Taxi or Ride-Share App: What’s Cheaper and Safer From the Airport?

It's a common question with a complex answer.

You have arrived at your destination. Maybe you’re a little bleary-eyed following an overnight flight to Europe, and you’re eager to get to your hotel for an early check-in and cat nap. Or you are raring to go, excited about landing in a new city with an arm’s length itinerary of what you want to see, do, and eat while in town.

Either way, you have a decision to make: Should you take a taxi or open one of the car share apps on your phone?

Which one is cheaper? Safer? More comfortable? More efficient?

When it comes to choosing between taking a taxi from the airport—and getting around town during the duration of your trip—or a car share like Uber or Lyft, there’s no one-size fits-all. Often, the best choice for both your wallet and your well-being depends on where you’re traveling. Of course, personal preference also factors in, especially in destinations where both options are readily available and comparable in terms of cost and comfort.

Time and Money

When Uber and Lyft came onto the scene, the car service apps wooed people with their low pricing models. These services, offering riders the convenience of not having to pay upon exiting the vehicle or the hassle of standing on a street corner in New York’s Midtown, flourished in their early days. 

More recently, however, the cost of taking an Uber or a Lyft in major cities around the U.S. and beyond, has skyrocketed. In cities like New York, it’s quite often (a lot) more expensive to take an Uber or a Lyft, both around the city and to and from the major airports. 

Travelers arriving at JFK and Newark have the option of decently reliable public transportation for a fraction of the cost of a car ride in either a yellow cab or a car ordered from an app, but taking a long train ride following a long flight may not be appealing. 

Nonetheless, founder of travel planning company Trip Whisperer Jessica Parker says if you want to avoid sitting in traffic, “Get comfortable with the idea of popping onto the public transportation when the rates are surging or the city is very congested with traffic.”

When public transportation isn’t available, however, below are some rough guidelines for how to choose between a taxi and a car app.

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The Case for a Taxi

The most obvious time to take a taxi is when there is no Uber or Lyft available. Parker points out that a number of places “don’t allow rideshares, have made them illegal or put significant pressure on them,” and the travel advisor advises travelers to double-check the availability of car service apps in their destination beforehand, especially if your travels are taking you abroad. “Places like Germany, Denmark, Hungary, Thailand or Ireland, their governments have either banned or put significant restrictions, so that those services aren’t that readily available,” says Parker.

Kaleigh Kirkpatrick, founder of The Shameless Tourist, personally likes to opt for taxis where they are “lined up” and ready to transport travelers to wherever they need to go. This includes airports, New York City, some parts of Boston and Chicago.

If you’re staying at a hotel that either has taxis lined up outside or that are easily accessible via a quick call from the hotel, this is another time you might want to choose a taxi over an app, particularly if you open up your phone and see a dearth of cars in your area or crazy high prices due to increased demand. 

As taxi cabs are typically beholden to a certain price structure, they can’t suddenly decide to charge double simply because it’s raining outside and more people are in the market for a vehicle to get them to their destination. Of course, inclement weather can make it difficult to get either a taxi or a Lyft, but if/when you luck out in hailing a cab in New York during a downpour, the chances it will cost less than ordering a car from the app are very high.

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The Case for the Apps

Parker says there are lots of advantages to taking a car using one of the apps: No money exchanges hands, no worrying about language barriers (since you put the address in the app before ordering it, you don’t have to explain to your driver where you are going), and a certain peace of mind that comes from having your whereabouts tracked through the app. The option to share your ride with a friend may comfort those a little wary of taking a car by themselves.

While an increasing number of yellow taxis take credit cards, in some places around the world, taxis remain cash-only enterprises. Before traveling to an international destination, be sure to read up on this as a taxi may not be an option for you if you don’t have cash or the right currency. (I have personally found the sections in guidebooks about transportation quite helpful in understanding my options when traveling to a destination overseas.) 

“Rideshares come in handy when you’re not trying to haggle with drivers or confirming if they take credit cards to find out when you arrive they are pushing for cash instead or pretending their machine is now not working,” Kirkpatrick says. 

“In circumstances where you want to ensure a quality of car or size, Uber/Lyft can be better, for example Uber Black or UberXL.”

There’s also a pet-friendly option for car shares usually, so if you’re traveling with Fido, that’s one less thing to worry about.