Taxis in Winchester

If you ever happen to be in wonderful and historical town of Winchester, avoid using taxis if you can at all costs!

If you need to go places that are not serviced by public transportation, then I suggest hiring a car, hitching a ride, or even walking there. Anything but getting a taxi there.

The reason why I am so bitter about taxis in Winchester is that last weekend I had to use a taxi twice, and on both occasions I was appalled by the lacking unprofessional service and ridiculously high prices.

On the first occasion, we took a taxi from Winchester's train station to Nether Wollop, a quite village tucked away in the beautiful countryside near Stockbridge, about 13 miles from Winchester.

After leaving Winchester, it became apparent that our taxi driver did not know where he was going. He began asking us for directions. What is up with that? We just flew in today, how are we supposed to know where to go? The whole point of taking a taxi is that you don't have to worry about finding your way around and you can rely on our driver to get where you need.

Eventually, he admitted that he didn't know the way, but kept the meter rolling. We suggested to ask someone on the road. Thankfully, the people living in those picturesque villages are very kind and helpful, and were happy to give us detailed directions.

Nevertheless, our driver managed to screw up, taking the wrong turns, and forcing us to find someone else to ask for directions once again. We eventually found our B&B. It came to 27 pounds, or 40 euro.

When we asked if we could book a taxi for the following morning, he warned us that we would have to pay for the taxi to come all the way out, in addition to the journey to our intended destination. Which is totally unacceptable and unheard of.

Thankfully, as it turns out, the lovely woman at the B&B we stayed in arranged for one of her friends to drive us in the morning, for the modest charge of three pounds.

The last straw was when we took a cab from the wedding venue back to the B&B. The taxi came and once again the driver did not know his way around. As annoying as that was, this time we were able to give him directions. It was while leaning over to give him directions that I noticed that the meter was not on.

I immediately asked him why the meter was not running. All he said was that a flat fee applied. Quite annoyed, I asked him how much the flat fee was. It was an astounding 45 pounds, or 66 euro! We could not believe it.

Not only did the taxi company fail to inform us of the flat fee policy when we booked the taxi, but also the driver did not mention it when we entered the taxi. For that amount of money, we could have easily rented a car for a day (or longer) and had a much better experience driving around than with the two taxi companies we used.

It is only fair I name and shame the taxi companies that proved to be soo unprofessional and unethical: 'Winchester taxis' and 'Wintaxi'. Stay away from them!