Tipping guide by country

Each destination holds one rule per service, read from a tourism board, a government page or a consumer body. A rule is a percentage of the bill, a round up to the next whole coin or note, or a fixed amount per bag, per night or per person. Some rules say no tip at all. The level then picks the low end, the middle or the top of the usual range.

The page opens on Italy with a restaurant bill of €50. ENIT, the Italian tourism agency behind italia.it, says it is customary to leave close to 10% when the service pleased. That makes a tip of €5 and a total of €55, and two people sharing the bill pay €27.50 each.

Under the result, a table lists all 7 services at the chosen destination with their custom and usual amount, so a whole trip reads at a glance.

Tipping etiquette abroad follows the destination's own custom, and the guide sorts every service into four kinds. Where a tip is expected, as at restaurants in Canada, Mexico, Tunisia, Turkey and United States, it works in practice as part of the price. Where it is usual but not obligatory, as in Italy, a tip of about 10% after a pleasing meal is the norm. Where it is only for good service, a rounded total or small change is enough.

Where it is not customary, as at restaurants in China and Japan, a tip is simply not part of the tipping culture. Each answer carries its basis. A tourism board or government comes first where one publishes a figure. Otherwise the figure comes from a consumer body such as Which? or a motoring club such as the Austrian ÖAMTC or the Dutch ANWB. None of it is a legal duty.

When no citable body gives guidance for a service, the result says so instead of guessing. That is common for hotel staff: porters have no published guidance in 18 of the 41 destinations, and tour guides in 22. Sums for a few destinations are worked through under checked against known answers.

No, not as a rule. Visit London says restaurants often add a service charge, usually 12.5%, that it counts the same as a tip, and that no extra tip is then needed. It adds that the charge can be removed on request.

A discretionary service charge is one the bill marks as optional, and Which? says customers are always entitled to refuse to pay it. HM Revenue and Customs treats a clearly optional charge, like a gratuity, as outside VAT. A compulsory charge belongs to the price and carries VAT at the standard rate, which the VAT calculator separates from the rest of a bill. With the charge marked as paid, the calculator shows £0 for a £60 London bill.

Abroad, a line on the bill is not always a tip. In Italy the coperto is a cover charge per person. Altroconsumo says it must be paid when the menu shows it clearly, and a line marked servizio works the same way. Portugal's couvert may not be charged when it was neither asked for nor touched, according to DECO PROteste.

In France service is in the price by law, so menus read service compris, and the DGCCRF calls the tip optional. Hungary's tax authority caps the charge for service a bill may show at 15%, and Visit Hungary says no extra tip is needed when it is included. Turkey's Ministry of Trade has banned service, table and cover charges in restaurants and cafés from 30 January 2026.

In the United States an automatic gratuity added by the restaurant is a compulsory charge. The U.S. Department of Labor says such a charge is not a tip under federal wage law. Brazil works the other way, as its tips law of 2017 counts a service fee on the bill as a tip for the staff. Idec says bills usually carry 10%, which a diner may refuse.

Italy sits in the middle of Europe's range, with about 10% at restaurants on ENIT's word. Which? describes rounding up a taxi fare there, and ÖAMTC says Italian bars are not tipped. Each row gives the usual restaurant and taxi tip from the guide's data.

In France the pourboire is a small extra on top of a price that already pays for service. Paris je t'aime, the city's tourist office, puts it at 5% to 10% of the bill for particularly good service. Atout France's own page, last updated in 2019, gives a smaller top-up and 10% to 15% for taxi fares.

In Spain the propina is common but not obligatory, because every establishment includes service in its prices. Turespaña puts it at 5% to 10% of the total in bars, restaurants, hotels and taxis. Portugal's ÖAMTC figure is 5% to 15%, and DECO PROteste says the tip can be keyed into the card terminal. Croatia's figure from the same club is 10% to 15% at restaurants.

In Germany, Trinkgeld at a restaurant or café runs at 5% to 10% according to berlin.de, the Berlin city portal. Its English page describes telling the waiter the total to take, so the server can keep the change. In Greece, This is Athens says no charge for service is added at bars and restaurants and puts the norm at 5% to 15%.

Scandinavia tips lightly. Visit Sweden says rounding up to a round number is common and a tip is welcome but not expected. Visit Norway keeps tips in bars and restaurants within 5% to 15%, and VisitDenmark says hotel, restaurant and taxi bills already include service.

The United States is where a tip weighs most on the bill. Brand USA's tipping page, last published in 2019, is the latest official list per service. It gives 15% to 20% at a sit-down meal and the same share of a bar tab. Cab drivers get 10% to 18%, hairdressers 10% to 20% and tour guides 10% to 20% of the tour's price.

