Tipping in Vietnam: how much to give your guide, driver and cruise crew?

It is one of the questions our travellers ask us most often, usually the night before they leave or just as they are saying goodbye to their guide: should you tip in Vietnam, who should you tip, and how much? The subject often feels awkward, because nobody wants to seem stingy or to offend someone with a clumsy amount.

We have been organising trips across Vietnam from our base in Hanoi since 2005, and we work every day with guides, drivers, junk crews and the boat rowers of Ninh Binh. Here is what we see on the ground: indicative amounts, the customs worth knowing and a few simple guidelines so you can tip without feeling uneasy.

Is tipping expected in Vietnam?

Tipping is not compulsory in Vietnam, but it has become common in tourism and is always appreciated when you are happy with the service.

Traditionally, Vietnamese culture has no tipping custom in the Western sense. At a neighbourhood eatery, a phở stall or a pavement barber, nobody expects anything beyond the agreed price. In the tourism sector, however, tipping has taken hold over the past twenty years or so, largely under the influence of foreign visitors.

For guides, drivers and crews, tips now make up a real share of their income. Many work seasonally, with quiet months during the rainy season or around Tết. A tip is never owed, but it is implicitly expected when everything has gone well. If the service was disappointing, on the other hand, you are under no obligation: a tip is a thank-you, not a tax.

Keep the scale in mind, too. In Vietnam, 100,000 VND, a little over €3 or about 4 USD, is a meaningful sum for many workers.

How much should you tip your guide and driver on a tour?

On a private tour, allow around €3 to €6 per traveller per day for your guide, and roughly half that amount for your driver.

Your guide is the person you spend the most time with: they tell you the story behind a pagoda, help you bargain at the market, adapt the programme when it rains and point you to a good place for dinner. Your driver rarely speaks much English or French, but drives carefully on sometimes difficult roads, keeps an eye on your luggage during visits and happily stops for a photo. Both deserve a thank-you, and separately.

Your English or French-speaking guide

For a couple or a small family on a private tour, we suggest €3 to €6 per traveller per day, depending on how satisfied you are. For a group of 5 to 10 people, the amount per person naturally drops to around €2 to €4 per day, since the total the guide receives stays similar. A guide who accompanies you for just half a day on a city tour would typically receive 100,000 to 200,000 VND for the whole group.

Your driver

For your driver, allow about €1.50 to €3 per traveller per day. If the same driver stays with you throughout your time in the north, it is customary to give the tip at the end, at the same time as the guide but in a separate envelope. When you fly to another region, you will usually meet a new guide and driver in Hue, Hoi An or Saigon, so thank each team when you leave them.

Local guides, porters and easy riders

On a trek around Sapa or in the Ha Giang region, you are sometimes accompanied by a local guide from an ethnic minority as well as your main guide. A tip of 100,000 to 200,000 VND per day for the group is well received. Porters, less common nowadays, can be given 30,000 to 60,000 VND per day. For an easy rider who takes you on a multi-day motorbike trip, the guidelines are close to those for a guide, since they often play both roles.

How much should you budget for tips over your whole trip?

For a two-week tour with a guide, a driver and one night on a cruise, budget an average of €70 to €120 in tips per traveller.

The table below sums up the amounts we suggest to our own travellers.

Who?	Indicative tip	When to give it?
Private tour guide	€3 to €6 per traveller per day	At the end of their time with you
Driver	€1.50 to €3 per traveller per day	At the end, in a separate envelope
Halong Bay or Lan Ha Bay cruise crew	€3 to €5 per traveller per night	In the shared tip box, before disembarking
Boat rower in Ninh Binh or the Mekong Delta	30,000 to 50,000 VND per person	On arrival back at the jetty
Local trekking guide	100,000 to 200,000 VND per day for the group	At the end of the trek
Hotel porter	20,000 to 50,000 VND	When your bags are delivered
Spa massage or treatment	50,000 to 100,000 VND per treatment	Directly to the therapist
Tourist restaurant	5 to 10% if no service charge is added	In the bill folder

On a 15-day trip with a guide and driver in each region plus one night in Halong Bay, most of our travellers give between €70 and €120 per person in total. We recommend setting this amount aside in dong at the start of your trip, so you are not hunting for an ATM on your last day.

