Thought I would put this here in the hope that the seasoned Italy travelers see it.
I know 99% of the tipping rules. I felt guilty on our first trip and tipped at our first dinner, and our daughter who was studying there read me the riot act.
This is not about that, or bars, or caffes, or taxi drivers.
Specifically, this time around I have 6 people traveling and for ease of use and to lube a lot of moving parts I hired a company to get us around. From the airport to Rome, from Rome to Tuscany, etc. The question is do these drivers get tipped? I am paying the bus/limo company in advance for the trips so there will not be an opportunity to āround upā as you would with a taxi driver.
I canāt remember how much, maybe 10 Euros if I had paid 100-200 Euros for the day trip, when we hired a driver to take the 8 of us in a minivan to various Tuscan towns. Iām sure some of my friends tipped less. Cash to the driver, at the end of the day, if I enjoyed the experience. I tip bus drivers on group charter trips, in the same way in North America. When I was running a group ski trip in Austria in 2019, with 20 adults, on behalf of the group , with collected money from my ski club, I tipped the charter bus drivers around 50 -75 Euros at the end of the trip for a day trip or trip from the airport to the resort( around 2 or 3 h driving).
I treat it like the French Pourboire or German Trinkgeld, to show my appreciation.
I always round up in Italy. It tends to work out to around 8 to 12 percent, beyond the cover charge.
in the touristi areas of Italy, tipping is not an option, it is a post event threat/bribe.
did a gondola ride - he provided the āfeeā in advance - I told him Iād need to convert some USD to Lira, so he dumped us on the opposite side of the canal, where there was no option but to mega-seriously āround upā my available USD currency. a 60% ātipā - as it were . . .
like all tourist areas, the providers are out for maximum monetary extraction.
My sister asked this of a travel agent who booked a package in Tuscany for us this spring;
āI was wondering about tipping for our drivers and guides. Since we donāt know the cost of our trips, we canāt figure percentages. So can you provide guidance on tipping protocols?ā
I wrote ;
"Good question! Folks on Hungry Onion say tipping is a North American thing, with some European exceptions ( I think the UK). Apparently in most of Europe there are included āservice chargesā at meals, and maybe rounding up, unless they know you are āAmericanā. I am looking forward to her response. "
And she (the agent) said
"so, letās say we suggest about 30 euro for a half day and 50 euros for a full day for guides or drivers as well.
Please, note that in Italy the tripping is not obligatory, all our guides and drivers are working for a salary, please tipp only if you are very satisfied with services as it is always welcomed of course."
ā¦but this was my fifth trip to Italy, most with drivers and private tours, and I was like ānahā¦ she must be in cahoots.ā She had arranged the drivers and the rates. Sometimes we had to the same driver for several days and tipped something on the last day.
Thanks all, much appreciated. As we will basically have a large suv (minibus as the operator said) and it will be pickup/dropoff, I will plan on 5 euro/head for the short runs from FCO to Trastevere, and the run a few days later to S. Marinella. probably go a little more for the longer dropoff near Sienaā¦and the poor planning 5AM pickup to catch the return flight home.
Figured I would put a bow on this in case anyone else happened on this thread and was looking for transportation.
The company we used was Grassinibus which came recommended from a food/travel writer. I priced out other companies as well and they were competitive. We had a total of 4 trips with them, the longest being the 3 hour haul from Tuscany back to Rome for our flight home. Communication was excellent throughout the process, I was advised on drivers names and contact info the day prior to pickup.
Aforementioned 5AM pickup pic. Again, thanks to all for the help.
