ she said in a TikTok video.
‘The hustle culture here is insane. Everywhere we went it was non-stop begging for us to pay for something. If I’m being completely honest, I did not feel safe here.’
Grace shared her experience in attempt to alert other travels about the ‘exhausting’ dangers she endured.
‘Don’t let anyone take a picture of you, don’t let anyone put anything in your hand, and don’t follow anyone if they have something to show you because they will demand money from you,’ Grace continued.
She added how she ‘didn’t even feel safe’ even with a tour guide by her side.
‘Ours had a lot of friends in the area and they just kept offering us tons and tons of upgrades, like climbing a rock to get a picture with the background,’ she said.
Gracie said it felt ‘scary’ when she refused to pay the scammers and they kept demanding money.
‘That being said though, if you have a good tour guide they will know what’s real and fake when it comes to scamming. So for that you can trust them,’ she added.
Gracie also would not recommend travelling to Egypt alone, especially if you’re a woman.
‘When it comes to men they do stare at you, and it’s not even a normal stare, it’s one of those really uncomfortable stares where they’ll never take their eyes off of you,’ she said.
In addition to feeling anxious around people, she was terrified about losing her luggage.
‘We had private drivers wherever we went, but whenever we got dropped off at a site and left out bags in the van I for sure [thought] I was never going to see them again,’ she added.
Source: Mail Online