I must admit i do not tip the waitors, as there were so many and we didnt usually see the same one all the time.

Tipped house keeping every day with a quid
Tipped the guy that saved us our usual spot on the beach a quid as well every day.

thanks for the reply ,is that one english pound?if so is it ok to tip them in pound coins,Maybe it would be wise to tip the housekeeper and the guy round the pool a 10£ note at the beginning of the holiday.Also did you stop in the tropicana grand azure, its just that i am wanting to know the price of an upgrade to a junior suite for the two weeks
thanks
waffers

Hi Waffers

Please do not tip ever in English coins. Although they can exchange paper money, they cannot get coins changed into their own currency.

I would take minimum currency from the UK as it isnt a very good rate. Approx £50 sterling.
If you are near to a exchange bank in your hotel, it would be better.

Email your hotel and ask for the upgrade price in English currency, then ask your travel agent the same question. You maybe surprised at the difference in prices
http://www.tropicanahotels.com/en_contact.htm

Please do not tip ever in English coins. Although they can exchange paper money, they cannot get coins changed into their own currency.

Good advice from Michelle (my SBR Queen :thanks) however, if that is all you have please give them over, they will accept the British £1 coins and save them up and will then come around offering to sell you them back guests in exchange for Egyptian Le notes.

I would tip in small denomination LE coins. In AI hotels there will be tip boxes round and about the place.

Dont feel obliged to tip, tip for good service, otherwise you just get the micky taken with people expecting a tip just for holding a door open for you. If it's something that is a matter of common courtesy and politness in our culture, don't be conned into giving a tip.

Beware at the airport where not only did someone expect a tip for pushing a trolley into our hands the peson who took it away also expected a tip, and as for the taxi drivers !!!!

Hotel workers earn between £1 and £2 (sterling) a day in Egypt and this is a good job over there so keep tips in proportion.

We tipped the waiters in the dining room on our first day and they reserved the table for us every day.We had the same waiter every day.
We tipped the housekeeping on our last day and put money in the tip boxes on the bars.
I always tip them on the 1st day with £1 coins as I never take foreign currency abroad,I get it there.
I always offer to change it for them at the end of my holiday and have often found myself coming back with £20 in pound coins.

hi weve just come back from sharm thursday night, we had never been before and was a last minuet descison to go so didnt really know what to expect. when we got to taking our bags to the bus from the airport a man put the bags on not asure if this was the driver or someone eles, he put out his habd for a tip, we gave him a pound coin.
when we got the the hotel my fioance gave me a pound ready to give to the porter for helping us with the cases, well i gave it to the man who brought them in form the bus for us and it was the last one we had, so then when the porter took our cases to the room and held his hand out for a tip we had nothing! i only had small english change english notes and high domination egyption money so i i gave him a few 20 pence peices that i had, thinking it may be better than nothing and had a hard time eplaining we didnt have any money. the man asked me if it was real! i know he might not be able to use this but i didnt no what eles to do!

during the holiday we tipped a couple of times, we tipped the same waiter twice, once early on -about 3 days into the hol this was 5 egyiption pound and then again abput 5 days in to the hol this was 13 egyption pound, my fioancer liked him and we found out that they work 12 hours a day everyday for 2 months then go back home for 2 weeks and come back to work again for 2 months etc. we also tipped the people in the restraunt on the last night as they brought me an unexpected birthday cake out and sang happy birthday in 2 languages! and it was good service-drinks always toped up, extra food cooked if we wanted it (were all inclusive).

so that was our experiance with tipping, our rep said that the normal tippping amount is between 3-5 egyption pound, i think anything below is considerd an insult she said. but you dont have to tip although we found some do expect it (held hand out) for things like taking cases to your room.

