HI, We are "senior" novice travelers to Germany in Oct. My children are lovingly warning us of scams. We've read all of RS info. We fly into Cologne at the Koeln Hauptbahnhof Railway station,going to our hotel at Clemensstra. 8. We expect there will be taxi's awaiting patrons. How can we differentiate between "the legitimate" and the scammers. Any other tips you can give us? Dennis
Posted by
Frankfurt, Germany
9153 posts
German taxis are very well regulated, especially in the cities. They all look the same, cream colored, and mostly Mercedes. Just walk out of the train station and get in the taxi that is first in line. If you have the address of your hotel written down, this will help the driver. Most drivers are going to speak enough English to get you where you want to go. Being scammed by a taxi in Germany is not a common occurrence. Why have your children warned you of this? Do they live in Cologne? Were they scammed here?
Posted by
Baltimore
91 posts
I have been to Germany many times including Cologne. I have never had a bad experience dealing with a taxi.
Posted by
Frankfurt am Main, Germany
2779 posts
It's Germany, not Mexico ;-) The beige, mostly Mercedes Taxis waiting inside the taxi line with the black-and-yellow "Taxi" sign on the roof-top are all legitimate. The meter is usually built into the interior rearview mirror or stuck onto any other part of the dashboard. Please note that most taxis only accept cash (in €uros, of course). If you have an iPhone or Android-operated smartphone I recommend downloading the free app "MyTaxi" which is most popular in Germany (taxis get up to 50% of all their passengers through that app already). There you can store a credit card and pay via the App. Every taxi driver who picks you up because you hit "pick me up" in the App will accept that form of payment with pleasure.
Posted by
Adelaide, SA, Australia
977 posts
Taxis at railway stations, like everything else in Germany, are orderly and well organised. Good advice to have the names and addresses of your accommodation typed up on a piece of paper to hand to the drivers. For a non German speaker, it's darn near impossible to get your tongue around the names of the streets etc.