How much to tip and with what?
 

I am going on a river cruise r/t Lyon. Since I am going solo and have no experience with Europe, I have arranged a "meet and greet" service with the cruise line. They will meet me at the Lyon airport and deliver me and my baggage to the dock. I don't know how far it is, but the service is $75. My question is, what do I tip the driver, and should I make sure the tip is in euros or will US$ be ok?

I don't know how much but don't tip in USD. Use euros.

I would wait and see what kind of service the person gives you. You would not be obligated to tip on something like that..it is up to you. If you do tip, 5 Euro maximum would be my call. More important than the tipping issue is whether or not you would save lots of money by taking a taxi.

Hi S,

There s no need to tip the driver unless you receive particularly helpful service.

In that event a few euros is sufficient.

We no longer give Europeans USD. :)

You can get euros at the arrival airport or change about $50 at the departure airport.

((I))

US dollars will NOT be OK just as using Euro to tip someone in the US wouldn't be well-received.

I recently saw the travel writer peter greenburg on TV giving his "tips on tipping", i was horrified to hear that he suggested keeping "good old American dollar bills for tips around the globe". Very arrogant.

Dollars would certainly be welcome in many parts of the globe, much more so than in Europe.

Last time I looked, Europe was on the globe. Has something happened that I missed? Do I need a new globe?

I can't comment on whether or not you need a new globe. What part of my comment did you fail to understand? I will say it again: Dollars are more welcomed in many (other) parts of the globe than they are in Europe.

That is a huge disservice when published travel writers or TV personalities are giving out such bad advice! What a pity.

Single dollar bills would be about as useful to a French driver as scraps of paper with "neat-o!" written on them. If he can even get them changed, it won't be worth the cost or effort.