Tipping on Red Sea liveaboards

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

Some LOBs are happy to give guidance on tipping. Emperor divers has a number of LOBs in the Red Sea and they say,

Emperor Red Sea believe that tips should be on a voluntary basis depending on the quality of your service from the guides and the crew. You will find an envelope in your cabin and the general recommendation is €75 (Euro) per person. Please feel free to leave what you think is acceptable and it will be equally shared between the guides and crew.

See: [Deleted]

Edit. Oops. got the link wrong. See Red Sea Liveaboard Safaris - Emperors Divers' Superior Service and Specialist Cruises and the quote above is in a PDF called, 'Read before you leave' under a section called 'Additional Information'.
 
From my experience with Red Sea LOBs there has always been either one envelope for all (DM / Crew) or 2 envelopes (DM and Crew separate).
If a recommendation is given it is usually between 50-80€ when there are separate envelopes I usually give a higher amount to the Crew.
While there are usually 2-3 DM on a Boat the number of crew is higher and the DMs get payed better then the crew, so even if you have closer contact to the DM I think it is fair to credit the "unseen" helpers that make your stay enjoyable.
 
A week Red Sea Aggressor trip is about $1450 x 5% = $72.50. That's seems to be in the ballpark of the above responses. I'll be back there again in December, Flights to Red Sea If they do a real good job to not lose me at sea & not giving me a run in my tummy, I have a nice crispy $100 bill to put it in the envelop.
 
I would consider using 10x10$ bills or any other split instead of a single bill. This makes splitting the pot much easier.
 
A week Red Sea Aggressor trip is about $1450 x 5% = $72.50. That's seems to be in the ballpark of the above responses. I'll be back there again in December, Flights to Red Sea If they do a real good job to not lose me at sea & not giving me a run in my tummy, I have a nice crispy $100 bill to put it in the envelop.

Keep in mind that Aggressor is a brand that gets a predominately American clientele. My guess is that how much a boat receives depends upon where the bulk of their clientele comes from. There are Red Sea boats favored by Russians, others that are favored by Italians, Germans, etc.

That said, and tipping in Egypt being what it is, 5% is probably realistic and agreeable to guests of most nationalities.
 
So you guys tip just at the end? I've been to Egypt 8 times and it never worked this way.
 
None of my trips was on liveaboards hence the topic :) In Egypt (as in touring the country or staying in Red Sea resorts and doing day dives from there) you tip as you go, in small but constant amounts. Essentially if you're pleased with the service you just received you give a small tip. (baksheesh)
This is the law of the land, so to speak. If you stay in a hotel for a week or more the staff definitely expects tips on a daily basis, not a big tip at the end.

This being said, in organized tours there is some sort of collective tip somehow similar with the envelope system) but we're talking about a small amount.
 
But as you asked for LOB specific tipping and since being on board for a week means that there is no "come and go" you can trust us, that the default solution on LOBs is a single big tip at the end of the trip.
 
None of my trips was on liveaboards hence the topic :) In Egypt (as in touring the country or staying in Red Sea resorts and doing day dives from there) you tip as you go, in small but constant amounts. Essentially if you're pleased with the service you just received you give a small tip. (baksheesh)
This is the law of the land, so to speak. If you stay in a hotel for a week or more the staff definitely expects tips on a daily basis, not a big tip at the end.

I have only been to Egypt twice, but I found the frequent but small tips can be as small as 10-20 EGP (on the order of 1 USD or less). Having a stack of them to hand out every day to anyone who did a little something for you makes everything go smoothly. When my wife and I arrived at our hotel room in Luxor and found they had not given us a large bed but rather two smaller beds, we alerted the staff, and within minutes there was a manager and two assistants joining the two beds together as it should have been. We tipped the assistants 20 EGP each, and their eyes went wide with appreciation. A little goes a long way in Egypt. So, as you pointed out, small but frequent amounts is how the baksheesh culture works in Egypt.

However, I'm not sure how much the baksheesh culture carries over to tipping on liveaboards. The only liveaboard I did was an Aggressor, and I highly doubt most of my fellow American guests (all were American except one German) tipped the Egyptian way. As Aggressor caters to a mostly American clientele, I'm sure they encouraged guests to tip in one lump-sum at the end, as most of us non-Egyptians have become comfortable doing.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

Back
Top Bottom