In Moscow, in addition to legal taxis, there are thousands of unlicensed cabs offering their services as well as people just driving around in search of odd jobs. Therefore, if you stand on a roadside holding out your arm for a few minutes, someone is sure to stop and offer you a ridefor money. Most likely, however, this will be an unlicensed taxi. Such cab services are illegal and not always safe.
The minimum fare is usually no less than 300 rubles. At night (after 21.00) and at weekends the rates can be 15-20% higher.
The price is usually fixed and varies from 1,200 to 2,500 rubles, depending on the category of the car. There are two ways to get from an airport by taxi:
The cost of a ride from the city to an airport is also usually fixed.
Here you can rely on the concierge. But we recommend finding out in advance the rates of the taxi service used by your hotel and asking whether a credit card terminal will be available in the car.
Searching for a random taxi stand in the streets of Moscow is not the best idea. Therefore, the locals prefer to order a cab by phone or via online services. Licensed taxis operate mainly on these systems. Illegal ones, on the other hand, tend to look for customers in the streets. However, if you are walking somewhere downtown along a well-lit and crowded street, your chances of seeing a free taxi with yellow registration plates are quite high.
This is the main difficulty for a foreigner. Most taxi drivers in Moscow do not speak English or any other European languages. Therefore, if you stop a taxi in the street, be prepared to say or show the exact address of your destination in Russian and ask the driver to write the exact fare on a piece of paper.
If you speak some Russian and have a local SIM card, you can get a taxi in Moscow from any major service, such as: taxi.yandex.ru, gettaxi.ru, taxi956.ru, nyt.ru, mostaxi.ru, formula-taxi.ru, by phone or through a website. Some of them have English-speaking support, for example, taxi956.ru, nyt.ru, mostaxi.ru, formula-taxi.ru.
You can also turn to Uber – the global online service – via its application for iPhone and Android. Visit the mentioned websites in order to check out Moscow taxi prices or order a taxi online.