Caribbean all inclusive

[Dillyson]

We're off to a fancy AI in the Caribbean later this year. We've had a bit of a shitty time recently, redundancy, illness and the death of my mum. So I thought we could splash out on a nice holiday.
It isn't our usual type of holiday. We're normally a jump in the car and drive round France sort of family.

I've joined a Facebook group for the hotel and the subject of tipping has come up. For those of you who've done this type of holiday, do we need to carry cash to tip as we go? There are people (generally Americans) talking about tipping after each drink. Is this normal in an AI hotel? I know the tipping culture is very different in USA.

Never found its expected. We will sometimes leave a tip for maids at the end but don't generally tip after meals / drinks, is worth checking country guides as sometimes it varies but as a general rule we only tip if very good service not always. Would generally tip a tour guide and on tours they tend to ask for tips but otherwise no pressure to tip. Really up to you.

I agree with Penguins, always leave money for maids, usually In the hotel you get one barman who looks after you so we tip him at the end of the holiday. But no, not expected.

Yes as the others said, we leave the maid tips some days (not everyday) and then tip the maid and particular bar staff at the end of the holiday.

Where are you going? Hope you have a lovely time

We're going to Antigua.

When we've stayed in hotels in the past, I've always left something for housekeeping at the end of our stay.

I do find tipping a complete minefield!

And I was under the impression that one of the benefits of AI is that you don't need to carry cash.

Absolutely love Antigua. You don’t really need that much money but it’s nice to tip. The Americans usually tip one particular barman up front, quite a bit, and he looks after them for the duration of their holiday. If you can, go to Shirley heights on Sunday evening, it’s a BBQ and reggae evening, it’s fantastic, it’s a brilliant view and sunset to die for.

I never tip when on AI. Ive paid so I shouldn't have to pay again.

Wow , I hope you never go to Mexico BlackPrism.

We always tip the maid and if there was a really good bartender we looked out for him at the end of the stay.

Tour guides do get a tip.

@MyDcAreMarvel

We are off to Mexico for the first time this year - what do you recommend re tipping? Would love to know ballpark amount, who to and when.

We generally give a reasonable tip to one good barman and one beach waiter on day 1-2 and then they really look after us for the rest of the holiday, and we give them a great tip at the end of the holiday.

We also tip the omelette/pancake woman at breakfast on day 1-2 and again at the end of the holiday.

Housekeeping get tipped at the end of the holiday.

I regularly go to an AI hotel in Antigua and have never tipped other than the maids at the end and the guy at the porter desk when he went above and beyond his job description to retrieve my DS's bag from a taxi. It never seems to be expected with drinks etc as you aren't handing over any money.

Arabella, I find hotels in Mexico to be massive so no barman in particular, I just left money to the maid, taxi drivers. ☀️

@ArabellaPilkington we gave the bar staff especially the ones that brought drinks to us poolside $1-$2 dollars a round. The maid $5 a day $10 on the last and $15 in the evening restaurants. That seemed to be standard.

We tipped in the speciality restaurants in St Lucia and Grenada, i think about $10 a time. We didn't take as much cash there was told tipping wasn't as common as when we did Mexico
In Mexico we tipped the maid 40 peso a day, our regular waiters at the buffet 50 peso at breakfast and lunch, waiter in the speciality restaurant if extra attentive 200 peso, less so 150 peso.
Also tipped the lady who cam round the pool taking drinks orders, about 50 peso for every 2 drinks.
Also tipped our tour guides on both holidays plus the airport transfer driver each way

I was at a resort called the Pineapple Beach Club in Antigua and was very pleased to see it wasn't the norm there to tip per drink
I took load of single dollars and took some back with me (tipped housekeeping obvs, and a few to the bar, but none at speciality restaurants I think?)
Totally different to Cuba last year where it was a tip for every drink for the beach boys, a few dollars in restaurants etc. Went through LOADS.

(Ps: hire a car and do a day touring round the island - it's lovely and easily do-able. We even nipped back to the hotel for lunch after seeing restaurant prices!)

You can tip peso or dollars in Mexico but the staff much prefer dollars.

In Antigua we just tip at the end to people who’ve been great. It’s not expected in my experience and didn’t necessarily get you better service. Americans are used to tipping so each to their own.
Sorry you’ve had a tough year, Antigua is my favourite place so good choice