What’s the deal with taxis in Abu Dhabi? Some are silver and some are gold and white. Are both of them legit, and what’s the difference?
Both of them are perfectly legal, but the gold and white taxis, as you can probably tell from their appearance, are from a bygone age when doing business was a less formal affair and safety restrictions were less stringent.
What you’ll find is that prices are about a third less than their silver equivalent. That said, many drivers choose not to use the meter and will try to negotiate an outrageous price up front. This can lead to awkward disagreements, which is why we’d recommend paying a bit extra for the silver taxi. Oh, and many of them are lacking seatbelts in the back, so you will just have to pray you’re not involved in a crash. All that said, these old taxis are gradually being phased out from the city, so they are a lot less common than they used to be.
As for silver vehicles, a recent price hike means you have to pay Dhs1 for every 750m travelled, instead of Dhs1 for 1km, so you’re essentially paying one third more. On top of this, you’ll also have to pay Dhs3 flag fare when you get in during the day (6am to 10pm) and Dhs3.60 during the night. However, the cost of being taxied around is still relatively cheap for what is one of the most expensive cities on the planet, and saves you the stress of dealing with Abu Dhabi’s notoriously bad drivers.
Both forms of taxi can be flagged down at any time of the day (make sure they have their yellow light on the roof visible or you’ll just be wasting energy by waving your arms at them), but silver ones can be booked in advance (600 53 5353). If you have an important engagement, we’d advise booking extra early as they can be a bit unpredictable, especially if you live in a hard-to-find location. On a couple of occasions we’ve had taxi drivers ring us up to tell us they’re on their way, only for them to call back later and say they’ve abandoned their mission because they got lost.
It’s also worth bearing in mind that many of them do not speak fluent English and are not always familiar with street names. Hence it helps to have the phone number or a map of your destination to hand in case you get lost, plus knowledge of a few Arabic words to communicate with them. Just remember that left is yassar, right is yamiyn, and straight ahead is sidyaa. Happy trails, prospectors.
