Tipping Guidelines for Staff and Guides
Guests who have traveled with us on safari over the years have been incredibly generous to our professional camp staff and guides and the staff at the various lodges. The average tip per guest is $300 for a 10-12 day safari. This included tips of about $10 per guest per day but does not include your driver or spotter on game drives. Drivers and spotters are to be tipped separately.
If you plan to give your tip in US Dollars, please make sure the bills are newer than 2000 – older currency is not accepted in Kenya banks.
If you are planning a camel safari, gorilla trek, or mountain climb, there will be another formula for tipping which we are happy to help with.
Gift Giving
Many people ask us to recommend appropriate gifts they can bring along on safari – especially for kids. Although our policy is to never give presents to individual children (this is to prevent begging which is now so prevalent with kids – thanks to kind but misguided tourists), we give generously to schools, churches, and community programs who then distribute gifts to the children equally. Treasured gifts for kids could include ink pens, pencils, crayons, writing tablets, and balloons. If you have the room in your luggage and you have access to secondhand elementary school books, one schoolbook could change a child’s life. Many of our guests give financial support to our community conservation projects, and we have a registered 501 (3) c US charity for our projects in Africa. Please let us know if you would like any more information about our involvement in community conservation.
