Free walking tours - how much to tip?

So for all the tip-based "free" walking tours in ports such as Naples - what's the typical amount to tip per person?

It depends on how good the guide is and how much you enjoy the tour. I would think about a 5 euro minimum and go from there. Last year in Barcelona we gave the guide 20 euros a couple. There were about 20 people on the tour.

On the other hand, zero is entirely appropriate. One of two things is going on here, either they are being paid to upsell you to other paid tours, or they are working illegally and if you tip them you are supporting an underground economy.

Licensed professional tour guides do not work for free.

On the other hand, zero is entirely appropriate. One of two things is going on here, either they are being paid to upsell you to other paid tours, or they are working illegally and if you tip them you are supporting an underground economy.

 

Licensed professional tour guides do not work for free.

I'll respectfully take a different view, EC.

Agreed, they're not licensed - or if they are they're pretty inexperienced.

But I look on many of them as wannabe's and their free tours as an apprenticeship of sorts which is bound to help them to get and keep a paid guiding job.

There are other young guides who have an interest in the subject and are earning tips (that's "tips" in both senses of the word) to see them through higher education.

We've also been guided by one elderly retired gentleman who didn't need an income but turned his hobby/interest into a way of getting out and about, meeting people, having a purpose in life, and promoting the history of his home town.

I have no issue with any of those backgrounds, and I don't see the amounts involved as adding to the black economy.

Yes, those guides are almost-always associated with an operator which offers pay tours and they do promote those pay tours, though we've not experienced any hard-sell. In fact, on those we've taken they've not had tickets / booking forms / whatever in order to actually sell so I don't see that they'd earn any commission.

Whilst the operator might not pay the guides, the quality of those guides affects the operator's reputation so there'll be a certain standard to maintain.

As to tipping, I'm not sure that there are any standard yardsticks.

Our own way of deciding - and I'm not saying it should be everyone's - is to consider how good, how knowledgeable, how interesting and how customer-friendly the guide is. And therefore how much he/she is worth for their time.

Then divide that by the number of folk in the group, and how many tours the guide will run in a day (it's usually two). That little bit of mental arithmetic gives us an answer, which we may adjust if for instance the group is particularly large or particularly small.

As it happens it usually works out somewhere between the lower & higher amounts mentioned by mskaufman, so although our methodology may be different the answer comes out the same :)

JB :)

I'll respectfully take a different view, EC.

 

Agreed, they're not licensed - or if they are they're pretty inexperienced.

But I look on many of them as wannabe's and their free tours as an apprenticeship of sorts which is bound to help them to get and keep a paid guiding job.

There are other young guides who have an interest in the subject and are earning tips (that's "tips" in both senses of the word) to see them through higher education.

We've also been guided by one elderly retired gentleman who didn't need an income but turned his hobby/interest into a way of getting out and about, meeting people, having a purpose in life, and promoting the history of his home town.

I have no issue with any of those backgrounds, and I don't see the amounts involved as adding to the black economy.

First John, thanks for the tone of your disagreement. We are capable of disagreeing agreeably.

I can see the value in one of these tours for only one reason, to get acquainted with the lay of the land, so to speak. If you are someone who's not good with maps and requires a visual orientation, having someone who knows the way show you how to get there can be a big help. There is also the serendipity of meeting, as you did, someone local with a life of perspective to offer. My sample size is small, admittedly, but what I've seen in these positions tend to be foreign (often American) students or former students trying to find a way to stay on.

Beyond that, however, I'm mystified as to why you'd want to listen to someone who isn't trained or educated on their topic. Are we so inured to the drumbeat of "false news" that we've come to expect and accept that all information is bad? Even if the tour is free, my vacation time is limited so there is a cost to me for using part of this precious resource.

The amount of money (regarding the black market) is, I think, irrelevant. Once you've crossed the line and knowingly supported someone in an illegal action, does it matter how far across the line you've gone? In for a penny, in for a pound as they say.

Look, I know I'm somewhat dancing on the head of a pin here but I think there's a bigger point about understanding the footprint we leave behind as visitors wherever we travel.

euro cruiser,

I´ve done free walking tours in Malaga and Tallinn. Both tours were excellent. Both tours were offered on a website of a regular tour operator (which was also selling tours). "Free Walking Tours" started out in Berlin and spread all over Europe. All tour guides have to be licensed. If you have any doubts that check on the Free Walking Tours website whether your tour is listed there.