Should you tip the crew on a Halong Bay cruise?

On a Halong Bay or Lan Ha Bay cruise, the usual practice is €3 to €5 per traveller per night, placed in the shared tip box before you leave.

On most junks, tips are not included in the cruise price. A tip box is usually placed at reception or by the bar, and its contents are shared among the whole crew: cooks, waiters, sailors and cabin staff. It is the fairest way to thank the people you never see. If you are planning your night on the water, our guide to the best junks for a Lan Ha Bay cruise presents the boats we work with.

If one crew member was particularly attentive, such as the waiter who arranged a birthday cake or the onboard guide who took you kayaking, you can also hand them 50,000 to 100,000 VND in person. Note that the onboard guide is part of the crew, not your tour guide, who usually waits for you at the harbour.

How much should you tip the boat rowers in Ninh Binh and the Mekong Delta?

For a rowing boat trip in Tam Coc, Trang An or the Mekong Delta, 30,000 to 50,000 VND per person is plenty if you enjoyed the ride.

The rowers of Ninh Binh, often women from nearby villages, row for an hour and a half to two hours, sometimes with their feet, in sunshine or drizzle. In Tam Coc, some offer drinks or embroidery at the end of the trip: you do not have to buy anything, and a smiling refusal is enough. Give the tip on arrival, directly to the rower rather than at the ticket office. The same applies to the small rowing boats in the Mekong Delta canals.

Should you tip in restaurants, hotels and spas?

In restaurants and hotels, tipping is optional: rounding up the bill or leaving a few notes is enough, unless a service charge is already added.

In restaurants

In small local restaurants and at street stalls, people generally leave nothing. In more touristy or upmarket restaurants, check the bill: a service charge, often around 5%, is sometimes added on top of VAT. If there is none and you were well looked after, leaving 5 to 10% in the bill folder is appreciated.

In hotels

The porter who carries your bags will gladly accept 20,000 to 50,000 VND. For housekeeping, you can leave 20,000 to 50,000 VND a day on the pillow or with a short note, especially in boutique hotels where the staff is small and recognises you from one day to the next.

At spas and massage parlours

In spas, tipping your therapist is very common, at around 50,000 to 100,000 VND for a one-hour treatment. Some places state on their menu whether the tip is included or not, so ask before your treatment to avoid any misunderstanding when you pay.

In taxis and Grab cars

In a taxi, simply round up to the next convenient amount. With Grab, the app lets you add a tip after the ride: it is optional, but appreciated when the driver has handled your luggage or waited for you.

How do you tip politely in Vietnam?

Tip discreetly, preferably in dong, using an envelope for your guide and driver, and hand it over at the moment you say goodbye.

A few simple habits make the moment feel natural, both for you and for the person receiving it:

• Use Vietnamese dong, the everyday currency. Guides accept euro or dollar notes, but avoid foreign coins, which cannot be exchanged locally.
• Keep small notes of 20,000, 50,000 and 100,000 VND, as getting change is not always easy at the end of a visit.
• Use an envelope for your guide and driver: it is more elegant and avoids counting notes in front of them.
• Give everyone their own share: handing everything to the guide and asking them to split it puts everyone in an awkward position.
• Hand over the envelope with both hands or your right hand, with a simple “cảm ơn”, which means thank you.
• Avoid torn or very worn notes, which are often refused later on.

What if you were not happy with the service?

A tip is linked to your satisfaction. If a day went badly, or if the guide did not meet your expectations, you can reduce the amount or give nothing, without having to justify yourself. The most useful thing, though, is to tell your agency during the trip: at our agency, a problem reported on day two is far easier to fix than once you are back home. And do let us know when a guide or driver was outstanding, because that feedback means a great deal to them.

FAQ: tipping in Vietnam