Tipping while on excursions

[mudd]

First time doing excursions, how do you figure out who to tip and how much? Thinking about doing the bob sled and duns river in Jamaica and the ruins in Mexico. Thank you for any insight.

 

[Quellman]

Typically, most people look at tipping a guide (tour) a %. When on boats, the tips are generally split among the entire crew, not for each person. You may also consider tipping the bus/van driver a few for a clean vehicle and a safe journey, or if they help you with belongings.

 

[DCLPrincess]

On our excursions in Jamaica and Cozumel we tipped both the guide and driver. The guides stayed with us through the whole tour at all stops.

 

[mudd]

I'm catching The Who, but I'm also looking for the how much. Say two people totaling $200 and the guide was good (a 7 out of 10 rating), 6 hour tou.

 

[starvenger]

based on your scenario I’d probably go $5 (driver) and $10-15 (guide) for two people. But ymmv on those numbers.

 

[mudd]

Thank you

 

[Carrie in AZ]

We hired a private charter in Grand Cayman for our family of four. It cost about $350. Another man, not the company owner, took us on a small boat to Stingray City, snorkeling in coral gardens and to starfish beach. Tour was suppose to be four hours long but we cut it short after three hours, our choice. It was awesome all the way around but one of our daughters was DONE! We tipped him $40. I am normally a generous tipper (former waitress) but, for some reason, tipping didn’t enter my mind until we were already on our excursion and $40 cash is all we had with us.

There was a recent thread about excursion tipping. I would encourage you to look for it as there were some very detailed responses.

 

[Doofenshmirtz513]

First time doing excursions, how do you figure out who to tip and how much? Thinking about doing the bob sled and duns river in Jamaica and the ruins in Mexico. Thank you for any insight.

The bobsled and Dunn's River Falls in Jamaica is the excursion that led to the largest tip I have ever given a guide. She gave great information on the lengthy drive there, then was quieter on the way back when many people were tired and napping. She deftly handled some awkward questions from my children about the poverty we saw. She got us onto the falls quickly after we got there, and navigated us out of there quickly afterward. Since she was so exceptional, I think we tipped close to $100 (for a family of 5).

I kind of come and go on tipping for excursions, depending on whether I think there were people who provided a service that merited it and how well run the operation was. And having had a great guide who was with us for hours merited a good tip. I believe I also tipped the driver because he spent a lot of time behind the wheel, then stayed with our items on the bus while we were at the stops.