sgsg

My wife and I will be visiting Moscow and St Petersberg as independent tourists. We will be using the services of private tour guides to visit sights in these cities (and surrounding areas). We have a number of questions concerning gratuities for the tour guides:

1. How much (percentage-wise) should we tip the guide and the driver?
2. Should we tip them daily or at the end of our trip (in a city)? Tipping daily may be difficult since we were quoted a price for excursions by the city that covers several days, and no breakdowns for each day were given. On the other hand, if the tour guide (and/or the driver) is different each day, how can we tip them?
3. If we have lunch during the excursion, is it customary to invite the guide to join us?

Thank you very much for any insights on the above subjects.

sgsg

ira

Hi SG,

If you are using the services of an independent contractor there is no need to tip.

They have contracted their services for what they think is an appropriate price.

When you hire someone to paint your house, how much do you tip them?

>If we have lunch during the excursion, is it customary to invite the guide to join us?<

No. However, if they are particularly personable, you might enjoy lunch with them.

AnthonyGA

I agree that a private tour guide is already pricing his services at the level he thinks they are worth, so tipping doesn't make much sense. However, that's only my own opinion, and some guides might expect a tip (and if they <i>really</i> expect a tip, they might even charge lower rates on the assumption that the tip will round things up).

Check for meal policies in advance. If you want the guide to eat with you, logically you should pay for his meal. At the same time, there should be no obligation to invite him to eat (you could ask him to leave you for lunch and then come back when you are done). If the guide actually arranges meals and accompanies you to them, the policy may vary. All the more reason to get this clear up front.

My own policy is to accept tips but never expect them (my fee is already what I think the service is worth). For meals, I'll accompany clients if they wish me to, in which case they must pay for my meal. If they don't want to do that, I'll leave them to eat on their own and then return when they are ready to resume sightseeing. And if I eat or drink anything on my own initiative (buying a cr&ecirc;pe at a roadside stand, for example), I pay for that myself.

There may be customs or practices that vary from place to place, also, along with regulations in some locations. I don't know what the exact situation might be in Russia, so the above is just general commentary.

nytraveler

It doesn;t sound like privately contracted guides - but private guides provided by a company - and you're paying the company a price for all the tours together. In that case - you have no idea how much money is actually going to the guide - and I would definitely tip.

How much - I would do 20% of the total price of all the tours. Find out up fron if you will have the same guide all the time - or different ones. If the latter try to divide the tip amount by the tine/difficulty of the day (just a museum in the city - or a trip to the countryside for the whole day). In any case, tip at the end of the day or the trip.

dcdee

We were in St Petersburg for three days last year during a cruise and toured each day with a guide and driver from Denrus. The consensus on cruise messageboards was to tip 15%, divided 10% to the guide, 5% to the driver. That's what we did.

We offered to buy lunch for the guide each day; she accepted once and another day joined us for lunch at the apartment of a local family, arranged by the tour company. The driver stayed with the vehicle; I don't know what he did for lunch.

sgsg

Thanks very much for the guideline for tipping the local tour guide (10 - 15%) and driver (5%).

However, I wonder if these percentage also applicable for private tours consisting of just 2 individuals. My thinking is that with a group of people (let's say 8 persons)in a tour, the amount to be paid per person will be relatively low when you divide the tip payment among the participants. With just 2 persons, the payment by each would be substantially larger.

Please let me know what your opinions are in this situation.

Thanks.

sgsg

catrose

I took a twelve-day tour of Italy over the holidays.
There were 44 people in the group. The tour organizer wanted everyone to give $100 each to the guide and $60 to the bus driver. For a total of $7,040.00
Is this normal for a trip?
It seamed more as a salary then a tip.

Catrose

ira

Hi cat,

Call me a cheapskate, but I think that 2E/day for the guide and 1E/day for the driver is more than sufficient.

Mainhattengirl

I just got done reading the thread about tipping the pizza delivery person and most people there were giving $3-5, and this just for driving to your house. How many hours are you spending with your guide and how much work do you think they have spent learning all that information? So, maybe a tiny bit more than 2 euro would be ok. Obviously, it depends on what kind of tour, a couple of hours, walking or in a bus, really detailed or just general knowledge. Are they personable, passionate about telling you about the sights you are seeing? Have you enjoyed it? They are entertainers of a sort, so tip accordingly. As far as that bus driver getting $7000, that is way over board. I think it is wrong to ever be told how much one has to tip.

On the other hand, there are a lot of tours out now where they are free and you just pay what you want. How much do you tip for that?

catrose

Thank you for your replies on my previous post about how much to tip when on a tour.
But there is a misunderstanding on the numbers.
The tour organizer wanted all 44 people to give $100 ($4,400.00) to the guide and $60 ($2,640.00) to the bus driver. This would total $7040.00
I agree to the 2 euro. This is more realistic for a large group. Also, the guide and driver dinned with us and stayed in separate rooms at the same hotel.
They didn’t plan the trip. They just looked at the schedule of upcoming trips and picked the ones that they knew are easy. The guide told us this. Also, he said that he prefers doing American tour groups.

Thanks again
Catrose.

ira

&gt;The driver stayed with the vehicle; I don't know what he did for lunch.&lt;

He drank.