Despite this post appeared for the very first time on the 2012 and despite in the meanwhile many changes occurred in both, in Abu Dhabi street naming system and in the taxi drivers equipment, bear in mind that any app can save you if you don’t learn the “landmark’s system” and how to ask for and give information in Abu Dhabi.
Let me reveal a couple of mysteries about Abu Dhabi streets. If you need to get somewhere in Abu Dhabi and you have to take a taxi, you don’t need to provide the exact address: in most cases it is useless.
As it is unnecessary to bring a detailed map, geographic coordinates or to use the last navigator app of your smartsomething.
What you really need, is the ability to communicate with the Abu Dhabi taxi drivers who expects from you the landmarks, the main references or, better, the keywords to get around Abu Dhabi.
In most cases, this drives crazy expats, visitors, and locals also, but copying with this it’s more simple than people can imagine.
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Abu Dhabi streets: essential landmarks and keywords
The study of keywords to ask for and provide directions in Abu Dhabi, required months of observation, but in my experience, I have obtained brilliant results.
In general you will not have problems if you go to one of the following places, we might call “main Abu Dhabi landmarks” or “major keywords”:
• Abu Dhabi sea / Corniche
• Great Mosque
• Emirates Palace
• Ferrari World
• Abu Dhabi Airport
• Abu Dhabi Bus Station
If the driver ignores these basic landmarks, maybe you should get off the taxi.
Abu Dhabi generic landmarks
You will have a good chance of being understood even in case you have to go to one of the following places (I like to call them “generic landmarks” or “support keywords”):
• any shopping center or mall in Abu Dhabi
• any hotels in Abu Dhabi
• a hospital in Abu Dhabi
Also, add the name of the area in which they are located.
Main areas in Abu Dhabi
All these places are, in some way, mapped into the head of anyone who knows a bit Abu Dhabi, including novice taxi drivers.
Warning : These locations are also magical references that you will need to get the keywords to use in all other cases.
The rule is trivial, even if it requires a minimum of skill: add the name of the street in which your destination is, the name of a hotel, a mall or another of the cited references that are in the vicinity.
Let me give a practical example: if you say to a taxi driver you want to go to the “Souk at Qaryat Al Beri”, you will hardly be understood, even if it is a place well known. I told you, you need to use keywords that, in this case, are: “the souk” and “Shangri-La Hotel” located in the immediate vicinity.
In a nutshell: follow the simple rule, and above all, be patient with the taxi drivers in Abu Dhabi, who are heroes: the important thing is to get to your destination.
Driving a taxi driver in Abu Dhabi: the Italian style secret
It may happen that you have to “drive a taxi driver,” explaining a route in Abu Dhabi that is familiar to you.
Remember that in Abu Dhabi, the only effective substitute of the satellite navigator is the Italian Body Language: in short, use gestures, as Italian people do.
If you are travelling in a taxi with an Italian… bingo!, you are lucky 😛
I admired, with patriotic pride, Italians mimicking the driver entire journeys, detailing with gestures roundabouts, intersections, ramps, traffic lights, maneuvering: sweaty (because the game of mime drags the other passengers), but if you take a taxi with an Italian in Abu Dhabi, you always come at the destination.
Another gem are the names of the streets in Abu Dhabi : If you want to know more, then read about Abu Dhabi streets