We’ll come right out and say it at the beginning of this article: Sometimes our readers are just plain wrong.
The best taxi service in Kyiv is, in fact, Blitstaxi. This great little taxi company is prompt and cheap. They’ll even tell you beforehand how much your ride from A to B will cost, and you can decide whether you want to accept. And unlike with other firms, you don’t have to keep your eye on the meter to check if you’re being ripped off. They win hands down.
But most of you seem not to have heard of Blits, and plumped for Avtosvit. This company’s bright yellow (sometimes green, sometimes silver) cabs are probably the most visible, and they were certainly the first private cabs in Kyiv. But that doesn’t make them the best.
Avtosvit’s prices are probably the highest of any of Kyiv’s taxi services, our readers say, and their popularity works against them on occasion: Sometimes you just can’t get an Avtosvit cab when you need one.
In fact, sometimes it’s easier just to flag down a private car – and that’s exactly what another large chunk of the respondents to our poll said they regularly do.
Although not really a taxi service, in the strictest sense, private cars, along with Blits, came second in popularity among our traveling readers. One reader even gave their preferred mode of transport – an unmarked Volga. The GAZ Volga is the traditional car type used as a taxi in the former Soviet Union. It’s also large enough to ferry a fair-sized drinking party from pub to pub.
Another reader was even more specific: “The guy in the beat-up 12-year-old Lada with one headlight, who provides running commentary on why it is impossible for Ukraine to become a part of the “civilized” global community of nations, why life sucks and people live so poorly here, and then charges you Hr 2 for a drive from Arizona Barbecue to Chicago Club.”
As usual, a couple of readers responded in the most negative way possible, branding all of Kyiv’s taxi services awful. While in an objective sense, this may be true, attentive readers will have noticed that the question was “What is Kyiv’s BEST taxi service?” Awful they all may be, but there must be one that is not quite as awful as the rest. Wasted votes.
One reader chose to cast his vote in a most unlikely direction. According to him, Kyiv’s best taxi service is operated by the militia. “They don’t just provide a seatbelt but also put you in cuffs for your own safety, give you a pleasant hug in the car and sit on you to keep you warm. And if you’re really lucky, they’ll even provide you with overnight accommodation too.”