For a $80 meal for two the middle of that range is $14, a total of $94 or $47 each. Which? describes the top of the range, 20%, as standard in tourist spots, and works the tip on the bill before tax. The guide tips on whatever figure is typed, so the subtotal before sales tax gives the pre-tax version.

The reason lies in pay. Under federal rules a tipped worker may be paid a cash wage of $2.13 an hour, the tipped minimum wage. The U.S. Department of Labor lets the employer count up to $5.12 of tips towards the federal minimum. In Québec, suggested tips have had to be worked out before taxes since 7 May 2025, the provincial government says. On the tax side, the Internal Revenue Service lets workers deduct up to $25,000 of qualified tips a year for the tax years 2025 to 2028.

ÖAMTC gives 15% to 20% for Canada and 10% to 15% for Mexico. Japan is the opposite case: the Japan National Tourism Organization says tipping is not common in bars, cafés, restaurants, taxis or hotels. A private guide used to overseas visitors may accept a tip, handed over discreetly in an envelope, a gesture known as kokorozuke.

Visit Dubai says tipping in Dubai is always appreciated but rarely expected, with 10% to 15% at restaurants and AED 5 to AED 10 for taxi drivers. ANWB gives 5% to 10% at tourist restaurants in Thailand and at pricier ones in Indonesia, Bali included. Tourism Australia puts a tip in upmarket restaurants at 10% for good service.

No tourism board or consumer body publishes an amount for all-inclusive hotels in Turkey or Egypt. The country's own custom is the only guide, and the result says a tip is welcome without naming a figure.

In Turkey, ÖAMTC says housekeeping staff and porters expect a tip, the bahşiş, but gives no amount. Its restaurant figure is about 10%, or TRY 200 on a meal of TRY 2,000 in Turkish lira. In Egypt, ANWB says a tip, the baksheesh, is expected for every small service, and hotel staff and guides appreciate one, again with no figure.

Elsewhere a porter, the bellhop of American hotels, is tipped per bag. Visit London names £1 to £2 a bag, berlin.de €2, Brand USA $1 to $2 and South African Tourism ZAR 15 to ZAR 20. Visit Dubai gives AED 5 to AED 10 a bag, so two bags come to AED 15 at the middle of the range.

Housekeeping is tipped per night. Brand USA's figure is $2 to $5 a night, or $24.50 for a week at the middle. Visit Dubai's AED 5 to AED 10 makes AED 52.50 for seven nights. South African Tourism gives ZAR 50 a day, while Visit London leaves the amount to the guest.

Card machines in London often prompt for a tip, and Visit London says adding one is optional. Which? says tipping in cash is always more straightforward, and several destinations agree in their own guidance.

berlin.de asks card payers in Germany to give the tip in cash where possible, and Visit Hungary says staff prefer a cash tip when the bill is paid by card. In Croatia the tax authority allows tips by card and records them on the fiscal receipt. In the Netherlands, NBTC says a tip can simply be added to a debit card payment.

Tips are normally given in the local currency. Visit Dubai says the dirham is preferred, though tips in US dollars are possible, and South African Tourism notes that some places take dollars. Experience Egypt, the Egyptian tourism ministry's site, calls Egypt a cash-based society and suggests carrying cash in Egyptian pounds.

The Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023 came into force on 1 October 2024 in England, Wales and Scotland. Under its statutory code of practice, every tip, gratuity and charge for service, including one added automatically, must reach workers in full, with no deduction other than tax.

The employer needs a written tipping policy, and card, cash and app tips are treated alike. Tips must be paid by the end of the month after they were left: one left on 23 June 2026 must be paid by 31 July 2026. Many restaurants share tips through a tronc, run by a troncmaster rather than the employer.

GOV.UK's tips at work guidance says tips do not count towards the National Minimum Wage and are taxable income. HMRC's guidance on troncs sets out when National Insurance is also due. Tips are part of a year's pay, and the salary calculator shows how income tax and National Insurance fall on it.

For visitors to the UK, Visit London puts restaurant tips at 10% to 15% when nothing has been added to the bill. It says people generally do not tip in pubs and bars. A hairdresser gets 5% to 10% and a London tour guide £5 to £10 per person.

For a taxi driver the same page gives 5% to 10% or a rounded fare, though another passage of it names a higher range.

The guide never converts money. Every amount stays in the destination's own currency, because the exchange rate a traveller actually pays depends on the bank, the card and the day. Nothing typed is stored or sent anywhere.

Malta, Cuba and the Dominican Republic are left out because no citable tip guidance could be read at source. Tourism boards change their pages without notice, so the figures, checked on 16 October 2026, are due for a recheck by 31 January 2027.

Bars and cafés share one service, and spa treatments sit with hairdressers. Valet parking, room service, delivery drivers and cruises are not covered.