Are tips expected for cave tubing guides?

Just wondering how much cash we should carry on our tour. Are there multiple people to tip? If you have been, how much did you tip?

Just wondering how much cash we should carry on our tour. Are there multiple people to tip? If you have been, how much did you tip?

Yes, usually expected. Once you do a cave tubing trip with them, you will know/understand why. They work their butts off pulling their group around the water. :D Every time I have went, we have only had 1 guide and that's the person that stayed with us the entire time and that's who we tipped. I have tipped anywhere from $20-$50. :p But it depends on how you feel.

I agree, tipping is pretty much expected (and usually well-deserved) on excursions, in my opinion. The amount I tip depends on the excursion itself, how many of us there are in our group (am I paying for just me and my spouse, or our kids, or sometimes my mom joins in as well ..... ) and how hard the guide(s) is working. When we zip lined in Roatan a few years ago, there were six of us. The guides were phenomenal with my 70 year old mom .... they helped her with the stairs and treated her like gold to make sure she could do everything safely. She said it was the adventure of a lifetime. :) They were also fantastic with my kids, ensuring it was a great adventure. There were four of them (we had about ten others with us) and I had no qualms handing them a $100 bill when it was over. Normally, though, its more like $10 per person for an "average" excursion ...... I hope if I'm being way cheap someone here will let me know!!

I should clarify in that above post, I wasn't tipping $100 for the entire group of 16 on the excursion ..... just our six. The other people tipped for themselves, I assume. After re-reading that I realize it might not have been clear.

I just got back and used cavetubing.com and compared it to Carnival's excursion in the book the give you. For the price of Carnival's excursion I was able to do the excursion, buy two Butt's Up t-shirts, and give a $30 tip. Going local is the way to go!

Probably a dumb question but do you tip just your guide or the guide and driver? Or is your driver the same person as your guide? I'm confused.

Thanks in advance. I want to make sure I budget the right amount of money for tips.

For the company I went with, Buttsup, or cave tubing.com...they pool all the money together and divvy it up back at their location. At least that is what they said.

I always try to tip on the high side on excursions and on the ship. I figure the money is a lot more important to those folks than it is to me.