Knowing when and how to take a taxi in Latinamerica will be a key asset in keeping you safe. As these unwritten rules considerably differ from the European ones, you might wanna read this article and spare you some trouble.
When to take a taxi in Latinamerica?
- as soon as its dark. This might sound especially absurd for people coming from Europe, but the thing is, as it gets later, the streets get emptier. And if locals also don’t walk somewhere alone at night, that means the streets will be empty, and you won’t want to walk around alone with your tourist face, when no one else does.
- Whenever I wanna go somewhere, that passes through neighborhoods I shouldn’t pass through.
- A good example for that is the viewpoint Virgen del pancillo in Quito. One could easily walk up there in 25mn from the historic center, but the neighborhood on the hill to get to that viewpoint just isn’t safe, and you shouldn’t go there as a tourist. So take a cab.
Prices of taxis in Latinamerica
Of course, this will vary depending from where you are, what time of the day it is, and how long the ride is, but the average price of rides I’ve had was around 3USD/3€.
The general range inside a city would be between 2-8 USD/€.
A ride to the airport/ bus terminal if it’s really far away will be around 15-30 USD/€.
Why not take a yellow taxi?
What distinguishes a normal taxi? It’s yellow, it has a taxi sign, and it has an official taxi license. Only that the official taxi license is not at all obvious to check.
Fake taxis are one of the main kidnapping methods in Latinamerica. You jump into a taxi after the club to go back to your hostel. But that Taxi points a gun at you and accompanies you to different ATMs around the city, before leaving you beaten up somewhere around the city with all your valuables stolen.
So if you ever find yourself with no other alternative then taking a taxi, you might wanna ask your hostel to call a taxi for you.
Other then that, Normal taxis are also considered less safe, because they don’t get peer reviewed, as there is no way to leave your driver a grade after your ride. In case anything would happen, you also wouldn’t have their license plate and identity directly saved in an app. Also, the driver doesn’t directly have the adress you want to go to written on its phone. That can lead to confusion.
I’ve had taxi drivers drive in the completely wrong direction of the city, because they understood the adress wrongly. I’ve also had a taxi driver which was visibly new at driving, didn’t really knew what he was doing and very obviously didn’t have a driving license. That NEVER happened to me in any of the alternative services.
Of course, being in cars that almost fall apart, and having a driver that takes a bit to much risk to your taste might also happen to you with alternative services, but in my personal experience, that also happens less.
The alternatives to yellow taxis
All of these are phone apps based on the principle that you give in the adress you want to be taken too, and the app matches you to a driver which will take you. It gives you the identity, and the license plate of the driver.
Uber: they where the inventors of this concept. Uber sets the price of your ride. Their pricing is dynamic, so make sure only one person at the time is ordering the Uber. Payment is only possible with debit/credit card
Cabify: Like Uber, but they do better background check of their drivers by asking for their juridical antecedents. Cabify sets the price.
Payment possible with cash, debit or credit card.
Didi: like Uber and cabify. I personally haven’t used their service yet, because one of the other three was always available so I didn’t feel the need to download one more app, but this one is a good option too!
InDrive: this app is a bit different. Here you can suggest the price you would be willing to pay for the ride, and drivers near you can accept or reject it, or make you an offer of for how much they would take you. I often managed to get cheaper cabs this way. Payment only with cash.
It’s important to know that most of these apps are illegal in most of the countries I’ve been to. Therefore, the driver might ask one person to sit in front to not get in trouble with the police.
Checklist to be safe when taking a taxi
If you have decided that you will have to take a taxi because sometimes there’s just no way around it:
- ask someone around you if they know what the price would be to your destination: this way you get a rough idea what the price would be
- Observe the taxis and choose wisely: some taxis definitely are in worse shapes then other. For your personal feeling of safety, try to pick out the taxi that doesn’t look like it’s gonna fall apart on the next ride. This is essentially important as most taxis don’t have working seatbelts.
Things to ask the driver before getting inside of his taxi:
- Do you have a taximeter?
- If the answer is no, I negotiate a price, or just look for another cab
- if I want to pay with debit card, I always ask before if that’s possible
Some safety tips if yo do take a taxi:
- I never tell my taxi/uber/cabify/etc. driver that I’m traveling alone. They turn weird when I do. I always say that I’m joining somewhere with friends or that I’m visiting family and they couldn’t pick me up because their car broke down. Whichever lie will do the job👍
- If I already payed the driver, but still have my stuff at the back, I always leave the back passenger door open, so the taxi driver couldn’t just drive away with our backpacks
Taxis from/to the airport
Taxis
Most of the time, there will be taxi companies offering taxi services to you before you even passed the no return zone. Don’t go with these! They usually overcharge you!
There will be plenty of taxis waiting outside the no return zone which won’t overcharge you.
Airport transfers
A really good option to consider are airport transfers. They are like collective taxis. They will take you from where you come out of the immigration zone in the airport right to your doorstep, for usually way less money then taxis. Also they‘re safe👍
Public transport
Public transport will definitely be the cheapest option you can go with, but it’s not available in every airport. It might also require a public transport card that you don’t have, and might not be able to purchase at the airport. So don’t rely on public transport.