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I have read alot of posts that warn against getting cabs directly outside of the dr. my last trip I always took cabs direcly outside the front door, but always checked to make sure they wre official cabs (red). Is this method safe and if not what is the besy route to take.... Cost was typically 1500 col.

If they are official red cabs you are fine in terms of safety. The cabs right outside the DR will cost you a little more (usually a little more, sometimes if you are drunk they might hit you for more than a little but it shouldn't be anything really extreme) than a red cab you flag down on the street.

If you have one of them take you to an expensive strip club, that taxi cab driver will get a commission, and that commission will almost certainly be added to your bill through "padding" in the strip club. Some of the warnings in the past were due to the fact that some taxis were quite pushy in getting people to go to strip clubs.

I live in costa rica, and i'll take red cabs right outside the del ray, i just make sure to ask them how much the fare will cost before i get in. If the price is about right i'll get in.

I always and mean always ....walk to the area across from the door to the horseshoe and flag down a cab .....day or night $1000c will get me to sportmens or 90% of the places I want to go.

If you live here or have visited frequently enough to have a good idea what the fare should be to your destination then that strategy will work.

However, if you are an infrequent visitor or a newbie using a red cab parked outside the Del Rey you have a fairly good chance of being scammed. Why take the chance? Walk a few feet down the street to the front of the Colonial Casino and hail a passing red cab. Make sure he has a meter and turns it on. If he has no meter or says it is broken get out and hail the next cab. Repeat until you get a cab that has a meter and he turns it on.

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Alex Levine

The fare to the Sportmens, Amistad, Dunn and the other hotels is usually around 500-600 colones. At 1500 you are almost paying triple.

Thanks for the info gentlemen. I will make it a point to pay no more than 1000 colones this trip to get from dr to la.

Yeah, I have never gotten a straight answer from the scumbags that park in front of the DR, IMHO, they are there with scamming a tourist as their primary motivation, so with that in mind, why bother with them?

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“Good people sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.” And we are the guys that keep them in Eggs & Grits

Most of the scumbags parked outside the HDR at night charge 2,000. Phuck that. I flag down a passing metered taxi and pay a third of that.

Even if the amount is relatively small ($2 -4) over the true fare, nobody likes getting cheated - also, if you overpay by even $5/day, its $35 over a weeks stay - the savings pays for a dinner, or a few lunches - although I'm not too concerned paying 1000c's from HDR to the Sportsmans.

Figured that way, you should always take a cab away from out front of the HDR, and as ID points out, ask they use the meter ("Ponga la maria, por favor"), and take another cab if they do not - the hotel even has signs stating that the cabs out front are not associated w/ the hotel - has to be a reason they post those signs, even if the meaning is a little oblique.

To avoid the street hassle all together, stand by the espresso machine in the HDR and you can see when a cab is approaching through the door. Walk out the door and straight to the cabbie in traffic. Works every time.

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Disclaimer: The above is merely the opinion of the author unless specific scientific data is included.
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