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I'm trying to update the newbie thread now that they are using the meter...

Is the setup still the same, you walk out and there are airport taxistas waiting just outside the automatic doors?

And you need colones now for the taxis now? (I bet the ripoff airport exchange windows are making a killing)

Thanks

I paid with a mix of usd and colons two weeks ago.

I don't use the taxis. So, as usual, I probably don't know what the hell I'm talking about. However, this is what I'd surmise. The rip-off exchange booths might be making a little more off of people who have read that the taxi fares are now in colones. But then, if they've read that, there is just as good of a chance that they've read about the rip-off exchange booth too and know enough to use the ATM or else go to bank booths upstairs. More significantly, I'm sure that any tourist who only has dollars to pay his fare is not going to be refused by the taxistas. They'll take dollars just like any other taxista or merchant in SJ. They may not convert those dollars to colones at the fairest rate to you when figuring how much you owe or what change you might get back, but I'd be willing to bet whatever rate they use it would have to be a LOT better than that exchange booth.

The system has changed from having the "Caja" window off in the corner as it was in the past. Now there is an attendant out front of that Caja window that has little post-it note type pad, they will write down something on there and give it to a licensed airport cab. You then pay the driver at the end of your trip in either colones or USD, meter will be in colones, and they will convert USD if needed at a rate slightly favorable to them.

Once you go outside the sliding automatic doors it is a free for all with the pirate taxi drivers and also the baggage "helpers". Inside you know for sure you are getting an approved taxi which matters to some people. The pirates cut deals, if you know what your doing and where you are going it is a good option.

Inside automatic doors = approved licensed taxi driver

Outside sliding glass doors = capitalism at its finest

_________________
"I found my inner Ch*ld and he is a mean little F~CKER."

I walk across the street and into the elevator up to the airport entrance, out the front door and grab a cab that has just dropped off a fare,never had a issue but this my 2 cents.

Now that the orange cabs are metered like the red ones is that still a better deal and if it is is the difference worth the time and inconvenience? A red cab might also be a problem if you do not have any colones.

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Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine

ID,
I got the following from this source http://www.costaricapages.com/blog/costa-rica-news/airport-taxis/1489:

The orange airport sedan taxi rates are:
¢675 for the first kilometer
¢555 for every kilometer thereafter
¢2,005 for wait time and
¢5,550 for traffic delays .

Airport microbus taxi rates are:
¢675 for the first kilometer
¢675 for every kilometer thereafter
¢2,115 for wait time and
¢6,750 for traffic delays .

The red regular taxi rates are going up to
¢505 for the first kilometer (instead of ¢420)
¢465 for every kilometer thereafter (instead of ¢380)

I'm not sure of the maximum fares for wait time or traffic delays for the regular cabs but I'd bet they're similarly lower. I'd also be willing to bet that the red cab would also be more than happy to take dollars and then calculate the fare at an exchange rate that favors them.

This means if you get a red cab (with a meter that hasn't been doctored), the ~20km trip from the airport to the SL should cost ~¢9340 (~$16.70 at today's rates). A similarly equipped orange cab would cost you ~¢11220 (~$20). That's certainly some savings and both are a savings over the flat rates that we were being charged. HOWEVER it presupposes that these guys (both orange or red) won't try to make up for it in other ways such as rigging their meters and using an exchange rate that favors them (using a simpler ¢500/$ rate increases that $20 to $22.44).

ya the orange airport taxi are 20 % more give or take. i didn't know there was a different rate. when i got in one last time i was there. paid over $23, when i'm use to paiding about $17. i was just talking to BB about that and was inform of the different rates.

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Secret Asian Man ( here to inspect all the chicas)

....and then we always have InterBus booked through, now, http://www.shuttlebus.co.cr/website/sho ... /index.php at $9.50 each way.....

_________________
"Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the over-compensations for misery. And, of course, stability isn't nearly so spectacular as instability. And being contented has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortune, none of the picturesqueness of a struggle with temptation, or a fatal overthrow by passion or doubt. Happiness is never grand."
- Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, Ch. 16

[quote="Orange"]I'm trying to update the newbie thread now that they are using the meter...

Is the setup still the same, you walk out and there are airport taxistas waiting just outside the automatic doors?

