Tipping Points

I RECENTLY ATTENDED A wedding in rural Quebec, and guests were -provided with a car and driver for the 90-minute journey into the hills. That was exciting: A private car! I could pretend I was rich!

- Patricia Pearson

Since I'm not, though, I had no idea how much this trip actually cost. As a result, when our driver picked us back up at midnight, I secretly fretted all the way home about tipping him.

I fished around nervously in my purse and realized that all I had was a $100 note, which I was keeping for an emergency. I had nothing smaller.

Ack! I couldn't not tip him, and I had nothing else to offer but two chocolates from the wedding. So, I could tip high or spectacularly low. I defaulted to high and surrendered the money as my two kids and I clambered out. I was, I confess, too tipsy to think through the idea of asking for change.

In my defence, I wouldn't have known the math, anyway. The whole matter of tipping has long been a source of awkward interactions and, for some travellers, mild anxiety throughout the world. Tipping customs vary wildly from country to country. A friend in Rome tells me that Italians get offended by excessive gratuities. "Leaving a big tip is considered vulgar," she insists. "I've had Italian friends make me take money back."

Uh-oh. Our driver had said he was half-Greek and half-Lebanese. If for some reason the Italian attitude applied to Greeks or Lebanese, my big tip might have left him offended and me missing my emergency cash.

When people take with them their own expectations about tipping as they roam the world, it generates no small amount of confusion. Norwegians, who come from a culture where wages are high and tips are low, could burn through Las Vegas leaving a trail of outrage with their tiny offerings.