Thank you for all the comments guys. This is extremely helpful.

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Has anyone ever hired a tour guide through Lady Egypt or otherwise for just a day or two of touring (for example, just in Cairo/Giza). Are guides available for a daily rate, and if so, what is the approximate daily rate for a guide?

My wife and I will be traveling through the country and do not want a completely guided trip, just guides during certain portions.

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We are travelling as a group-4 adults and 2 kids. Do we follow the LE rules on the sheet provided per person per day or will we have the chance to prepay all the tips?

Not clear - we were given the option (which we took, by the way) of prepaying all the tips (we were also 6 people -- us and 4 young adults), but others have said they were not given the same option.

Gred. I had a tour booked but had some extra days where we could just do what we wanted. I elected to have a guide and driver available which cost about US70 for the day plus my tip.

Question. Lady Egypt recommends tipping 50-100 LE per person per day for guides. What if we are only taking a half day tour? How about driver from airport to hotel?

If it was me, I would apply the same tipping recommendations to the half day tour as well. I wouldn't cut it in half.

I agree with Axel2DP - tip the same amount. But, that's me.

I tipped the same no matter how long someone was with us. For some short airport trips, e.g. Luxor hotel to airport. I guess the ones that with with us a short time got lucky but I thought that perhaps as they had driven me that morning for 20 mins or half an hour they might not be able to get another job for the day.

I tipped our driver for the day that he attempted to pick us up at the airport but the car was hit in the Cairo Airport car park and was completely out of action. We had to catch a cab home with our rep and he caught a bus back to the Lady Egypt office to report it. I felt sorry for him that through no fault of his own he could not drive us and probably wouldn't of gotten paid

I am genuinely confused here. I see a tip as a personal gesture about service given and yet it seems there are set "fees" and expectations for this.
As an example - if 10-20LE is way to little for the driver, what about the actual fee for his service he will get from whoever is paid for the tour/trip/excursion in the first place?

Please don't see this as a "flame" post - I genuinely want to get a better understanding.
Thanks.

I am confused here also. It seems to me that when I pay for a driver and a guide thru a tour company, they should receive a good and fair wage from the payment I made for the tour. When handing out tips, I would keep in mind the wages of a teacher in Egypt are said to be 50LE for a full day. So if I tip a driver equal the daily wage for a teacher and he also receives a wage, there surely will not be any men willing to teach. They will all be drivers.

Maybe they are not paid by a tour company. If so, then I should hire them myself and make sure they are paid.

The last two posters are right on about WHAT SHOULD HAPPEN and all that can be said is WELCOME TO EGYPT. They are not as well paid as you might hope by the owners of their companies.

Teachers might make 50LE a day, but NO ONE much can live in the city on that little. Teachers all work all nights and all weekend hours during the school year tutoring students to make ends meet. They also will take bribes to pass students that maybe should't otherwise pass. It is all in an effort to survive the high cost of living.

The driver is not making much money for his actual service of driving unless he takes you to Carpet Schools, Alabaster Factories, Papyrus Museums or Gold shops that will pay him a fee just for stopping with you. Some shops pay the drivers more for certain Nationalities because they know Americans spend more money than Japanese (for example).
Remember too that a drivers job is not something he is guaranteed to have year after year after year, like a teacher, or (in Egypt) any government job. This month he may make a lot of money, but last June, July and August he may have only worked 5 days all month. If another 9/11 happens anywhere in the world, his job is gone. People working in the tourist business are always at risk to be out of work tomorrow.

You are right on about looking around and seeing what service you got from the driver. If he is driving a bus and all 50 passengers give him a dollar each - he does quite alright. If he is working with 2-5 of you, then a bit more might be required for the priveledge of having had a private tour. It should always be up to you though. Don't give tips you don't think were earned - ever! Even if LE or someone else tells you to. Give them happily, or don't give them.
As my private driver says - Even if money is nice, our best tip is a happy customer - one that won't stop talking about how much fun s/he had and how we helped them have a great time.

wigwam - I think you are seeing this as "set fees" because in the business we are ALWAYS being asked "what should we tip". It's an uncomfortable question to be asked because if we answer it, it seems as are asking for tips. Instead some agencies have come up with "guidelines" if you will, to help. It can be miscontrued to be fees to add on, but probably wasn't meant to be that when the list was made up.

I agree with everything Casual_Cairo said - especially the parts about how the teachers supplement their income and how the drivers are not necessarily paid as well as you might think.

The tips quoted by tour operators are not set fees, they are guidelines (why is the "Pirates of the Carribbean" movie playing in my head????), but they are what the people in Egypt count on to make a decent living.

I have never been on a tour like these, so I have never had to deal with suggested/recommended tips, but if I were.....

If I got basic, nothing special service - I would pay the minimum suggested.
If I got good service - I would pay between the middle and high end of the suggested amount.
If I got really good service - I would pay the highest amount, and then probably add on a little extra.

Also, IF I had been in this situation, I would have been traveling with children - and I guarantee that I would be extra generous with tips to the people (drivers, guides, cruise staff, whoever) who made it a point to make sure my children were well taken care of.

<<Teachers might make 50LE a day, but NO ONE much can live in the city on that little. Teachers all work all nights and all weekend hours during the school year tutoring students to make ends meet. They also will take bribes to pass students that maybe should't otherwise pass. It is all in an effort to survive the high cost of living.>>

Oh - and this doesn't just happen in Egypt!!!!!

thank you both and C_C I do understand your point about repeated requests for advice.
but to use grcxx3 comments as an example:
if one got just the basic service why would/should you pay ANY tip at all over the pre-agreed fee for service?
I do understand the "welcome to Egypt" and have been to arabia and the indian subcontinent plenty of types beset by demands for "baksheesh" esp in arab hotels, but it is the suggestion or implication that the "tip" is effectively obligatory that sits a little uneasy with me - especially when I read of these tour operators or camel-owners/drivers at times humiliating tourists by handing back tips given in good faith as insultingly small.

<<if one got just the basic service why would/should you pay ANY tip at all over the pre-agreed fee for service>>

To me, I would still pay a minimum tip because (especially in places like Egypt) I can't be sure what the driver/guide (whoever) is being paid by the company - if anything. It would not surprise me if some of these individuals survived solely on tips.

Besides, as Casual_Cairo said - many of these people get money from the alabaster, papyrus, perfume, rug, etc shops, so if I choose NOT to go to one of those places, then I am happy to give a little extra in exchange for the extra time to do what I want and for NOT getting a pressured sales pitch!

I guess I look at this as I look at tipping a waiter/waitress. I know that people in the food service industry rely heavily on tips, so even basic service gets about 10% from me. I never leave no tip - unless the service has been really poor and then only if I am willing to complete a comment card or speak to the manager.

Having just returned Casual Cairo is correct. You also get what you pay for. I had a special interest that required running around town and I was happy to tip the driver well as he always dropped me within feet of where I wanted to be and returned on time for picking me back up. His basic day charge was reasonable and because of his service which did make my trip better and easier I tipped well.

And I learned to cross the street!

Thanks CC for the info on the book market which lead me to other dealers.