Key tips to hitching a ride in a taxi

Knowing your way

The next trick to taking a taxi is knowing your way before you get in. Perhaps this seems unreasonable; after all, you are paying the taxi driver to get you there safely. Nonetheless, it is foolish to blindly trust anyone in a strange city, even a taxi driver. Like with anything, there are trustworthy and extremely wonderful taxi drivers out there, as well as jerks just out to rip you off.

Before you get into your taxi, you want to have a few bits of information on hand. First of all, what is your destination? And I'm not talking a general name of a business, but an actual street address. You should also know what area of town or which neighborhood you're heading to and the general direction you're expecting to go. To learn this, study some maps. Whereabouts in the city is your destination located? Are there any major landmarks, such as a river, skyscraper, park or museum that you should pass on the way?

If you feel extremely uneasy, have a map of the city handy inside the cab and follow your route to make sure you're heading the right way. This can be especially useful in cities where a language barrier prevents you from communicating very well with your taxi driver.

Meters, tipping and payment

Most registered, legal taxis run on a meter system that tracks your mileage and calculates the total owed automatically. Avoid taxis that don't run on meters and avoid touts or salesmen in unfamiliar stations or airports who try to lure you to their taxis - look for the official taxi rank instead.

In a lot of places, tipping a taxi driver is not necessary, as drivers are paid a regular hourly wage or salary and don't rely on tips to earn their living. Read up on your destination beforehand to find out if tipping is the norm. When in doubt, simply pay the fare on the meter and expect full change.

If you believe you are being driven off course or taken "for a ride", look around inside the taxi, as many cities and/or cab companies offer help lines for passengers that are being scammed or ripped off. Also, the fares are usually sign posted on the windows of the taxi, so check to make sure that the meter fare matches the quoted fare on the window.

Communication

The easiest place to be taken advantage of is in a strange city where you don't speak the language, but that does not necessarily guarantee that you will be taken advantage of. When in a foreign city where you don't speak the language, collect business cards from your hotel or possible destinations to show taxi drivers where you're headed. Keep phone numbers on hand in case you need someone to translate for a taxi driver and have a hotel receptionist or English-speaker write down your destination in the local language to show a taxi driver.

Most hotels and hostels also offer information on what the typical fare should be to a destination. Likewise, you can often find the general taxi fares to and from the city on most airport websites under "Ground Transportation".