We will be touring India in February, and we are using Castle & King. What do you suggest for tipping for: the guide, the driver, people who handle luggage in hotels, restaurants?

Thank you very much for your advice.

I was very generous with my driver, depending on how long you have him and I also bought a sari for krishna's wife and his train ticket to go home.

Guides for day or 1/2 day I gave $15/10 as I remember...

Porters or bell hops I gave small amounts. Ask the driver and add a bit to what he suggests...

Use the driver for suggestions..

Thank you very much for your reply. Bob and Karen, I have always greatly appreciated and enjoyed your TR's over the years! They have often been a wonderful aide in my trip planning. Thank you!

I see your suggestion for tip for the guide, whom we will have daily. Also we'll have the driver daily. What do you suggest for that tip?

What percentage of restaurant bill is suggested for a tip?

Porters/bell hops: just a small amount? (We will also ask the driver, as suggested).

Anyone else have any additional thoughts on tipping in India?

Thank you all in advance for your suggestions on tipping.

Here are my suggestions. Bear in mind that India, like much of Asia, is not in general a tipping culture. Also bear in mind the 20 Rupees still goes a long way and is not a bad tip. My reccos below are based on what locals will do. You can of course do differently.

Restaurants - no tip. Check to see if service charge is in the bill (usually the case at anything other than very small places). 10% is often thoughtfully added. If there is no service charge, you can, if you want, leave change. But a tip is not expected.

"Shoe minders" in temples - 10-20 Rupees.

Porters in railway stations - locals will tip about 10-20 Rupees for all bags. You can tip more if you want, but I would not go more than 50 to 100 per bag.

Hotel porters - no tip is actually expected, but again 20-50 Rupees is fine, could go toward the higher end at more expensive hotels.

The person who cleans your room (more than likely to be a man, as these are good wage jobs) can be tipped as well. 50 Rupees or so. Do this daily, as the cleaners work in shifts.

Some hotels (like Oberois) pool tips and you leave an amount in an envelope at check out, in that case you could do 300 -500 Rupees or so depending on how long you stay.

Drivers – I have never used a driver for more than day, so don't really have a guideline. I would say 10% of his total charges would be generous.

Personally, I tip on the generous side but that is just me. In general, tips are not expected. (Other than from some aggressive “tour guides” at sights who are looking for tips and will be angry if you don’t tip them. Avoid them.) If the worst thing anyone says about me is that I tip too much and too often, that would not bother me at all.

Cicerone,

Thank you very much for your detailed response! It is definitely very helpful. (I remember that your posts on Hong Kong, Thailand, etc. were also very informative, and I appreciated your advice last year for that destination - SE Asia).

So do tourists visit the temples in India, barefooted, like in Thailand? Any advice?

We will be touring northern India in February. Again, many
thanks! I appreciate your advice.

Yes you generally have to remove your shoes for temples or sacred places. In February, I would suggest you wear socks, as the marble can be quite cold, esp places like the Taj at sunrise. You can wear socks as long as you take off your shoes. It also helps to keep your feet clean. Black or dark colour socks will be better than white given the dirt. (And you will then look like a German tourist, for good or bad....)

ha ha ha! OK dark socks added to my packing list

Thanks for the info about the socks.
Do women need a shawl or scarf to cover up in temples and sacred places?
Any other travel tips would be appreciated.
Thank you very much, once again.

I'm Australian so not completely au fait with tipping. My mistake was not tipping our driver daily, I think $10 is usual.

He got a bit upset by day three or four, we sorted the situation out with an excellent guides help.

I also stuffed up in Delhi by tipping the guide generously on the first day, only to have her turn up for our second day with a much younger driver than on day one. She flirted with him all day, ignoring us. She got no tip that day, and probably didn't understand why......

Have a fantastic trip, I look forward to your report.

In a Muslim mosque (like the Friday mosque in Delhi), you should have a headscarf or shawl to cover your head. (I think you would be allowed entrance without it, but it is polite to follow the custom.) I would err on the side of conservative dressing, no shorts or crop tops.

For Hindu temples there is generally no dress code. However, conservative dress is generally the rule in India, so for women I would not wear shorts or crop tops. Also, the south of India is more conservative than the north, so even for men, you should be decently dressed (no torn shorts or collarless T shirts. You won’t be denied entrance to a Hindu temple based on your clothing, but it is polite to dress conservatively. (The sari blouse, while a crop top, is always worn with a shawl or the long end of the sari draped over it; you would never wear just the sari blouse alone.)

For Jain temples, you must remove any leather item, including belts and handbags and leave them at the entrance. So for women, you might want to consider a non-leather handbag to begin with so you don’t have to leave it anywhere. You won’t wear shoes at all, so leather or non-leather is not the issue.

