March 4, 2026 • 14 mins
Show Notes: Worldschooling Q&A – Episode 24 Episode Title: Episode 24: What Are Tips For Using Ridesharing Apps Abroad? Hosts: Astrid & Clint, creators of The Wandering Daughter
In this episode of Worldschooling Q&A, Astrid and Clint tackle a practical and important travel question: how can families safely use Uber and other ridesharing apps while traveling abroad? Drawing from years of full-time travel across multiple continents, they share real-world insights that help parents feel more confident navigating transportation in unfamiliar places.
The conversation covers why ridesharing can feel safer than taxis, cultural differences around ridesharing, and essential safety tips—especially for women and solo travelers. They also discuss common challenges like canceled rides, confusing pickup locations, and wrong drop-offs, along with strategies to stay oriented using maps and landmarks. This episode is packed with actionable advice for worldschooling families who want smoother, safer travel days.
Buy our family gap year guide, "Hey Kids, Let's Go Travel!": https://thewanderingdaughter.com/hey-kids-lets-go-travel-planning-a-gap-year-with-family/
Want one-on-one time with Clint and Astrid? Reach out for a worldschooling consultation: https://thewanderingdaughter.com/consult/
👉 For full show notes, resource links, and a complete episode guide, visit: https://thewanderingdaughter.com/episode-24-using-ridesharing-apps-abroad
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I was following it and he was one minuteaway and then he showed up and then he
just drove past us because he couldn'tsee us and then he canceled the trip.
I was so annoyed. This isworld Schooling q and a.
I'm Astrid creator of the wanderingdaughter. As a traveling family,
we've spent four years travelingfull-time to over 18 countries and six
(00:23):
continents. Wherever we go,
we try to learn as much as we can aboutthe countries and cultures we visit.
While we didn't coin the term, welike to call this world schooling,
using the world as our classroom.
Each week my husband Clint and I willanswer one question about world schooling
and share our experiences oftraveling the world with our kids.
(00:44):
Ready to get started?Great. Let's dive in.
So this week we're going to talkabout how do you safely use Uber
or other ride sharing apps abroad?
(01:04):
So this is an interesting question.
I think just because ride sharing hasbeen growing in popularity around the
world. In the past, people usetaxis, taxes have always been around,
but I think ride sharingis another option and I
personally, I mean there aresome issues related to that too,
(01:26):
but I personally like it because youdon't have to fiddle around with currency,
local currency,
you're just paying through the phone andin some ways that's a little bit safer.
Then you're not carryinga big wat of cash or.
Yeah. I think some of theother benefits that I enjoy,
especially when we're travelingis the predictability of it.
How much you're going to spend, you canhave them come exactly to where you are,
(01:49):
drop you off exactly where you are andit's already prearranged and you don't
have to, especially if youdon't speak the language,
trying to explain to a taxi whereyou're going can be really hard.
So all those reasons. Ilove it. Having said that,
I think the first thing I just wantedto start with is know the local,
not only laws around ride sharing,
(02:10):
but also the customs or the cultureor etiquette around ride sharing.
In some places there's conflictsbetween the taxis and the ride sharing
and ride sharing is sometimesbanned or frowned upon and can
get folks in some awkward situations.
So just know those kindof that before you start.
(02:31):
Yeah, that's a good point. Flint,
I think just spend some time doinga little bit of research or find
YouTube videos or some orblog posts that are related to
the destination that you're going toand what the ride sharing situation is
over there. It can be a hot topic.
(02:51):
Okay,
so I'm curious about travelingsolo because as a family
I think there are some things we can do,
but it's mostly just make sure we havea big enough vehicle and that kind of
thing. But traveling solo canbring some interesting challenges.
Why don't you talk about that a little.
Bit? Well, it's notnecessarily traveling solo, but
(03:11):
if you might be by yourselfand running an errand
while your family's staying at home andyou're going somewhere and need to get a
ride by yourself as a woman or there are
some considerations that I would needto keep in mind and if you're a solo
(03:31):
mom or if you are just a female traveler,
my main thing is usingthese ride sharing apps
safely and just beingaware of your surroundings,
checking that the person thatyou're supposed to ride with is
actually the person thatis picking you up and
(03:57):
another one is to sit behind the driver.
I mean this is the positionwhere you are in the car
can also help keep you safe. Somethingthat you probably don't think about,
but I think about all the time,
I never want to sit in the front seat.That driver can reach over and
assault me in some wayand even in the back seat,
(04:21):
the middle and the seatkitty corner from the driver,
they can still reach you. SoI think the one right behind,
behind the driver is thesafest. Alternatively,
if you're traveling solo with your kids,
maybe you might want to put the kid inthat position to keep them a little bit
(04:42):
safer, that type of stuff.
