Tipping for smaller sized tours, not offered by cruise line.

[Audi]

We will be taking the Red October tour in St. Petersburg in about nine days. We will be in a van that holds up 11 tourists on the first day and 8 on the second day. What would you suggest that we tip the guide and driver for the two day tour. In the past we have only taken the cruise ship tours or done the touring on our own, so I don't know what would be appropriate in this case. I'm sure that some of you out there will have this answer for me.

[Toto2Kansas]

We normally tip depending on the length of tour and how good it is (great info provided, compared to just a ride). Recently we had a water tour in St. Vincents for an afternoon. The tour was so great that all the couples onboard tipped the guide $20 per couple. Normally we don't tip that much, but it was wonderful and we had a fantastic time.

So, for us, it would boil down to 'just how good of tour it was' and then go from there.

I would suggest that $5-$10 per day per person would not be out of line.

 

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[srphnx]

Also consult local custom, in Russia, it is customary to bring "gifts" to all kinds of people you would never think of, I for one consider a tip of between 5 and 15 percent of the cost of the tour to be normal.

 

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[Audi]

Thanks Toto and Srphynx. That's kind of in the range that I was thinking but I wanted to make sure that I didn't undertip. I have been checking out messages on the boards for a few months now and I knew that I would get some good advise from it. Both of you seem to be especially helpful in your responses.