That's a great help .I think i better take a load of english pound coins, i have never been to egypt before ,the egyptian money seems a little complicated.suppose after a couple of days i will be used to it.we have booked a 5* All inclusive hotel which hopefully has entertainment on most nights and things for the kid's to do during the day.So wont be venturing far from the hotel.Obviously with the trouble in Gaza/Isreal security has been increased.Did you have any probs due to the trouble's in gaza? were you given any extra advise from your tour rep or the hotel.Thanks for the info
waffers

nope we didnt have any rouble at all wouldnt even know it was happening, no one mentioned anything about it, we saw it on the news that was about it, have a great time!

Please please do not tip in Uk coins, you don't realise how hard and frustrating it is for these guys that work really hard to get it changed. Some have to wait 3 months to get a load of them together to change. Why do it?, all you have to do is tip them £10 of there own money which is the equivelent to a UK pound.

On coming home from Sharm the poor assistant was asking everyone on the bus for a twenty pound note for 20 pound coins he had been saving up for 8 months. It is heart breaking for them, when because of poor wages they have to wait to get it exchanged for a service you liked.
If you want to tip at the end of the holiday by all means tip in UK notes, but not coins.

Michelle.

I think the main reason people tip in pounds sterling is that on arrival they do not have low denomination Egyptian notes and would prefer to tip with something rather that nothing!

We had the same thing Michelle on our coach back to Sharm airport at the end of the holiday. The Egyptian rep had wrapped ten pounds worth of coins into little heaps and covered in clingfilm, and was desperately trying to get people to change them into tenners People didn't really want to know, they either didnt have tenners or didnt want to go home rattling. We changed one up. He had loads of these 'packs'.

I can understand when you first arrive perhaps, although I wont tip for someone carrying a bag on wheels ten yards anyway but quite honestly I think when people do it throughout a holiday it's just lazyness, small denomination LE aren't hard to find. We gave the room boy a sterling ten pound note at the end of the holiday, but we did have two rooms and a lounge for him to clean, he seemed very pleased.

Mine was wrapped in cling film as well, luckily i was loaded with tenners and twentys coming home, he was so excited that he gave me a little present.

There is no excuse really, at the airport (UK) they change your money into low denominations and i always ask and got low ones. I pull my own suitcase so do not pay for a trolley. At the hotel check in, ask then for lower notes, because the bell boy will usually take them to your room, plus most hotels have a bank or ATM.

Simple answer is do as we did and took a load of One Dollar US notes to Sharm and used these to tip staff.

We found that they preferred US Dollars to Egyptian or Sterling.

You will also find that you tend to get one waiter who latches onto you for your stay, we found a tip at the end of our stay of Six or Seven Dollars was accepted with gratitude.

Also worth tipping the porter at your hotel if and when he takes your cases to your room....about Two or Three US Dollars, same for Taxi drivers.

Hope this helps

I agree they do not like £1coin; I always change a bit of money before I land in Egypt, because as soon as you arrive to the hotel, you have to tip whoever carries your bag to the room. I try to keep 1 l.e notes with me every time. In restaurants 1.le is an insult but otherwise a lot of occasions when I think 1.le are enough.

Tips is one of the things I hate in Egypt, sometimes I feel pressurised to give tips for service I did not require, like holding the hotel door for me as I arrive, I use to feel embarrassed not giving money but then, I thought why should I? so I only give when I think the service is worthy of tips, so do not feel pressurised to give money when you do not feel like it, as your money will run out before you know it.

We didn't tip the waiters because there are so many of them, and we dealt with a different one every day. We did however tip the maid on the 2nd day of the 1st week. Gave him roughly £3quid the next day he'd even hung and folded all the clothes that were hanging on chairs e.t.c. He even gave us an extra bottle of water, so we tipped him the 2nd week too. We also tipped the towel guy as he used to put our towels on the sun loungers early in the morning in the exact same spot every day. He also gave us an , extra towel each to use as pillows, we gave him 30 egyptian pounds (approx £4). The only other guy we gave a tip too was the pool bar waiter, we gave him £50 Egyptian (approx) £6. In return he kept our AI going untill 1700hrs when it was supposed to finish at 14oohrs