Tipping the Guides?

[zacharybsmom]

I am considering the Spirt tour to Washington DC area. Can anyone tell me what they tipped guides?

 

[DisneyKevin]

Hi there,

I recently went on the Viva Italia Adventure. In the literature sent to us by ABD prior to departure, it was suggested that the guides be tipped $50 - $65.00 US per person per guide.

At the end of the Adventure, it was obvious that our guides deserved every penny of the gratuity. We tipped in Euros, (as we were in Italy) and with the exchange rate it worked out to about $65 US each. So for two addults, we gave each guide 100 euros (total 200).

Hope this helps.

Enjoy your Adventure.

Kevin

 

[kmcrosby]

When I called and asked the ABD folks, they told us $4 - $8/day/person/guide. I believe that works out to be about the same range DisneyKevin mentioned.

 

[bicker]

Is there just one guide per group? And what's the going rate for tipping the motor coach driver?

 

[DisneyKevin]

There are usually two guides per Adventure.

According to ABD, they are the only people you will come in contact with that have not been tipped. All other gratuities are included in the cost of the adventure.

Kevin

 

[bicker]

Okay, so then for a seven day trip like the Southwest Splendor trip, we should set aside at least $224 for gratuities for the tour portion of our trip. (We're arriving the night before, so of course our ground transportation and hotel arrangements in Phoenix will have their own gratuity considerations.)

With Globus (the other tour operator we've worked with) the included gratuities included baggage handling at each hotel. It sounds like that's the case with ABD as well. However, with our Globus trip, gratuities for personnel at tour destinations were not covered. That was Egypt, a rather tip-crazy culture, by comparison to the USA, so from what Kevin's said, I suspect that we won't encounter anything like that there. (It's not the money for me -- I just want to know how much to have, in what denominations, beforehand, so I don't feel like an idiot trying to make change so I have enough to tip someone! )

 

[DisneyKevin]

We went all through Italy and tipped no one but the Adventure guides per ABD's instruction.

Drivers
Bellmen
Luggage handlers
Waiters / Waitresses

All of the folks that would normally be tipped, were included. It never felt odd or uncomfortable.

Now, if you are arriving early or staying after your Adventure, tipping is not included and you are on your own. Also, when you venture out on your own while on your Adventure, tipping is not included

We were told that ther were different tipping guidelines in Italy. If you take a taxi and the fare 11.50 euros....it would be customary to bump it up to 12 euros, but the driver would never expect more. In restaurants, there is usually a service charge added to you bill. If you received tremendous service, you might leave a another euro or two, but you would not be expected to tip on top of the service charge. This will obvioulsy be different in the US.

As far as the folks handling your luggage, after the guy that picked us up at the airport, we never saw anyone touch our luggage. we know they did, but not where we could see. Our luggage was in our room when we checked in. We were asked to put it outside our door prior to leaving for breakfast on days when we were moving to a different hotel. It would be in the next hotel when we checked in, so there was really no one to tip.

One thing I would recommend is to bring a couple little thank you notes with you. It was something we did not remember to take and we sort of scrambled in Venice to find something suitable. There was not a card store nearby and the cards we did find were in Italian (and we did not know what they said). Handing the guides cash seemed uncomfortable, so we improvised, but it would have been nicer to have a small thank you note.

Kevin

 

[Beth]

One thing I would recommend is to bring a couple little thank you notes with you. It was something we did not remember to take and we sort of scrambled in Venice to find something suitable. There was not a card store nearby and the cards we did find were in Italian (and we did not know what they said). Handing the guides cash seemed uncomfortable, so we improvised, but it would have been nicer to have a small thank you note.
Kevin

Nice idea, Kevin... wouldn't have thought about that. I'll add it to my ever-growing list...

 

[DisneyMeMa]

As Keving wrote, my DH and I were glad we did take thank you notes for our ABD guides for our Viva Italia 2006 trip - even partially written, LOL. Like most guests, my DH gave our guides the envelopes the last night on the pirate ship and we also verbally thanked them then. Due to various travel plans and schedules, you may not see the guides again.

I was concerned for the Adventure guides safety if they received numerous envelopes containing cash. I went to our local bank and bought prepaid American Express gift cards thinking they would be good anywhere in the world for just about anything. That was a mistake. Thankfully I looked at the cards more carefully before we left for Italy. The ones I bought could only be used in the USA and there were additional limitations like they couldn't be used for gasoline and rental cars. I used the gift cards at home for groceries. After all, we enclosed cash in the thank you notes. Does someone have a good solution to the cash dilemma?

 

[DisneyKevin]

We used euros.....but I got the impression that cash was king.

 

[cegg1290]

We tipped the recommended amount from the guidebook. I think it was $5-8pp/pd.

 

[jcanino]

Having just returned from Costa Rica, I can tell you that we tipped slightly more than the high end of the suggested amounts. both guides were totally worth their weight in gold. We also tipped our bus driver who was more than just a drive. He helped out passing out towels getting back to the bus as well as water as people got on. With some of the roads that he had to traverse to get us from location to location, whatever his company was paying him, seriously, was not enough.

Joe

 

[Computer Magic]

We used American Travel Checks.

 

[bicker]

We just picked up travelers cheques to use for this.