Tipping in dollars or Euros
I am just curious. We have traveled all over the world and usually cart around a lot of dollars for tips. Tauck says we can tip in dollars or the equivalent amount in local currency. Since we are leaving soon on a Paradors trip I wanted to get a sense as to whether people are tipping in Euros these days at all. It would be nice not to carry around all that much money.
0
Comments
Not sure I understand why carrying Euros (instead of dollars) would increase the amount of money you'd be carrying. Pull them from an ATM once you get there or as needed for the best exchange rate. With some planning, you can shed them all before you depart...or keep them for your next trip.
Those you'd might tip in Europe would appreciate the tips in Euros otherwise they'd have to convert them before using. Unlike much of the world, dollars aren't generally acceptable in Europe...they have their own major currency.
On Tauck tours, We always take the intended tip money with us, ready in an envelope with a piece of notepaper ready to write a personal note. We rarely use ATMs, in part because the majority of our Tauck tours are unlikely to have a nearby ATM--- like the Kalahari last week! In addition, with a busy Tauck schedule, I am not sure we would want or have time to seek out an ATM. Indeed, most Tour Directors are American and return to the US in the off season or visit family. I am sure they are quite used to changing money and that it is no big deal to them, money is money, so any type is better than getting nothing from their guests. It is more likely we will give Euros in Europe, but we get them form our bank before we leave, if we have any left, we might exchange some of the dollars in the envelope for Euros so we don't have to bring them back home.
My husband and I are convinced that some Tauck travellers do not tip, sometimes unintentionally, because if they are first time travellers with Tauck, they are unsure when to tip. We have found the best time is the Farewell dinner because that is sometimes the last time you see the tour director and some do not realize that.
If only America would adopt the 'living wage' but that is a whole different subject, best not discussed here. It was rather shocking to me when I arrived in the US that I could have earned far more money as a waitress, giving shoddy service than I could in my highly trained carreer in the UK. But the differences in other counties is one of the reasons travel is such an amazing thing to do.
It would be also nice if Tauck adopted a uniform policy for tipping the tour director. As many frequent Tauck travelers are aware, on most (all?) of their ship-based or even partially ship-based (like the Peru & the Galapagos trip we returned from this week), the tip for the tour director is included. While that makes sense for their river cruises where you have multiple tour directors, it made less sense for the P&G tour and had us checking the Tauck tour booklet very carefully to ensure we were reading it correctly. The big confirmation clue was that, unlike their land tours, there were no suggested tipping guidelines.
We'd much prefer that they include the base-line tour director (and bus driver) tips in the tour cost for all trips. Less confusion (and need for extra cash) and you could, as we did, add a bonus for exceptional service. Not bundling this in automatically, but strongly encouraging it, just serves to give the appearance that the tour costs less than it does. Actually, the biggest annoyance in terms of stated tour costs is the separate, but mandatory, on-tour air, Tauck: that's part of the tour cost...include it.
Including airfare, I am not sure how that would work. people from all over the US and Canada, Australia, the U.K. use Tauck vacations, some people do back to back tours, some add days on the beginning and on the end. Some seem to constantly be able to use air miles. I prefer that the tours do not include air fare. Having said that, it always seems that a big percentage of travellers come from California or Florida. Our last tour director pointed out how unusual it was that out of 16 people, 9 were foreign born. Other than that, I think we have only encountered about four people ever from our own state.c
It is hard to say if it is marketing - "the trip costs only $XXXX," when in reality it costs XXXX + mandatory on-tour air, if it is an accounting thing, because of how Tauck handles their reservations, or is some sort of tax issue. From what I have observed, even though the tour prices may be different over the cost of a season, the on-tour air fare is usually the same.
It could also have something to do with their trip insurance. In any case, while it doesn't bother me that they are listed separately, inquiring minds still want to know why
Most other tour operators don't do this, so it isn't an insurmountable obstacle. It has to be marketing.
British: yes, I meant the mandatory, on-tour air, which applies to many of the trips we've taken: China, Southeast Asia, Kenya & Tanzania, Peru & the Galapagos, Antarctica...
I just think it is beneath Tauck's dignity as a top-tier tour operator. It also rather insults our intelligence to think that we don't immediately add it in when thinking about the cost of the trip and would certainly recount the full amount when talking to others about the trip.