Prague Taxi Tip

I'm leaving a tip. I'm returning from a trip and it was my experience. While I did have 2 normal cab experiences, I had 2 where clearly I was off meter. I travel frequently and that experience of having to negotiate what I pay or being charged flat rates vs meter pisses me off. So, I happened to pull up uber by accident and noticed a car in my area when leaving the "Slav Epic" exhibit. I knew what I was going to get charged and the cars were much nicer. You are correct that not all cabs are yellow but from my personal experiences they were mostly yellow. I left the tip because if someone would have told me before I went I would have saved myself the hassle of cab experiences and been in greater control of my travel.

craigo, you triple posted. You can erase two of them.

“To Uber, or not to Uber: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous taxi fares,
Or to take arms against a sea of traffic,
And by opposing end them? To ride: to pass through;
No more; and by a Uber account to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That meters are heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd.”

However, on the other hand, I do sincerely believe that even in Prague if you call for a taxi from a reputable firm, of which there are many (Google reviews in preparation for your travels), then you should have not have the problems experienced by the OP. If you travel a lot, this is something you learn.

You may even fair better as you will know that the car is properly regulated (repaired) and the driver has good knowledge of the city. In Budapest for instance the cars can’t be more than 4 or 5 years old (don’t remember the exact limitation) so you know a shiny fairly new clean car will arrive along with a guy who since drives for his livelihood knows all the twists turns and delays in town.

But where it is legal, Uber is great too. I love free enterprise. Everyone should have the right to pay less for less if they must or if they desire.

In January this year we paid 600 Koruna from the Airport to Powder Tower. Our AIR BNB host instructed us in advance that it should be around 500. The difference is about 5 bucks CDN. No big deal. That taxi and others we used during our time there were clean and we had no issues with any of the fares contrary to much information out there about Prague taxi rip offs.

Thanks for the info craigo but I can't see us ever using Uber. I feel that supporting legitimate cab companies wherever we travel is important and worth whatever extra it's going to cost.

Peter

How this descended into a debate about uber is beyond me. When im in the city, I never have to worry about cabs, any yellow is going to drop the meter and there is a strong body that takes vilations seriously. However any time I have to cross a bridge or a tunnel (or it's super cold, raining, or it's shift change) I uber. When I'm in London, i never use uber as the cab system is pretty flawless. Miami, always uber. While in Budapest, i never used cabs, based on the advice i got here and in steves book. Vienna the Cabs were solid. Prague I'm just giving you my experience. Supporting antiquated models makes no sense to me. If something is better for me, cost or convienance, I use it. Grabbing cabs from the hotel is one thing, cabs off the street in Prague was a crap shoot of staging on meter or flat rating off meter. If you really believe in supporting cab companies then this should piss you off as well, because the driver pockets the fair and doesn't pay tax. At least uber is recorded and the driver can't pocket the cash and evade tax.

I never use taxis in Prague and I am there at least 3 times a year .The public transport in Prague is superb and well integrated , a 24hr ticket cost 110kc about $4 or £3. there are even late night trams running on a wide network every 15-30 minutes . Only time I use a cab is maybe a private shuttle to and from the airport, and only if I am with folk or have a load of luggage.
600kc from the Airport to the Powder Tower is in my opinion good I would have said more than that but most private shuttles charge 550-600kc for anywhere in Prague form the airport for up to 4 people.
There are quite a few dodgy taxi drivers in Prague but AAA are the most trusted of them and have english speaking dispatchers.
Aside from this I find many folk from the USA have a complete aversion to using Public Transport because in the USA apart from the major cities it is just not very good but those of us living in Europe are very used to public transport and use it all the time ,the former communist countries all have great public transport systems and Prague is one of the best

Indeed the public transit in Europe is great. Prague was particularly good. We used it a number of times to go from the hotel out. We used the 17 and the 22 a lot.

Uber's business practices are very problematic, but this is not the forum for that discussion. If you would like like to use a taxi in Prague and you enjoy the security and convenience of the Uber model, I recommend that you download and use the Liftago app.

Liftago is a Czech company, who provide a taxi finding platform in the city. All of the drivers are accredited and licensed taxi drivers, and taxis are all hailed through the app. It will provide you with several possible drivers - different cars, different companies, different ratings - who each will provide a quote. The quotes are calculated by GPS, based on the metered rate and are very accurate.

However, I cannot recommend our public transport highly enough. It is one of the constant joys of living in Prague.