Currently in Egypt and they just asked us to pay in USD cash for an added activity but, not being American, we don’t have USD. We have the local currency and the ability to get that out at ATMs, but no way to access foreign currency. So annoying but they accepted local in the end.
Welcome to Egypt. You were being scammed and people will often try to do that to you. Research local prices before buying anything
In this case I don’t necessarily think it was a scam because the conversion matched up with what was shown online. However, they clearly wanted both a more stable currency and to not have to convert it themselves. I understand this but there is no way for me to physically attain another currency since I did not bring any into the country and especially wouldn’t have USD. They accepted Egyptian pounds in the end.
How does this scam work? Is it based on the assumption that tourist won’t know the exchange rate and can be easily (and presumably grossly) overcharged?