Local driver gratuities

mahogany

I am on the inaugural voyage to Puglia and read that gratuities are not included for the Tour Director (as usual) or for local drivers. I don't recall this being so on previous land packages. Is this a new policy, and if so, why? I thought gratuities for local guides AND drivers were always included in the tour price.

British

No, gratuities for drivers are not always included. I notice that if you are going to have the same driver all week the tip will not be included, if there are going to be several different drivers then tips are included. It seems this is such a local area of Italy that it is likely it will be the same driver. I believe it's approx $5 a day recommended tip each in this case.
I have been looking at this tour and interested in going, though I notice it is almost sold out this year. I would be grateful if you could put a review on the forum when you return. Sometimes the new tours get changed a little if the first itinerary does not work out when it goes 'Live'. So I would be interested to hear if that occurs. We went on a new tour once and they had had to change it around before we went but we loved it.

TauckTim

Hi mahogany,

Like British said, different trips have always had different gratuity policies, although we are working on standardizing that. On this trip, $8 USD per traveler per day is appropriate for the tour director, and $4 USD per traveler per day is appropriate for the driver. The equivalent amount in local currency is also fine.

I hope this helps!

-Tim