AIBU to think £10k is enough for 10 days in Boston?

Likely because they earn a relatively decent wage by being tipped 20%+ from all the tables they serve.

Its a shit way to do it as there's no security but let's not pretend its a low income. If the bill is $200, thats $40+ tip. For one table, during one shift.

Multiply up by multiple tables across the week and its likely well north of $1000 a week in tips.

7k for a family of 5 for 10 days is loads. Three us did 5 nights in NYC recently and it was no more expensive than London. In fact broadway shows and big attractions were cheaper than comparisons in London. Alcohol was a bit more expensive but we didn’t drink much. I would imagine Boston would be slight cheaper than NYC.

Same - not embarrassed to select the no-tip option.

And to be fair to the staff I’ve encountered in these places in the UK don’t seem to expect a tip - it’s the companies to blame really.

I do recall I got a frosty look in Houston a while back when I didn't opt to pay the tip while picking up lunch from an indoor food market.

I was planning to go eat it back in my hotel room which I did, if I wanted to pay 20% tip I’d have gone and sat in a restaurant!

@Unclesadam I don’t think I’ve seen it in the UK yet, I would have no embarrassment in declining it though!

It happens here too! I’ve been in plenty of places where they (the machine) gives the option for a tip when it’s just counter service. The absolute greed of these companies is embarrassing.

I know the thread isn’t about tipping, but the US tipping culture is so absurdly ridiculous and confusing. Especially for tourists or newcomers.

It can also lead to different levels of service being given to different demographics based on prejudices or assumptions.

It’s also rooted in racism like so many things are in the U.S. https://www.npr.org/2021/03/22/980047710/the-land-of-the-fee

So in California and possibly other states the minimum wage is about $40K. So does that mean someone in California earning 40K in a non-service industry job that doesn’t get tips, is meant to tip 20% to food servers who already get paid the same as them for their minimum wage? Crazy!

I lived in east Asia for a while and I loved how you’d just pay the stated bill - that’s it that’s all. It just wasn’t the done thing back then to pay a tip.

I even tried to tip a taxi driver on my way to the airport once since I wasn’t going to be using the extra currency and he ran after me to say I’d paid too much. I had to explain using my limited knowledge of the language that it was deliberate and I wasn’t coming back to the country and he finally accepted it. The honesty was outstanding there.

My bug bear is the current trend in America to start asking for tips on fast food dining where you grab and go, coffee shops etc, it’s even being done in supermarkets! Thankfully this seems to be getting challenged by US people themselves. I always deny those requests.

Why dont workers in America demand proper wages then?

It’s really awful to tip 15%.

I immigrated to the UK from the states so have experienced the other side of this. I worked my way through Uni by waitressing full time and we used to rock/paper/scissors for tables of British or European customers as we knew it would cost us money to serve them.

Where I worked, min wage for tipped staff was $2.13 an hour - and we paid taxes based on an assumed tip rate on our sales. I worked 45 hours a week so my paycheck was for 90 hours and was usually about $50. Every penny I paid for tuition was from tips.

Just checked and min wage for tipped staff in MA is $6.75 an hour. Clearly no one can live on that. So your refusal to engage with local practice will hurt people. I would never want to make someone’s day worse for such a petty reason.

edited because I didn’t mean to quote anyome!

18% was frequently the lowest option on our recent trip. A southern state.

Op just thinking out of the box a little.

can you speak to your friends and sort of plan a schedule, so plan which nights you will eat out/them cooking/you cooking at theirs. What days you will be travelling about without them/with etc.

cost up the things you plan to do, offer to pay your hosts a contribution towards food for the week. Get on trip advisor and plan where you might want to eat & again cost it up.

I would budget the 10k and then maybe try and ensure you have a back up buffer.

I think you could have a really exciting trip, I found New York really expensive too but its New York!!

Sorry, I haven't seen a 15% option, or even 18% for a long time. It's 20, 25 or 28 in most sit-down places in Mass. 20% really is minimum minimum

I’m not sure it’s going to be and if you tip 15 percent then wait staff may question what was wrong with the service.
Staff get paid based on average tip and taxed on that, so choosing to tip less is taking away from their expected pay packet. Only do this if there was a problem.
You may not like the way the USA manages its tips but you have chosen to travel there.

Boston is 2 hours from where I live so we go pretty regularly for weekends.

We don’t do stuff like get coffee from Starbucks. It’s ridiculously overpriced.

We check prices before we book restaurants. A fancy meal out might cost $450 for 5 of us but typically we’d spend much less.

Bring snacks, eat picnics in the park, get meals from Wholefoods, pizza and pastries when you’re in the North End, etc.

Are you going to be north or south of Boston OP? I’m not convinced you need a rental car the entire time. Parking in Boston midweek is so expensive that you’re better off travelling in by bus, train or T. Boston has excellent public transport (OK let’s not discuss the Green Line.) At weekends we park in Post Office Square which is cheap.

I’d consider renting a car for maybe 5 days and spending those going to Salem, Cape Cod, New Hampshire, etc.

