I need your advice on tipping

May depend a bit on exactly where you are in Europe. But for short tours like that a private guide would get no tip unless they went way over on the time or provided something not expected on the tour. A group tour, maybe €5 from the 2 of us, and €1 for the driver.

What country /countries? Are the guides independent of a specific company?
I wouldn’t be compelled to leave a larger tip if a tour number was low though.

My guideline is roughly 10% of the tour cost. A lot depends on the quality of the tour and the guide.

Why are we tipping in Europe? That is an American custom and it would be awful if we started spreading it to Europe.

I love Europe because you buy things and everything is included (tax, service charge), and you pay one fee!

Why do we tip people when they have already charged us what they think their service is worth? Aren't we already paying them for doing a great job?

Sorry, this is my soapbox. Tipping should absolutely disappear. I love paying people what they are worth and expecting good service all the time. That is how I operate in my life. I get paid a wage to do my job and I try to do it the best I can.

Where in Europe? I’d be inclined not to tip since those prices seem reasonable for the service provided.

For a small group tour, I’ve occasionally bought the guide a beer after the tour if s/he indicates that ‘We’re next to XYZ which is a wonderful bar’ at the end of the tour.

...... would be awful if we started spreading it to Europe....... I sorry but your soap box is little short. Your horse left the barn and the door is closed. Tipping has been well established in Europe for a long time. It is just a question of how much. Now we have even noticed the line appearing on the credit card receipt for the tip. That is new.

For me it depends upon the service provider- for lack of a better term. Is the guide working for a tour company ((I’ll tip well if it is a job well done) or is the tour guide self employed aka their own company. I may tip for a great tour but less (generally you do not tip the owner of a company).

Travel safe,

One Fast Bob

For the first one, I would tip 10 Euro and for the second one I would tip 5 Euro.

I don’t necessarily go by percentage. I did have an excellent guide for a church tour in France last month where the ticket was only 10 Euro. I gave her a 5 Euro tip because she excelled and was passionate about everything she was sharing with us.

“I [am] sorry but your soapbox is a little short.”

I love this comment, Frank. Tipping is a complicated thing and there is no “one size fits all”. For tour guides, the first criterion for us would be if they are independent or working for a company. In the former category, no tip. In the latter, maybe 10%. But is also depends on where in Europe you are. In the far north (Scandinavian countries), tipping is not the practice at all. As you move south, it may or may be not be appropriate..

here is my advice on tipping in Europe...………………...don't.
if you do get overcome with guilt for not tipping then make a donation to a local charity.

€130? No tip whatsoever, you're paying a significant amount and therefore no requirement for a tip.

€30. Still no tip, if the group is small that's life, I'm sure there are times when the groups are larger.

No-one ever tipped me for doing my job despite providing a public service.

You can tip if you like or not.
If you feel a guide went out of their way to make your tour memorable, added in some extra touches, did extra research for you or added on some extra time at no further cost, then go ahead and tip.
Tips are never expected or shouldn't be, but they are always welcome.

For the private tour - 5-10€ if you were thrilled
On the group tour - 1 - 5 € if you were happy with the tour.

Edited for clarity - yes, I am a tour guide. I often spend hours and hours researching for private tours, whether it is visiting the city archives, combing through old phone books on micro-fiche, reading old records, newspaper articles, doing online research for a special theme, reading special books, or visiting a cemetery to find your ancestors gravestones ahead of time so we aren't wandering around wasting your precious vacation time. I want your tour to be personalized, but all of this extra time spent on research is not included in your 2.5-3 hours tour time. It is just knowledge that I have gone out of my way to acquire to make your tour unique. Most of the tour guides I know do the exact same thing. We are simply passionate about what we do.

If you are a good RS traveler and are therefore staying at a small, family-owned place, ask the owner/host/hostess what the local tipping custom would be for such tours.

I use private guides quite a bit. It's my experience that it is rare for them not to exceed my expectations, to be honest. As Ms Jo mentions, most do it because they are passionate about their topic. A tour that merely meets expectations with a guide who does not make the effort to connect beyond what we are seeing (rare): no tip. Most of the time I end up tipping in the 5-10% range unless my lodging host tells me otherwise.

We have traveled widely (78 countries) and lived in Germany for four years. We have taken cruises and tours or excursions from the ship, as well as do it yourself and land tours.

First, it is wise to consider tipping cultures. Yes, in places like Australia, you are not expected to tip in restaurants or taxis. Northern Europe is similar. Scandinavia is generally a no tipping place for those things as well.

Countries in Southern Europe are different, tipping is more common, but not as much as we tip in the USA. In the USA servers in restaurants are not paid a significant amount and earn most of their earnings through tips. I usually tip 20% if service is good.

Even in Germany or the UK, I tip for meals with a modest amount, rounding off, but no more than 5%.

Tipping in Developing countries is different. I tip more like in the USA.

