Thank you, and very timely for me. Leaving for London and Paris at end of this month and I was just thinking about this!
I was just in London. The tip was included on the food bill. Usually it was 10%, except in the West End it was 13%.
Thank you, and very timely for me. Leaving for London and Paris at end of this month and I was just thinking about this!
There isn't much guidance on what to tip a tour guide.
We've had great full day, pricey private tours in other countries. We tipped 20% in Japan and the guide seemed very surprised-I guess that was too much. I'm thinking now more like 10% for a private tour.
A tour guide is much different than a server. Someone that is with you for 4-8 hours showing you all the things you have requested. Twenty percent extra seems like a small price to pay for something you may never do again.
Traveled much across my career years. My experience FWIW was: In Hungary we tipped 10% and the servers appeared thrilled at that amount. In Rome area of Italy we were around 15% and again the servers appeared comfortable with that. In Germany while we tipped based upon service we were chastised by our german suppliers for ANY tipping. We were "schooled" that the service people made very good living wages and it was NOT customary to supplement the bill (we still tipped when we weren't out with our German team mates but much more modestly). In Australia we were again cautioned about tipping since we were educated that the servers were paid well for their jobs. In Sweden we tipped like in America. In Japan tipping is not really customary and so anything is out of the norm.
That said, I ALWAYS tipped any valet service and tour guides et al when using their services which was almost all locations. If you want to really see the best of a location hire a local guide. I was a consummate traveler and not once did I regret letting the locals take me around.