International Tipping

There is no international tipping rate, and anyone who gives you one is describing a single country. Tipping norms are local, they differ between the hotel and the taxi in the same city, and in a few places offering one causes offense. The reliable approach is to find out the practice for your destination, carry small notes, and follow what people around you are doing.

What You Need to Know

Tipping is a social convention rather than a rule, which is why it resists a table. Broadly, three patterns exist and every country sits somewhere among them.

• Tipping is part of the wage. Service staff are paid on the assumption that customers tip, and not tipping is a real slight. The United States is the clearest example.
• Tipping is appreciated but not expected. Rounding up or leaving a small amount for good service is normal; nobody is relying on it. Much of Europe works this way, frequently with a service charge already on the bill.
• Tipping is not part of the culture, and in some places it is actively unwelcome or embarrassing. Japan is the example most travelers have heard of.

Within any of those, the practice differs by setting. A country where restaurant tipping is not customary may still expect something for a porter, a guide or a driver.

Why this page does not give you percentages

Because a number would be wrong in most of the places you might read it. What is genuinely portable is the method: check the bill, ask someone local, watch what others do, and carry small notes so that whatever the answer is, you can act on it.

What to Do Before Your Trip

• Look up the tipping practice for your destination specifically, not for the region.
• Find out whether a service charge is usually included, and whether it goes to staff.
• Ask your operator what is customary for guides and drivers, which is the question travelers most often get wrong.
• Plan for cash. Tips are cash almost everywhere, even where everything else is a card.
• Get small denominations when you withdraw, and keep them accessible.
• Budget for it if the destination expects tipping, because across two weeks it is a real line rather than loose change.

Important Considerations

Read the bill

A service charge, a cover charge and a tip are three different things and a bill may carry any combination. Where service is already included, an additional tip is genuinely optional and frequently not expected. Where it is not, the bill will usually not tell you so.

Guides and drivers are the special case

On a guided or group trip, the guide and driver are the two people whose tips travelers most often misjudge, in both directions. Ask the operator before departure what is customary; a good one will tell you plainly, and being told is much better than a group deciding awkwardly on the last morning.

Tipping in dollars

Sometimes welcomed, sometimes useless. In many places a foreign note has to be exchanged at a bank at a poor rate, or cannot be exchanged in small denominations at all, so a tip in dollars is worth less to the recipient than the same value in local currency. Local currency, small notes, is almost always the better answer.

Where tipping is not welcome

In a small number of countries a tip can cause embarrassment or be refused. Offering one anyway, insistently, is not generosity. Find out first; this is exactly the kind of thing the destination guide or the local operator will tell you in a sentence.

Tips for Group Travelers

• Agree the approach before departure and put it in writing: what is customary, for whom, and roughly how much.
• Decide whether tips are collected centrally or given individually. Both work; mixing them does not.
• Tell people to bring small notes, because a group that cannot make change tips badly.
• Handle the guide and driver as a group decision, not twenty separate ones.
• Say what is included in the trip price, so nobody tips twice for something already paid.
• Do not let one traveler set the standard by tipping far above or below the local norm.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Applying your home country’s percentage everywhere.
• Tipping on top of an included service charge without noticing it.
• Tipping in a foreign currency the recipient cannot easily use.
• Having only large notes when a small one is needed.
• Tipping where it is unwelcome, and insisting.
• Leaving the guide and driver question to the last morning.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much should I tip abroad?

It depends entirely on the country and the setting, which is why this page gives a method rather than a percentage. Check whether service is already included, ask a local or your guide what is usual, watch what other customers do, and carry small notes in local currency so you can act on the answer.

Is a service charge the same as a tip?

No. A service charge is added by the establishment and may or may not reach the staff; a tip is yours to give. Where a service charge is included, an additional tip is generally optional. Read the bill, because it will often say, and ask if it does not.

Should I tip in dollars?

Usually not. In many countries a foreign note must be exchanged at a bank, at a poor rate, and small denominations may not be exchangeable at all, so a dollar tip is worth less to the person receiving it than the same value locally. Tip in local currency, in small notes.

What about the guide and driver on a tour?

Ask the operator before you travel. It is the most frequently misjudged tip on any organized trip and the easiest to get right, because the operator knows the local norm and will tell you. On a group trip, agree one approach rather than leaving twenty people to decide separately.

Are there places I should not tip?

Yes. In a small number of countries tipping is not customary and can cause embarrassment or be politely refused. Find out before you arrive rather than testing it; your destination guide or local operator will tell you in a sentence, and following the local norm is the courteous thing in either direction.

Related Travel Tips

• Money, currency and payments, the section this guide belongs to.
• How Much Cash Should You Carry? Tips are cash almost everywhere.
• Managing Shared Group Expenses, where group tipping is settled.
• LABUSA Travel destination guides, for the local norm in a specific country.

Plan Your Trip With LABUSA Travel

Tipping is a small thing that travelers worry about disproportionately, and the cure is simply being told what is normal before arriving. LABUSA Travel briefs travelers on the practice for the country and for the specific people on their itinerary.

Talk with a LABUSA Travel advisor about a trip you are considering, or browse our destination guides for a specific country.

Verify Before You Travel

Tipping norms are social conventions rather than published rules, and they differ by country and by setting. This page deliberately quotes no percentage, because a figure would be wrong in most of the places a reader might apply it. Ask your operator, your guide or your accommodation, and read the country information published by the U.S. Department of State for local customs. This page is general guidance.