The following advice is copied from RS travel tips/money/tipping in Europe category...
"For a couple of hours with a private guide, a tip of €10–20 for the group is fine."
I will be on an 8-day organized tour in Italy (not RS). The tour company provides a tour guide who will be with the group 24/7. We are told that the guide is paid well by the tour company and that there is no expectation to tip. There will be many days however where a local guide and driver will provide services. I have experienced several times before on tours where the guests start to search for cash to tip the local guide at the end of a half-day or full-day guided tour.
So - here is my scenario... A group of 8 guests on a full day / 6 hour tour... I'm figuring 20€ for each 2 hours rather than 10€ due to the size of the group... €60 per 6 hours ... so approximately 8 € per guest ???
Assuming the guide did her job adequately without any "extras" provided... Does this sound acceptable?
Posted by
3247 posts
I would ask the tour company's guide for guidance about tipping the local guides. But your scenario sounds fine to me - assuming you were happy with their services.
Posted by
Freedonia
15057 posts
Since this is an organized tour, your tour director will be able to advise you as to local tipping customs.
Some tours now include gratuities to local guides. That's why I suggest talking to your tour director.
Would you mind telling up what country you'll be in?
Posted by
3247 posts
Would you mind telling up what country you'll be in?
That would be Italy.
Posted by
Reading, PA, USA
1589 posts
The tour company that I have been traveling with tips all the local guides they hire and state in their tour information that it is not necessary/recommended that tour participants tip the local guides.
Posted by
OP
Illinois
162 posts
Bob - I had been using a tour company that advised the same... the company paid both the tour director/guide and the local excursion guides well, such that tips were already included in the tour price. I prefer this method as it avoids the uncomfortable collection of cash at the end of the excursion and wondering if I gave too much or not enough. But the new tour company I am using for a tour of Italy in May advises having euros to tip local excursion guides. The company does not provide guidance on its web pages. I'll contact them to ask.
Posted by
L'Occitanie, France
10200 posts
For our December 2023 trip to Rome, we were told by our tour company to tip 3 euros per person per day for the certified guides who joined the group for the day. It was the same for the bus driver. It's per day and per person. The number of hours is irrelevant.
So 8 guests would be 24 euros whether six hours or five hours.
The 24/7 accompanying guide was paid by the tour company.
BTW, our company and group was French, not American, but 3 euros per day has been standard on many tours for both driver and guide. It's nice when the company tells you up front.
We have hired several private guides in Europe, directly with no middleman, and pay 50 euros an hour. No extra tip is expected or required. I would tip an extra ten or twenty if the guide had to go through Viator or GetYourGuide in order to be visible online. English-speaking web searches are so dominated by those two companies, that the independent guides are drowned out and are forced into dependence on those two companies.
In French, I can (still) easily find independent guides without those companies.
Posted by
OP
Illinois
162 posts
Good information Bets. Thank you. My Italy tour next month will be my 2nd tour with this company. On the first tour (Mexico) the company hired different local guides for the morning and afternoon tours, so that is why I was using the RS guidance using "hours on tour" to pose my scenario when asking for advice. Our lead guide will be with the group 24/7 throughout the entire tour. The company advises that we are not to tip him/her as he/she is an employee of the company and not a local hired guide.
Posted by
L'Occitanie, France
10200 posts
I'm on another trip to Italy next month, Ombria this time, run by the same company, but for a French art museum group. The leader negotiated with the company to have the tips included in what we paid, so the leader will handle the envelops.
A clear sigh of relief was heard at our organizational meeting when she announced the arrangement.
Posted by
OP
Illinois
162 posts
Bets - you are fortunate to have your tour company arrange to have the local guides' tips added to the guests' cost in advance so your tour leader can take care of it. I will put this suggestion (again) in my tour survey/report and hope it becomes more common practice. Some guests on my last tour were "buying" pesos using their US dollars from those of us who had extra pesos towards the last couple days of the tour. They avoided another stop to the ATM to access more pesos and the others did not return to the US with excess foreign currency.