Hey, in Barcelona right now I am (Yoda ?) and took a cab from the airport mostly for the experience of it all and also because I had a load of luggage and such

Wanted to start a thread on the differences in cabs between the cities in Spain.

As you may know, the cabs here in Barcelona are black and yellow ( PIC HERE) while in Madrid they are White with a red stripe ( PIC HERE).

In Madrid, the "1" fare is the daytime fare and the "2" fare is night (more expensive as the meter goes faster at night). Here in BCN, that is reversed and the day fare is "2" while night is "1". Thought the cabbie was ripping me off and trying to charge me the night fare during the day but I nicely asked about the fares and he explained that here it is the opposite than Madrid.

Also, in Madrid they can not longer charge supplements for bags, dogs, etc... but in Barcelona each bag is 0.80 cents. All in all, the cabs here in BCN are cheaper than those of Madrid but there are also dishonest cabbies here as well.

On the way to the airpor in Madrid this morning I had a great conversation with the driver about how the airport---> city rides are often way overcharged for tourists and he said that there are about 20 or 30 rotten cabbies that work the airport and rip off visitors and they give all cabbies a bad name.

I got the same exact explanation from the driver that took me from the airport in Barcelona to my hostel so there could be something to what they say.

www.multimadrid.com/practical_info/mad_transports.htm has more info on transports in Madrid and even a link to my TAXI SMARTS PAGE

Saludos,
jer...