Restaurants and bars
The service standard in Los Cabos is high and tipping is expected in the American range rather than the European one. Fifteen percent is standard, twenty for good service.
The complication is the automatic propina. Tourist-area restaurants very frequently add 10–15% to the bill by default. It is legal and disclosed, usually in small print at the bottom of the menu, and it is easy to miss.
- Look for 'propina', 'servicio' or 'service charge' on the itemised bill.
- If it is there at 10%, adding 5–10% more is a normal top-up for good service.
- Cash tips in pesos reach staff more reliably than card tips.
Tours, boats and guides
Tour gratuity is not included in the price you paid the booking platform, and guides in Los Cabos rely on it. Fifteen to twenty percent of the tour cost is the norm for a good guide.
On a private charter, the same 15–20% applies to the boat price and is split between captain and crew. On a $1,400 full-day charter that is $210–$280, which is a real number worth budgeting rather than discovering at the dock.
Pesos or dollars
Both are accepted everywhere in the tourist areas. Pesos are better: dollar prices carry a built-in exchange rate that is consistently worse than the bank rate, and change from a dollar tip often comes back in pesos at that same poor rate.
Withdraw pesos from a bank ATM rather than an airport or standalone kiosk machine, and decline the machine's offer to convert for you — that is dynamic currency conversion and it costs several percent.