First of all, I must say taxis in Bangkok are not expensive in general, but you can find significative differences in price, as I will explain:
Before our travel we had read in a variety of webs that you must insist taxi drivers to use the meter for a more convenient price, and if they refuse to use it, simply go to another one. In our experience this was almost impossible.
Taxis in Bangkok have a meter, but we couldn’t find a single taxi driver that wanted to use it, except those the concierge of our hotel called for us, I guess because it’s a condition the hotel imposes if they want to work with them.
All taxi drivers will propose a price and you will have to negotiate. Prices are not expensive in general, but don’t expect them to be as extremely cheap as the meter would make. I.e., a short trip of 10 min charged by the meter for a taxi called from the hotel could cost as less as 60 Baht. For the exact same trip returning to the hotel and taking a taxi in the street, no taxi driver would want to use the meter and they can ask you 250 - 300 Bath, that you can reduce to around 100 - 150 Baht after negotiation with driver.
In shortest trips it’s a small difference in absolute amount, but if trips are longer, differences start to be more significative (150 Baht by the meter could easily transform into 400 Bath without it)
PROS
- Transport is not expensive
- Lots of taxis and tuktuks everywhere
CONS
- Taxi drivers never like to use the meter. You will have no option but to negotiate and pay more than the meter would indicate.
- A lot of vehicles are in bad condition. Not very clean, seat belts won’t fasten...
- In some other destinations in Thailand, like some Samui piers, taxi service is controlled by “certain groups of people” that will leave you with no option but to share the rear of a pickup with a crowd of travellers, paying more than you would pay for a regular taxi elsewhere, and stopping like a bus leaving each one.
RECOMMENDED
- Use skytrain in Bangkok where possible. Not always useful to access all destinations.
- Take Grab app prices as a reference for negotiating prices with taxi drivers.
- For long distances, try to schedule an appointment with a private taxi through your hotel.
- You can use the ferrys along the river for a very cheap price to go to some touristic places.
