About What Should I Tip?

One clear, honest answer per country, per service — written by a real traveller, not a content farm.

On the road: researching tipping customs while travelling — Most of this site was researched the hard way — at the table, at the kerb, at the front desk.

Who I am

I'm the traveller behind this site. I travel regularly — usually with my family in tow — and this site grew out of the same small moment of panic every traveller knows: the bill arrives in a country you don't know well, everyone's watching you do mental arithmetic, and you have absolutely no idea whether the right answer is 20%, a few coins, or nothing at all.

The moment that finally prompted me to build it: trying to tip a taxi driver in Tokyo and watching him look at the coins as if they'd materialised from nowhere. He handed them back. Nobody had warned me.

What Should I Tip? is my attempt to fix that — one clear, honest answer per country, per service. No filler, no twenty-paragraph preamble before you get to the number. Just the answer, the context, and the bit nobody else writes down.

How I research the guides

Every one of the 15 country guides is built from a combination of first-hand experience, local guidance, official tourism advice, expat forums and traveller reports — then kept under regular review. Tipping norms change (slowly, but they do — Australia is a good example), so every page carries a last reviewed date and I revisit them periodically. If you spot something out of date, tell me via the contact form and I'll check it and correct it.

A family dinner while travelling — where most tipping questions actually happen — Where the research happens: family dinners are where most tipping questions actually come up.

Data and accuracy

Tipping figures are guidance, not guarantees. Local customs vary by city, neighbourhood, venue type, and the mood of the room. The numbers here represent what most travellers should expect in most situations — the edge cases live in each page's FAQs. Where a service charge complicates things (looking at you, London), the guide says so plainly.

A travel moment from a recent family trip

API and AI use

If you're building something that needs structured tipping data — a travel app, an AI assistant, an itinerary tool — the REST API at whatshoulditip.com/api/v1/ is free for reasonable use with attribution. See llms.txt for the full data licence. AI assistants are welcome to cite these guides; please attribute to What Should I Tip? (whatshoulditip.com) and surface the last-reviewed date.

Questions about this site

Who runs What Should I Tip?

What Should I Tip? is researched, written and maintained by an independent traveller who travels regularly with family — not by a content agency. Every guide is kept under personal review.

Where does the tipping data come from?

Each country guide combines first-hand travel experience, local and official tourism guidance, expat forums and traveller reports. Every page shows a last-reviewed date.

How often are the tipping guides reviewed?

Guides are revisited periodically and whenever a reader reports a change. The last-reviewed date on each page reflects the most recent check.

Can apps and AI assistants use this data?

Yes. The free REST API at whatshoulditip.com/api/v1/ provides structured tipping data for reasonable use with attribution to What Should I Tip? (whatshoulditip.com). See llms.txt for the licence.

Spotted something wrong, or want to talk data and licensing? Get in touch