Hi there,

Although we are over with this problem, in many cities the taxi drivers still might try to fool you occasionally with old tactics.

Here’s the deal. Last year we dropped 6 zeros from the Turkish Lira and called it New (yeni) Turkish Lira. The meters on the taxi now has the correct decimals and the bills are aligned to new lira. The first trick you should swerve around is this one. The meter will have 2 decimals after the comma just like pennies/cents we have kurus. So what you see is what you pay. Although the driver might want to charge the decimals as lira beware of the decimals.

Another trick is to know the bills. Luckily we have the numbers on the bills ;) for that. Make sure you are using the right amount. Just like you don’t show up a 100 $ bill in NYC, you don’t want to show how much money you are carrying or you don’t want to give an exaggerated amount which will create a change problem.

The change problem is another game. The driver will want to keep the change so try to have some coins as well.

The drivers are not required to carry enough change with them by law like the US. Most of the time they will use this to get more money, beware!

Although you are allowed to sit in the front passenger seat this is not advised especially if you are a lady, this will make the driver feel you are coming on to him. Unless this is the desired case don’t sit at the front.

If you are suspicious of being played on then just make sure you make a note of the plate (registration number) which is legally on the door, roof and on the plates. Also make sure the driver sees that you took a note of it. This will make them uneasy.

We have legal penalties you can give to registration numbers. So in case you take this case to the police, no matter who the driver was the registration will be penalized for playing on tourists.

About “the long way home”, you can never know the right route unless you are a resident. We have 7 major hills and many valleys in between on top of the Bosphorus strait. So what looks like the long way might actually be the short alternative in terms of time.

Just try to have an idea of the distances by asking your hotel how much it would cost by taxi to whereever. With that you might know what’s going on on the way.

Good luck.