I would not tip local guides as that has been arranged by the tour company and is up to them, just as hotels, meals, etc. I would only tip the tour director and bus driver. FWIW - GoAhead says their tours have 48-52 people. A tip for the tour director at the suggested $5 per day (8) x 50 people = $2000. That's a good size tip for 8 days. I don't think passengers should be expected to pay the tour guides salary.

As for the bus driver, I don't think you will use a bus much in Paris and then you are training to the Riviera. I would only tip the bus driver for actual days on the bus (usually at the lower suggested tip end).

It's not written in concrete that you must tip the exact suggested amounts.

The local guides (in tourism parlance, they're called "step on guides" since they step on the coach and guide the group through a certain city that the tour director may not be familiar with) are generally paid for each job on an hourly basis, as an independent contractor. Yes, oftentimes, they will "pass the hat" to tip that guide, or sometimes the company will give them a check. Ask.

I mentioned earlier that the drivers (at least here in the United States) are not paid very well. Most of the time they are paid by the hour. Many of them are not unionized, and have no "fringe" benefits (such as medical insurance). When I learned that, I decided to be more generous when tipping of bus drivers.

"it's customary" to "offer" a tip to the tour director, tour guide and driver -"

this implies you are tipping THREE people, not just two.

We have always tipped the guide and we have based our tip on the service level, etc., we feel WE received and not what anyone else tipped; same with the driver.

I have never tipped a "tour director" and am not sure if the term is being somehow used interchangably with the guide.

Hello bobbye, I'm not sure where you live, but here in Australia, tipping is not neccessarily done automatically - just for excellent service or food. This is because our minimum wages are relatively high compared to a lot of countries elsewhere (such as the US). Employees kind of rely on the gratuities to make up a decent wage package. I gather that Australians aren't the most popular tourists at times because they aren't accustomed to having to tip, and therefore don't always feel obliged. I guess that is why Europeans love the Americans! On my only coach tour so far, I forked out the tips at the end and must admit I felt a bit peeved, as I was practically broke by that stage. My next tour is booked now, and I was able to pre-pay the tips - which, while you do still pay, it's not coming out of your precious stash of Euros. Oh, and when I went on the (included) tour of Paris with a local guide, they did not pass the hat round, but most people gave the lady a couple of Euros when thanking her.

I am always amazed with all the extra cost that you find in the fine print. I went on a tour to France for 9 days for $2,290 and everything was included (except lunches) even aperitifs every night and wine!!! Three different sort of wines every night, no limits. Of course all the excursions, entrances to museums were also included. No fine print for this tour.

Before booking a tour, check at the competition. This tour was with www.frenchescapade.com and the best fo all, the tour is only for 7 people and you have a private chef.

I did give a tip to the tour director who was also the driver because I had a trip of a life time.

suzanne

If you want to see the fur fly on this topic, you can check out the message board of the Trafalgar touring company (www.trafalgartours.com)...wow it gets so heated that the discussions are usually censored right off the board.

And it is exactly what we see here...Australia is not a tipping country because their system is "superior" and everybody is paid a decent wage. Fair enough...but when in Rome...the other complaint I read all the time there from Australians is that the tipping of the tour director and bus driver is not mentioned to them at the time of booking and they are shocked when it comes up at some tpoint in the tour. However, in the documentation for the tour, tipping of the tour director and the bus driver is clearly indicated as well as suggested amounts (more on this later)....

The way it is done is on the last day of the tour, you put your gratuity in an envelope one for the tour director and one for the driver with a little note of appreciation.

Of course, different countries react to tipping differently. In the USA, tipping is a lucrative source of income in some places...if you are a bar tender in a swank Las Vegas casino, you can do very very well (as well as the fact the government is not able to accurately determine your income from tips, they have to estimate it and you're, in a way, on your honor (although tips on credit cards are recorded and help the government estimate what you are making)...they, of course, prefer that.

Also, it is always suggested that local guides be tipped €1, not really a big deal.

Now these tips, unlike on a cruise, are not mandatory....if you don't want to tip, well don't. After all, the chances are the day the tour is completed, you will never see the tour director or bus driver again.

On Trafalgar, I have found the tour directors to be excellent and well deserving of their tips as well as the bus drivers and have no reason to be upset, at least till now.

But Trafalgar did pull a fast one recently. We finished a Winter Tour with them a week or two again. For years, the documentation said the customary tip was $4 US for the tour director/day and $2.50US for the bus driver per day....no matter whether you booked your tour in the US, Australia, Singapore, South Africa the suggested tip amounts were listed in US$...this practice and the amount prevailed for many years.

