Trjtdtk

I am on vacation and I have realized that some people here in Turkey are trying their best to get the money out of my pocket. I have already had a situation where after a folklore show I decided to take a taxi to my hotel because Istanbul is not a place where I want to be walking at night on the streets.

I found a taxi in front of a hotel. I show him my hotel's card so he can check the address and my friend and I jumped in. After he drives me to a different part of the city, he told me that he understood that I said a different hotel. At the end I paid twice the price because of the extra miles with the taxi meter.

In my opinion he did that on purpose, just to make the taxi meter run longer.

How do you deal in a polite way with this kind of event?? Can I just say: hey it is your mistake, so I am not paying for that??

Use an app. Virtually everywhere these days has either Uber/ Lyft/ Grab/ Gojek/ Ola/ Didi/ Yandex/ Careem /local clone ride-sharing service, or an app put out by local taxi companies in an attempt to compete. In Istanbul, at time of writing Uber is in a weird not-quite-legal-or-illegal state, but BiTaksi seems to be the app of choice: http://www.bitaksi.com/en/

With these, you get to input the destination, you're given a price estimate, and you can see the precise routes suggested and taken, all of which make it much harder for the driver to rip you off. And if you suspect something shady happened anyway, if you paid by card, you can dispute with the app and they may refund you.

Not a complete answer, I admit.

The advice I was given when visiting Istanbul is that taxi drivers often can't read, so that I should give them both a printout of the address and also a simplified map, showing them which roads I expect them to take to my hotel.

That the driver can't read roman script could be a charitable explanation of how your driver took you to the wrong place despite you showing him the card.

If you aren't using a ride-sharing or taxi app, as suggested by jpatokal, use a different app: a mapping app. Enter your destination (make sure it's correct), show the map to the driver and ensure he/she has a shared understanding of where you want to go, and keep an eye on the route. If the driver has a GPS, ask that they use it. Keep in mind that there may be legitimate reasons to use out-of-the way routes, some of which may not be obvious to a visitor, but if you're straight up going to the wrong part of town, ask that the problem be solved immediately. If you're not comfortable with the situation, and the area you area you are in is not immediately unsafe, stop the ride, pay for the services you were given, and get a new ride from another driver.

Since you're staying at a hotel, this may also be something the hotel staff can help with when you do arrive. They may not want to get involved, and I can certainly understand that, but doormen at nice hotels in countries known for taxi scams will sometimes make it clear to drivers that their guests need to be treated well and help intervene in disputes (of course, in other places, the doormen may conspire with illegal taxis for tips).

This is actually based on my mother's experience, and not my own.

Yes, this is a common scam. Despite some answers wanting to be generous and say it's possibly accidental, much of the time it is not.

If I remember correctly, she told me the way she got around it was by telling the drivers exactly what route she wanted them to take. Even then they would try to add a few streets to it to up the charge. Fortunately for her, once she learned to speak Türkçe more fluently, the drivers started looking at her as a local and not as a tourist which resulted in them being more fair to her as well.

In fact, you'll find a lot of places in Istanbul have a "Local's" and a "Tourist's" price. You can easily save yourself quite a few Lira even on a cup of tea just by learning to be conversational in the Turkish language and asking if the price they are giving you is really the price they would charge someone from the area. Nowadays, my mother is pretty much just accepted as Turkish whenever she goes over there. These scams really just rely on your ability to call them out. If they know you know what they are doing, they won't be so quick to try and scam you.

The problem is, not everybody can learn a new language, especially if they only plan on going to the country once or twice. If you're already there, this will not help you aside from "Tell them your preferred route." It's honestly the best and only way you can do so without basically scaring them into thinking you're a local.

Also, never hop into a gypsy cab in Istanbul. EVER. Only use an official taxi or a trusted ride-sharing service like Uber or Lyft. (If you do take Uber or Lyft, double and triple check that the driver and vehicle you get match what the app says or refuse the ride, take a photo of the vehicle, and tell the app to send you somebody else, requesting a refund for any cancellation fees since it's not your fault the information didn't match.) Do not EVER take a ride in a taxi that 1) isn't yellow, 2) lacks the "taksi" sign on the roof, 3) doesn't display its associated company on itself, and/or 4) lacks a functioning meter. If even ONE of those factors isn't accounted for, get out of the vehicle and flag down another cab. At best, you will get ripped off by that cab. At worst... you've heard the stories of the dangers of hitchhiking. Be smart, stay safe.

This has happened to me many times in Cuba where it’s accepted practice to overcharge tourists, especially if you don’t use a licensed taxi (which, of course, doesn’t remove the risk that the driver will take the scenic rather than direct route). None of the Internet-based suggested answers really work in countries like Cuba where online connection is difficult/unreliable/expensive.

I’ve learnt to deal with this situation by always asking for the price upfront, and before you get into the taxi. It also helps to know how to ask ‘how much to XYZ’ in the local language and to find out beforehand from a reliable source eg internet search before you travel, or from the hotel where you’re staying, how much the taxi should cost, so that you know if you’re being over-charged and can decide whether you want to pay it or not before you take the ride. Even licensed taxis will inflate the price if they think they can get away with it eg I was quoted 120cuc for an airport taxi on my last trip but I know the norm is 90-100, which the driver agreed to when he realised I’m not quite as daft as I might look.