Tipping Question

In both situations, I have rarely tipped, and in the case of the boat tour, I did not see anyone else tip. Maybe if you had a solo boat tour, and they were exceptional, but even then....

The only time I have been prompted for a tip at a restaurant was at Blauw in Utrecht, basically the waiter saying that if I wanted to tip, I should do this, and that service was not included. Take that with a grain of salt and for what it is worth.

I would not carry cash specifically for tips, unfortunately more and more restaurants that serve the tourist crowd are altering their POS terminal to prompt a tip. I guess if you see that, you know you went to the wrong place..

There are several Dutch locals that spend time on here, maybe they have a different take, I will defer to their opinion.

I would only tip in bars and restaurants if you feel you felt treated well and had a good experience ,; not the captain of a tour boat. I personally round it up to the round numbers or the next 5 euro up in bars with and average of around 5-10% in restaurants. You are not obliged to tip and you should not be frowned upon when you just pay the amount on the bill.
When a I see service charges included (something I am noticing more and more), I am personally less inclined to give a tip, but that is me. If you had a great evening with great service, do what you feel is right to you.

I came back from the Netherlands recently and only had a tiny amount of cash, left over from a previous trip. In some restaurants I was prompted to add a tip on the card paying machine and in those cases, if the service was good, I was happy to add 10% but it felt definitely optional, no pressure.

The only time I did a cash tip was on a boat trip in Utrecht when I was the only passenger on a very hot day, and the skipper let me spray myself with the bottles of icy water that he kept in a cooler box. I found a €10 note in my purse and popped it into his tip jar on the way out.

However I don’t usually carry cash so unless I’m offered an electronic way to tip, I don’t tip.

Thank you to all! I greatly appreciate this insight and hearing about your experiences. It is helpful.