Arriving at the train station in the pouring rain, Stu and I opted against walking to the hotel as we had planned (1.5km away) and headed to the nearest signed taxi rank. Watching a few taxis pull away we waiting until the next taxi pulled in. The taxi looked fine to me, it was signed, had a taxi light on the roof but my suspicions arose when the taxi driver advised that as it was peak hour the standard city fare was 980 czk (about 40 euro) - extremely steep. Stu and I were both shocked at the price but we could see no other option being in a strange city. Plus the taxi driver had already loaded our bags into the trunk. He chatted away to us the entire trip and seemed nice enough but my gut feeling still screamed "dodgy" (that and the fact that the meter was not turned on).
Anyway soon enough we were at the hotel (which is lovely by the way) and upon checking in asked the receptionist how much a taxi would usually be. The look she gave us confirmed that taxi scams were a serious problem in Prague. She said the average fare is about 200 czk but that it can vary depending on the driver. She said that booking a taxi through the hotel or using a shuttle would be the best option for our forthcoming trip to the airport. I have since found out that there are only a handful companies that can be trusted to run their meters correctly;
AAA Radiotaxi - tel. 140 14 or 222 333 222, www.aaa-taxi.cz
City Taxi - tel. 257 257 257, www.citytaxi.cz
Let's hope this is the only problem we run into in this beautiful city. Lesson learnt.
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