Tipping in Costa Rica
 

We're leaving for a week's vacation in Costa Rica on Saturday. What are the tipping conventions in Costa Rica? The hotel (Peace Lodge) has arranged transportation from the airport. How much should we tip the driver? Also, what about for maids, restaurant waiters, tour guides, etc.? Thanks for any guidance.

As far as restaurants go, check your bill, but most of them add an automatic 10% gratuity onto the bill. We usually leave a couple of additional dollars on the table for them.

I just returned from Quepos & I agree with the previous response you received from "volcanogirl". An automatic tip of 10% is automatically added to your check, but typically, if you get good service (and you will), then add another couple of dollars. The same applies to shuttle drivers, but I was told that cab drivers do not receive tips. Every day we left a few dollars for the maid service as well. As for tour guides, it is completely up to you depending on how satisfied you are with your tour. We did a zip lining tour as well as a private tour of Manuel Antonio National Park & for both, we tipped an additional $10. Again, this was our choice. Hope this helps!

For maid service, we did a dollar a day, but I have no idea if that was appropriate. For taxis, we always gave them a few extra dollars; one driver tried to return it to us and told him we had overpaid him - so honest! We told him it was a tip, and he was thrilled, but it seemed like he didn't expect it. For guides, we usually give $10-$20 depending on the job they did. One of our guides told us he only made 10 dollars per day, so I think the tips really help them.

I hope you get a better transportation deal through Peace Lodge than we were quoted. Our driver asked how much the cab sitting out front would charge to take us to the French restaurant about 5 miles away and they said $25 and we would need to find our own way back.

A few small places won't add the 10% tip to your bill. The other amount you will see added to your subtotal is tax. Some menus will clarify if the tip will be added or not.