Especially in Italy the fines for illegal tour guides are hefty. All tour guides have to wear their license card open around their neck. So it´s easy to see whether they are legal or not.

I usally tip 10 Euro per person sometimes 15. Depends on the tour guide and the size of the group. The tour guides don´t get paid for the tour by the tour operator you booked through but they do live on the tips.

steamboats

Hi again, EC,

If cruisemom, for whom I also have a great deal of respect, sees this thread I just know she's going to jump in on your side ;)

But horses for courses........

I've driven a few coach excursions accompanied by standard-setting Blue Badge guides. Their knowledge & professionalism are undoubted, but to be blunt they bored the pants off me. A series of kings & queens and other luminaries together with dates, who begat who, and so on. Unless the passengers had exceptional mental capacity, most of the names and dates and facts would have gone in one ear and out the other.

On one occasion, on a Portsmouth to London tour-transfer, the Blue Badge guide turned out to be someone I'd known years ago - former Navy officer, very well-spoken etc, fitted very well into a Blue Badge guide's role. While returning empty to Portsmouth, we got chatting & the subject came round to the formality of his, and other Blue Badge guides', presentation. He told me that it was way more formal than he'd have preferred, but he had to keep within Blue Badge guidelines.

By comparison - chalk and cheese - I've done the touristy London ho-ho thing (I'm a country boy, not a Londoner) and thoroughly enjoyed the live commentary offered on some routes.

.I love their witty & corny stories, banter and gags - though admittedly the quick-witted off-the-cuff remarks aren't so quick-witted or off-the-cuff when you hear them second-time-around :D

And yes, I know that a lot of the "facts" given are inventions or corruptions., but I'm not a history buff, I'm not going to remember those "facts" for long, & they add to my enjoyment of the ride.

(BTW, the ho-ho trolleybus drivers in Boston Mass do much the same, but so much better)

Like I said, horses for courses.

Some are intelligent thoroughbreds.

Some, like JB, are tired old nags :D

JB :)

Many of my university professors aside, I do think it's possible to be both educated and interesting/engaging. When there is a competitive environment those who are more entertaining do better, which helps explain the popularity of RIL on these boards.

Italy is a very specific case, the licensing process and requirements there are different from other countries in Europe, in my experience. It's the only place that I'm aware of that is so extremely particular about the distinctions between types of licenses and how they can be used. After hiring guides, tour directors and drivers in Italy for years it was heavenly to go to Ireland and find that one person could do all three jobs!

I don't think I've ever taken a free walking tour -- I prefer a known quantity if it's important enough for me to do a tour rather than just coming armed with my own notes and guidebook.

At any rate, I'm with euro cruiser in believing that a good guide doesn't have to be dry. But then my idea of "dry" may be different from JB's. :D

Roman history certainly has its share of bloodcurdling tales without the need of resorting to fairy tales. Nero, for example, who kicked his pregnant wife to death and had his own mother killed.....

I guess I'm not the target audience for such tours -- I don't get the point of them. If they spend time trying to upsell me to some other, full-day tour, I certainly would not tip and I'd be annoyed that they wasted my time. If it's a legitimate and interesting guide, why aren't they working for legitimate pay?

Its not Italy but in Barcelona we took a Runner Bean tour that was recommended by a friend. The tour was close to three hours and the information was more than I could have gotten walking myself with a guide book. There was no upsell. I do not remember the qualifications of the guide but he was good and worked hard for the three hours.

We have only taken a few free walking tours over the years.

We often tip but it depends who is sponsoring it and how much we enjoyed the tour/tour guide.

My advice is don't overthink it and make the final decision during the tour.

Keith

Depending on how long the tour is, and how good the guide is, we've typically tipped about 10 euros a person.

There have been some interesting articles on how for some companies, the guides have to give a certain amount of their tips to the company owner - supposedly the ones where they take a group picture.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

There have been some interesting articles on how for some companies, the guides have to give a certain amount of their tips to the company owner - supposedly the ones where they take a group picture.

We have taken the free walking tours in Rome, Barcelona, Paris, Lisbon, Sydney, New Orleans, and New York, the only one we bailed out of was in New York because of the very weird guide. The others were good. It gives you a good idea of the area, the guides work hard for their tip and not once did they try to up sell us other tours. We tip around 20 Euro’s/$20 for the two of us and 30 Euros/$30 for an exceptional tour that has a smaller number of participants.Sometimes the tours are large but they will usually have 2 guides and split the group up.