And you need colones now for the taxis now? (I bet the ripoff airport exchange windows are making a killing)

Thanks[/quote
everything is the same, except the orange taxis now use a meter. I went to LaAmisted and the fare on the meter was about 11,8880. I paid $22USD to the driver. this was 3/19/09

The airpost cabs are now extemely more expensive than they were. It used to be a 12,000 ride from my house to the airport. Now that they are using meters instead of fixed fares the meter rate was 18500!! And this was at 5 AM with no trraffic. No more orange cabs for me. I will stick with red cabs who I know. $35 for a 20 minute ride seemd a bit excessive. I can't see Ticos payng this rate.

I used the airport taxi last week. Same set-up where they wait for you outside the doors, but you don't pay at the window. They run the meter and I think it ran 11,500 $CRC to the Sportsmens Lodge.

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OK, I Admit It....I have an Asian Obsession. But I also have a Latina Obsession, too! Perhaps I just have a Pu**y Obsession? -----------------------------------------------------
Next Trip: SJO - April or May??????


Someone PLEASE STOP Me.................LOL

You got taken for more than a ride. 2 out of the last 3 posters reported fares in the 11-12K range. It sounds like the problem with your last trip was not so much that they're using meters now but that you got a cab with a meter that was outrageously doctored. Most meters are rigged to some extent just not normally to this degree. Did you notice if he used a "stupid gringo switch" button when he turned the meter on ? If any one ever finds themselves in a situation like this I suggest they tell the driver in a very firm voice, that they're NOT some stupid gringo, they KNOW the meter is wrong and will only pay what the fare SHOULD have been. Believe me these cabbies know what they're doing is illegal and that they don't really have a leg to stand on, so they normally will give in very easily with a "no puede culpar un hombre por tratar." However, if they don't like it or resist, recite their cab number and name) which you memorized off the placard in the front of the cab when you saw the meter rate spinning out of control), grab your bags (which you should have put next to you on the seat and never in the trunk), give him the 12K which should more than cover it (and is more than he deserves considering he just tried to rip you off) and walk away. Another approach you can take is to say simply "doce mil colones sin la maria" when you first get in the cab, which I'm guessing most taxistas would be happy to go for.

I don't think I got "Gringoed". I think that by using the pista instead of going thru town the route was longer and added to the fare. I live near the Indoor Club in Curridabat.

Rigged meters are just one way that taxistas run up their fares. Taking you by roundabout routes or pretending to not know or understand where you want them to take you and making wrong turns are others and obviously such ruses are easier to use on a foreign gringo who doesn't know the way around himself. It sounds like that is PART of the case with what happened to you. Its hard to see much advantage (for you the passenger at least) to going by way of the circumnavigacion autopista vs going straight through downtown since downtown traffic is not an issue at 5AM in the morning. OTOH, the apparent advantage for the driver goes without saying.

Curridabat which is on the other side of San Pedro (SE of it actually) is much further than going from say like the Sportsmans as was used in the other examples. Frankly, I'm a little surprised that AIRPORT taxis charged you only 12K for that before when its been about that much for fares just to downtown. I don't know where the "Indoor Club" is but I estimate if you go straight through SJ to the center of Curridabat it adds about 5kms to the trip. At 555c/km, that comes out to ~2775c (~14K total from the airport) or ~$5 more (~$25 total). Since Curridabat is also a little south of downtown (due east of Zapote), going by way of the auto pista really only adds another 3-4km to your trip bringing your official fare up to maybe 16K. Thats still way less than 18500, so I still maintain you must have got a cab with a heavily doctored meter.

BTW, I don't REALLY think they have an actual "gringo switch" (though you never know). I think a meter is either rigged to run fast or it isn't (and more often is). I also think most meters are only subtly rigged so that the victim is less likely to notice it (or squawk about it if they do). However, occasionally you come across ones that are so heavily doctored that you have to wonder whether the drivers think we're complete idiots. If there isn't any switch that enables a taxi driver to choose who and who not to pull this scam on and the meters just run fast indiscriminately of who is sitting in passenger seat, I also wonder how most regular ticos handle it when they see such ridiculous amounts. Actually, I don't wonder because I've seen how the HDR and SL chicas react when I've been with them and this has happened. They tell the driver where to stick it and in no uncertain terms.