In response to SarahS and Mick W (and all other members following this thread with interest)...

Our Tour Managers receive an appropriate salary for their duties and their income is not dependant on tips. Having said this, if they are exceptional at what they do, or go that ‘extra mile’ to assist customers, many choose to tip them as an expression of thanks and recognition of the demands of their job. You should certainly not feel pressurised to do this on a daily basis.

We do include tipping information in our country information, which is sent to all our customers, and varies depending on the country they are visiting. Many of our customers prefer to have a guideline regarding tipping for, however we do state that this is at the customers discretion and should be paid if you consider they did a good job.

Kindest regards,

Julia

Thanks for the clarification Julia. Can JY please share with tour managers.

Hi Sarah. Ireally appreciated your comprehensive review of this holiday. It's one I've been thinking of doing but have held back on because I thought it would probably involve a lot of early starts and long journeys. As I've already done a similar West Coast USA tour which was amazing, I think I'll give this one a miss. I'd pretty much already decided this but your realistic description will stop me from wondering if I made the right decision.

As you say some tours invove so much travelling but are 100% worth it in terms of amazing sights.

I have had several similar experiences re tipping with both JY and other companies., particularly inUS and Canada. I could write a book about my thoughts on this. In a nutshell, when the experience I've bought has been expensive I don't buy the sob story that staff are on such low wages - it's up to the service provder to pay them a decent wage. Rant over and I have no problem giving a tip of my own deciding for good service.