Just be aware of the situationsthat you put yourself in.
If it doesn't feel right,
you can always cancelor you can always stop,
try and get out of it if itdoesn't feel right for you.
Yeah, even if there's a penalty.
Penalty, safety is more important.
(05:04):
The penalty is usually a tiny fee comparedto your safety and I mean some people
may never have had problemswith ride sharing apps.
That tip also is not just ride sharing,
that could be taxis taxi too too.I think there are unfortunately people who
have had really unfortunateincidents with both
(05:25):
taxi drivers and ride sharing drivers.
So it's just something tokeep in mind. When we travel,
we're already putting ourselves in aslightly vulnerable position and so our
kind of rule of thumb is likedon't be closed off to experiences,
but just be aware.
I think that's the tip I think alongwith what you were saying there.
(05:47):
And the other thing that Iactually do a lot when we travel,
especially with family, whenthe family's in the car,
so I often sit in the front justbecause that's the way that the cars are
with the four of us.
So one of the things I always dowhen we get in the car is I have
Google maps open or something andI have the destination keyed in.
(06:10):
To.
Where we're going and so I kindof following along making sure
that we're headed in the right direction.This actually plays with taxis too.
Sometimes if the taxis are metered.
They.
Can go roundabouts to boost the meter.
So it's just a way to keepin check there as well.
So with that said, I think having a
(06:34):
reliable data plan orphone that can use data
overseas is going to be important and
carrying around a sparebattery or something or a portable charger just in case
your phone dies while you're travelingbecause you're going to be relying on the
phone to that. What other tipsfor using ride sharing apps?
(06:58):
Just general tips then would you suggest?
I think ride sharing is so popular rightnow and it's grown popularity overall,
especially when you're at airports orlarge shopping malls where things like
that. There's usuallya ride sharing section.
So.
A section to either get onto theride sharing or get dropped off,
kind of knowing wherethat is really helpful.
(07:18):
Luckily at airports now there'susually a lot of signage at big malls,
there's lots of signage,
so just knowing the etiquetteof where you're supposed to go.
We were in India and we we'retrying to get a ride sharing and
they were actually on the other side ofa four lane highway trying to pick us up
and there was no way they were going toget to us and no way we were going to
get to them.
(07:39):
So.
We had to cancel and eat alittle bit of a sea there.
So just trying to understand where youare in context to how you're picking up
and if you don't know,
maybe ask is there an easyplace to pick up ride sharing?
The other thing, Ithink this was in Japan,
I was reading that don't try to getride sharing. Don't get picked up,
(08:00):
ride sharing near where the taxis sit.
There's a beef between taxidrivers and ride sharing apps,
so try to keep some separation there.
So in North America,
I think Uber and Lyft are popular ones,
and I think Uber is in Europeas well in some parts of Europe,
(08:22):
but in Asia like Southeast Asia,
there's actually a different onethat is more common called Grab,
and that's the same thing.
You just download the appand set a payment thing to
it and then you can use it. Ithink in Japan when we were there,
they had an app that was morelike it, it's called Go Taxi.
(08:45):
That was the one that we used wherethere were a couple other taxi apps.
And that's becoming more commontoo. I know Indonesia has.
The UK also has a taxi.
App the UK has. Yeah,
so a lot of the taxi services havecome around now and they have taxi
apps that essentially operate the sameway. So that's actually been really nice.
And in the UK we like to take theblack cabs just to feel fancy,
(09:09):
so it's nice to have that.
What other things mightyou consider for using
ride sharing while you're traveling?
Ride sharing is awesome andpredictable. Like I said,
it can also be unpredictable.Rides can get canceled easily,
they can drop you off in the wronglocation. This happened to us in India.
He couldn't find where hewas supposed to drop us off,
(09:31):
so he literally just dropped us off onthe side of a street and we were still a
decent away away from where we were tryingto go and it was in the middle of New
Delhi and we didn't know where wewere and our kids were really young,
we didn't speak the language,
and so luckily we found an auto driverthat spoke English that kind of helped us
get where we needed to go.
(09:53):
But.
Know where you are, and I think this iswhere the maps thing comes into play,
where you're going try to kind offigure out where the context of that is.
Try to get landmarks so if the Uberdriver's confused or something,
you can at least get dropped off at alandmark where there are other taxis
or autos or rickshawsor whatever the case is.
(10:15):
There's usually otherpublic transportation there that can get you where you
need to go, but landmarksare super critical. Also,
landmarks are helpful ifyou're just taking taxis.
And.
They're like, they're never going tofind the apartment I'm staying in,
so you can just tell them,
drop me off at this monument that'sfive minutes away from my house. Yeah.
(10:36):
I would also add build in time for waiting
because especially ifit's a busy time of day,
if it's a lot of traffic. And we
in Indonesia, a recent trip toIndonesia, we saw our driver.
