I'm organizing a group trip to Donegal for ~40 people. On RS tours gratuities for bus drivers and guides are included, (with no mention of tips on group dinners), but I'll need to figure these out for my group and would love some advice.
Our bus will be €850/day
A 2hr walking tour w 2 guides is £160
Group meals range from €30-80pp (not including beverages)
TIA, Alison
Posted by
CA
2214 posts
All tips on RS tours are included.
Here is what I found from a competitor.
Posted by
Bend, OR
1534 posts
On a Rick Steves tour, tour members do not see the breakdown of the company’s costs for the tour. There were no gratuities for a tour member to pay for anything including bus drivers, the tour guides, city guides, group dinners, or special entertainment brought in such as the Irish musical trio in Dingle. And I can only imagine that the company gets heavily discounted rates for the amount of business they give all these hotels, restaurants, guides, etc. Good luck to you because figuring gratuities is probably a minor issue compared to figuring out the logistics for a group of 40 people.
Posted by
Minnesota
644 posts
Gate 1 tour company recommends tipping bus drivers $7 per person for a full day, $4 per person for a half day.
They recommend tipping a local guide $4 per person for a half day tour.
Tips in restaurants are not always expected in Europe, but for such a large group it might be nice to add a tip in the 5-10% range.
(I love that Rick Steves tours do not expect tips!)
Posted by
Bristol, UK
1797 posts
I’d definitely tip at least 10% for a group in a restaurant.
For the bus driver - €6 ($7) a day per person seems a lot. I’d say €100 a day total would be absolutely more than enough. In Ireland a lot of people who might hire a bus won’t tip at all, eg school trips and things like that.