Best Of

Noreen , ourTD in Namibia took Venmo. She lived in the US so dollars was the preferred currency and she was grateful not to have to deal with the cash also. I’ve done both of your trips, although separately. Enjoy!

Maybe a solution would be that we could go to the Tauck website at the end of the tour, sign on so they know who we are, and leave the tip at that time with a credit card.

We could also do the evaluation at that time - on line. It would be easier for everyone to read the evaluations if they were done on line, in any case. Easier to route the evaluations to whoever needs to read them, and it would solve the problem of unreadable handwriting.
Additionally, the paper evaluation form does not give you enough room to do a very extensive evaluation.

But do you figure out the tip you will give a waiter in a restaurant before he/she serves you. I give extra if the service was extraordinary (and less if it was bad). If Tauck added to the overall tour cost, I lose that option.

British - I submitted something via the Contact Tauck interface. I’ll let people know if I hear anything from Tauck.

I don't think it is fair to compare a first time traveller to Namibia with TD's. I am assuming this is not their first trip and they are aware of where ATM's are located and safe to use. This will be our fourth trip to South Africa so we are more comfortable, however, even in a large supermarket in Victoria Falls they don't like to accept large bills even twenties as they don't have any change and will offer candy to you instead. This happened on our last trip there. The tipping amounts have increased enough to get our attention and while I agree the TD's and drivers do a great job it would be a lot easier and more comfortable if you could pay it in advance or just add it to the trip amount.

We typically get the local currency towards the end of a trip at an ATM to give to the TD. The TD can most likely use the local funds as he/she will do another trip in the same country/region (e.g. in France, we give euro's). This avoids having to bring a large amount of USD and have to worry about it during the travels,

Concur Sam. Tauck should just pay them, include it in the tour price and if someone does get more (like bringing an extra bag) then they can add a tip. My understanding of what the coach driver, TD and CD do is way higher now than on our first tour. I'm sure yours is too but people on the forum who are fairly new might not know. All Good.