Well, now, there are innumerable complaints arriving to our editorial staff, so therefore we thought we would inaugurate a new sub-domain dedicated to those kinds of topics, a place where we can set out in a manner that is 100% clear for everyone, why you should never set foot in a taxi if you are looking to pay a visit to a Budapest nightclub.

We have been dealing with this topic for years now, and it would seem that foreign tourists are quite unable to comprehend how things really work here. As a matter of fact, we can't really say that's very much of a surprise.

Innumerable customer posts on our pages and on other portals as well recount to us all about how tourists have been ripped off with the aid and abetment of taxi drivers, how they have got a bad deal, or even literally been robbed, but they all still fall for the same tired old tricks over and over again.

What you must understand and avoid at all costs is the way the taxi subculture demands – and receives – a bonus from corrupt clubs for bringing visitors there and nowhere else.

To state the matter briefly, if you get into a taxi and provide the name and address of a perfectly aboveboard nightclub, the chances are very high indeed that you won't actually wind up going there at all.

We very much advise you to make a firm note of all this when, after the first few drinks, you order a taxi on the phone or flag one down on the street, without a thought to the consequences.

And why does all of this happen, exactly...??

There are perfectly respectable bars where you can be provided with totally professional and transparent service, and then there are the other bars that we have mentioned, where they make a living only out of giving you the shaft. True, there are fewer and fewer of the these latter sort all the time, and we hope that this is a trend that will sweep away the last few within a short period, but there are still a few remaining, all the same.

Well there nightclubs don't have a good reputation or any beautiful women, or for these reasons any regular clientele. They make a living only by capturing those individuals who happen to drift in by accident, or by seeing how much they can bilk from those people who are enticed there by taxi those drivers.

All of our experience demonstrates that unfortunately, you can still pay 5-700 euro on the average even after just half an hour of recreation!!

And just how does this ambush work...?

It's all very simple....

1.

The unsuspecting tourist hops into a taxi in front of a nightclub and asks the driver's opinion about where would be a good place to go, and where they have girls as well. In the best case, you will wind up in some pathetic second-rate bar.

2.

Another way this happens is that the visitor catches a taxi after already having checked the internet for an honest place recommended by others. In this case, the taxi driver opens up his trusty old bag of tricks, setting the passenger up with effective misdirection like the following:

• that club is closed by now...
• that is the most expensive place in town...
• they have only one or two girls there, and they are just dogs...

...and so it goes.

In the end, of course, he takes the guest to some place where he gets his head money, not giving a whit that in the end the hapless tourist will essentially be robbed blind.

3.

In this version the traveller will ask for a little advice at the hotel reception, who also gets head money just the same as the taxi driver does, and that's why the tourist will wind up in exactly the same predicament as in the examples listed above. The only difference is that the receptionist also has a sweet deal with a taxi company that slips him a little extra cash per head.

Please, everyone take note of these tricks, but at the same time, please don't be put off entirely, but instead please just take the appropriate precautions.

It's well worth noting that a number of nightclubs are in operation in Budapest that offer honest, correct, aboveboard services that are to be found rarely even elsewhere in Europe. These nightclubs even have their very own chauffeur-driven limousine service, and it is small wonder. If you visit one of these nightclubs, you will not experience any problems!

We hope that many people who read this make a mental note of it, and that it comes to mind when you have need of it!

The Budapest ClubAdvisor seeks to promote correct, honest hospitality services here in Hungary in this field of endeavour, as well as in all others.