Italy and tipping...

[Dizzydizney]

Hi, sorry for the intrusion. We are going on a group tour of Italy.....our dates did not work for a tour with ABD, unfortunately. When going thru our stuff from our tour company, there were envelopes four envelopes, two each for myself and my husband. One is for "tour director", one is for "driver". It is an 11 day tour, mostly two nights at each town/city. That threw me for a loop....we don't have a clue what is appropirate. If there is a thread that discusses this, can someone point me in the right direction?
Also, we've been told "don't tip at restaurants" and "round up to the next Euro". I understand tipping is not the norm in Europe....that a "serving tax" is already added to the bill. Any insights would be helpful.
Thank you for any help.

 

[sayhello]

Hi, sorry for the intrusion. We are going on a group tour of Italy.....our dates did not work for a tour with ABD, unfortunately. When going thru our stuff from our tour company, there were envelopes four envelopes, two each for myself and my husband. One is for "tour director", one is for "driver". It is an 11 day tour, mostly two nights at each town/city. That threw me for a loop....we don't have a clue what is appropirate. If there is a thread that discusses this, can someone point me in the right direction?
Also, we've been told "don't tip at restaurants" and "round up to the next Euro". I understand tipping is not the norm in Europe....that a "serving tax" is already added to the bill. Any insights would be helpful.
Thank you for any help.

I'd really ask your tour operator, as the tip situation is different from operator to operator. ABD specifically tells you that everyone you encounter on the ABD portion of your trip is already being tipped by ABD, so you don't need to tip them. That includes bell people at the hotel, restaurant servers, housekeeping, bus drivers, etc. It does *not* cover things done during on your own time.

The only exclusion to this is the Adventure Guides. They are not tipped by ABD, so you are expected to tip them yourselves. The *suggested* amount is $9 - $11 per person, per Guide, per day. So I guess you could use that as a guideline. As I said, the bus drivers on ABD are tipped by ABD, so you don't have to tip them. Sounds like your provider is different.

I don't remember what we did in regards to tipping for OYO time, it's been 9 years. But there's no tipping necessary at included ABD meals.

Sayhello

 

[Moliphino]

I don't know about the tour people.

For restaurants we didn't tip at all for some of the trip, then started leaving a few Euro on the table when we left. I paid by credit card and there was no tip line to be able to add a tip there. This was in Rome in April of this year.

 

[Dizzydizney]

Thank you for the info. I guess we will play it by ear and also talk with the other people in our group.

 

[Dis_Yoda]

What tour company are you using? Tauck recommends $10 per day per person for the guide and $4 per day per person for the driver for our trip we are currently on.

 

[GAN]

Hi, sorry for the intrusion. We are going on a group tour of Italy.....our dates did not work for a tour with ABD, unfortunately. When going thru our stuff from our tour company, there were envelopes four envelopes, two each for myself and my husband. One is for "tour director", one is for "driver". It is an 11 day tour, mostly two nights at each town/city. That threw me for a loop....we don't have a clue what is appropirate. If there is a thread that discusses this, can someone point me in the right direction?
Also, we've been told "don't tip at restaurants" and "round up to the next Euro". I understand tipping is not the norm in Europe....that a "serving tax" is already added to the bill. Any insights would be helpful.
Thank you for any help.

I can’t speak for Tour tipping. As far as restaurant tipping goes -there is no general expectation to tip. However, if the service they provide is very good(and they put up with your broken Italian ) -then I feel a tip is deserved. They will know you’re not “European” some servers may go the extra mile hoping you leave something. Personally, I have no problem leaving something and when I did servers were very grateful.