Hello,
My husband and I are leaving for Paris a week from Sunday.

Is it customary to tip the taxi/shuttle driver? What about tour guides? How much should we tip?

Thank you!

Jaypea76,

Bonjour!

Frommers Paris 2004, page 72, a small paragraph on tipping to everyone you
meet who may expect a tip. Frommer's
says 12 to 15 % of tab to taxi drivers
as example. There are others listed
so I recommend a trip to Borders or Barnes & Noble for a quick scan. Otherwise it is $17.00.

What is $17.oo? Taxis about 10%.

I think blackdiamond was saying that the Frommers guidebook is about $17.

I've read it is customary to tip taxi drivers 5-10% and that's what I do. I haven't taken a survey of French residents, so don't know otherwise, but it doesn't bother me to do that, so I do.

I haven't taken a shuttle so don't know about that. From my personal opinion, that is a group vehicle and so I wouldn't tip as much as a cab with only myself. The service isn't the same, I know others disagree, but to me that is a bus and I don't tip bus drivers.

I have never had a tour guide in Paris, what kind of guide are you referring to? I would not tip a guide at all on a group tour within a museum, if the guide was a museum employee, for example.

Here are more discussions about tipping...they will only confuse the issue more but you can sift through and decide how you'd like to handle it.

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34601381

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34586342

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34577945