Options
bringing cash and tipping guides
Tauck recommends giving the Tauck Director $8 USD/day/traveler as a gratuity. Is there one director you have for the entire 12 days and thus you can give them one lump sum at the end (about $200 for 2 people)? Or are there different directors in different areas so you need to tip daily (or every 2 days)? Are payments with $20USD bills OK or do you need smaller bills? I need to go the bank soon to get cash for the trip and I have to figure out what denomination bills I need.
All other tips are supposed to be included in your tour, but do people end up doing additional tips to drivers or others?
All other tips are supposed to be included in your tour, but do people end up doing additional tips to drivers or others?
0
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
You have the same tour director the entire time so we put bigger bills in a thank you note for her. I think we had a complete change of drivers twice - entirely different. But, everyday you are assigned to a different driver/guide and a different group of passengers. The drivers never acted like they expected a tip and I did not see or hear of anyone giving them an additional tip. Everywhere took US money- as long as the bills were dated 2000 or newer - even the Maasai checked the dates. We tipped the individuals that did provide personal service - bartenders, laundry delivery person, bird-walking guide etc. The small bills were useful at the border crossing for those inclined to buy from the vendors.
Hope this helps.
By bigger bills do you mean twenties or fifties?
Did you end up making souvenir purchases mostly in the hotel with credit cards or mostly with cash? That's the real dilemma for me when it comes to figuring out how much cash to bring.