A TikTok trend from recent months is influencers sharing “the truth” behind viral picturesque vacation spots, only for them to be met with criticism from commenters.
The latest influencer involved is Mikaela Testa. On 15 August she posted a video of herself in Italy, specifically on the island of Capri. In her TikTok she told viewers to not be sad if they didn’t get to visit Europe over the summer saying, “it is not all it’s cracked up to be.”
“Influencers come to these locations and make them look so pretty and so photogenic and so amazing, but half of it is edited and filtered and just not real,” she said. “I hardly see anyone mentioning any negatives, I don’t even want to mention them because I don’t want to be that b***h.”
Testa said she had been travelling with her friends for the last three months and had hit a point where they were “dying to go home.”
“It’s been three months, we’re just dying to go home at this point, we’re just hating, we’re being negative, you get to a point in life where you start to hate everything around you and you just need something stable. Like my own bed, my own TV and my cats,” she continued.
The TikToker then went on to list all of the negative aspects of the country she was in. Testa complained about the amount of walking her and her friends had to do. “It takes the entire day to walk to a location you want to go to,” she said. She also said she felt like she had burned “literally 3,000 calories a day” from walking up stairs and the heat was so unbearable she and her friends had to dump water on themselves before going inside.
The same day she posted another TikTok telling people to “skip Barcelona” if they were travelling to Europe. “I stand in piss every single day, this place stinks, and it’s horrible,” she said. The insults continued as Testa also said that all of her friends had their phones stolen and she talked about how bored they all were.
In one clip, she and her friends were walking through the city’s streets saying, “It’s 8pm, and yes we’re wearing pyjamas outside because there is no point in looking good for this city,” she said.
People ended up questioning where her critiques of Barcelona specifically were coming from. “Barcelona is amazing, what are you talking about,” one comment read. Testa replied to this comment writing, “why does nobody mention the negatives like literally urine puddles EVERYWHERE and major crime, violence and theft in daylight!”
“They say it’s too hot but wear a winter hat and winter uggs?!” another person commented.
“We’re not gonna live in Barcelona for 3 months r we tho,” someone commented.
Other commenters agreed with Testa and specifically weren’t pleased with the crime in the city. “Went on a full train and my mum’s wallet got stolen right in front of me, also a guy too and he had it in his fanny pack in front of him,” one person recounted their experience.
“Barcelona was so rough for me. My phone and wallet got stolen,” another person recalled in the comments.
