Tipping Your Bourbon Tour Driver: What the Rate Leaves Out

Quick Facts

• Is gratuity included? No. Our rate covers everything except lunch and driver gratuity.
• How much? Gratuity is customary. We print no range; it sits outside the quoted rate.
• Derby transportation: per-vehicle rates include tax and gratuity, plus the 3% booking fee.
• What the rate does cover: distillery tickets, tasting fees, trip planning by a Bourbon Experience Coordinator, the private vehicle with a professional guide who drives the tour, and a confirmed lunch reservation.
• Lunch: we book the table; the meal, and the server's tip, go on your tab.
• Groups over 14: more vehicles mean more drivers to thank; a contracted bus or motor coach for a larger party is quoted on the call.

What your rate covers and what it leaves out

A BourbonTown Tours private tour is priced per person by group size: $425 each for two guests, sliding to $275 each for ten or more, plus 6% KY sales tax and a 3% booking fee. That rate pays for five things: distillery tickets, tasting fees, trip planning by a Bourbon Experience Coordinator, the private vehicle with a professional guide who drives the tour, and a confirmed lunch reservation. Two things sit outside it. Lunch is one: we book and confirm the restaurant table, and the meal goes on your tab at the restaurant. Driver gratuity is the other. It is not folded into the per-person figure, so the price on your quote is the price of the tour, and the tip is a separate choice you make on the day. Any bottle you buy also stays with you. What every private tour includes lists the five inclusions, and bourbon tour costs by group size prints the full rate sheet.

How much to tip your driver

Gratuity is customary. We do not set a range or a percentage. Weigh it the way you would any full-day private service: how many hours the day ran, how many guests rode, and how the day went. A private day runs from pickup at your hotel or door in Louisville, Bardstown or Lexington, through every distillery reservation and the lunch table, to the drop-off at the end. If a distillery closes unexpectedly or your plans shift that morning, the driver is the person who carries the reroute. Water is stocked in every vehicle. All of that is part of what you are weighing. Groups that split across vehicles settle it driver by driver, as the next sections explain.

Derby transportation: gratuity already included

Derby works differently, because we do not run Derby tours. Groups hire our vehicles for transportation to and from Churchill Downs on Thursday, Oaks and Derby days. That transportation is priced per vehicle, not per person, and each rate includes tax and gratuity, plus the 3% booking fee, which is charged on the deposit and the balance. Any party up to 14 can book the van at the van rate. So a Derby group does not need to plan a separate driver tip: it is already inside the figure on the quote. Thursday runs $2,000 for the SUV and $2,600 for the van, and the Oaks and Derby two-day package runs $4,000 for the SUV and $5,200 for the van; each rate includes tax and gratuity, plus the 3% booking fee. Rates are confirmed at quote. Derby transportation covers how the day runs, and the Derby rates by vehicle sit on the bourbon tour cost page.

Groups with more than one vehicle

Larger groups mean more than one driver. Our vehicles seat up to 3 in the sedan, up to 6 in the SUV and up to 14 in the van. Groups over 14 use multiple vehicles, or we contract a larger vehicle such as a bus or motor coach, quoted on the call. When a group splits across vehicles, each vehicle has its own driver, so settle gratuity vehicle by vehicle rather than as one envelope. The vehicles run the same route to the same distilleries and the same lunch table, so every driver carries the same day. Group pricing works the same way at every size: the per-person rate drops to $275 at ten or more guests, plus 6% KY sales tax and a 3% booking fee, and gratuity still sits outside it. If one person is handling it for the whole group, tell us on the planning call who that is. Our fleet shows what each vehicle holds, and bourbon tours for corporate groups covers how company days run.

Frequently asked questions