I learned a new principle of travel this year. When taking a taxi into the desert, be sure the driver knows where he is going.
Sounds obvious. In fact, on the trip I am about to describe, I did think the driver either knew the basics of how to get to the destination or was properly set up with his GPS before departure.
My sister Marilyn and I were spending a few days in Abu Dhabi, which is the largest of the seven emirates that comprise the United Arab Emirates. It is on the Arabian Peninsula, and it is a desert.
In any case, we were transferring from a hotel on the beach near the city of Abu Dhabi to a desert property billed as a relaxing hideaway nicely separated from urban life and surrounded only by sand. To be specific, we were headed to the new Jumeirah al Wathba Resort and Spa (opened February 2019), and the drive was to be no more than an hour.
We left our beach hotel at about 2:10 on a March afternoon with a Sri Lankan cab driver who spoke passable English.
After about an hour, we entered an area of roadwork, and seemingly, the GPS was directing us to a road we could not access, leaving our driver at a loss.
He muttered, then made four U-turns in almost immediate succession and a fifth soon after. As he made the first U-turn, the meter was at 177 dirham, just a shade more than what it should have read at the end of a successful trip from Abu Dhabi to the resort.
And then began a series of stops so he could seek advice from other drivers. One such advisor sent us down a sand road (unpaved roads here are indeed sand roads) that eventually turned into a small sand dune. That got us our sixth U-turn.
Abu Dhabi’s desert seen at sunset. I took this photo during a 2018 visit, not while riding in circles in a taxi!! The scene’s admirer at left is New York City-based journalist Hannah Freedman.
Our driver tried his cell phone to call the hotel phone numbers I carried with me, but the numbers didn’t ring, so he declared them “not good.” That wasn’t true.
I suggested he call his employer but he didn’t seem to know how to make that call. I asked, several times, that he turn the meter off. He said he “couldn’t.”
After about two hours on the road, our driver was backtracking toward Abu Dhabi, then made another U-turn (No. 7) in response to his GPS.
By this point, we felt sorry for him because he was in over his head, but we also were becoming uneasy contemplating being lost in a desert’s post-sunset darkness, possibly in a car without gas.
Our cabbie stopped to ask two truck drivers for directions. Here we met our hero, a young English-speaking Emirati in white abaya who would lead us to the turnoff that we needed.
For some reason, once this procession got under way, my sister and I had to keep reassuring our cabbie that following the trucker was a good idea. We were led onto a sand road and, soon after, we turned onto pavement again. The truck driver pulled over and told us to drive straight to the next roundabout, then turn left and drive straight to the resort.
Heading to the roundabout, we again had to keep encouraging the driver to stay the course. He remarked several times that he was feeling “so stressed,” and, perversely, I began to wonder if I were really living a comic skit.
For just one more blooper, at the roundabout, our driver turned too soon, and that took us to empty horse stables and U-turn No. 8!!
The driver asked us what to do next, so we — with fingers crossed — directed him back to the roundabout and said, “Take the next turnoff.”
It was around 4:50 p.m. when we arrived at the hotel, and the meter said 325 dirham, close to twice the number I saw when I first asked our driver to stop the device.
Our cabbie wanted the full, metered amount and I didn’t want to pay a premium for subpar service. With help from hotel personnel, we negotiated a compromise that left no one happy.
By this time, the resort — our home for the coming nights — got its chance to show off its de-stressing powers!! Marilyn and I did our part to make that work.
Traditional Arab architectural styles seen in the design of the new Jumeirah al Wathba Resort and Spa in the Abu Dhabi desert. View above is on the resort’s periphery; view below is amid the resort’s villas.
The Village Square at the Jumeirah al Wathba Resort and Spa. The resort was built to reflect the look of a traditional Arabian village in the desert.
The Jumeirah al Wathba Resort and Spa seen from the resort’s rooftop bar. In this low-rise facility, the rooftop is on the second floor.
Talise Spa, the ultimate place to relax at the Jumeirah al Wathba Resort and Spa.
This posting is not to be understood as a strung-out gripe about Abu Dhabi. The emirate is a promising destination for the adventurous. Taxis are a good and cost-effective way to get around, and my sister and I used them several times. For more about the United Arab Emirates, we offer at BestTripChoices.com the following, under the headline, A study in contrasts:
https://besttripchoices.com/international-countries/united-arab-emirates-abu-dhabi-dubai/
This blog and its photos are by Nadine Godwin, BestTripChoices.com editorial director and contributor to the trade newspaper, Travel Weekly. She also is the author of “Travia: The Ultimate Book of Travel Trivia.”