Look at what you want to actually do in Boston and add up those costs. We loved the Science Museum when the kids were younger, Newbury St for window shopping with older teens, Isabella Stewart Gardner museum, and just meandering around the place. You don’t have to do tourist attractions all day.

I’ve been told that the cheapest way by far to see a Red Sox game is to queue for tickets half an hour before the game. Never done it myself.

Honesly I think 10 days in Boston is too much, and there are so many other great places to visit within a few hours. Coastal Maine is fabulous in summer/fall. The NH White Mountains are full of fantastic hiking and some cool waterfalls.

You can spend a fortune in Boston if you want, but there’s no need to.

More than enough, as others have said plenty of things to do and see for free just by walking around. A while restaurants ate $$ you aren’t going be going out to a nice dinner every single night or be having a sit down lunch every day. Plenty of fast casual places like Chipotle or Cava where you can get more affordable meals and pizza places are never that much and are always crowd pleasers for family. Whole Foods has good options for lunch food you can grab and go, same with Trader Joe’s and local supermarkets chains (I think it is Shaws in Boston that is good).

Thanks @pinotnow that's very helpful.

And if 15% is an option for a tip - I'll be pressing that!

We flew with Norse Air outbound, which is classed as budget, and back with BA (open-jaw). Norse Air was absolutely fine, just more limited in terms of films etc and you had to pay extra for food (and a blanket!).

Our biggest accommodation cost was NYC Hotel, which was £2k for 4 nights booked direct with the hotel. The rest was booked via Booking.com and AirBnB and was around £150-£180 per night. That was a couple of Premier Inn style places on the road, a lovely flat in DC and a stunning cottage in Virginia.

Car was hired for 6 days and originally paid £340 (Discover Cars) but cancelled that for free and rebooked for £800ish with Alamo Cars as it was more convenient locations and we didn't need to return the car full. We had an amazing time.

Tips - I found if you paid by card, which I nearly always did, they gave 3 options and I chose the middle one most of the time, unless service had been exceptional. I'm sure 15% was usually offered as the lower or middle option but I wouldn't swear to it. If they offer it I don't think it's wrong to choose that option. I'm pretty sure I never saw 30% (think it seemed to be 15%, 20%, 25%) as a set option on the machine but I may be remembering wrong. As for tipping for takeaways/counter service, the machines offer it but I found the staff don't expect it and usually aren't looking and some even cancelled it themselves before I could.

I haven’t been to Boston for a few years but did Nashville, Memphis and New Orleans last year. If you eat in pubs and diners it’s much more affordable. Drinks now are really expensive. I found cape cod was very expensive but you could wander around with no cost. Boston freedom trail was broadly free. Salem was expensive too as it’s a tourist place but again cafe and diners were reasonable. Have a fabulous time and keep
an eye out foR local events

So you've got nearly $1k a day in spending money?

I think that's very doable but it really depends on what your go to level of restaurant is, what your friends will expect and how happy you are grabbing a drink from a shop and sitting in the park or the like rather going to a cafe for breaks when you're on your feet all day.

Presumably if staying with friends you're going to have to take them out for at least a couple of nice meals? Boston is an expensive city, middling restaurants (nice but not Michelin starred or anything) are likely to be $100+/head for an evening meal when you take main courses, sharing a starter or two, tax, tip and non-alcoholic drinks into account. Easily hit $200+/head if you add in Alcohol, go somewhere a bit fancy, have dessert too, etc. But it's also a big student city and there are lots of less expensive places too.

Attractions don't seem anymore expensive than London, to me, and there is plenty of free stuff to do/see so it's not like you have to spend big everyday. And it's a very walkable city. Check out how much it will cost you to get into/back from the city from your friends place but you won't necessarily need more transportation than that most days and when you do, busses and the subway aren't expensive.

na u need at least 100k u should remortgage ur house

We did Toronto for £6k including hotel and flights

And I won't be tipping more than 15%

Then don't eat in restaurant where tipping is the norm. It's not like here in the UK, where staff are paid at least minimum wage, and tipping is optional.

In the US, restaurant staff are paid very little, and tips make up their wages. Rightly or wrongly, it's just how it is. A minimum of 20% really is expected, and you should accept that. If staff were paid the way they are here, then it would just put up the restaurant prices (already pretty pricey!), so it's no different overall - it's either smaller prices and larger tip, or higher prices and low tip - it all works out the same in the end. Don't stiff the staff just because you don't agree with the way they do things in the US.

That’s awful. 15% is a terrible tip.

We went to Boston and NYC in 2024. It was expenaive but not cripplingly so. We found in terms of eating we only really needed to eat twice a day as portions were so large.

I think that’s plenty!

Before you go, order a cool box, knife and some plastic plates for delivery to their house from Amazon, and nip to a supermarket when you arrive so that you can do picnics when you’re out on a day trip.

Take one “English” meal with you from home to share. Crumpets? Hot cross buns? Tea cakes?

Your friends will definitely have planned to have breakfast stuff at their house and to cook at least one meal - and it’s unlikely they’ll want to eat out with their kids every night!