TIPPING....Reality vs Tradition?
Aug 2nd, 2008, 02:21 PM
#21
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makinghay,
Your driver/guides, one of whom will also be the trip leader, will be with you throughout the entire safari. We tipped them when we returned to Olasiti Lodge. We tipped each one for 4 days and then added to that amount as we felt each individuals overall service warranted. I hope that you are lucky enough to have Astarick and/or Athumani as driver/guides.
We tipped the lodge & camp staff prior to departing to the next location. Each place has a tip box, except for the Serengeti Tented Camp and there you will give the staff their tip on the last night. We took envelopes including thank you cards with the amounts inside, unsealed in case adjustments needed to be made. That made it so much easier. Kudos to whomever made that suggestion. ;-)
You will need the $1's, $5's & $10's as the camps/lodges keep very few bills for change.
If you change $100 to TZS, it will not be a large wad of bills.
Don't stress over tipping. The drivers & camp/lodge staff do such a great job of taking care of you, it will be easy to tip the appropriate amounts.
Linda
Your driver/guides, one of whom will also be the trip leader, will be with you throughout the entire safari. We tipped them when we returned to Olasiti Lodge. We tipped each one for 4 days and then added to that amount as we felt each individuals overall service warranted. I hope that you are lucky enough to have Astarick and/or Athumani as driver/guides.
We tipped the lodge & camp staff prior to departing to the next location. Each place has a tip box, except for the Serengeti Tented Camp and there you will give the staff their tip on the last night. We took envelopes including thank you cards with the amounts inside, unsealed in case adjustments needed to be made. That made it so much easier. Kudos to whomever made that suggestion. ;-)
You will need the $1's, $5's & $10's as the camps/lodges keep very few bills for change.
If you change $100 to TZS, it will not be a large wad of bills.
Don't stress over tipping. The drivers & camp/lodge staff do such a great job of taking care of you, it will be easy to tip the appropriate amounts.
Linda
Aug 2nd, 2008, 04:32 PM
#22
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<b>Bill H: My $100/year per capita is a direct quote from the OAT "Tanzania Today" page. I've done a brief search now, and am totally confused, but convinced that their article is way off base. I came up with figures anywhere from $290 to $610 (2003) and no up to date statistics.</b>
Hay, my $800 quote for 2006 came from the "CIA World Factbook - 2008" but in checking around I see there are plenty of different numbers floating about. The CIA figure is for PPP, which is adjusted for the country's cost-of-living and not in raw US dollars. There's also a per-capita in GDP, which is in raw dollars (all this I just learned)
So here are links for Tanzania with 2007 estimates from the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and CIA ranging from $400 - $415 in "nominal GDP" or raw dollars and from $1,209 - $1,300 in adjusted PPP (Purchasing Power Parity)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...PP)_per_capita
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...%29_per_capita
So I guess we DID tip our guide more than a year's per-capita in GDP for a couple week's worth, and the OAT guide you are using suggests twice this amount if you have 8 people in the jeep, which is pretty high (I'll bet they use Ranger Safaris or Leopard Tours or similar, where the drivers would expect $20-30 per day for a jeep load of pax on a private trip, so $60-80 per day does seem generous).
BTW, we know our guide fairly well after 3 years ... he supports seven people (the "African extended family" concept), including siblings going to school and his mother. He doesn't have a private vehicle and lives in a neighborhood where he cannot leave his home unattended because of thieves, so 'middle-class' in Arusha is not the same as middle-class in America. He told me much of his extra money goes towards paying for private school for his daughter. I think free public schooling ends around 7th grade. So the money that he is earning is put to good use in the local economy.
Bill
Hay, my $800 quote for 2006 came from the "CIA World Factbook - 2008" but in checking around I see there are plenty of different numbers floating about. The CIA figure is for PPP, which is adjusted for the country's cost-of-living and not in raw US dollars. There's also a per-capita in GDP, which is in raw dollars (all this I just learned)
So here are links for Tanzania with 2007 estimates from the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and CIA ranging from $400 - $415 in "nominal GDP" or raw dollars and from $1,209 - $1,300 in adjusted PPP (Purchasing Power Parity)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...PP)_per_capita
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...%29_per_capita
So I guess we DID tip our guide more than a year's per-capita in GDP for a couple week's worth, and the OAT guide you are using suggests twice this amount if you have 8 people in the jeep, which is pretty high (I'll bet they use Ranger Safaris or Leopard Tours or similar, where the drivers would expect $20-30 per day for a jeep load of pax on a private trip, so $60-80 per day does seem generous).
BTW, we know our guide fairly well after 3 years ... he supports seven people (the "African extended family" concept), including siblings going to school and his mother. He doesn't have a private vehicle and lives in a neighborhood where he cannot leave his home unattended because of thieves, so 'middle-class' in Arusha is not the same as middle-class in America. He told me much of his extra money goes towards paying for private school for his daughter. I think free public schooling ends around 7th grade. So the money that he is earning is put to good use in the local economy.
Bill
Aug 2nd, 2008, 11:33 PM
#24
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I really find it hard to understand how having spent lots of $$$ on the trip people, need to debate how much to spend on tips. If you wish to tip why should you be concerned if it is too much or too little, it seems that most people are concerned with whether it means that very, very poor people are earning more than other very, very poor people.
Think yourself lucky you do not have to tip at the normal rates for restaurants.
Ask yourself why all the money you have paid is not going towards the paying the staff a decent living wage in the first place.Afterwards think of how it must feel to see people eating and drinking food that costs more than the average wage of most of the people serving you.
Think yourself lucky you do not have to tip at the normal rates for restaurants.
Ask yourself why all the money you have paid is not going towards the paying the staff a decent living wage in the first place.Afterwards think of how it must feel to see people eating and drinking food that costs more than the average wage of most of the people serving you.
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