Tipping and Mobile Phones
 

Hi, in June my husband and I are visiting New Mexico, (a tiny bit of) Arizona, Utah and Colorado, for about a month.

We're from Australia where tipping is rare. We were in New York a few years ago when restaurant tipping was 25%, is it the same where we are going or less?

Who else do we tip and how much? How much for hotel maids?

Also our mobile phones will not work in the USA so we thought we'd buy a cheap phone each when we arrive ($10 + cost of calls?). Any tips? Which company has the best coverage in the area we're visiting?

Thanks for any help.

Kay

We tip 15-20% in restaurants.

For casual restaurants here in NM [and in the other states you mention] 15% is about norm and a bit higher in nicer places.

Tip for hotels, we usually do $1 or $2 per person, per night. I am a bit odd in that I like to tip each morning [rather than at the end of the stay], since I figure the person actually cleaning the room THAT day should get the money and when you leave it all at the end, who knows who gets the money. Odd, I know.

If you do any tours, tour guides often get a tip at the end [not park rangers at national parks] $5 - 10 per person would be right. If you have to valet park your car, $1 per trip in and out would work.

Cell phone coverage can be spotty out here. I use Verizon and it works pretty well in most places [that have any service]. I don't know much about cheap, pay as you go phones though.

Where is your first stop - perhaps knowing that, I can suggest where to get a phone.

15%-20% in restaurants is a good guideline, but base it on the pre-tax amount. In other words, don't tip on taxes.

Here are two good references:
http://www.magellans.com/store/article/435
http://www.cntraveler.com/travel-tip...-Tipping-Guide

_______________________________________________
Vic's travels: http://my.flightmemory.com/vogilvie

Thanks for your help.

DebitNM, we fly into Albuquerque (via LAX) and have 2 nights there - 2 jetlagged nights I'm guessing :-)

We managed to get a hotel on points - first time ever - and are staying at Homewood Suites Uptown. I think there is a shopping centre opposite but it may be more upmarket, would we look in somewhere like Target or Walmart for a cheap phone? Something simple to use and understand would be good for us.

Thanks,
Kay

Kay,
In addition to Walmart and Target, you can also find cheap ($20 or less) mobile phones at CVS & Walgreens stores plus 7-elevens as well.

_______________________________________________
Vic's travels: http://my.flightmemory.com/vogilvie

I tip 15-20% at restaurants. I do not tip at fast food restaurants. I do not tip at places that don't actually serve you(most pizza places for example). I do not tip at Starbucks or other coffee places. It is supposed to be 18%. I still base it somewhat on the service I get. If they don't refill my drink(at least one time is all that I ask), etc then I don't tip nearly as well. If I recieve horrid service(this isn't based on what the food tastes like), then I don't tip at all. Really good service, a bit more.

I tip anytime anyone handles my luggage. Usually $1 per suitcase for taxi. We usually have 3 bags and I tip bellman $5. If it is a nicer hotel, then maybe $7.
For some reason, I have never tipped maid at hotel or lodge.

I do $2 on valet parking.

Personally, I avoid valet parking and I prefer to stay somewhere that doesn't have bellman/porter.

As far as tour guides go, I never know what to do here myself. For example- Grand Canyon Rafting-I tipped $300.00 for a family of 3 on a 4 day trip. Canyoneering-I tipped $100.00 for a 6 hour tour(have done that twice with the same company). If you do some type of tour at say Monument Valley, then probably $10 per person would be about right.

Where all are you going in New Mexico? I love Carlsbad Caverns, Guadalupe National Park, White Sand Dunes. Are you going to Mesa Verde in CO? Don't know that I could spend a month in NM though.

> would we look in somewhere like Target or Walmart for a cheap phone?

Where you buy your phone, and even the brand you buy, is almost irrelevant to your reception. The key is which carrier your cell phone is reaching out to.

CNET is a fairly reputable reviewer of electronics. They have a map that will indicate the quality of reception for different cell phone carrier companies, for any place in the lower 48.

http://reviews.cnet.com/cell-phone-coverage-map/

I guess they had a guy walk around and continually ask, "Can you hear me now?"

Use the program for the area you are most likely to spend the most amount of time, and then pick a carrier. Then go online to see which stores in the area will sell you a "pay as you go" phone with that carrier.

I have a pay-as-you-go AT & T plan on my daughter's ancient Nokia phone and just looked at the web site you listed for all the areas I have travelled in during the last year and it is right on! Thanks for the great site. I am bookmarking it for future reference. That is great advice about knowing where you will be spending time and buying accordingly!

Thanks for all this info, I'll take a look at the websites.

PaulRabe, that did make me laugh -
** I guess they had a guy walk around and continually ask, "Can you hear me now?"**

We don't want to spend too much money on the phone and also don't want to spend too much precious holiday time figuring out how to use it and why it won't work! So any research I can do now at home will be good.

spirobulldog - we are only in New Mexico for a short time, flying into Albuquerque, then up to Santa Fe and across to Monument Valley in Arizona. Then we head up to Moab and across to Colorado for the rest of the trip. We have a tentative itinerary but most of it is not pre-booked as we wanted a bit of freedom on the road.

