Jordan and Egypt
Greetings, we are going February 14th .My question is regarding gratuities for the land tour. I understand we need to tip the Tour director and bus drivers? But in what currency Egyptian and Jordanian? Should I arrange to have that with me prior to travel? I have no idea what kind of free time there will be to locate and ATM. My understanding is the pace is quite strong and there will be little downtime to take care of this?
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Who you should tip and the "recommended amount" are covered in the "Green Book" which you should receive a few days after you have paid in full.
Your TD can be tipped in any currency you choose, or with a mix of currencies- we usually tip in USD but have also tipped a mix of USD and leftover local currency we no longer need - after all, it is a "recommended gratuity," and there is no guarantee where the Tauck TD is from. The TD will be able to use any and all. While we have had US TD's in most places, we had a Tauck TD from Canada on the Botswana tour, and a Tauck TD from NZ on an Ireland tour!! We take enough extra USD for the TD (and driver if needed), we get all foreign currency at an airport ATM upon arrival. There should be ATMs at the airport and all hotels. Unless you have AMEX, don't forget to alert your credit card company to expect foreign transactions.
As to the driver(s), double check the Green Book. Typically you only tip a coach driver who stays with you for the entire trip. On this tour you will likely have one driver in Jordan, but then when you get to Egypt, you will likely have several local (Aswan, Luxor, Cairo, etc.) drivers. Tauck handles gratuities for local drivers. We are on the 22 March departure and just made final payment so haven't received our Green Book yet.
D' Oh!!! I almost forgot, you can also check "Need to Know" > "Tauck Director Gratuities" for this tour on the Tauck App. It "offers the following guideline:"
"• USD $10 per traveler, per day for the Tauck Director, or the equivalent amount in local currency,"
and this,
"All other service gratuities, including those for your motorcoach driver(s), local guides, hotel bellmen, and restaurant staff, have been included in the price of your journey."
Finally, this is sort of a "new" (resurrected) tour for Tauck (the last time they were in Egypt was 2013) so please return to the forum after you get back to let us all know how it went, provide tips, and answer questions from inquiring minds (like mine
). Thanks!!
Thank you so much. This is our 6th tour with Tauck but gratuities have always been included . Appreciate all the information. We should receive our green book next week . We will definitely send feedback when we return
Karen, I hope you have a fantastic trip!!! This will be our 12th and promises to be truly EPIC! ranking right up there with K&T, Botswana, and Classic Italy!! Excited a bit? not me!
We are really looking forward to it. So for our favorite was small ship Baltic sea...