tipping excursions

[missycruisin]

how much is a good tip for excursions? most of the ones I booked are under 100 euro and are all group excursions, nothing I booked privately. just trying to figure out how much cash to have for that.

[herdingdogmom]

Depends on the quality and length of the excursion.  A fantastic all day tour we will tip the guide $10usd and $5usd for a 4 hour tour.  There are 35-40 people on the group ship tours.  

 

On a ship tour in Bangkok last month with a lot of walking in extremely hot weather, the guide lost track of a British couple.  The woman was overcome with the heat and had a hard time getting back to the bus.  We waited of course and she recovered in the A/C, but I doubt she tipped the guide.  

 

On the same cruise, the guide in Saigon gave a Scottish couple who wanted to go off on their own conflicting instructions on where to meet back up.  The man was furious and I’m sure he didn’t tip guide.  On both tours we had no issues, so we gave tips on these 9 hour tours.

[newmexicoNita]

We generally tip about $5.00 for a 1/2 day and more if longer, but it is rare we do tours longer than a few hours. I will add, like anyplace, it depends somewhat on the guide. I am guessing about 1/3 of the people do not even tip. It is a personal thing. 

[nwcruiselover]

For a full-day tour I tip the tour guide $20 and the driver $10.  For half-day, $10 and $5.  That’s for one person.  If DH is along I tip more. I think that’s more than most people tip, but I have family members who depend heavily on tips and tend to over tip for that reason.  I agree that a good 1/3 of people don’t tip on shore excursions, from what I can see.

[NLH Arizona]

I ususally tip $10 or $20 for the tour guide and if there is a bus driver $5 or $10. 

[Sam Ting]

We find the ship excursions so overpriced we tip nothing.  With all the money the cruiseline charges us for the excursion they can tip them. 

[travelguy2009]

2 hours ago, Sam Ting said:

We find the ship excursions so overpriced we tip nothing.  With all the money the cruiseline charges us for the excursion they can tip them. 

 

i agree with this post if I have booked through the ship.. If I have booked independently, it totally depends on the quality of the service

[Peachypooh]

On the one hour Tuk Tuk tour of Bonaire for example we gave the driver of

the small open air vehicle $5pp. On the 3 1/2 hour tour of Cartegena we

gave the tour guide $10 and the driver $5. This is somewhat on the low side so

let me explain. Everywhere we went there were people breakdancing in the square, limping

over with a cane or sitting in a wheelchair by the bus entrance looking for tips. I

strongly suspect our guide let the word out to his friends. Also he wouldn't allow

access to the bus bathroom but did offer to bring anyone who needed  a bathroom

break to his friend's small café...for a fee. So I felt I had tipped enough LOL.

[Stealthdog]

I usually don't give anything extra.  They are doing their job and you are already paying for it.  If a guide has gone over and above what I expect, I'll give $5. 

Edited April 4, 2019 by Stealthdog

[newmexicoNita]

On 4/3/2019 at 5:57 PM, Peachypooh said:

On the one hour Tuk Tuk tour of Bonaire for example we gave the driver of

the small open air vehicle $5pp. On the 3 1/2 hour tour of Cartegena we

gave the tour guide $10 and the driver $5. This is somewhat on the low side so

let me explain. Everywhere we went there were people breakdancing in the square, limping

over with a cane or sitting in a wheelchair by the bus entrance looking for tips. I

strongly suspect our guide let the word out to his friends. Also he wouldn't allow

access to the bus bathroom but did offer to bring anyone who needed  a bathroom

break to his friend's small café...for a fee. So I felt I had tipped enough LOL.

know what you mean about Cartegena: Maybe you had the same tour guide we did years ago. He forewarned us there would be people asking for tips as well as telling us to bargain. Well, when we stopped for a shopping break I asked him about tipping people dancing, etc or about bargaining on prices of goods. He said, on no, I didn't mean here. Well, we didn't tip anyone and when we found out how marked up all the merchandise in the shops were we just about fainted. Of course, leave it to me: I did buy a real cute dress for $40.00. Someone else got the same one from a street vendor for $10.00 and to top it off, the darn thing shrunk so I would hardly even wear it around the house. 

Thank being said. we did love Cartegana. 

[Buford T Justiice]

we usually "say thank you both" and hand the tip to whoever is closer. We don't differentiate between driver and guide when tipping and hope they somehow figure out how to divide it.

 

Kind of like tipping waitstaff