Beware of taxi tactics in Athens

[tally10]

We just returned from a fabulous Eastern Mediterranean cruise on the Carnival Freedom. We had arranged for a 5 hour taxi tour of Athens months prior to the cruise with a company recommended on these boards. When we got off of the ship, there were taxi drivers mulling around, but no one from the company we had contracted with. After waiting around for a while, one of the drivers offered to contact our guy. A few minutes later, a driver showed up and said he was our driver for the day, sent by the company, as our guy was overbooked. We had a great tour and even had a typical Greek lunch at a neighborhood restaurant. Very memorable. The driver even introduced us to the man we had contracted with when we were leaving the Parthenon. That evening, we received an email from the company we had contracted with. He wanted to know what had happened to us as he got there a few minutes late and we were nowhere to be found. He was extremely upset, as were we, over what had happened. We emailed him all of the details, included the driver's name and the info off of his business card, so that he could hopefully get to the bottom of this. We felt really bad about what happened even though we had a great time. Just beware of the taxi practices in Athens.

[Susan-M]

We had a similar situation in Alexandria, where we couldn't find our driver (unbeknownst to us, he was outside of the port gates as he hadn't applied for a permit the day prior to come into the port to pick us up.) Another driver offered to phone and being the ethical person that he was, all ended well and we were connected with our driver. But we were at the mercy of someone we didn't know and could have easily had the same result that you did.

 

I wouldn't feel too badly about what happened other than to be disillusioned by the practice of some drivers .... you said that you waited a while, and you couldn't have known that you were set up. It's good that you enjoyed your day! It is unfortunate that your intended driver missed a day's work, but he will probably make sure to get to the port ahead of time in future.

[Lindypc]

When we were in Athens in April, our hotel called for 2 taxis for ourselves and another couple to take us to the port. I think we were charged 11 euros and the couple that left at the same time we did were charged 25. We felt so bad for them (but happy for ourselves since we are usually the ones getting screwed!)