Taxi advice for India

[gill321]

Looking to hire a private taxi/car with driver to drive us from Mumbai to various places and ultimately Bangalore.

Anyone used a company / driver they cpuld recommend?

Thanks in advance

[anuj]

I’m pretty sure you can hire a driver for the day like you describe on the Ola app which is like an Indian uber, but also the Uber app may have the option. Try downloading the ola app and setting a fictional itinerary beginning in mumbai (because it operates in the uk too and else won’t show the indian services).

[gill321]

Thanks for that but obviously did not explain myself very well. Looking for a driver that could be with us for 7 days travelling from Mumbai to Bangalore and stopping at places in between where we want to visit.

[can2]

Your hotel can arrange it. I’m sure they’d inflate the rate a bit.
I once used a taxi for intercity travel in India and the hotel arranged me a good one and saved me from Negotiating the price

[Aston100]

Post this question on the TripAdvisor India forums.
You are very likely to get private messages from relevant parties.

[BuildBackBetter]

Arrange only with a trusted organisation or hotel you can talk to. It’ll be expensive but worth it. Random people contacting on internet is more likely to be a scam or middlemen pocketing the margin but getting you a dirty old vehicle with a dodgy driver.
Roads have improved but unless you must visit places exactly halfway between cities, flying is better. Some of the airports are better than Heathrow.

[shub]

There’s an option for Uber intercity in India
https://www.uber.com/in/en/ride/intercity/

But agree with @BuildBackBetter, better to get it booked with Hotel.

[qc]

I found a guide in India based in Agra who arranged our drivers from Delhi then on to Jaipur and Udaipur – through TripAdvisor reviews and recommendations. Worked very well.

[anuj]

gill321 wrote:

Thanks for that but obviously did not explain myself very well. Looking for a driver that could be with us for 7 days travelling from Mumbai to Bangalore and stopping at places in between where we want to visit.

Ah okay if you need a driver for more than 24 hours then hotel would be a good option and trustable. Otherwise for everything else just use Ola and Uber as they have intercity options and hire a driver for a day options.

[strickers]

I’ve used Magic Tours a couple of times and found them reliable and reasonable.

https://www.magictoursofindia.com/

[SamG]

+1 on the hotel option, I don’t have a huge amount of points of reference but whenever I’ve had cars arranged by the hotel there I haven’t found them outrageously expensive and it gives you some confidence in the quality and they’ll appear on time etc

[qc]

It depends on the hotel though – a quote through a more expensive upmarket hotel will be much more than a cheaper hotel. E.G we needed a car for a transfer between Mahalibalipuram and Pondicherry recently – the car recommended by the IC where we were travelling from was twice as much as the car company recommended by the boutique hotel in Pondicherry. We subsequently used the Pondicherry car company for daytrips locally as well as our transfer back to Madras.

[Aston100]

Surely hotels are just acting as middlemen and adding on a significant markup.

[BuildBackBetter]

Aston100 wrote:

Surely hotels are just acting as middlemen and adding on a significant markup.

They do. But you can get a decent clean car and driver and there is a point of contact if you need help or escalate issues.

[BuildBackBetter]

qc wrote:

It depends on the hotel though – a quote through a more expensive upmarket hotel will be much more than a cheaper hotel. E.G we needed a car for a transfer between Mahalibalipuram and Pondicherry recently – the car recommended by the IC where we were travelling from was twice as much as the car company recommended by the boutique hotel in Pondicherry. We subsequently used the Pondicherry car company for daytrips locally as well as our transfer back to Madras.

That’s because everything is cheaper in Pondicherry. If you start a trip from there, it’s going to be cheaper.

[cska]

gill321 wrote:

Looking to hire a private taxi/car with driver to drive us from Mumbai to various places and ultimately Bangalore.

Anyone used a company / driver they cpuld recommend?

Thanks in advance

I have used this company previously – https://www.traveltoindia.org

They were excellent, I hired a big tempo traveller and they were exceptionally reasonable, sent a driver and an assistant. New car and very safe. Check out their reviews as well online which are also very good. I emailed them and they provided a quote for driver’s service.

Hope that helps!