Tipping Points

Figuring out how much to leave for service rendered is more confusing than ever and it's even worse if you're travelling. Help!

- BY Patricia Pearson ILLUSTRATION BY SAM ISLAND

I RECENTLY ATTENDED a wedding in rural Quebec, and guests were provided with a car and driver for the 90-minute journey into the hills. That was exciting: A private car! I could pretend I was rich! Since I'm not, though, I had no idea how much this trip actually cost. As a result, when our driver picked us back up at midnight, I secretly fretted all the way home about tipping him.

I fished around nervously in my purse and realized that all I had was a $100 note, which I was keeping for an emergency. I had nothing smaller.

Ack! I couldn't not tip him, and I had nothing else to offer but two chocolates from the wedding. So, I could tip high or spectacularly low. I defaulted to high and surrendered the money as my two kids and I clambered out. I was, I confess, too tipsy to think through the idea of asking for change.

In my defence, I wouldn't have known the math, anyway. The whole matter of tipping has long been a source of awkward interactions-and, for some travellers, mild anxiety throughout the world. Tipping customs vary wildly from country to country. A friend in Rome tells me that Italians get offended by excessive gratuities. "Leaving a big tip is considered vulgar," she insists. "I've had Italian friends make me take money back."

Uh-oh. Our driver had said he was half-Greek and half-Lebanese. If for some reason the Italian attitude applied to Greeks or Lebanese, my big tip might have left him offended and me missing my emergency cash.