What's an appropriate tip for a guide or porter?
Tipping of guides, porters, and other staff is a well established practice on Kilimanjaro. Camp and trek staff (especially porters) are often poorly paid, and rely on tips to feed their families. I was amazed at how hard the porters worked for thier money, and I felt they deserved every penny of their tips and more.
However, many trekkers find that distributing tips at the end of the trip is an awkward and uncomfortable time. They're not sure how much is an appropriate tip, nor how to distribute the tips among the guides, assistant guides, porters, cooks, etc.
What do you think are appropriate tipping guidelines for Kilimanjaro? How did you decide how much money to budget for tips? Let us know by submitting a comment below.
Turtle says "pole pole"
My tour company has recommended a tip of US$50 per trekker, as being appropriate.
I will post again, when I return, to say whether I think this is appropriate or not!
Glenn
[ www.kerenowens.com ]
This is a great question. I know that some people do find it awkward to leave tips. As someone who has lived in Tanzania for 10 years now & has worked with local Tanzanian hotel staff in the safari industry (where tipping is also a sensitive subject) I can honestly say that these people do rely on their tips as their basic wages are usually pretty low, & a decent tip can usually make all the difference to them. The tips are usually put to good use, too ... for buying food, clothing or schoolbooks for their children. I'm not sure what an acceptable tip for a Kili guide/porter/other staff would be, so would be interested to hear what others think.
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