Tipping in Tanzania

It is customary, and it is not a service charge

Tipping is normal in Tanzanian tourism and genuinely matters to the people who receive it. It is also discretionary. Nobody will be rude to you about it, which is exactly why travellers find it awkward — there is no signal telling you whether you got it right.

What follows is what is customary, so you can budget for it. It is guidance, not a bill.

Roughly what people give

Per group per day for a driver-guide, and per guest per day for camp and lodge staff, is the usual shape. Amounts vary with the tier of the trip and the size of the party.

On a climb the amounts are larger and the team is bigger — guides, assistant guides, a cook and several porters — and the whole team is tipped together at the end, usually at a short ceremony on the last morning. Your lead guide will explain the split.

We will give you a specific suggested range for your journey in your final documents, because a figure that fits a four-day safari does not fit a nine-day climb.

Practicalities

• Bring US dollars in small, clean notes — anything printed before 2013 is often refused by banks here
• Tanzanian shillings are equally welcome and often more useful to the recipient
• Bring it with you. ATMs are unreliable outside the towns and there are none in the parks
• An envelope per person, or one for the team, removes all the awkwardness
• Tip at the end of your time with someone, not daily

What we do about it

Our guides are salaried, and tips are on top of a wage rather than instead of one. That matters: you are not being asked to make up someone's income, which is the arrangement that makes tipping feel coercive.

If you would rather not tip, that is your call and it will change nothing about how you are treated.