Tipping and Vietnam
 

Hi, I am just wondering what is considered a reasonable tip in Vietnam for say table service in either dong, or Aussie or US dollars.

The budget mini-Hotel (AU$ 22/NIGHT) myself and my friend are staying at in Hanoi has arranged for a complementry pickup from the airport and i know its quite a drive, so how much should we tip.

We are umming and ahhing over how much considering we are backpacking yet we will be in a third world country.
Thanks for your help.

About tips, You should give them VND (Vietnam Dong) or US dollars.

if you want to give tips for the driver and guide, it depends on you. I think from 5-10USD is ok.

If you book with a travel agent, they will give you the price so you can consider how much you should bring with. But you should pay by credit card and shouldn't bring to much cash. Just change some Vietnamese cash for shopping if you want.

Wish you a good trip in Vietnam!

The taxi fare from Hanoi airport to town is only about US$10. A tip of 20,000 VND would be right, imo, or 30,000

A $5 or $10 US tip is WOW!!! Far more than expected. In fact, in Viet Nam most places we stayed did not expect tips and at some hotels were refused.

I just got back from Vietnam with one of my best friends who is Vietnamese. We would tip porters at hotel, or taxi drivers a $1. This was just the right amount, you could go up to $2 but not more than that. If you have a guide that is real good $5-10 sounds good. My friends and I tiped the workers on our boat in Hanlong bay $20 for the four of them. They cooked all our meals and were very nice.

Sounds like it might be a shared ride minibus trip that would cost US$3 in which case no tip.

That's right. It depends on you and on the service staff. In a restaurant, 20,000VND-50,000VND is fine.

Elainee, you are right. Because tips aren't Vietnamese culture. But there are more and more foreigners visiting Vietnam and they bring this to Vietnam. So just don't worry anything about giving tips.

You tipped your taxi drivers $1? 1-2000VND is more than adequate.

I would, if the guy helped with luggage and didn't try to rip me off on the fare.

I agree with mrwunrfl. I have tipped more when they helped me with my luggage (50K to take my heavy bags up 4 flights of stairs when its 95 degrees out. They earn their money doing this). Unfortunately quite a few taxi drivers either tell you they don't have change (even for 7000VND)or give you back less than they amount they owe, basically expecting you to give this to them as a tip. I'm happy to give them 2000VND when they don't just assume I'm giving it to them, but when they do this, I ask them for all my change.