People often come to me and ask what they should tip. Tipping is a way of thanking your crew if you feel they have worked hard for you during the week. It is optional but a small act of generosity on your part can make a big difference to the livelihoods of the local crews on the boat.

Egypt is a poor country. Putting things in perspective, I was chatting to a manager of one of the big hotels chains recently and he was saying a lot of his staff get their room and board and around 250le a month - 250le is equivalent to 23 pound or 34 euros !

Some of the better paid boat crew earn closer to 70 pounds or 100 euros a month.

For this small sum your boat crew work very long hours.

The chef slaves away in a hot confined kitchen from the early hours to late in the evening preparing 3 meals a day and snacks for, on the larger boats, 35+ guest and crew.

The Zodiac drivers have to sit around in baking sun or being bashed around in, often, rough seas, often both, for 3 or 4 hours a day while you are underwater enjoying yourselves - and between dives they’ll be cleaning the boat, checking moorings and much more.

The captains on the southern routes are often up all night sailing between the more remote reef systems and then moving the boat between sites during the day.

The service guys are constantly making sure the salon is tidy and the dining area is clean and ready for use. During the morning dives they clean and tidy all the cabins.   

These crew work 7 days for you - that 24 hours period after the last guests left and before you arrived is not a rest day - its the time they have to prepare the boat for your trip. Your crew usually do about two months on before they get a week or 2 off.

Your tips can make the world of difference to the crew. If each guest were to only tip each crew member as little as 2 pound or 3 euros, that would over double their take home pay.

On a typical 20 berth Red Sea live-aboard there will be perhaps 12 crew and 2 or 3 dive guides.

When you come to tip please remember how hard your crew worked for you and how many of them there are trying to make your trip run smoothly.

Do the math and you’d be looking at a minimum tip of 30 sterling / 50 euro for a weeks safari. If you are part of a couple, that would be each, not between you. After all you did buy two tickets.

If you think they worked really hard then more would be appropriate - or an individual tip to a crew member who perhaps went out of his way to look after you.

If you are on a 2 week trip rather than a one week one and the crew kept up the hard work a larger tip should be given. Royal Evolution’s boat crew had a terrible time last season in Sudan where many people tipped the same or even less than you would expect on a one week trip.  As the Egyptian crews basically work for their tips, this was terrible for them.

If you get a bad crew - and its rare to get a whole crew who don’t work hard, don’t tip but please if there has been a problem with the boat that is out of the control of the crew don’t take it out on them. They generally have done the best to make it a good holiday for you.

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