Tipping in one minute
Tip the people who look after you: your chauffeur, your guides, naturalists, hotel staff, boatmen, musicians and the helpers at temples.
Think in moments, not percentages: the end of the journey for your driver, the end of the day or city for guides, the end of the stay for safari teams.
- The word
- Baksheesh, a tip or small gift
- Carry
- Small notes every day
- Give with
- Your right hand, or both hands
- Service charge
- If added, no need to tip on top
- Amounts
- In the guide we send each guest
- Rupees, in small notes: foreign coins cannot be changed in India, and a 500-rupee note is hard to break at a temple step.
- Give it directly, with thanks: a word of dhanyavaad or shukriya matters as much as the note.
- Never feel pressured: if someone demands a tip for something you did not ask for, you can politely say no.
- For the practical side of money: read our guide to money and tipping.
Why tipping matters here
It is part of the income: for drivers, guides, porters and hotel teams, tips often make a real difference to the family budget.
It is a thank you, not a fee: tipping reflects how well you have been looked after, and it is always your choice.
- It reaches people you never see: a staff box at a heritage hotel is shared with the kitchen, the laundry and the gardeners.
- It keeps traditions alive: folk musicians, puppeteers and the singers at a desert camp often depend on what guests give.
- Rajasthanis tip too: at weddings, festivals and temples, local families give small amounts to the people around them all the time.
The tipping guide we send you
Why we do not print amounts here: sensible figures change with time, with the season and with the length of your journey.
What we send: a short suggested tipping guide with your final documents, updated each season, covering everyone you are likely to meet.
- How it is shaped: by the number of days with your chauffeur, the number of guided days in each city and the kind of hotels you stay in.
- How to use it: as a guide, not a rule. Give more for someone exceptional and less if the service fell short.
- Questions on the road: your planner is on WhatsApp throughout, and a quick message settles any doubt in a minute.
Who to tip, person by person
Your chauffeur
When: usually one tip at the very end of the journey, based on the number of days he has driven you.
- More if: he waited late, found the perfect chai stop or carried your bags up a fort ramp. Saying so with a little extra is lovely.
- How: an envelope at the airport or hotel door on your last day, with a word of thanks.
Local guides
When: at the end of each day, or at the end of your time in that city.
- More for: a full day than a half day, and for specialist guides such as historians or a guide who opened doors for you.
- Cooks and teachers: the host of a cooking class or a craft demonstration is thanked the same way, if they are not the owner of the business.
Naturalists and jeep drivers on safari
When: usually at the end of your stay at Ranthambore or Jawai, rather than after each drive.
- Who: the naturalist and the driver are tipped separately.
- Lodges: many have their own guidance. Our wildlife lodges page lists the ones we use.
Hotel teams, butlers and porters
The staff box: many heritage and palace hotels keep one at reception, shared by the whole team. It is often the fairest way to tip.
- Individuals too: the butler, the porter who carried bags up a steep ramp, or the waiter who remembered how you take your tea.
- When: at check-out, or directly to the person as you go.
Restaurants and cafes
Check the bill first: some restaurants add a service charge. If they have, you do not need to tip on top unless you want to.
- If no service charge: a tip is usual in good restaurants. Your tipping guide suggests what is fitting.
- At dhabas and street stalls: rounding up the bill is kind.
Desert camps and camel men
- Who: the camel men who lead you to the dunes, the camp team and the musicians who play by the fire.
- How: cash, because there are no card machines on the sand. Bring it from Jaisalmer. See our desert camps page.
Boatmen, porters and musicians
Boatmen: a small tip for the boatman on Lake Pichola or Fateh Sagar is always welcome.
- Porters: use licensed porters at stations, and tip them when they set your bags down.
- Musicians: folk musicians at forts, dinners and camps often depend on tips. If you stop to listen, leave something.
Shoe-minders and small helpers
At temples: the person minding your shoes expects a small coin or note when you collect them.
- Others: washroom attendants, the boy who runs for tea, the caretaker who unlocks a painted room for you.
- This is where small notes matter most.
When to tip, through a journey
Every day: shoe-minders, washroom attendants, musicians you stop for and small helpers. A few notes in your pocket each morning.
At the end of each day or city: your local guides.
- At check-out: the hotel staff box, and anyone who looked after you especially well.
- At the end of a safari stay: your naturalist and jeep driver.
- On the last day: your chauffeur, usually in an envelope.
- During festivals: around Diwali, the people who work through the holiday will be touched if you remember them with a little extra.
How to give a tip, the Rajasthani way
Use your right hand, or both hands: the left hand alone is considered impolite for giving and receiving.
Say thank you: dhanyavaad or shukriya will be warmly received, and so will a sentence about what you enjoyed.
- Use an envelope for bigger tips: for your driver and guides at the end of the journey. It is discreet, and it is how Indian families give gifts of money.
- Give directly: hand it to the person you want to thank, or put it in the staff box, rather than leaving it for someone else to pass on.
- Tip in rupees: foreign notes are awkward to change, and foreign coins cannot be changed at all.
- Do not make a show of it: a quiet moment at the car door is better than a ceremony in the lobby.
Keeping the right notes in your pocket
Keep two pockets: small notes in an easy pocket for tips, larger notes tucked away for shopping.
