I am still in Morocco, on our group tour, having a great time with 13 fantastic women that are making me forget I am on the job.
We are dancing, singing and laughing so hard, we bring the party with us wherever we go.
There have also been so many firsts...
First hammam experience
First margarita
First mozaic fountain purchase
First camel ride
First tagine, pastilla, fig wine, couscous...
We started in Casablanca and, from there, we have already been to Rabat, Chefchaouen, Fes, and the Sahara Desert. Today, we are in the Roses Valley with one more night before we reach Marrakech, which is the end of our trip.
On another note, have you listened to this week's podcast episode? I talked to Mkay, a Kenyan travel coach and prolific traveler who has been to 100 countries with a Kenyan passport, no small feat considering the amount of paperwork that each trip involves.
If you have a powerful passport, you probably take for granted how easy it is to just book a flight and go, something that Mkay just can't do, but which have never deterred her from travel.
An inspiring, encouraging and eye opening conversation about passport privileges and challenges the majority of the world has.
Now, on to this week's travel tip: How much should you tip a free tour? These tours that are available in most cities, work on a tipping basis, so this week I am talking about how much you should tip.
How much you should tip a free tour
Our Armenian guide Lia
Have you ever taken a "free" tour?
Did you really take the name at face value and assumed it was truly free?
These kinds of tours are recommended often in our Facebook community as an affordable way to learn about a destination on a first day and get your bearings. A sort of introduction to the city that is a great way to start and see where to continue next.
But, unlike the name suggests, they are not actually free.
To better understand this, I wanted to look at the 3 sides of this story: the platforms selling the tours, the guide delivering it and the traveler attending.
For the platforms
These tours are advertised and made available for booking on platforms such as GuruWalks and are free for the traveler to book, you truly pay nothing for reserving a space.
However, offering these tours is not free for the platform.
They have to provide a service, maintain a software, advertise and even provide uniforms and merchandising for the guides to be recognisable. They also pay taxes, have staff costs, etc.
So how do they make money?
The guide who will show you around pays the platform a finders fee for every traveler who comes on their tour.
For the guides
They are usually students in history or art, future tour guides in training or even foreign students trying to make some money.
You may also find qualified guides who do the free tours and then upsell their more specialised tours during the free tour, so they use the time to promote other premium services.
The guides sign up for the platform and agree to pay a fee per traveler booked, and they pay it whether you show up or not.
This fee can be 3-4 EUR per traveler, which on a tour with 10 people, can mean the guide is paying 30-40 EUR out of pocket to work.
For every tour they accept, since they are freelancers typically doing many different jobs to make ends meet, there is an opportunity cost of having said not to a different job, a different tour or another booking that may have come with an attached, and guaranteed, payment.
There are also other things to consider when it comes to the guides of a free tour.
This is a grey line, but in many cases, guides leading free tours are not licensed or legally qualified to sell tours, so the free tour option offers an in-between option that is often not legally classified as an official tour and can therefore be offered by someone who hasn't completed the official certification processes yet.
This also means they do not contribute to professional associations or pay insurance premiums to operate. They may not even pay taxes on their earnings as these are not regulated, and they aren't issuing invoices for your ticket.
All this to say that their "operational costs" are much lower than those of an official guide.
The travelers
Most travelers understand that the tour is not actually free but that a tip / donation is expected at the end, and the platforms do explain this.
However, there is no actual commitment from the side of the traveler, and many platforms also state that guides shouldn't ask or pressure guests into tipping and that you should tip based on what you thought of the tour and your personal means.
A student may have a tighter budget than a retiree or than a professionally employed traveler, and so they should both tip accordingly.
With all this in mind, how much should you actually tip?
In the past, I have taken a free tour because of convenience, either because of availability, timing or location, not so much because of cost.
I prefer to book a paid tour and not have to worry or think about tipping, just let the guide decide how much their tour is worth.
To determine how much to tip, I considered:
Similar length and type of paid tours as a benchmark for how much a tour like this delivered by a licensed guide should cost, and this should already take into account the cost of living at the destination and the benchmark wage. If that is not possible, I consider an hourly rate and multiply by the duration
The quality of the tour delivered should obviously play a role here, you are paying for a service after all, so I adjust the above by the quality of the tour
The number of people on tour, since fewer people means the guide made less
If the guide went above and beyond and gave me extra tips, helped me with something more than the tour, suggested things I could do after, send out a list of tips afterwards, etc.
If a tour was particularly good, I have asked the guide what amount they would consider a good tip
Last but not least, if you cannot leave a lot and the tour deserved it, lave a review mentioning the name of the guide, or ask them what platform they prefer you leave a review on, that has a non monetary value they may appreciate a lot, especially if they are working to become fully qualified guides
Have you taken free tours? How much have you tipped? I'd love to hear more suggestions and perspectives on this!
Our 2027 calendar of tours
See the full list of our future trips below.
The landscapes of Kyrgyzstan
✅ = Trip is confirmed
☑️ = SOLD OUT
💃 = I or Meg will co-host these trips
📸 = Photographer accompanying the group
Available 2026 trips:
Only 1 spot left on our 2027 tours:
🌮 Oaxaca: ☑️ 29 Dec 2026 to 4 Jan 2027 >> Book here
🎄 Xmas markets: ☑️ 21 to 29 Nov || ✅ 5 to 13 Dec [1 SPOT LEFT] >> Book here
2027 trips:
🌴 Caribbean island hopping: 📸 📸 💃 💃 ✅ 13 to 20 Feb, 2027 [Photographers onboard, both Meg and I will host this trip, 3 SPOTS LEFT] >> Book here
🥘 Barcelona & Beyond: 📸 29 May to 6 Jun >> Book here
