Taxis

From Alhannah

The ubiquitous orange and white taxis are often not well maintained, and the drivers are of questionable skill. The orange taxis are currently being replaced with a new turquoise fleet (Karwa 4588888). There are safe and reputable transport agents available. Doha Limousine (432-9999) and Fox Transport (462-2777) are reliable and safe, though the word on the street is that Doha Limo is not as nice as and more expensive than Fox. Instant access is almost never possible, so plan ahead.

CMU-Q uses Fox Transport and you will be given coupons for their services for the first two days you are in Doha. HR will then provide you with information about renting a private vehicle. Once you have your residency permit, you can arrange for a longer term lease, or purchase a car.

Doha is rapidly expanding its new bus service. The fleet of new turquoise taxis is also growing rapidly. The rap against these latter, so far, is that the drivers, being very new to the city, do not know where anything is. You must navigate for them quite aggressively to get where you hope to go. But this should correct itself over time.

There are also many wildcat taxis, who will solicit you on streetcorners. Your call. You are probable best off negotiating a fare ahead of time in these taxis. The meters, if they exist, are suspect. Many unregistered taxis will happily take you to your destination, then quote you a fare which is much higher than the going rate.