When I was a young buck, I used to travel like a maniac for work. I was based in Manhattan and had to cover clients in Florida, Bahamas, Iowa, Texas, Colorado, and California. Then there were the necessary quarterly or semi-annual pilgrimages to Hong Kong to kiss the ring. When you’ve got a corporate card with unlimited credit, you feel a little better about taking red-eyes to your 8am meetings. But after a while, the novelty wears off and all you want to do is take the Chairman’s Flight (fly in the middle of the work day).

Travel miles and credit card rewards points was my combination of choice because not only would I gain more points flying more miles, I would then gain rewards points for every dollar I spent on the ticket, hotels, food, and entertainment. For example, I’d earn 16,100 points for flying to Hong Kong from New York City roundtrip + 5,000 points for the cost of the business class ticket + 2,500 points for seven nights in a hotel + 1,000 points for food + 500 points for entertainment. The total rewards points accumulated would therefore equal ~25,000 for a one week business trip to Asia.

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Figuring out how much to tip is one of the most awkward things to tackle because tipping is not mandatory. But if you live in America like I do, tipping is part of our culture. Not tipping for service feels weird, so we tend to do it anyway even if it’s not a part of another country’s culture.

Although each country in Europe has a slightly different tipping culture, I’d like to provide a rough guideline of how much to tip any waiter or hotel staff while traveling in any country in Europe. The tipping amounts have been researched through my own travel experiences and speaking with numerous travel industry veterans. And if you’re ever in doubt, you can always tip more!

_{Disclosure: Financial Samurai has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Financial Samurai and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.}