If the chauffeur is not being paid the minimum wage then he needs to take that up with his employer. If his wages are being topped up with cash and not subject to the usual taxes & insurance contributions then I'm sure Revenue would like to hear about it.

<<otherwise no company would also pay the chauffeur a decent wage and demand that such a large tip be paid to him/her...>>

Where on earth did you get the idea that the company (or anyone) DEMANDED a tip? The OP never said any such thing. It helps to read, Pal.

It would be interesting to know what company the OP is using. Of course, the numbers being suggested are insane.

PAL: >>otherwise no company would also pay the chauffeur a decent wage and demand that such a large tip be paid to him/her<<

The OP said that per the terms and conditions, the driver will get a a 15% gratuity - not€900 . . . It seems the OP jumped to the conclusion that 15% is €900 based on the total amount of the tour. I think there is a major miscommunication somewhere.

For our driver we paid 120£ because there were 8 of us and it was easy to do the math. 15£ each x 8 people = 120£.

The my friends' American outlooks, it seemed really cheap to each tip only 15£ for an entire week. I pointed out that our documents said nothing about tips, and when we queried the tour company, they said, "sure, you can tip the driver, " and offered no guidance.

The driver dropped us at our final hotel and we gave him an envelope with the tip. The next day we ordered a taxi to take us to the airport, and who should arrive but our driver. He saw the call come in for a group of our size at our hotel and knew it was us, so he took the call. At the airport, when we tried to pay him for the fee, he said there was no charge because we had already been so generous.

To the OP: What are your costs?

900E is 15% of 6000E. So to derive 900E as a possible tip, you need 6000E in costs (Janis's math is a touch off). Is that the number you're working from?

The next question is: what does the 6000E cover? Does it cover airfare, hotels and driving? Does it cover hotels and tour only (which seems expensive but perhaps not if you're doing some Abercrombie & Kent level tour)? Does it only cover the dude driving you from place to place (which would be remarkably expensive)?

If it covers airfare and hotels, then you cannot possibly proffer a 900E tip to the driver as a rational amount - you'd be tipping him for the work of your pilots and hotel staff and the pilots put in a lot more training and work to do their jobs well (and more depends upon them).

If the 6000E covers hotel and tour only (aka land tour), then you need to excise the hotel costs from the amount of "cost" attributable to the driving tour. If you're paying 6000E for the land tour, then you should (1) have your hotels ID'd already, and (2) be able to calculate their rack rates for the room(s) you will utilize. Take the rack rate out of the 6000E cost. [Don't concern yourself that the tour company gets lower rates than the rack rate, that's part of their profit and not part of the driver's payment.]

Are any meals included? More importantly (since tourist hotels in Europe frequently, if not usually, include breakfast) - are any lunches and dinners included? If so, estimate some money for that. Lunch for a family of four can run 40-60E for casual sit down, dinner would be double that. These are back-of-napkin numbers only (not meant for reliance for any budgeting you're doing). If the restaurants have been disclosed, you can determine the costs yourself.

After doing that math, you derive the (rough) price of the driver for the 8 days. And that could be your baseline for tipping. But using the aggregate total of the whole trip when just a portion of your costs are dedicated to the driver means you will be overtipping by a ludicrous amount.