The Globus tours that I have been on have suggested $6.00 a day PP for the TG and $3.00 a day pp for the bus driver so I think you are high.

Trafalgar Tours has always, at least up until this year, suggested tour directors get the equivalent of $4 US per day and coach drivers the equivalent of $2.50 US/day...

This hyear they arbitrarily changed it to €4/day and €2.50/day...can't understand why.

250.00 dollars for at TIP!!???
Come on, that is way too high, no Canadian expects that kind of tip, doesn't the tour guide even get paid!?
I suggest you contact the company directly, you know on some tours you are not even supposed to tip. Rick Steves tours are no tipping because he pays his guide good wages.

I would give 50 bucks and be done with it.

Can i get a job as a tour guide.

OMG 10 couples would give me $2500 on top of my salary.

Imagine it if you were to get 15 tours a year - just short of $37,500 a year on top of the salary.

Why did i waste all that time at college studying to be an engineer

I have taken many of their tours and usually tip 50-60 dollars. The driver does not need to be tipped as they pay them for that.The tour leader does get paid but very little.

It is considered appropriate to tip both the guide (more) and the driver. The guide gets very low wages (like waitstaff in the US) and need tips to live. The driver is tipped on the principle that he deals with all the luggage etc as well as driving the bus.

I would think 5 euros per day per day per person is basic for the guide - more if he/she does extra. (Think about how little 5 euros buys.) Driver seems to get about half that - per people I know that do tours.

We tipped after a FOUR day tour of Greece in May 2006. The tour guide was a grumpy, unpleasant woman who did her job but no more and we only tipped her because we were aware of the low wages she would be receiving. However, the driver was a delightful man who was always cheeful and greeted us all with a smile every day. In addition, he cleaned the bus from head to toe inside and out every day. I was VERY happy to tip him but not the grumpy guide. From memory we gave them about 20 euros each (for a four day tour).

"It is considered appropriate to tip both the guide (more) and the driver." Depends entirely on the tour company. As stated above, you don't tip either on a Rick Steves' tour. Adventures Abroad's web site says that you don't tip the driver, at least on some of their tours. I've never seen a guide tipped on an Intrepid tour.

I am so glad I asked! And here I was thinking $250 wouldn't be enough for a tip. Actually, I have traveled before with the same tour guide for this upcoming trip, and he is awesome! Well worth a tip...but maybe I will scale it down a bit. I like the suggestion to call Adventures Abroad and ask what the usual rate is per day.
Thanks for you input everyone!

On about 10 tours, we have tipped at the mid-point of the suggested rate. In a couple of cases, for exemplary service, we've tipped more. If you have a bad leader I would decrease the tip but, most important, let your dissatisfaction be known on the comment card - these are read very seriously by the tour company and, if they get too many complaints, they'll can the leader.

I am a professional tour leader and I can tell you that over 75% of my income is based on tips. I am paid minimum wage. Tip your tour leader. Factor it into your budget or don't take the tour. I don't appreciate giving my services for free.

When I've taken tours the tour company always sends a booklet with all kinds of information from what to wear to what to tip. The suggestion has always been to tip both the tour guide and driver and additional tips to local guides.

I just calculated what I tipped on my recent tour (excellent program director) and it was about 2.5% of the tour price so 5% per couple sounds about right. I used the per diem rate suggested by the tour company and added a bit extra since the program director was so great.

My wife and I took a Cosmos tour a couple of years ago. I'm sorry to say that the "gratuities" were prepaid which meant we had little sanction against the tour director who was pretty bloody ordinary, he just did the basics and never at any time lived up to the description of a tour director as depicted in the Cosmos brochures. We were 7 days into the tour before he spoke to me directory (other than giving my our room key) and that was in response to a question I posed for him. The T.D. would have made good dosh out of optional extras and sales made in his pet retail outlets. Many of our fellow passengers pared back his "gratuities."