For Sikh temples, I believe traditionally that women cover their heads in the temple area, but again I don’t think a non-Sikh would be denied entry without it.

For Buddhist temples, there is no dress code.

For a Hindu or Jain temple, if you can arrange to visit when there is “darshan” that is the best time to go. Darshan is when the idol is either dressed in a new outfit, woken up or put to sleep, or otherwise revealed for public viewing from its inner sacred place. There is lots of chanting, bell-ringing, incense and people. It is quite interesting. Darshan is at different times of day and can be more than once a day depending on the temple. Your hotel or a guidebook may be able to tell you when this is at local temples, or your driver or someone at the temple should be able to tell you.

If you can get to an <i>arti</i> ceremony (esp an evening one) that would also be very interesting, as well as beautiful. Famous evening <i>artis</i> are in Varanasi, Haridwar and Rishikesh, but there may be one in places you are visiting if it is on the Ganges river. Ask around.

Always ask about any local religious festival which may be going on when you arrive at a destination. Hotels and your driver can be a good choice of info. There are so many gods and holidays that you are bound to find something if you ask around. These can be very interesting.

This information is very helpful - we are four weeks from our departure and most issues have been resolved but we still have questions.

Back to the topic of tipping...
We are staying several nights at two lodges in Bandhavgarh and Kanha national parks where we will be doing game drives each day. What is the best amount (in US dollars) per person per day for the tip box at each lodge? Is it typical that the guide and driver from the game drives are part of the lodge's shared pool for tips?

Thanks from an India safari novice!

We followed the same protocol as in Africa and tipped the safari guide and driver seperately from the lodge tip. Don't know if that was "correct."

question re: tipping driver. If you have same driver entire time do they expect daily tip? I would assume tip at end of journey.

Yes they expect daily, see my post above...

Thank you again, Cicerone, for your excellent information.
I will dress on the conservative side, and I will make sure to have a shawl with me when visiting a Muslim mosque or Sikh temple, and a fabric purse at a Jain temple. I agree that I'd rather err on the conservative side and of course be respectful of the local culture. This advice is very helpful.

Are tips preferred in American dollars or rupees? We will have our guide and driver everyday. Do I understand that we should tip at the end of each day?

We will be going to an arti ceremony in Varanasi.

Again, many thanks to all of you for your expert advice.

Carole

Hmmm. On our trip last Oct.we tipped our driver in USD and the porter at IGI wanted that as well. However we usually give rupees. In fact that may be preferable for most.

Also give what is fair to you which will be more than the norm for locals and be firm. Don't give in to demands for more. You will be tested.

My Indian travel agency sent me an email with a lot of info for the first time visitor to India. Regarding tipping, the advice was as follows:

Tipping: From the moment you arrive you will see that India runs on tipping, from the person who carries your bag, delivers your food or drives your vehicle. Many quality hotels are now implementing a 'centralized' tipping system. This is a much more equitable way of sharing out the tips as there are often dozens of staff in a hotel (cooks, gardeners, laundry people etc) who you never see, meaning that the front office and room staff get the vast majority of the tips. Please look out for a box on the reception desk at the time you check in. If you tip a total of 100-200 rupees per day in such a place this would be fine, although perhaps a little more in 5 star establishments.

If this is not the case, then for a porter who carries your bags to the room a 50-100 Rupee tip is fine. A similar amount is OK for the people who come and clean your room. But be alert to the 'scam'(although it is very small time and more amusing than annoying in most cases) where the items you require appear one by one by one (towels, toilet paper etc), with each trip from the room staff (supposedly) warranting another tip! For this reason please do not over tip.

In restaurants work on 10% of the total bill as a reasonable tip- there is no set amount as is the case in other countries.

At the end of your trip (or each sector) it is customary to tip your driver. As a suggestion, 500-1000 rupees per day is a reasonable tip for the driver, but the amount is totally up to you. (This is from the whole party, not per person). This is just a general guideline for you as there is no set amount to specify. It is purely your decision depending up on your driver’s service to you, willingness shown to you during the tour to go the extra mile in serving you.

For guides, a tip of 200-500 rupees at the conclusion of the service is reasonable, although the higher end of the scale should only apply if you feel they have done a particularly good job.

Jeep61, we've recently been to Kanha. (see my trip report) Guides and drivers are usually assigned to you at and by the park, unrelated to your lodge. So they wouldn't share in hotel's tips.

The guides and drivers we had in Bandhavrgarh at Mahua Kothi were lodge staff. We also had to pick up a park ranger each morning in addition to the lodge staff. Probably works differently in different parks.

Our lodges in Bandhavgarh and Kanha provide the vehicles, drivers and guides on the game drives. We are joined by a park person to make sure we follow the rules. So I think different lodges offer different services. Marija, do you remember whether or not you tipped the park ranger? We are on our way next week after months and months of planning!