Doc Holiday: I’m going to Europe, do I need to tip?

Wrapping your head around tipping customs and cultures can be one of the most confusing parts of travel. Here's the lowdown on how and where you should consider spreading the love with your Euros.

Escape's Doc Holiday, Dilvin Yasa, answers your travel-related questions.

We travel to Paris, Bordeaux and Amsterdam in April and would appreciate advice on tipping.

You’ll be pleased to know that across western Europe, service workers such as waiters and bartenders – unlike their American counterparts – are paid a living wage so you don’t have to tip if you’d rather not. Not only that, but in France restaurant bills automatically include a service fee of 15 per cent, which is mandated by law.

Australians aren’t known for tipping everyone who so much as looks in their direction, so the best rule – if you feel you must tip – is the one we unofficially follow here; tip up to 10 per cent for good service in restaurants where a service fee hasn’t already been applied and round up drinks to the nearest dollar in bars and cafés. Tipping with cards is rare (you’ll seldom see a line for tips on the receipt you sign) so you’ll need a ready supply of notes on hand at all times to avoid being caught out.

In hotels, you don’t need to tip housekeeping (although you certainly could if you wanted to), but it’s considered polite to give a Euro or two if a porter carries your overburdened luggage. With taxi and Uber drivers, rounding up the fare is the norm, but frankly I’ll tip any driver who hasn’t tried to rip me off (Sydney drivers, please take note). Just don’t forget to leave at least 10 per cent for tour leaders – even those in charge of “free” walking tours around the cities you’re visiting.

My husband has had a heart attack and a quadruple bypass. Can you recommend a comprehensive travel insurance policy that will cover him for our trip to the UK this year?

It sounds like you’ve both been through a lot so I’m thrilled you’re treating yourselves to a trip.

If you’ve dipped a toe into the confusing world of travel insurance lately, you’ll have discovered that a heart condition is considered by insurers to be a pre-existing condition that must be declared and assessed on a case-by-case basis.

More common conditions such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol are usually automatically included, while a history of heart attacks and surgery can either mean paying an additional premium for cover once the insurer has made their assessment, or the condition won’t be covered at all.

I chatted with the team at Nib Travel (whose policies all include medical evacuation and repatriation) and they said that in cases where automatic cover isn’t offered, your husband can undertake a medical screening process and apply for cover for pre-existing conditions, including heart conditions.

They added that while they can’t cover everything, their medical screening process takes into account individual conditions and circumstances, so it is well worth making a few phone calls.

If you aren’t having any luck with general travel insurance providers, I suggest contacting AllClear, a specialist medical travel insurance provider which provides heart condition cover for everything from arrhythmia to heart attacks.

Originally published as Doc Holiday: I’m going to Europe, do I need to tip?