Taxi Tours

[Rat Catcher]

My not so young lad had 7 or 8 hours to kill in Rome a while back and wondered how much of the sights he could take in so decided to take an Uber into the city and asked the driver what he'd recommend for a tourist with limited time. He said the driver, who he described as an absolute gent with perfect English, told him the city is small enough and easy to navigate on foot once you know where you're going - anywaysanall he drove him around for about an hour pointing out places to come back to on foot and stopping for the odd photo, before dropping him off with a pretty good itinerary for a walking tour. A few hours later he took another Uber back to the airport having taken in as much as was possible in the short visit without spending much more than the return bus/train fare from the airport.

I wonder is there a market in Dublin for this type of bespoke service that might work for drivers with good knowledge of the city and a reasonable command of the ENGLISH language?

[Vikkiz]

Depends on what knowledge of the city you are talking about.

I usually point out a few sites on the way into the city and tell people that it’s easiest to walk around the city to the sites.

A lot of my regular visitors like the walking tours that do be advertised. Depending on what the student is studying that’s doing the tour they get a different tour every time.

[Rat Catcher]

I suppose knowing what the various statues, museums, etc are and maybe the best times to visit and such like... maybe good spots for lunch on various budgets, etc. TBH, you could blag your way through it without much knowledge, assuming that the victim probably hasn't been there before or done much research.

I usually suggest they take one of the hop on hop off bus tours.

[Vikkiz]

Statues, I haven’t a clue who 3/4s of them are. I show them the GPO with it’s bullet holes and the lady on the O’Connell Statue with the bullet hole in her breast.

I too suggest the hop on hop off tours.
The problem with us drivers trying to do tours is trying to drive around a very congested city, where it can take 20 minutes in the taxi, they’d have walked it in those 20 and seen so much more and taken loads of pictures too

[Belker]

Rome has many hundreds of attractions fer tourists, I remember being there during Italia '90.
Every street you walk down has some huge church or monument or fountain on it hundreds of years old.
The Catacombs are great and steeped in history, but fer Me it was the Coliseum that really had me in Awe.

As fer Cork tourists in my cab, I keep brochuers/leaflets in the cab fer Blarney castle and also the Womens
Goal in Shanakiel as I reckon these are the Two best historic attractions in Cork. I give the leaflets to customers
telling them that if it's raining go to the Womens Goal as it's all indoor, if it's dry go to Blarney castle as that is
all outdoors.

[silverbullet]

Take a Rickshaw, buy an E off him, sit back and let the Cyclist take the pictures!
Tour = €2.00
E = €5.00.

[Rat Catcher]

I think the going rate for Es is €40. I'm told there's a few taximen dealing, free delivery up above in Dublin.

[watty]

I think the Erm used to do this sort of thing (the tours, not the drugs).  Though the drugs might explain a lot...  (just kidding)

I think he also got a Bord Failte cert at one stage.  He was rather proud of it, if I remember correctly

Strictly speaking, you'd probably be caught out on the max fare rule.  I'd want €100 or more to drive tourists around for an hour or two AND be nice to them AND put up with their stupid questions.  Max fare for an hour on the meter would be, what, €60-ish?

[Rat Catcher]

Yeah, I think you'd have to do it on the meter but you could add an americanisation and put a little sign in the car that says "Watty works for tips". I came across that on one of those airboat things in the Everglades, having already paid for the trip!

[Belker]

A few drivers I know who work the Cobh cruise liners do taxi tours fer 40Euro per hour,
usually it would be a 4 hour tour with a lot of bullshite spewed to get the tip up to the Deuce !