bella90210

How much do you tip the maid each day? How much do you tip the taxi cab after he/she drives you from the airport to the hotel? How much do you tip any additional taxi or golf cart driver if they drive you to another place, i.e. supermarket?

If you purchase an all inclusive package, do you still tip at resturarants?

Andrea J.

yes... at all inclusive where tips are already included, it is customary to add a little more. maybe $4 for a'la carte dinners, $2 buffet.

maid/housekeeper....if not at an all inclusive and if there is service every day, the tips can be something like $2 - $3 per person per day.
if at an all inclusive and tips are already supposedly included (like the tamarijn or divi) the housekeeper should get maybe a couple of dollars per day if the service is good. if service is great, tip more.

cab drivers....umm maybe 20% on regular taxi run $25% on multiple stop run 25% for a taxi sightseeing half day excursion.

bellman....$2 per large bag $10 max. (if he unpacks and puts away your stuff tip more )

this is a great topic that will have many many opinions
Andrea

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SanNic44

Great topic is right.

I truly do not like the 15% that is automatically added to restaurant checks at many places now. I forget when this started but it has been some years. At any rate, tipping is up to the customer and that 15%, no matter how it is justified as compensation to the wait staff, is nonsense. Either pay the waiters fairly and build the cost into the food, or allow the customer to tip. Bad service will continue so long as it is not dealt with in the form of little or no tips.

In San Nicolaas, we hardly tip and it is not expected. Still, service at the couple of Colombian restaurants is good (sometimes a little slow).

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momof4

At the divi dutch the housecleaning lady organized our room every day, lined up my make-up, fixed up a little mini-bar with our stuff and did the dishes. She cleaned spotless everyday so I left her $5 a day. She also told me they change the sheets every other day so I asked if she could just leave clean sheets for me to change and she just changed them daily. ( I hate sleeping on sandy sheets and it seems like not matter what you do there is always sand in them!) Hope I left enough! I am never quite sure myself if I am tipping enough.

TJMadhouse

When staying at an AI I tip:

$3 a day to House Keeping. More if I make any "Special Requests"
$5 for a cab to the Airport.
$1 each way for the Shuttle driver when they stay "on property". More if I make a "Special Request"
$1-2 for the Breakfast and Lunch buffet, if the server is attentive.
$5 for the Dinner Buffet, again if the server is attentive.
The Concierge tip is dependent on how often I use thier services. I give them their tip the day that I am leaving.

lobe

Interesting you mentioned cab drivers -- when we first bought our timeshare in 1997, we did our homework. Both Fodor's and Frommer's clearly stated that it is not customary to tip taxi drivers, as unlike in the U.S., they are well-compensated. They also trumpeted the government-set taxi rates. Well, by now there have been so many U.S. tourists throwing tips at them that some of the drivers now seem to expect tips from Americans, even though they will never see them from local users. Adding insult to injury, some drivers have become so greedy they now ignore the government-set rates and charge whatever they want (A $17 taxi from the airport became a $40 one two years ago when an unscrupulous driver demanded $20 from each of us sharing the cab). This os one more reason why we now rent a car and drive wherever, whenever we want.

cindyo

The cab drivers we used are using a 2002 price list, that along with the price of gas is killing some of the cab drivers in aruba right now. We tip them.

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cindyo

i forgot to mention that we leave cash out every morning before heading out to the beach so we get extra towels, clean sheets daily....a little cash ( 3-4 a day) got us alot of extra. Also, gave the maid the un-opened food we had purchased for our timeshare room. They were very appreciative, and we felt good about not throwing it away.

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Arubalisa

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serene56

BBO????

With the maid service do we tip EVERY day? is it per person or per night?