Rip Off Taxi's in Sofia

The same thing happened to me. The taxi driver did not start the meter. Fortunately, I quickly realised it and asked him to pull over. I told him that I remembered I have to see a person first. heh

at Sofia aiirport you must use "OK supertrans" (supertrans in cyrillic) so this may not be obvious. Easy way is to just check rate inside window look for 0.56 leva anything which has a 1.xxx just ignore. I have a whole review section on taxis and transfers on my blog. so if going onwards you can book a reliable transfer from any number of companies who do this.

Off course, as a foreigner I had those kinda problems too.

At first I was charged ones with a hugh amount because I wasn't checking the window shield. So, I started to protest and they got the police. The police officer told me to pay and pointed on the window screen.

The second time I was at night a little lost in Sofia. And, as a real man I decided not to be afraid to take some old, crappy taxi. Off course, I asked for some settled price and was told it should be around 5 leva. Da da, after 5 min. I was at my hotel and the driver pointed at the meter, 50 leva! Now, I'm pretty social, this I couldn't stand. I toke my luggage and went out of the car, yelled at the cab driver to piss up or I'd call the police. And, he drove away, pfff. I have to admit that I'm 190cm long and bold, this helps me sometimes a little. :-)

My point in this is that the first time I should have checked the window screen. It was my mistake. The second time it was a kinda rip-off. You see, why blaming a Sofia cab driver to put a high fare on his window. It's up to us expats to check the prices before we drive, or?

Use only OK SUPERTRANS (О.К. СУПЕРТРАНС) and watch out for the "fakes" wth almost the same stickers and names like "OK SUPERSHANS - О.К. СУПЕР ШАНС"  and so on.

You can always call the number of Ok Supertrans: 973 21 21. Most of the time, they can help you in English. Ask on the phone what the number of the taxi is to be sure you step in the right one.

I once had a voucher from work when I had to go from the airport to the busstation. The taxidriver proposed to me to drive me to Veliko Tarnovo with the voucher (which is about 200 km). I kindly said no :-) I don't think my boss would appreciate it, since the busride costs me 17 leva and this would've cost about 100-200 leva. If not, even more...