Tips from Tunisia

Wrapping up a couple of weeks in Tunisia, where, among other things, I took a Star Wars tour. Specifically, this one: https://www.tourradar.com/t/154446 through a company called Saraharansky, but more on that another day; just a few photos for now.

The tour covered quite a bit of the country, as the starting point is in the north and most filming locations are in the south. All told, it as six days and five nights and I had both a tour guide and a driver. The tour was billed as a group tour and the company told me it wouldn’t go unless there were at least two people. I wound up being the only one.

The dilemma became what to do about a tip. Americans are the biggest tippers in the world; for now 20 percent is minimum, but I’m not in America, or even a place frequented by American tourists. (When it becomes clear I speak no French, more times than not, I’m asked if I’m German.) Tipping 20 percent on a tour package is a freaking huge number, and it’s never clear if it’s that amount total or that amount for the guide and the driver.

In other parts of the world, tipping just isn’t done or is minimal, like if your taxi ride costs 19.80 taxi ride, you’d give a 20 and leave the change. I really didn’t know where Tunisia stood on the whole tipping thing, so I turned to internet searches. It didn’t help.

Here’s an example of the information out there. It’s from one site under the heading “Should you tip your tour guide?” Under it, there’s a huge headline that says “Don’t tip,” then there’s the following:

“Hotels and professional travel organisations arrange group tours for all tastes tipping tour guides is unnecessary. If, on the other hand, you’re the adventurous type and you want to hire your own driver come tour guide, then you’re going to have to negotiate prices directly. Your hotel is a good resource for estimates regarding what a particular trip might cost and, if all goes well, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t add an extra 20 to 50 dinar for the ride of your life.”

Otherwise, tipping isn’t necessary, but you can do it anyway. Other sites yielded equally unhelpful information. One would say don’t tip, another would say absolutely. Amounts varied. “Between 5-10 dinars a day or more.” Yeah, that’s helpful. “It’s not expected, but do it anyway.” One said only to pay in Tunisian currency and another suggested Euros.

One of the guides pointed out the daily salary for tour guides and then turned around and suggested tipping an amount that was more than that. This is what happens on the Internet – everyone’s an expert and in the end, no one knows what the heck is happening in real life. One site, I think it was the one linked above, clearly copied and pasted from a separate entry, because on the Tunisia page, one section started, “In Morocco …” Yeah, there’s credibility on the Internet

When you just want to do the right thing, it’s never easy. I also had the dilemma that I’d signed up for a group tour, so this poor guy normally would be making more tips had more people signed up. Do I compensate for that? OTOH, I paid extra because I was single (damn single supplement!). But from a different perspective, I got a private tour at a group rate. What to do?

The night before I left the last tour hotel, I sat down with a calculator and ran some numbers, putting aside two piles. I hope I did the right thing. The guide was amazing. The driver was nice but on the last drive back (which was after I’d set aside the tip money), he took a wrong turn, insisting a road was finished. The tour guide told him it wasn’t and not to go that way, but he did anyway, and guess what? The road was not finished. (Cue “Speed”: “It’s finished on the map!” “I guess they fell behind.”) We wound up off-roading in a minivan and had to double back more times than I cared to count. It probably added two hours to the total drive time.

Anyway, I’m parked at an AirBnB on La Marsa beach now and head back tomorrow. Yesterday was another full day on Cap Bon, meaning I’ve pretty much seen all of this country, which I really like. By the time we hit the medina yesterday, though, I was whipped. I’ve no room in my suitcase and just couldn’t handle all the “come into my store, no pressure to buy” from every single shop owner.

My days in Tunis – six days before the tour and four on the back end – have been spent on little day trips with a guide the hotel set me up with. (Since he was an independent contractor, I didn’t tip.) We did Carthage, Dougga and then Cap Bon. I’m done. Today is the dentist and tomorrow I’m headed out.

More on Star Wars later.