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Tipping Questions

Posted by (New Hampshire) on

Hello,

I'll be traveling to Prague this summer and had a couple of questions about tipping. I've already seen enough videos on Prague that say 10% is a normal tip when in restaurants. My questions are about other types of tipping.

1) I'm going to be taking a "free" walking tour. About 3 hours, on the day I arrive. I have never taken any kind of tour, so what is a "standard" tip for a free tour that you enjoyed?

2) I will also be taking a private/small group tours that are not free. One will be at the Prague Castle and the other at the Vysehrad Fortress. These are paid tours, the castle I think is about $57 USD, the Fortress is a bit more expensive at around $240 USD. When paying for tours, especially the $240 tour, am I supposed to tip the guide? I know I don't have to, but what is the proper etiquette?

3) and finally, I paid my hotel for a pickup at the airport, I assume standard etiquette is to tip the driver a few bucks?

Thank you!

Posted by
30109 posts

Here's the thing about the "free" tours: The company advertising the tour doesn't pay the guides anything. In fact, the company charges each guide a head tax for every traveler who shows up to take the tour. At some point pre-COVID, Rick estimated guides were being charged 4 or 5 euros, I think. I'd guess it's a minimum of (the equivalent of) 5 euros by now. Since the guide starts out seriously in the hole, it's important to tip fairly. I normally tip an amount roughly equal to what I'd pay for a not-free, public walking tour of the same length. In the past, that might have been 15 euros for a 2-hour tour; that's probably a bit light, now, and it seems you're looking at a 3-hour tour. I'd say at least the equivalent of 20 euros in Prague. It would be a bit higher, I think, for a 3-hour tour in Paris or London.

I do not like the "free"-tour business model, so I opt for standard, paid tours wherever possible and have taken very, very few "free" tours--none since 2018 that I can recall.

Posted by
135 posts

acraveen, for sure, you are tipping as an american. But with such high tippings you bring your bad american tipping culture to Europe, and all other tourists have to suffer as a result.
Tipping in a restaurant is about 10 %. But make sure, that the tip is not already added!!!
Tipping for a "free" walking tour is about 5 -7 Euros, depending how long the tour took, how good the guide was and how many people on the tour.
Tipping on other guided one-day-tours: about 5 - 10 %, but only for the tour. So you have to withdraw the price for the included entrances to any castle.
You always ca count a bit: the minimum wages in Tchechien is around 6 Euro/hour (about 7 US-$.) So if 10 people on a walking tour for an hour everybody gives 5 Euro, it is so much more then any other people in Tchechiens earns.

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