Suddenly this year, they just changed the currency and suggested the daily tip should be €4/day and €2,50 per day for the tour director and the bus driver respectively...that is they imposed a 50% surcharge on the tips...nonsense...$4 US is a proper tip...$6 US is not...it is too much...I tipped using the proper guidelines...just another way of ripping off people.

sounds to me like tour guides need to unionize:)
the bottom line for me is, i don't think it's the tour company's place to tell people to tip and how much. apparently they're doing this to make you feel guilty and cough up the money to subsidize their minimum wage slaves who otherwise would quit and go to a different company.

You are exactly right on this bobbye7.
I did a Globus Christmas Market tour in Dec. and they included in their pre trip documents an envelope for the tour leader and the driver preprinted on the front for tips. I have never seen this before but this was my first Globus trip. They also had guidelines of 3-4 dollars a day for both. I do wish companies would put this in the cost of their tours and pay their guides what they should be paid.

Don't ruin your trip by getting your panties in a knot over tipping. Go for it. Also treat the tour guide and drivers to snacks, a trinket from your home, such as a key chain etc......Have a good time!!!!!!

bobbye7...

This is the sort of arguing that goes on back and forth on the message board I referred to....

There are indeed different attitudes towards tipping....but in many different service areas, essentially people's income are dependent on tips...I'm not going to change that...you're not going to change that...we don't have to like it....but that's simply the way it is.

Of course, tips could be included as part of the tour, but then what happens if the tour director is horrible....you have to roll with the punches I suppose and accept this as the way life is different say in Europe or North America then down under. I do sympathize when people claim they had no idea about tipping tour directors...this could be better documented in the tour brochures (it's there but it's buried) I would agree.

But the bottom line remains, of course, if you choose not to tip, that is your decision for better or for worse.

But after a while, and I mean this in all due respect to our friends from down under, I keep hearing these same complaints over and over again. It's really not worth ruining your holiday over.

Hi bobbye7

I did the London/Paris stay w/Go Ahead last Sept. Our tour director was Chris. He came on in London, went w/us to Paris and stayed until the end. Everybody tipped him pretty good. IMO he was pretty good. He was well organized, informative and knew his business. I did a lot of things by myself, but he was readily available for our many questions. Hope that helps.

Hi bobbye, You wrote "the bottom line for me is, i don't think it's the tour company's place to tell people to tip and how much. apparently they're doing this to make you feel guilty and cough up the money to subsidize their minimum wage slaves who otherwise would quit and go to a different company."

I hope this does this mean that you will not tip the guide and driver.

It's a shame the tips are not included in the price of the trip, but yes, it's customary, and at the end of the tour the tour guide will most likely remind you to use the envelopes provided in the last hotel.

You can adjust the amount of the tips, but that's all, the tips are expected, period.

In addition to what you read on the site, the tours often use local guide, 1-2 hours walking tour, shell out more cash in addition to required tour director/driver tipping.

There are companies that pay their guides and drivers properly and don't expect you to tip (and don't include a bunch of shopping "opportunities" - opportunities for the guide to get commissions). The way to deal with this situation is to book with those companies. As mentioned above, Rick Steves is one of them, as is Intrepid - which is an Australian company.

howdy, bobbye7....
my husband takes safety seriously; we tip the driver MORE than the tour guide, as there are many tours and the driver is limited as to the number of trips he/she can provide transportation.
Also, realize that the best way to save money when traveling is the food; decide that you can live on two meals a day and a snack; we did this for three weeks in Paris and it was fine. There are markets everywhere with cheese and great pastries and fruit;enjoy! I also stopped at a grocery store and got granola and a few sodas so I didn't waste on the vending machines.
We do tip always, but you have the right to decide who and how much; it is optional, but it is also a common courtesy for a job well done.

Again, here's the problem...without trying to be argumentive...who defines what is being paid properly...in many service areas in Western Europe and North America, it is customary for a person in a service related endeavor to be an independent contractor and not an employee as such and therefore a good part of their wages is based on gratuities that are received...is that proper or not proper? There is no easy answer...that is the way it is on most European tours...when a tour company says gratuities are included, you are payng it for service whether it is good, bad, or indifferent..does that make service better? I don't know.

Have you ever been on a cruise...to keep the advertised price as low as possible, certain gratuities are not included in the price of the cruise...yet the day the cruise starts, gratuities to various service people begin accrueing to your account..

