EN
Nederlands
FrançaisThere is no global tipping rule, and that is the single most useful thing to know before you travel. Tips are close to obligatory in the United States, refused in Japan, officially discouraged in Singapore, and already on the bill in much of the Gulf and Southeast Asia.
That makes tipping a regional question rather than a global one, which is why the answers live in 6 separate guides covering over 100 countries. This page is the map: it explains the 3 patterns every country falls into, gives you the rules that hold everywhere, and sends you to the guide for where you are actually going.
The 3 tipping cultures, and which one you are in
Every country you visit falls into one of 3 patterns, and working out which one before you arrive answers most of the question. They are listed below from the most demanding to the least.
- Tipping is part of the wage. Service staff are paid on the expectation of it, so a tip is not a reward for good service but part of what the meal costs. The United States is the clearest example, and not tipping there is read as a complaint rather than as thrift.
- A service charge is already on the bill. A percentage is added automatically, and anything on top is genuinely optional. Much of Asia, the Gulf states and many European restaurants work this way, and the first thing to do is read the bill before you reach for cash.
- Tipping is unusual, or unwelcome. Staff are paid a full wage and a tip is, at the least, confusing. Japan is the strongest case, where tips are refused and can cause offence, and Singapore’s government actively discourages the practice.
Nothing else about tipping matters as much as which of those 3 you are in. A 15% habit carried from pattern 1 into pattern 3 is not generosity, it is a misunderstanding.
The 6 regional guides
Pick the region you are travelling to, because the figures only make sense country by country. Each guide below covers restaurants and bars, taxis, tour guides and hotel staff for every country in it.
| Guide | Covers | Go here if |
|---|---|---|
| Tipping in Asia | 20 countries, from Japan to the UAE | You need the widest spread of norms on one continent, from refusal to expectation |
| Tipping in Africa | 20 countries | You are on safari, where guide and tracker tipping has its own conventions |
| Tipping in Europe | 48 countries | You are crossing several countries in one trip and the rules change at each border |
| Tipping in North America | 15 or more countries | You are going to the US or Canada, where the percentages are the highest anywhere |
| Tipping in South America | 10 or more countries | You want to know where a service charge is standard and where it is not |
| Tipping in Oceania and Australia | Australia, Fiji and New Zealand | You are visiting somewhere with almost no tipping culture at all |
The rules that hold everywhere
Six habits work in every country on every one of those guides, whatever the local percentage turns out to be. They are listed below in the order they come up on a trip.
- Read the bill before you tip anything. A service charge is already on it in far more countries than most travellers expect, and tipping on top of one is optional everywhere it appears rather than expected.
- Carry small notes in the local currency. This is the practical constraint that decides whether you can tip at all, because nobody wants to wait while you find change.
- Never tip in foreign coins. Notes in a major currency can usually be exchanged. Coins cannot be exchanged anywhere, which makes them a worse gift than nothing at all.
- Tip in cash, and hand it over where you can. Card tips go through the business, and in several countries they reach management rather than the person who served you.
- Ask what happens to a pooled tip. Some hotels and restaurants run a central box that is split across staff, which is fine, and some do not pass it on at all.
- Do not tip badly served. Almost nowhere on these guides treats a tip as compulsory. Where service was poor, leaving nothing is a normal and understood response.
Who to tip, beyond the restaurant
Restaurants get all the attention and they are only part of it. Four other people come up on nearly every trip, and each regional guide gives the local figure for all four.
- Taxi drivers, where rounding up the fare is the near-universal default and a percentage is the exception.
- Tour guides, who are the one category tipped even in countries with no tipping culture, because guides work with international visitors and are used to it.
- Hotel porters and housekeeping, usually a small fixed amount per bag or per night rather than a percentage.
- Drivers on multi-day tours, who are tipped separately from the guide and usually at a lower rate.
WonderfulWanderings Pro Tips
Four things worth doing before you leave are listed below.
- Look up the one country you are going to, not the continent. Asia alone runs from Japan, where a tip is refused, to Jordan and Sri Lanka, where it is part of how service staff are paid. A continental average would be wrong for every country in it.
- Check whether a service charge is standard before you budget. In countries where 10% is added automatically, your food costs 10% more than the menu says, and that is a bigger number over two weeks than any tip you leave.
- Get small notes on arrival, not at the end. Airport exchanges hand out large denominations, and the first person you will want to tip is usually the one carrying your bags to your room an hour later.
- When in doubt, do what the locals at the next table do. It is the fastest answer available, it is always current, and it beats any guide written a year ago, including this one.
If something in these guides does not match what you found on the ground, let us know and we will check it for the next update.
About the author. These tipping guides are written and maintained by the Wonderful Wanderings editorial team. Wonderful Wanderings was founded in 2012 by Sofie Couwenbergh, and the site has published country-by-country tipping guidance since its early years. The team covers the practical side of independent travel, including what to tip guides, drivers, restaurant staff and hotel staff in each region, and updates these pages when service-charge rules and currencies change.