Almost every other situation in this guide depends heavily on which country you are in — restaurant tipping ranges from mandatory to actively discouraged depending on where you travel. Tour guides are the clear exception: in a genuinely large number of countries, including several where tipping elsewhere is unusual or even declined, a cash tip for a guide at the end of a tour is expected.
| Tour type | Typical tip, per person |
|---|---|
| Half-day group walking tour | $5-10 |
| Full-day group tour | $10-20 |
| Private guide, half or full day | $20-50, sometimes more for specialised expertise |
| Multi-day tour (trekking, safari, etc.) | $10-20 per day, often as a lump sum at the end |
Tour guiding is frequently freelance or seasonal work, and in many countries guides rely on tips as a genuinely significant part of their income regardless of local restaurant-tipping norms. The tourism industry itself has also actively normalised this expectation internationally, through guidebooks, tour operators and word of mouth among travellers, in a way that restaurant tipping customs, rooted in older local tradition, have not been.