Riding in taxis is something of a luxury for most tour guides (me included) but when I was contacted by GetTaxi a new way of booking taxis via an App on your phone and they offered me £50 credit to try out and review their service plus a £3 credit to every reader of my blog (see below for the code) I realised I had nothing to lose.

Basically the App pinpoints exactly where you are on the map using GPS. If you want you can tap in more details such as what you’re wearing or where you’re standing to make yourself easy to identify in a busy street.

When your nearest taxi is identified you are given the driver’s name, a photo, their mobile number and their estimated arrival time. You can then watch in real time as a picture of a taxi moves across the map towards you which always makes me think of Harry Potter’s Marauder’s Map! There is no charge for using this service – you pay as if you’ve picked up the taxi on the street.

It’s like having your own personal chauffeur!  You can wait inside until the taxi is outside your door; there’s no need to stand around in the cold.

The App is free to download from their website and works on iPhone, Blackberry and Android.

For your £3 credit off your first ride tap in this code – 1d5fa3752 after downloading the App.

The only problem now is I have got rather addicted to using taxis and need to wean myself off and back onto public transport and shanks’ pony.