Quick question about cabs - book round trip, pay on return?

[richnorto]

Mom told me they always take a cab, but with return included when they go to an island beach. They book the cab and pay both directions on the return to be sure they are picked up. Anyone else done this? Are the drivers OK with this on Tortola and St. Thomas? She told me, the drivers usually hang around the beach most of the day...?:confused: Please, fast reply as we leave tomorrow!

Thanks, Laurie

[dakrewser]

I've never heard of doing that, but then we don't hang at beaches.

 

If you have a phone with you, the driver will give you his number and a call when you're ready to go almost always gets you some transportation...

[bepsf]

We had absolutely zero problems getting a cab back to the ship from Megan's Bay.

 

 

...and if I were a driver, I certainly would never make that arrangement with anyone. These are honest guys working 7 days a week to make an honest living, but they don't know you and you could just as easily get a cab back from someone else and stiff the driver for the morning's ride!

[bluehorizonlover123]

Never ever pay for the return ride beforehand. You will be lucky if you see the guy back. He will disappear with your money and how are you going to find him. Tell him to come back for you and hopefully he will, otherwise just use the next available cab waiting outside the building.l

[peaches from georgia]

Never heard of such a thing. Taxi drivers everywhere depend on volume in # of trips. In this case, a driver would take a fare to the beach, not get paid, hang around all day waiting to take them on the return ride (with no meter running I presume), give up a whole day of fares, and then finally get paid for the round trip at the end of the day? I don't think so unless they want to go bankrupt real fast.

[cruzincurt]

I just pay each way, and ask the price before getting in. In Trinadad, we took a cab to the Royal Zoo. There we no cabs around but the driver promised to come back in two hours to pick us up. Well, I doubted it but wasn't too concerned since we could see the ship's funnel from the zoo, maybe three miles away.

 

At exactly two hours, a cab stopped for us at the gate and said he was fulfilling a promise made by the first driver. I was impressed.

[michmike]

we did the "pay the full trip on the return leg " in antigua few years back w/o a problem.. It was actually the driver's suggestion. We wanted 3 hrs at the beach to swim and have lunch. He gave us an island tour.. dropped us at the bech and was back 15 min before the scheduled pick up time.. I would do it again.. gives him plenty of incentive to come back for you and if he fails to do so you can generally find another taxi unless you are really in a remote area.. and i would avoid said areas just from a personal safety aspect.

[iluvcruzin]

I've paid for a cab RT on the RETURN leg in ST. Thomas. Instead of $8 each way, it was $15 RT. We paid when we got off at the ship on the return. It's possible to do it this way.

[richnorto]

Funny thing - I never had the time before this cruise to answer back. On this trip and the next, cabbies worked out the return with us on the trip over with no problem! We generally go to a semi-deserted beach/snorkle area and we have been very relieved that the same cab driver wanted to return us for a round trip price on the return! I wouldn't expect this from a driver going to a shopping district.

[gizmo]

You are not going to get any taxi driver in St. Thomas to do this.

 

There are a couple of islands you might be able to do this but St. Thomas is not one of them.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Don't know of any taxi drivers who will do this in St Thomas as the majority of the taxis are open air safari vans.

 

But I have heard of others doing this on islands like St Lucia, etc.

[Copper10-8]

Man!! Bet ya it took some time to dig this old puppy back up. Even got Dave from SF on it. Almost thought he had made a glorious return here:eek: ;)