Beirut by service · By service in Beirut
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By service in Beirut
By service in Beirut
The more common form of transport, especially with daily commuters, as they are cheaper than the taxis, but ironically, are in fact the same. Service [ser-vee-s] are shared-taxis, the same taxis as above but shared between four people. The biggest advantage with the Service system is that the price of the ride is fixed at 2,000 L.L (€1). They come with drawbacks of course, and apart from having to share a small car with three other complete strangers (great for meeting new people actually), Service drivers may choose not to take you if you are not going in the same direction as them.
Hailing a service or taxi usually entails yelling your destination to the driver if he slows down, then chasing the name of your destination with either 'taxi' (for private taxi 10,000 L.L.) or 'service' (for service 2,000 L.L).
It is important that you specify what type of ride you want (when hailing a taxi or service), if you fail to do so, the driver will assume you asked for taxi, and will overcharge you at taxi-rate. However if the driver stops to ask for other fares or picks up another passenger only pay the Service rate of 2,000 L.L.
Taxi drivers in Beirut are notorious for overcharging tourists much more so than neighboring Syria. Most will demand absurd fares and demanding 2-3 times the service rate is very common. If you're pressed for time paying 2 service may be a compromise (4000 LL), otherwise you may have to wait a bit to find an honest cab driver willing to take you for 2000 LL. Always get a price BEFORE leaving otherwise the driver will most definitely rip you off.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Beirut
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Beirut Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.