Airport transfer for family of 5

[Tina123]

Our family:
2 adults 2 children 1 baby

Therefore we need a cab with at least 5 seats + the drivers seat.
Its also important that the car has a baby seat.

Would you prebook a cab or is it easy to find a car like this for us at Sydney Airport?

If prebooking, which company?

We are giong to Collaroy.

Thanks,

Tina

 

[opusman]

You would definitely need to pre-book for a baby seat I would think.

 

[Batesy]

Pre-book. Try lime taxis as they have vans for more rthan 5 and plenty of baggage space.
www.limetaxis.com.au/

 

[UP4014]

If you simply wait in the taxi queue, when it gets to your turn the "marshall" will keep you at the front while passing the word back down the taxi line to get the required type of vehicle.

Could take an extra 15 minutes, but I wouldn't panic about pre booking a cab if you don't get around to it.

Seen this happen a few times.

 

[js]

We normally find Lime Taxis to be excellent for pickups with baby seats... However, we have attempted a couple of times and always been told that they cannot do pre-booked pickups at the airport for some reason.

Alternatives for Collaroy are one of the various airport buses that operate to the northern beaches (e.g. see some that advertise in the back of the Manly Daily fairly regularly).

We have occasionally got lucky with getting a pickup in the general queue from a cab that happens to have a baby seat. But they seem to be quite uncommon. While it is sometimes 15 minutes wait, we did have one occassion with a wait of 1 hr 10 mins to get a suitable taxi for our group (5 pax + baby, so needed to be a bigger sized taxi as well as having the baby seat). In hindsight it would have been better (= faster) to split our group and just try for one of the station wagons that occassionally have a child seat.

Two other tips: Firstly, it seems there is a hand gesture like making a cradle with your two arms and swinging back and forth that Sydney taxi drivers understand. This seems to work at the airport or elsewhere where there are lots of taxis passing and you need one with a baby seat.

Second tip is if there is any sort of queue at the taxi rank it is worth making it known to the taxi warden that you will need a baby seat or capsule. They can sometimes radio the request in for you, or at the very least keep an eye out. On a few rare but pleasant occassions we have been able to "queue jump" thanks to having done this and it is certainly more pleasant than waiting say 20 minutes in the line then another 15+ once you get to the head of the queue waiting for a suitable taxi to turn up.

 

[simongr]

We normally find Lime Taxis to be excellent for pickups with baby seats... However, we have attempted a couple of times and always been told that they cannot do pre-booked pickups at the airport for some reason.

Was that a restriction that lime put on or someone else? I am often picked up at the airport by a driver who parks in the hire car waiting area - never had any trouble. they will also wait when we are delayed or forget to tell them that flights have completely changed and I am still in New York...

 

[js]

Was that a restriction that lime put on or someone else?

I'm not sure - just that the regular phone operators on 13LIME refused to offer a pickup at the airport. The wording I recall was something like "we are not allowed" so the impression I got was it was a general restriction.

It certainly would be nice to find a way around this if there is one. Which company do you use simongr that will wait for you there? After a few long waits last year I was at the point of thinking to just leave our car somewhere a suburb or two away (somewhere free but safe-looking, if such a place exists near the airport) and get a taxi out to the car and bring it back to collect the family...

 

[JohnK]

I'm not sure - just that the regular phone operators on 13LIME refused to offer a pickup at the airport. The wording I recall was something like "we are not allowed" so the impression I got was it was a general restriction.

I have seen Silver Service and Diamond Service taxis, as well as private limousines, waiting in the hire car waiting area ~100 metres past the T3 building and bus stop.

After a few long waits last year I was at the point of thinking to just leave our car somewhere a suburb or two away (somewhere free but safe-looking, if such a place exists near the airport) and get a taxi out to the car and bring it back to collect the family...

There are some suburbs close to the airport where you can leave your car and feel relatively safe. Kyeemagh, Brighton Le-Sands, Rockdale, Tempe, Mascot, Botany to name just a few....

 

[turtlemichael]

they will also wait when we are delayed or forget to tell them that flights have completely changed and I am still in New York...

That would be a long wait. Do they turn the meter on?

 

[lovetravellingoz]

I have 3 kids...the eldest is now almost 18.

So travelling with them and how to tranpsort at airports around the world has been an ongoing problem.

Here is Australia once upon a time taxis were easy as taxis used to often havea bench seat in front and could seat 6. Those days are basically gone.

Maxicabs are available,,,,,but charge more than normal cabs.


So an alternative that can work is a hire car:idea:..particularly as buses and airport tranporters often charge per person.

This depends on length of stay etc...but is worth looking at.

Apart from the major hire companies their are often second string players with good deals and ways around the airportdeals that the majors have.

For example twice out of BNE I have hire frrom companies that either came and picked my family up (last time it was 6 of us as we also hada french exchange student with us), or met us with the car at the airport.


Overseas and particularly in Asia I have often arranged for a van with driver rather than a taxi as it provides more room for often no extra cost.


Mind you the last time in Bali was quite amusing as the van and driver we had tried to "time" his way out of the carpark with the result instead being that he demolished the boom gate!!!!