Draw cash in the cities: ATMs are scarce around the wildlife parks, desert camps and village forts, where tips are usually given in cash.
- Notes in use
- 10, 20, 50, 100, 200 and 500 rupees
- Coins
- 1, 2, 5, 10 and 20 rupees
- Hard to change
- 500-rupee notes at small stalls
- Where to get small notes
- Hotels, banks and your guide
- Prepare envelopes the night before: for your guide on the last day in a city and your driver at the end.
- Cards do not work for most tips: hotel bills and restaurants take cards, but people are tipped in cash.
- UPI is everywhere, but not for most visitors: India's phone payments usually need a local bank account. Cash is simpler.
Service charges and hotel bills
Taxes are added at the end: menus and room rates often show prices before goods and services tax.
Look for a service charge line: some restaurants add one. Under India's consumer guidelines it should not be compulsory.
- If it is there, you need not tip on top: add something only if you want to thank a particular waiter.
- Palace hotels: the room bill rarely includes tips for staff, which is why the staff box exists.
- What is already paid: when we plan your journey, hotels, guides and your chauffeur are arranged in advance. Tips are the personal part. See what a luxury journey costs.
On trains, flights and luxury trains
At airports: our team meets you inside, and the porter who loads the car is tipped when the bags are in. Your planner will have small notes ready if you have not changed money yet.
- At stations: use licensed porters in their red shirts, agree the work first and tip when your bags are on board. See our trains guide.
- On the luxury trains: the Palace on Wheels and the Maharajas' Express have their own customs for the cabin team. We tell you what they are before you board.
- On a charter flight: the crew are not tipped, but the ground team who handles your bags may be.
Awkward moments, and what we would do
Someone demands a tip for help you did not ask for: a firm, friendly no is fine. You owe nothing for an unwanted service.
A performer asks for money after a photograph: agree before you shoot, or do not take the picture. Our photography tips explain why.
- A stranger guides you round a temple and asks for a fee: decline at the start. Your own guide is with you for exactly this.
- Children ask for money: we ask guests not to give money, sweets or pens to children, because it keeps them out of school.
- A priest presses a flower or thread on you: you may accept with a small offering or politely give it back.
- Service was poor: you can give less, or nothing, and tell your planner so we can put it right.
- Someone refuses your tip: it happens with proud hosts in family homes. Accept it gracefully and thank them warmly instead.
Temples, weddings and gifts of money
Temple offerings are not tips: a few small notes in the official donation box are always fitting, and the amount is yours to choose.
Give offerings to the box: not to people who approach you on the steps.
- Blessings: if a priest gives you a tilak or ties a sacred thread, a modest offering is customary. Our temple etiquette guide explains more.
- Wedding gifts: a gift of money is called shagun, and the amount traditionally ends in one, so the gift is a beginning rather than an end.
- New notes: crisp, unfolded notes are preferred for gifts. Banks sometimes sell them before the wedding season.
Tipping from city to desert
In the cities: ATMs are easy, but tips are still given in cash.
In holy towns: Pushkar, Nathdwara and Ajmer are places of small notes, for shoe stands, flower sellers and offerings.
- In the desert: your camp bill can go on a card, but musicians, camel men and villagers need cash. Bring it from Jaisalmer.
- In the wildlife parks: draw what you need in the last city before you arrive.
- In Delhi and Agra: licensed guides and drivers are tipped in the same way, and touts at the Taj can be politely ignored.
Tipping as a family or a group
Choose one person to hold the kitty: a shared envelope for daily small tips saves everyone counting notes at every temple step.
Tip once, together: your chauffeur and guides prefer one envelope from the group to six from individuals.
- Scale with the work: a larger group means more bags, more waiting and more questions. Your tipping guide allows for group size.
- Involve the children: let them hand over the shoe-minder's coin or the boatman's note, with a thank you. They remember it, and so do the people they thank.
- Settle it before the last day: decide amounts the night before, so the farewell at the airport is about people, not arithmetic. Our multi-generation journeys explain how we plan for big families.
Hosts who are not staff
Families who host you at home: at a village lunch or a rural homestay, we pay the family fairly in advance. A small gift for the house, or sweets for the children's parents, is a lovely extra.
Heritage hotel owners: the family that owns a fort or haveli hotel is never tipped. Their staff are, through the staff box.
- Craft families: in a workshop, the kindest thanks is buying something at the maker's own price.
- Royal and noble hosts: a private dinner with a royal family is arranged as an experience. Thank them with warm words and perhaps a note afterwards, never money.
- Priests and temple custodians: an offering in the box, or a modest one after a blessing, rather than a tip in the hand.
Thanks that are worth more than money
Tell us about them: if someone was exceptional, tell your planner. Good words reach the whole team and matter as much as money.
Learn their name: your driver will be with you for days. Use his name, and ask about his family.
- Share a photograph: a picture of your guide with you at the fort, sent on WhatsApp, is often treasured.
- Eat together if invited: when your chauffeur suggests his favourite dhaba, say yes. It is an honour both ways.
- Buy from makers directly: the fairest gift to a craft family is buying their work at their own price. Our page on travelling responsibly explains how we do it.