First, a little history. Before 1989, under communism the general situation was rather dull. Not only the citizens of Eastern Europe are not allowed to travel, they had little access to goods and quality of life that is taken for granted in the West. While we expect the current TV shows like Mad Men days with great nostalgia for fashion and manners of the day, we must remember that many countries under Soviet rule have been a day of daily struggle for survival. Such was the case in the former Czechoslovakia and Prague, simply fresh vegetables was mainly a matter of privilege or subterfuge.
One way to obtain these scarce goods with cash west was difficult. Dollars Deutsch mark, French franc or even two could go a long way towards getting you what was not available to John Q Public. Enter the taxi driver; he had daily access to foreign and hard money. But local prices were so cheap. It would still take a long time to raise a measurable amount of currency. Thus, taxi drivers often took a shortcut; they led foreign visitors around the long way, or just plain spurred price single.
Old habits die hard and now lives, many of these same drivers who flourished 25 years ago under the communist regime are still ply their trade. They offer a fixed rate of five times the normal to drive halfway across the city rate, select a flow meter special fast lap that would normally not apply to a trip you want to take, or simply giving you a panoramic tour of the city while you enjoy the view. In short, they have a variety of ways to accomplish what the old task to get your hard money in their pocket and mostly uninformed tourists give them a tip of 10 to 15% to start.
Today, fortunately Prague offers other options. Firstly, Distributed Radio taxis almost universally give you an honest rate. And a rate for telephone is much cheaper than what you would pay for the same taxi hailed on the street. Such as the most reputable companies are AAA Taxi and City Taxi. But any taxi wearing a phone number painted on the door should be much more reliable than independent taxis that have not. Why? Because in the case of a dispute, you can call the sender (who almost always speaks English these days), to signal the villain who tried to fool you.
Second, if you cannot order a radio taxi sent for one reason: because you do not have a mobile phone, you do not want to pay roaming charges (false economy) or perhaps c It's just a restless night and nobody answers the phone, you can follow the simple rule to negotiate a price before getting in the car.
If you do not know Prague, the basic rule is, all travel to the center of Prague should be 100kc - 150kc. At the time of this writing, about 23 Czech crowns (kc) the euro, which means your trip should cost less than ? 7. In case you do not know where you are, ask the hotel reception how much it would cost to place X to return to the hotel in the evening if you hail a taxi in the street. The only way for a trip cost more than 200kc is that if you venture off the beaten track in Prague 2 or 3 trails and want to return to the river, say Prague 6 or 7.
But even in these cases 200kc should be the maximum. From the airport in Prague, you will usually pay 500kc - 600kc to anywhere in the city center. You can also book a transfer in a private luxury sedan for this price, so if you plan ahead, you may want to do just that!
Follow these simple rules and your taxi Prague fears will turn into joy Prague taxi, because when properly addressed, Prague taxis are among the lowest of any leading tourist destination. Bon voyage!
John Smith is experienced and writes articles on Mobility Taxis, Wheelchair Taxi, Wheelchair Accessible Taxis, Mobility Taxis Croydon, Mobility Taxis Lambert, Mobility Taxis South London etc.
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