Message: According to the grand travel nerd,Rick Steves, taxi fares for five might be better than the cost of the tube. Comments?

Taxis are great for traveling with luggage or if you're dressed up for a nice evening out and don't want to fuss with the tube or buses, but for basic touring around London, you'll find the tube and buses more economical and more practical.

who knows? it depends on the distance you are travelling. but to answer your question directly...yes, it MIGHT be better.

Some cab journeys to a reasonably close destination will cost less per head - if you can squeeze 5 people in - than a single Tube Z1 ticket will cost per head.

But so what? Like all smartass observations it might be true, but doesn't get you anywhere.

If you're going to be in central London for any period of time, you'll buy some kind of pass (99% of the posts on this site will advise you which one), allowing you unlimited use of all London's public transport in the area you've bought the pass for. Even the most expensive version of the pass works out, per head, as the same price as two 3-mile cab journeys a day. If that's all you're going to travel, you probably aren't using your time here properly.

If you're, collectively, small enough to squeeze 5 into a cab without guaranteed instant DVT, you're a family - and nothing on earth, not even London's free museums, is as good value as the family deals on London Transport.

If you're not a family, you won't be staying together all the holiday - and even if you are, the family that stays together goes stark staring mad together.

London's transport system is available when it's raining, and after the pubs close. It doesn't go into a sulk if you want to go somewhere that's not on the driver's route home.

By all means assume you'll need a cab for some bits of your stay, and decide on your transport pass accordingly. But no-one with any knowledge of this city could imagine for a moment you can depend on cabs and save money.

Whoever this charlatan might be, I wouldn't listen to his views on travelling. He obviously doesn't do much of it.

Be carefull about squeezing 5 into a london cab, the majority of them are only licenced for 4 passengers and consequently only insured for four passengers, hence no matter whose fault a acciedent is you would get no compensation unless you successfully sued someone.

Look on the Hackney Carriage plate on the back of the cab it details how many passengers they are licenced for.

Also remember children even 1 day old count as a passenger.

Sorry forgot to say mini cabs and private hire cars ( Cabs ) would definately only be insured for 4 passengers