[blue][b]Taxi Services[/b]
Taxi services are one of the great little things about visiting or living in Buenos Aires. The black and yellow taxis are everywhere, and very easy to use. The vast majority of taxi drivers in Buenos Aires courteous, know the city well, always use the meter, and always expect to give you exact change, etc. Tipping is not required, although it is typical to round up the fare to the next peso as a tip.
I've had my share of arguments and problems with taxi drivers throughout the world, arguments running the usual gauntlet from wanting to drive off the meter (so you can then argue about the fare later), not knowing the city, not having change, taking a circuitous route, steering you to clubs where they get a commission, etc. However, in visiting and living in Buenos Aries for several years, I have never encountered a single problem with a cab driver in Buenos Aires.
I've told you all the good things about using taxis in Buenos, now let me give you one word of caution: As much as I appreciate the efficiency of Buenos Aires taxi system, a small number of taxi drivers have established themselves as one of the two most common sources of counterfeit pesos in the city. You know this scenario: You and your buddies (or your chica de noche) are getting out of a cab at night. Your buddies (or your chica) are waiting impatiently as you pay the driver. Your attention is diverted to the street and the anticipation of your impending fun, so you hand the driver a bill and hurriedly take the change, giving it only a cursory glance to verify that the amount is correct. This is where they get you! You're in a hurry, so you stuff the change in your pocket and take off, only to discover later that the bartender or the chica won't accept your counterfeit bills, which they can so easily spot from across the room.
The point here is that it is at these moments that you need to take just second to examine the currency you get as change. First test: Hold it up to the light and look for the silhouette embedded in the currency. All the taxi's have a light near the passenger side door for exactly this purpose. For those of you who are unaccustomed or simply too embarrassed to imply that the person you just received change from would even think about giving you a counterfeit bill, consider this: Everyone that you give peso notes to is going to examine them, right in front of you, for exactly the same reason. Just watch, they do it every time, all the time, so don't feel shy about examining every bill you get: It's an acceptable practice.
BTW, the other major source of counterfeit pesos is the clubs and boliches, but that's a topic of another thread.
[b]Remis Services[/b]
A remis is a rented car with a driver, commonly known in the larger cities in the USA as a car service. Using remis services is very common practice by Buenos Aires residents, many of whom have a favorite service that they use regularly. The concept is simple: You call your favorite remis service, and they send a car to your location a few minutes later. The remis will take you to your destination, wait there if you wish, then continue to drive you where ever you wish to go from there, etc. It's simple.
The price is roughly the same as a taxi, although they do not have meters, so you usually have to negotiate the fare, either while you are on the telephone, or at the end of the trip.
One great benefit of using remis services is that they can stay with you for several hours, waiting patiently outside your destination until you are ready to return. The fare for waiting with the engine off is typically somewhere around 10 to 15 pesos per hour.
Remis services are typically one-office business, scattered throughout the city, typically scheduling independent car/driver combinations. To my knowledge there are no large remis service companies.
To find a remis service near your location, you might ask at the front desk of your hotel, or simply keep any eye out for a local remis service office near you.
The only real drawback to using a remis service: They rarely speak English, and thus ordering a remis by phone can be somewhat difficult if you don't speak some Spanish.
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