Tipping In Israel
When you join one of our groups we will provide you with tipping information for your journey to include tips for the guide, driver, and hotel waitstaff, so you don’t need to worry about calculating tips for these elements of your tour. This guide is mostly for those arriving early, leaving late, visiting the hotel bar, ordering room service, or going on your own adventure.
Tipping in Israel is discretionary but expected, similar to most of the Western world. Waiters and bartenders are generally paid a low salary with the majority of their earnings coming from tips. Tipping taxi drivers, on the other hand, is not usually expected.
The Israeli public is generally sympathetic to the fact that waiters and bartenders are poorly paid, and with most of these workers being students, leave a tip generously. A regular tip for a waiter in Israel is 10-15% depending on how excellent the service was and how much you ordered. In a bar, you should usually leave a tip of a few shekels, of course depending on what you are ordering. If you order room service, tip the servers 5% of the total bill, although check to make sure the hotel did not automatically add a gratuity. Occasionally (and in some ‘tourist-trap’ restaurants) service is automatically added to the bill, so be sure to keep an eye open for this.
Taxi drivers in Israel do not generally expect to be tipped, and will generally return change to you without even asking if you would like it. Remember that any taxi you take within an Israeli city should be based on a metered fare, and between cities, there is an official price list, although different vehicle sizes and timings mean that this can vary. You also shouldn’t feel the need to tip when ordering at a cafe counter, a hotel reception, or travel information, although if you receive great service, feel free to make the person who helped you extra happy!
Tipping other services in Israel, such as porters or delivery drivers is expected, but how much to tip is less formulaic than with waiters and bartenders.
