By taxi or limousine

By taxi or limousine

The government-owned Mowasalat also runs the taxi and limousine service. The taxis are easily spotted due to their uniform light blue colour with a maroon top. The ini-tial fare on the meter is QR 4, with an extra QR 1.20 per kilometre within Doha and QR 1.80 anywhere out-side the capital. A trip to or from the airport has a single tariff of QR 25. To ensure you are not scammed, some precautions should be noted:

For journeys within Doha the tariff should be set to '1', and those at night or outside of Doha should be set to '0'.

Check the meter is not tampered; signs of a tam-pered meter include tape and strips of paper around the outside.

By law, if a driver refuses to use the meter, the ride should be free.

There are occasional reports of unruly drivers lock-ing the taxi doors or refusing to open the trunk until extra payment is made. If such an occurrence hap-pens to you, attempt to leave the car. If not possible, calling the police on 999 should cause the driver to become very cooperative.

The demand for taxis exceeds the supply and waiting times can vary greatly. Attempting to obtain one during morning business hours requires at least 24 hours notice, although even in practice this is unreliable, as the sched-uled taxi often doesn't show up. At other times, it may take 90 minutes or more to get an on-call taxi, and hail-ing one on the street may be impossible much of the time.
The only places where you are guaranteed to find a taxi are major malls, the airport and international hotels.

Taxis can be booked and summoned by calling +974 4458 8888.

An alternative to taxis and buses would be to use a limou-sine service, which will send an unmarked limo car to your location. They are basically expensive, but luxuri-ous taxis with an initial fee of QR 20, but do not always feature a meter.

Occasionally, a local driver may offer you a lift if they see you waiting on the side of the road. It is customary to offer some money at the end, though usually they will refuse to take it. A driver offering a lift will slow down and flash their headlights at you; they can be summoned with a wave in response. Although the practice is safe, it is not advisable for solo women.
 By car

You can hire a car with local car rental companies. Plenty of them are located near the airport and Doha city centre, or else ask your hotel for some advice.