Tipping for guides is not the same as in restaurants or taxis. We were in Denmark in 2014 and I had some private tours. One tour in particular was a full day tour outside of Copenhagen. The guide was a University student and excellent. However, I had read on this website that tipping was considered an insult. That proved to be bad information. I didn't tip the guide, while a few others did. The guide seemed surprised. My wife and I mulled over this and upon returning to the USA, I sent an email to the company and asked about tipping and indicated that we loved the guide and want to send him a tip. The company said that tipping for guides was not an insult, but it was up to us. They advised that we not sent a tip, but write a good review on TripAdvisor. I did that and mentioned the guide by name. I got a thank you email from the guide.

Also, we did a Free Walking Tour in Copenhagen where there is no cost, but you can tip if you like the tour. Of course, we tipped there as well.

I always tip private and/or group tour guides. I might tip a little more for a great Free tour.

For a full day tour costing 50-75Euros, I would tip a 10 Euros for both wife and self. For a half day tour 5 Euros. If the tour was amazing, I would go up to 20 Euros for a full day tour for two. Also, I would tip the bus driver 5 Euros for a full day and 2-3 for half a day.

If you have a 30 Euro per person tour, I would probably tip 5 Euros for two persons.

In September, we toured Romania for one week with a private driver/guide. He was paid a daily rate and expenses by the Romanian travel company that arranged our visit. He was an excellent guide and companion, going out of his way to give us a wonderful experience. At the end, my husband and I debated and debated how much to tip him. 10% of the daily fee we paid seemed excessive. We found out he was being paid just over 1/5 of the daily rate we were paying. We ended up giving him a very generous tip based on his daily rate. For days, I was concerned that we did not tip him enough. Should we have based the tip on the daily rate we paid to the company or his daily rate?

I'm following this with interest as I'm pondering a tipping situation we're going to be addressing in August. For our stay in Berlin, I'm thinking of using one of the guides that are mentioned on this site regularly. I've contacted a couple of them. Going rate seems to be about 80 Euros per hour, which will be the most I've ever paid for a private guide. Would you tip on top of the 80 Euros per hour?

Going rate seems to be about 80 Euros per hour, which will be the most I've ever paid for a private guide. Would you tip on top of the 80 Euros per hour?

Do you think that €80 an hour is not enough? At that price why would you feel the need to tip? You're paying for a service (quite handsomely too) so there's absolutely no reason, or justification to pay more on top of that.

That was certainly my thought as well. I'm not even sure I will be able to commit at that price.

I love this forum! You always come through for me. This topic garnered no answers in the Spain forum, which is why I posted here. For inquiring minds: we will be in Madrid, Toledo, Cordoba, Granada, and Salamanca.

In both Madrid and Toledo, I will be seeing private guides whose services I engaged last year. Both women were independent, licensed, wonderful guides. Since I'm a repeat customer who has had lots of contact with them (and recommended both of them numerous times), I do not plan to tip. I did, however, want to express my appreciation. Since they both have school-age children, I found light-weight-easy-to-carry picture books in English for their kids. My cousin, who is traveling with me, would also like to give a small gift. I believe she plans to give them a small zippered bag she designed. This type of gratitude is out of the norm for me. With a guide who is unknown to me, I will consider giving a monetary tip. I have found your responses very helpful in this regard.

I will have a new-to-me (but Rick Steves recommended) independent private guide in the Alhambra, so I will follow your advice on tipping. The same goes for the group tour I booked for Cordoba's Mesquita. You have all made good points, which I will ponder and discuss with my travel companion.

Thank you again!

I will add that a great review on Trip Advisor, Google, their FB page, and their website is worth as much as a tip.
If you did NOT like the tour though, contact them personally.

What about a more extensive tour, e.g., a week of day trips with an excellent independent guide/translator that comes to about 200 euros a day (but includes transport expenses for long drives; 20 euros/hr for the guide)? Central Europe. I sent about a 10% tip after the trip, suddenly thinking I so should have tipped them at the time, but then wondered if the tip itself was the faux pas.

I love this forum! You always come through for me. This topic garnered no answers in the Spain forum, which is why I posted here.

The way I use this site is that I start at 'General Europe' and work my way down through the countries that interest me or that I have sufficient knowledge of that I feel I can provide advice. Consequently when I reached the Spanish forum I had already read and answered your post in 'General Europe'. I suspect other people operate in a similar manner which may explain the lack of responses to your post in Spain.

For me, the question of tipping is best considered near the end of the tour. We're you happy with the tour? We're you happy with the tour guide? Did the tour guide do something that stood out as tip-worthy? If the answer to all those is yes, a tip is probably appropriate. If the answer to any of those is no, a tip may not be appropriate.

I don't decide how much I'll tip a waiter, here in the U.S., until I'm asking for the check. It's based on the service/experience that evening not a hard and fast rule that ignores actual service. It's the same whether it's a barber or valet parking. I won't tip at all if a tip is undeserved but I'll tip generously if I feel it's deserved.