How much should I tip guides for cave tubing excursion?

[gonersgirl]

DH and I are doing the cave tubing excursion with X-Stram Cave Tubin in Belize. I'm trying to get all of our money in order and I'm just wondering what the appropriate tip amount would be for the guides..I would assume that you would tip them at the end..right?

[IamCdn]

We were with cave-tubing.com (four of us in Aug). The price was $45 each for a total of $180 so I gave them $200. They said they pool their tips. If you receive special treatment from on particular guide (with seniors or children, etc.) you may try to slip him something extra. They will probably pool it anyway - they seemed like very good friends (even with the other tour operator guides). I also gave the driver (Sunny) a pack of cigs. I saw him go over to the other drivers and share them around.

[smrtypnts]

One standard system works : good tour, good tip, great tour, better tip, fantastic tour, very very nice tip. We went with another operator, *****, and they got a very very nice tip. It was pooled by the big guy in charge ("Major Tom" - ex army fellow, total professional!!!) and shared out evenly. The independent operators on shore in Belize do seem to have their act together and treat guests with a lot of TLC. We do like that!!!!

 

So in your opinion would $200 for a tour that cost $180 be considerd a good tip or a very, very nice tip? And what if the tour is considerably more? We're paying $75pp to go with Nacho and Cynthia in Nov and I already feel this is considerably above the going rate, but chose them because it includes lunch and more importantly allows us to change in a private resort and lose a few steps on the trail. So if we've got 8 paying adults and 1 free child, thereby costing us $600 what do you think is a reasonable tip? (My sister who's got the kid going free, I feel should tip more.)

[Kipp-n-Aika]

DH and I had brought $10 to tip our tour guide... unfortunately, we had forgotten that we'd have to pay $3 each to rent water shoes. This left us with $4 for a tip, which is embarrassingly small - especially because our guide (Ivar from Coral Breeze) was WONDERFUL. We asked the only other couple on the tour with us to borrow a few dollars, and ended up giving him a $6 tip, which I still feel awful about. He deserved much more than that. :(

 

I'd say somewhere in the range of $10-$15 would be a good tip, especially if you're part of a small group and receive a lot of personalized attention. Just remember to bring enough cash that you can spare a few dollars for the water shoe rental!