Taking a taxi in Dubai is one of the most convenient way to get around the city and the fare is relatively cheap compare to other major cities like London or New York.

Getting a taxi from the airport is an easy procedure, just walk through the crowd outside the terminal builiding and get to the the taxi queue. The base charge from the airport is AED 20 instead of the usual AED 3.00 during day time(6.00 am-10.00 pm) and AED 3.50 charge for a night time meter(10.00 pm-6.00 am)

After hopping in, make sure you tell the driver the exact address and better if you know the way because from my experience if you're going somewhere that's not a well-known tourist attractions or hotels/shopping malls, the drivers don't really know where they're going and you may end up paying a big bill or being taken to a wrong place. Also, I've met a lot of the drivers that have poor English so before getting on one, it's better to make sure that he has understood where you want to go.

The dashboard in the car is easy to read and will tell you the fare. There's also a traffic tariff if you're using a toll or enter the specified road, these extra charge will be shown as "extras" and cost you AED 4.00. There's a call-in service which you can reserve a taxi for your trip and will cost you an extra charge of AED 3.00 during day time and AED 3.50 during night time.

I like to use the service because I didn't stay at a hotel so there's no one to help me get a taxi, though one thing I hate is that sometimes the taxi showed up very quickly and sometimes they can be very late! I almost missed my reservation for lunch at Burj Al Arab because this taxi guy took like 45 mins to get to my place! It's so unpredictable! I have to keep calling the operator to see if the taxi I called is still coming because sometimes they just decided to pick up passengers from the street and cancelled my call!

Flagging down a taxi on the street is normally easy to do except during peak hours from 6.30am-8.30am, 12.30pm-2pm and 5.30pm-9pm which is almost impossible to get one so be prepared for a long wait!(especially in the evening at the shopping malls)

One time me and my friends went shopping at Mercato Mall and we had to queue up in this long line of people and even though there was a constant steam of taxis coming in to drop people off, we still had to wait for almost an hour!!

What I like about taxis in Dubai is that they're new and normally very clean and pretty spacious. There're also private taxi cars called 'carlift' which I recommend you to ask for the price of the trip and make sure you agree with it beforehand. You will find these strangers approaching you on the street and ask where you want to go, you then negotiate the price...the key is to be tough otherwise they'd charge you very high. In some places like Deira (Naif market) where taxi is really rare, you'll see these group of men standing around (usually filipinos or indians), remember that if you think the price is too expensive then just turn them down because then other guys will keep coming over to make another offer, this way you'll get the best deal.

Tipping is not customary but if you enjoy the ride and are happy with the driver then it's nice to just round up the fare for him.