How to tip in restaurants: In some countries tipping is simply not done

Leave nothing in the US and you could find the waiter chasing you out of the door

Cash in hand: tip amounts vary (Getty)

Among British travellers, somehow the idea has taken root that the correct amount to tip for a meal is 10 per cent. While that may apply in your local Indian or Italian restaurant, abroad it is almost never the answer; 10 per cent is either way too much or rather too little.

In some countries – notably Japan and Korea – tipping is simply not done, and if you leave the coins after settling the bill, a waiter may well pursue you to hand back the cash. In Australia, too, tipping is still optional – and when the local dollar was punitively strong against sterling, many UK travellers were glad to opt to hang on to their overstretched pounds.

Standard practice among the locals in our two most popular holiday nations, France and Spain, is to leave a token amount if the service is reasonable: a couple of euros on a €50 bill is ample. The same applies in Italy, Greece and Portugal and pretty much anywhere else in Continental Europe. With prices so high in Switzerland in sterling terms, you might prefer not to tip.

Across the Atlantic, life is very different; 10 per cent is considered an insult. Fifteen per cent is the absolute minimum in the US and Canada. To leave any less is akin to awarding yourself a discount on the bill, and should only be done when you wish to make a statement that the service was lousy. The practice does not represent greed on behalf of waiting staff in the US, but a reflection of a very different system of rewarding staff. Employers are allowed to pay below minimum-wage levels on the assumption that waiters and waitresses will make up the difference on tips. To help you decide a suitable reward, US restaurant bills often come with pre-calculated sums for 15, 20 and even 25 per cent. Add in local taxes, and you could end up paying a third more than the menu prices. Leave nothing, and you could find the waiter chasing you out of the door.