Taxi Tips

The best recommendation I have is to find a decent, honest, reliable taxi driver and use this person as your private personal chauffeur.  In fact, line up 2 or 3 in case driver #1 isn’t available when you need him.
 
Since there isn’t a central Taxi line you can call to have someone  pick you up, to find a taxi driver, you have to stand by the roadside and wave one down. Simply stand at the roadside and when you see a cab with its top light lit, hold your arm out straight, palm down. The driver will flick his lights to see if you want a ride and to confirm he's seen your hand signal. 

I found drivers from India easiest to deal with, since their English was often better than drivers from other countries, they were punctual, and they didn't try to change the cost of the fare upon arrival.
 
If a driver you encounter impresses you, be sure to ask for  their telephone number.

To find a really good taxi driver, you either have to stumble upon one by accident or ask around ( ask other foreigners and people who have lived there a long time).

I found it particularly hard to find a driver who know his way around the entire city well, so
always bring a map with you and also get descriptions of landmarks nearby, as well as the name or number of the nearest Exit ramp. Knowing this before you set off will likely save you hours of time wasted in transit.

Getting Around Riyadh

Taxis are plentiful and not very expensive, relatively speaking, in Riyadh. This is the best and easiest way to get around. (See my next post for details about using taxis in Riyadh.)

Women were allowed to take taxis without a male escort (well foreign women anyway).

There was often a language barrier since many cab drivers didn’t speak English. But almost all would nod and say they knew where a place was , usually without really having a clue where to go.  So, instead of asking ' do you know where X is?', ask them how to get there. Do thus  BEFORE you get inside the cab (and have an idea yourself before you leave home), and if they can’t answer satisfactorily, decline and wave them on.

I recommend getting very familiar with the city and its layout before or as soon as you arrive, since you will likely have to give taxi drivers specific directions about how to get where you want to go. I didn’t find Google maps very helpful, and websites were usually just in Arabic so looking things up online was problematic, so source out good maps  in English, and get a good GIS program or apps for your phone before you arrive in Saudi Arabia.


If you take a taxi, be careful where you sit. In private vehicles, usually the women sit in the back, and only men can drive. The windows are often completely shaded (smoked glass) so it isn’t possible to see inside (and see the women inside). Sit in the back seat if you are a woman, since sometimes te cab drivers took it as a sign you wanted to get fresh with them if you sat within touching distance in the front seat.

Even for foreigners, it’s not acceptable for men and women to hang out together in public if not married, so take separate cabs.Some people I know would make plans for a group outing (to meet up at a mall or restaurant), but the men would go in one taxi and the women in another in order to get there, and once there would pair up as if married when sitting in a restaurant. 

If going in separate taxis, make sure you have the other driver’s number too, or contact  numbers for the other people in the second taxi in your party  and vice versa, to help you stay together and avoid one car getting lost and wasting hours trying to meet up again.

Occasionally I would take a taxi to a mall with a male friend, or eat in the ‘family section’ with one male friend, but I always chose someone that it looked like I could be conceivably married to. Some women brought fake wedding rings to wear to ward off unwanted attention and suspicion.  Even then it was a big risk. If the authorities had asked to see a marriage certificate and I couldn’t produce one, it was grounds for me to be imprisoned or exiled from the country, or both.

When taking company transportation (vans or mini buses), men and women were allowed to travel together in the same vehicle if the company has permission for this, but even then the foreigners would usually self-segregate. Only married couples would sit together as a matter of course.



There is a pubic bus system, apparently, but I never used it.