ss

In Turkey do you tip waiters taxis, tour guides, balloon pilot in Cappadocia? May have misssed that info/thread someplace. Hoping to take the hot air balloon ride in Cappadocia, considering Kapadokya Balloons and wonder if we should tip afterwards.
Thanks!

zwho

I'm sure we tipped in Turkey, and I think I can sincerely say that with most of the world bouncing around with an unstable economy, it's always appropriate to tip anyone who provides a service for you, waiters, cabbies and even balloon pilots.

travelinfool4u

When we were there we tipped our waiters a couple of lira

ss

Thank you,we had read many threads in the past that is was not customary to tip waiters in Italy, thus the inquiry.
Thank you!

P_M

I took the balloon ride in Cappadocia and nobody in our group tipped. The same for my balloon ride in Egypt. I think if tipping on balloon rides were customary our tour guides would have suggested it in advance.

So there's no need to tip the pilot.

I did tip waiters, tour guides and taxi drivers.

ss

Thanks for your observations. Helps to know these things.
Hope I'm not too frightend on that balloon!

P_M

The only scary thing about the balloon is thinking about it and the moment just before you take off. Once you are up, up and away it is so magical and peaceful you will wonder why it ever made you nervous. In both Egypt and Turkey the balloon ride was the highlight of my trip.

jaja

I'll bet the cows are relieved that the tippers have turned their attention to the turkeys...

P_M

Yikes, I just had a thought. In Turkey they did pass around a tip bucket saying it's for the balloon workers. They are the ones who get set up the balloon and pack it up at the end of the ride. I think you will be impressed by those guys.

So you don't have to tip the pilot but we did each contribute a couple of bucks for the workers.

propertravel

Tipping balloon pilots would be like an insult but if you feel like you could tip the ground crew....While tipping in restaurants and hotels are common practice, we do not tip taxis if they did not carry a luggage or something for you or did not open the door which is not a practice at all. If everyone tips the drivers than they will excpect the same from everyone else. If you are on a tour tipping the guid eand driver is a customary but not cumpolsary. If a restaurant adds service charge feel free to tip or not tip the waiter as he will get a percentage of the service charge.
Usual practice in restaurants for tipping is about 10% of the total bill.