Tipping in Egypt: baksheesh, and how much to give

Baksheesh is one word with three jobs. It can mean a tip, as it does in a restaurant or a taxi. It can mean a charitable gift, which is what it means when the mosque collects or when a family gives to a neighbour. And it can mean a payment that makes something happen, which is where the trouble starts, because a visitor cannot always tell which of the three is being asked for.

The practical answer is simpler than the theory. Egypt is a tipping economy, wages in service jobs are low, and a folded note in the hand is the ordinary way that a favour is acknowledged. You do not need to get every transaction right. You need small notes, a quick hand, and enough confidence to say no thank you when you did not ask.

Who expects one

The list is longer than in Europe and shorter than people fear. Guides, drivers and boatmen, who have given you their day. Hotel porters and housekeeping, who have carried and cleaned. Restaurant staff, over and above whatever service charge is printed on the bill. Toilet attendants, who maintain a room you are glad to have found. Site staff who perform a small service, such as running you across a car park in a golf buggy or unlocking a gate you have already paid to pass through.

Then there is the category that catches visitors out: the help you did not ask for. A man who walks beside your car and shows you where to park, a boy who points out a view you were looking at anyway, someone who hands you an object you never wanted. That is not baksheesh as a wage; it is baksheesh as a trade, and you are allowed to decline it before it begins.

What to give

Amounts move with the exchange rate, so think in proportions rather than fixed prices. A few pounds for a toilet or a small favour, twenty to fifty for a driver who waited for you, fifty to a hundred or more for a guide for a half day, and in a restaurant about five to ten per cent on top of the service charge that is already on the bill. Group tours often collect a tip for the whole crew at the end, which is easier for everybody.

Two habits are worth more than any figure. Keep a supply of small notes, because a cash machine will only ever give you large ones, and break them deliberately at a kiosk or a supermarket. And do not tip on a card: the machine may not pass it on, and the whole point of baksheesh is that it arrives in a hand.

Saying no, and saying it early

The refusal that works is the one that arrives before the transaction rather than after. A smile, a raised hand, a clear no thank you, and keep walking: that is the whole technique. What does not work is taking the object, accepting the help, or letting somebody tie a scarf on your head and then disputing the price, because at that point you are negotiating a debt rather than declining an offer.

Say it in Arabic if you can. Shukran means thank you and la shukran means no thank you, and even a bad accent gets the point across. Nobody will hold a polite refusal against you; the visible arguments at Egyptian sites are almost always about who agreed what, not about whether to give.

Group tours, taxis and the awkward cases

A few situations have their own conventions, and knowing them removes the guesswork. On an organised tour or a Nile cruise, the crew tip is usually collected at the end: the guide will explain the arrangement, and a single envelope for the whole team is normal and easier for everyone. For a taxi, agree the fare before you get in if the meter is not going to be used, and then round up at the end rather than starting a negotiation over change.

With hotels, the porter who carries your bags expects something at the moment of delivery rather than at checkout, and housekeeping is tipped by leaving a note on the pillow each day rather than one large amount at the end, because the person who cleans your room is not always the same person. In restaurants, the service charge on the bill is not the tip: leave the extra in cash on the table.

Then there is the awkward category, which is worth deciding about in advance rather than at the moment. If somebody offers you something you did not ask for, the answer that keeps everybody comfortable is a smiling no thank you, given before the object changes hands. If you have taken it, pay for it, and treat the twenty pounds as the price of the lesson rather than the start of an argument. Nobody in Egypt expects a visitor to be fluent in this on the first day, and almost everybody will accept a cheerful refusal without any trouble at all.

The one place not to pay

Money for anyone in uniform, or anyone presenting themselves as an official, is not a tip. Do not offer it, and decline it if it is asked for: a genuine official does not need to be paid for doing the job, and if somebody is impersonating one, that is a matter for the police. Keep your cash split between two places, keep your passport with you and your valuables in a hotel safe, and treat a demand for money at a checkpoint the same way you would treat one at home.

Baksheesh is not a tax and not a trick: it is how a service economy meets a tourist economy, and it works better if you engage with it cheerfully. Small notes, a quick handshake, no thank you when you did not ask, and never for anyone in uniform.