Thanks again. Any more info is appreciated.
Kay

There is a good sized shopping center {Coronado] within walking distance of your hotel [not Uptown, that is the upscale shopping center] and in it is a Best Buy and it will most likely be your, best buy, for a phone.

http://stores.bestbuy.com/2882/

A Samsung, Verizon phone might do the job for $15:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Verizon+...&skuId=9263076

Just saw your last post -- I hope that you will consider working Mesa Verde NP into your trip. It is an amazing site, with abundant natural beauty and a haunting spiritual look into the Ancestral Peubloans.

Thanks DebitNM, the Best Buy store looks good. We plan to visit quite a few national parks on the trip but Mesa Verde doesn't look that interesting to us, even though I've read lots of positive things about it.

Can someone tell me does the phone come with a SIM card or do we buy a phone, then choose a SIM card for a particular carrier? Verizon looks to be the best carrier for the area we're going to. I'm assuming American phones have SIM cards for connection to the carrier?

Thanks
Kay

no, they most likely won't have SIM cards in those phones. [not 100% sure]. You do have to buy a card with minutes though. The phone seems to come already as a Verizon phone, so you buy a Verizon minute card [ Best Buy sells those as well]

Two things about mobile phones: cheap minute cards are available everywhere there are lots of immigrants. You will see the signs outside convenience stores or at gas stations on highways, sometimes in Spanish.

Go back to DebitNM's original response and reread the part where she says coverage is spotty. We have found large swaths of territory, particularly up toward the Four Corners where coverage was non-existent.

I don't know what part of Australia you are from, but there are areas in this part of the US that rival photos I have seen of some parts of the Outback. Fuel and food and drink can be some distance apart, and it is advisable to top up the car and yourself earlier than you might think necessary. One thing that may be very different is the regulation of alcohol. It is not legal to have alcohol on reservations, and there are lots of reservations, each with its own laws and police forces. The beer sold in supermarkets etc in Utah is only 3.2% alcohol, though you can buy "real" beer to drink in bars or carry out from liquor stores.

Yoou really should go to Mesa Verde.

I think 25% for even NYC is too high. 15-20% in a real restaurant where they seat you, take your order, bring food. Any place with less service, less tip - down to 0% for a fast food/coffee place where you go to counter, order, carry your own food, clean up your own mess.

Buffet tipping is always a problem. While you bring your food to table, waitstaff brings drinks, takes dirty plates several times - 10-15%, depending on amount of service.

You will see tip jars on all sorts of counters at sandwich shops, coffee places. Sometimes people throw the coin change they get in, sometimes not. No one will really care.

You may find that some areas you are visiting have very limited cell phone service - no matter which carrier you use. Not sure how it works with Australian cell phone carriers, but we have used text or email with little or now charge when traveling from US to other countries to keep in touch with those at home - on our home cell phones. You may find that you will need to use your home phone for that purpose and the US cell phone for calls US-US. Worth a call to your cell carrier to find out what your options are.

Thanks for all this advice. Ackislander - we will try and remember to top up with petrol and make sure we have drinking water and a few snacks in the car. I had heard about the drinking rules at reservations, it's the same here on aboriginal reserves where you cannot take alcohol and it is not available to buy. Why do you think we should go to Mesa Verde?

Gail - the problem is not to do with the carrier. We could set up 'global roaming' to use our phone overseas but we have older mobile phones that simply don't work in the USA. If we had new smartphones I believe they would work, they have something called Triband or Quadband? The phone system in the USA is different from most parts of the world, I think Japan is different again.

Kay

As you can see, there is no across-the-board agreement about tipping, even in the U.S. The premise here is that restaurant servers are allowed to be paid less than minimum wage because they will make it up in tips. Others who are paid minimum wage do not get tipped as the norm, it's totally up to you (for me, that includes maid service; what am I paying for, after all?! But many will say "dirty nasty job, cleaning your toilet, so tip"; I say there are many nasty jobs paying that minimum, and we don't tip, so call me cheap, I have no problem with it). So, 15% minimum in a sit-down place for adequate service (up or down if you are very impressed or very disappointed).
Tour guides are another matter: my son did this for several years, and was paid almost nothing on expectation of tips (which may or may not be the case for any organized tours you do). If you aren't sure, ASK the guide; many will happily tell you that if you liked their services, a certain percentage would be very appreciated. I doubt very much they would come out and say that they expect anything outrageous, but many, even in the U.S., don't know when a tip is expected in these situations.

"Why do you think we should go to Mesa Verde"

Truly an amazing interesting place. You really need 2 days there, IMOP.

For the most part, Mesa Verde looks like it did over 1000 years ago. It has some of the most amazing vistas that offer the same views that were seen during the time it was inhabited.

"Mesa Verde is famous for the Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings constructed within its cliff alcoves. A trip to [the area/southwest] would not be complete without a visit to one of these culturally significant sites.

Mesa Verde, Spanish for green table, offers a spectacular look into the lives of the Ancestral Pueblo people who made it their home for over 700 years, from A.D. 600 to 1300. Today the park protects nearly 5,000 known archeological sites, including 600 cliff dwellings. These sites are some of the most notable and best preserved in the United States."

https://picasaweb.google.com/DebitNM/MesaVerdeMay2009
https://picasaweb.google.com/DebitNM/MesaVerdeInWinter

You can drive The Mesa Top Loop Road and look at several sites from scenic overlooks; you can walk on the trails, you can take ranger lead tours [Balcony House, Wetherill Mesa, Cliff Palace], you can do a tour on your own, Spruce Tree House, you can visit the museum - as much as you want.

In my opinion, you would miss out on a truly amazing place if you pass this by, especially when you will be close.