I would agree, perhaps the information should be made clearer in brochures or by travel agents booking these tours and/or cruises.

One way or the other, the service personnel will be paid by you either directly or indirectly.

As far as the stops where the tour guide cleans up on commissions, yes they are a part of many escorted tours. That solution is simple, don't buy. Every escorted coach tour that goes to Venice is treated to what is called a glass blowing exhibition at a glass factory..it is 30 seconds of blowing glass and a 20 minute attempt to have you buy....of course the tour company gets a commission but nobody forces you to buy...you can even just walk out..same thing is true on any escorted tour that goes through Amsterdam....you are taken to a diamond factory....walk out, go to a cafe nearby waiting for it to finish (although the diamond factory does offer free toilets and free coffee and free soft drinks, one of the very few things you can get for free in Amsterdam).

As far as local guides, it is indeed customary to tip them €1...somehow I don't think that is a big deal but again if you feel it is not a thing you should do, it's very simple. Don't tip him or her; believe me you'll never see him or her again!

Unfortunately it is customary .. I have been on tour types ranging from overlanding to 5 star (incl. cruises) and almost everyone of them required tips. And even if they didn't, there would be other tour members who would say we had to tip.
I come from a country where there is no tipping and service is given because it is part of the job. So I have had to learn to accept it whilst travelling. Having said that, I think employers should just pay their employees (in whatever area) enough so they don't have to depend on the goodwill of others.
Having done so much travelling (and often on a very tight budget), I have often been asked by "newbies" to either travelling or tipping ... what should they give. My reply is always the same - you give what you are comfortable with, it is your own business not anyone elses.
It is very hard for some who are doing more than one tour at a time to try and match the "one tourers" who are more aggressive about the amount you must tip.
Last year I did a great Vietnam/Cambodia tour and had checked out the tipping amounts beforehand so had it in my budget. There were loud ones in the group who were saying all the way through what we had to tip each local guide (4 days each) and they upset some of the quieter, less experienced members of the group with the large amount they said had to be given. Then a few days before the end, the louder ones discovered they were supposed to tip the leader as well and they didn't want to as they wanted to spend their money .. :-) .. luckily the quieter ones had asked me after the "first episode" and so they were aware of tipping the overall leader, who I would have thought was the main and most obvious person to be tipped.
In the end, it is your business and you put it in an envelope to give to both the guide and driver anyway .. and you don't have your name on it, so whatever you are comfortable with.
Europe I tend to find far cheaper than the UK .. and I can eat there for very little each day .. but then I think ahead and am quite happy to make my meals by purchasing rolls (and the ingredients), fruit, etc from stores .. also - to help you in your budget .. almost all breakfasts are included on tour and to be honest, many of my traveller mates and I have made our lunches (discreetly) from the food that is there ..
I have just got home from a couple of months away and did a 12 day tour of Europe during that time - I did less than half of the "not included" things - mainly because I had done some before .. It cost me just over $300US to do about 6 of the things on the tour including 3 in the French part of it - the Louvre (again), Versailles, the French cabaret.
Take plastic bags to store some food in your bags and a little knife, fork, etc, is always handy. You will be surprised just how far you can make your money stretch if you spend some time now thinking ahead on things like food.
Have a great time ..

From Rick Steves' website (at tours.ricksteves.com/tours08/ten_commitments.cfm):

"The common way for a tour company to have a low "sticker price" is to pay guides little or nothing, and encourage them to pull in kickbacks and tips as personal income. We pay our guides full salaries (the best in the business) and prohibit them from accepting kickbacks and tips. This means your guide is motivated to give you the best travel experience possible — not to earn extra income through shopping and "optional" excursions."

Nice of Rick to be holier than thou to sell his tours...but don't you think the price of the gratuity is built into the tour price whether the service is good or not...

The point being, of course, ultimately you will be paying the tour director whether directly or indirectly.

If you feel this disclaimer in Rick's tours are a reason to book them, then by all means do so. I'm sure you'll have a good time as I am sure it is a good product; but then again so are the tours offered by other companies too!

All that really matters is what you choose to do.

If you don;t want to tip no one can force you to do so.

But the system is set up just like restaurants in the US. Tupping is not mandatory, but it is customary - and salaries are based on it. But by not doing it you are cheating the wait staff of a good part of their income.

It's unfortunate you misunderstood the comment in the brochure - but in the long run only you can decide if you're comfortable stiffing the guide and driver.