bobbye7

i am booked on a tour with go ahead tours to france in may. the tour & getting there is going to take most of my money, so imagine my surprise when I read on the ght site that "it's customary" to "offer" a tip to the tour director, tour guide and driver -- from $5-$1 per day of the tour. i'm sorry but i just can't see doing that. am i being unreasonable or is this truly customary?
bobbye

Dori

You're being unreasonable. It is customary. Most tour guides work very hard for little pay and rely on tips. I just automatically figure it in to the price of the trip. Besides I would imagine after the trip is complete, you will want to tip him/her when you see what a good job most guides do.

lucy_d

Hi bobbye, yes it is absolutely customary to tip both the tour director and the bus driver. It's not that the tour company is trying to surprise you or throw in additional charges; it's kind of like tipping the wait staff in a U.S. restaurant. You just do it because it's customary.

Hope you have a great trip.

Sassafrass

Dori is correct. You probably do not need to tip tour guides who are doing short tours of museums or cities, but it really is customary to tip your driver and your main tour director/guide, just like we do waiters, porters, taxi drivers, etc. in the US. Just put it in a envelope and give it to them at the end of the tour or combine it with others on the trip.

Graziella5b

I always wonder why don't the tour companies pay enough its employees.? Customary does not make it right. THis is an abusive situatiion that I do not know who invented it....
For your information there are tour companies that do pay their employees.

bobbye7

well, those weren't the answers i was hoping for but you learn something new every day. clearly i'll have to find an extra $50 or cut back even more on my daily budget of $35 euros for meals and sightseeing that aren't included.

timsmom

One of the many things I like about the Rick Steves tours is that all tips for the tour guide and bus driver are included in the total tour cost, as well as the tips for any sightseeing guides. The guides also make a decent wage so that they don't receive "kickbacks" from shops - in fact, shopping is not encouraged. I have contributed to a thank you card and small gift from the group for the tour guide and bus driver.

nytraveler

Tour guides are VERY poorly paid and they are on call 24/7. The guide will make or break the tour.

If you have a real loser and don;t want to tip as a protest - I would suggest writing a letter of complaint instead.

Yes, tipping both the guide and the driver is expected (just as in restaurants and on cruises - it's part of the package). Not tipping is simply not fair to the staff. (And I think $5 per day is modest considering what they do for you. And don;t forget the driver for hauling all that luggage around.)

nytraveler

Separately - what do you mean by "take most of my money". Have you looked carefully at what is included and what is optional.

You need to read the tour brochure line by line for each day to see what is included and what you'll have to pay separately.

I don't know that company but in my experience you end up paying separately for many of your own meals, for optional excursions and for evening activities. So I hope you will have substantial spending money with you.

nytraveler

Oh - and check on drinks. Many tours that provide meals don;t include any drinks at all even soft drinks. Anything except tap water is usually charged separately.

bobbye7

nytraveler,
i wouldn't go on a tour if i hadn't read everything about it in advance and knew what was going on from one day to the next. however, the basic information said all tips would be taken care of, so that's why i was surprised to learn of tips to the director/driver. i wish i did have "a substantial amount" of spending money, but most of my money is going to the tour company.
bobbye

bettyk

Well, if you ever go on a cruise, you can figure at least $10/per person per day for tips for about 5 different people who take care of you on your cruise. That adds up to about $150 per couple for a 7 day cruise. Of course, on my two cruises, the service was amazing so I couldn't complain.

As someone else mentioned, a good tour director and tour guide can make or break a trip.

Merseyheart

Many tour guides/directors work as independent contractors. They do their own research, and sometimes work for several different tour companies in order to find full-time work.

Bus drivers are the unsung heroes of the tour guide business. Whether they drive for a tour, or drive a coach for some charter, they are not being paid very much. So much of your physical safety depends on the driver. Whatever you can do to make their day a brighter one will be appreciated.

kybourbon

bobbye7 - You shouldn't need to include tips for local guides as the company should have taken care of that along with any meals.
Do only count the days "of service". If a 10 day tour and you don't see the tour director day 1 (departure from US) or day 10 (departure from France), I wouldn't count those days. The same with a bus driver. It's possible you won't see the driver while in Paris so I would only tip for the actual days of service.

Have fun! First trips to Europe are very exciting.

bobbye7

kybourbon,
are you from kentucky or do you just like bourbon? I live in lexington & love the stuff! wonder if i can find woodford reserve in paris!
bobbye

kybourbon

Yes, in KY (Lex area), but the name is for Elijah Craig bourbon (an ancestor). You won't find bourbon to be the popular drink in Paris and cocktails tend to be expensive. Stick with their excellent wines.

nytraveler

When they say tips are taken care of in advance what they mean is that they cover the cost of bellmen in hotels to take your luggage to your room and back to the bus. They also cover the tips you would give the guide when you tour a castle or church (these places have their own approved guides and your regular guide can;t take you through them).

But- your guide deals with getting you in and out of all those hotels, to/fro included meals and all days on the bus, as well as shorter stops.

That's what you're tipping your company's guide for.

nytraveler

And sorry - don;t mean to be condescending - but many people don;t study the tour brochure line by line - and are then surprised by the offers of optional tours, the lunches and dinners that aren't included - and that they have to pay for beverages almost everywhere.

(Many read stop for lunch and think that means the tour provides lunch - rather than just that there is TIME for lunch - which you have to find and buy for yourself.)

Christina

I've been on a couple and tipped modestly, as I didn't have a real high income at that time -- but I did tip the main guide and driver as they were very very good.

I think if the tour said tips were included, it meant the hotel staff or waiters at restaurants for the included meals, that's all. I don't know, I just know the brochures I've read make it pretty clear what they mean on the tip front.

$1-5 a day isn't that much. ON the tours I was on, the guides were really outstanding, and I do think most of them are independent contractors as they are local (the guides I'm thinking of were the guides for local sightseeing, not the main tour director). They don't even come on the tour, so of course they are local (and it is often better to have local guides, and some countries even require it). I can't really remember about the main tour director who went along to most places.

Nothing is free, if all that tipping were included, the price would be higher, you can assume that. Tour guiding is just as assumed tipped profession, so the guides take that into account when they agree to work for a certain fee.

quokka

Funny. This thread contains exactly the same arguments as any discussion concerning the practice of tipping restaurant staff in the U.S. - just vice versa.

The usual way of tipping the bus driver and tour guide, according to my experiences (disclaimer: I've never travelled with an American company), is passing round a hat (bag, envelope, whatever) through the bus during the last day of the tour, and everybody throws in as much or as little as he/she feels inclined to.