(10:58):
I was following in,
he was like one minute away and then heshowed up and then he just drove past
us. He couldn't see us, and then hecanceled the trip. I was so annoyed.
Then we ended up waiting for an hour,
then we had to wait forthe new ride to pick us up.
So just make sure to build in someof that or expect some of that
(11:19):
into your days, I guess.
So if you're trying to getsomewhere at a certain time,
that's potentially a riskof using a rideshare.
One other quick little tipthat's interesting in Asia,
I think it plays along lines tothis is Indonesia for example,
especially in really busyareas like Bali or Jakarta,
(11:42):
is that cars are a lotslower than scooters.
And so what's cool in Asia is that theride sharing apps usually have scooters
as well, so it's a little harder whenyou have kids, but you can still do it.
We see people do it all the time whereyou book a scooter instead and a person
will show up and then you jump on theback of their scooter with them with a
(12:02):
helmet. And if you have a kid,
you should put a kid between you ifthey're small, if they're small enough.
Otherwise, if your kids are older,
they can ride their ownscooter with a person,
so you may have to book multiple scooters.
The trick or where thatcomes handy though,
is often where a car could be stuck ina traffic jam for over an hour because
there's just small compact areas,scooters, this may terrify you,
(12:25):
but it actually is fine with us.
Scooters can actually bob andweave a bit and get through.
And the ride sharing apps willusually have much different
estimations of time isthe scooter versus the.
Cars. Yeah.
Anyways, anything else?
I think that's it. Do.
You have any references.
Resources? Yeah, I talkabout it in my website,
(12:49):
so I have a blog post on mywebsite about using Uber safely
overseas, so if you want a littlebit more information about that,
feel free to check out the site for that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Anything else?
Nope. Okay. Well that's all for today.
Thank you for joining us on this episodeof World Schooling q and a with Astrid
(13:10):
and Clint.
Be sure to check out the show notes forany links we mentioned in the episode
and visit my website,
the wandering daughter.com to divedeeper into world schooling and family
travel.
If you like what you hear,
please consider supporting theWandering daughter on Patreon.
It really helps us outand keeps the show going.
You'll also get exclusive perks likeepisode transcripts, additional resources,
(13:31):
access to office hours with us and more.
You can find us on Spotify orthe podcast app of your choice.
If you're listening to this on Spotify,
you can tap the bell icon to getnotified when new episodes come out.
And if you like this episode,please give us a five star review.
It really helps new people find our show.
If you're watching this on YouTube,
don't forget to like and subscribe andtap the bell icon to get notified of new
(13:54):
episodes.
You can follow me on Instagram at wanderdot or follow the wandering dot on
Facebook. Links to theseare also in the show notes.
If you have any world schooling questionsyou'd like us to answer for future
episodes, feel free to throwthem in the comments or send us a
message@thewanderingdaughter.comslash podcast.
(14:15):
Until next time, happy travels. Bye.
I was following it and he was one minuteaway and then he showed up and then he
just drove past us because he couldn'tsee us and then he canceled the trip.
I was so annoyed. This isworld Schooling q and a.
I'm Astrid creator of the wanderingdaughter. As a traveling family,
we've spent four years travelingfull-time to over 18 countries and six
(00:23):
continents. Wherever we go,
we try to learn as much as we can aboutthe countries and cultures we visit.
While we didn't coin the term, welike to call this world schooling,
using the world as our classroom.
Each week my husband Clint and I willanswer one question about world schooling
and share our experiences oftraveling the world with our kids.
(00:44):
Ready to get started?Great. Let's dive in.
So this week we're going to talkabout how do you safely use Uber
or other ride sharing apps abroad?
(01:04):
So this is an interesting question.
I think just because ride sharing hasbeen growing in popularity around the
world. In the past, people usetaxis, taxes have always been around,
but I think ride sharingis another option and I
personally, I mean there aresome issues related to that too,
(01:26):
but I personally like it because youdon't have to fiddle around with currency,
local currency,
you're just paying through the phone andin some ways that's a little bit safer.
Then you're not carryinga big wat of cash or.
Yeah. I think some of theother benefits that I enjoy,
especially when we're travelingis the predictability of it.
How much you're going to spend, you canhave them come exactly to where you are,
(01:49):
drop you off exactly where you are andit's already prearranged and you don't
have to, especially if youdon't speak the language,
trying to explain to a taxi whereyou're going can be really hard.
So all those reasons. Ilove it. Having said that,
I think the first thing I just wantedto start with is know the local,
not only laws around ride sharing,
(02:10):
but also the customs or the cultureor etiquette around ride sharing.
In some places there's conflictsbetween the taxis and the ride sharing
and ride sharing is sometimesbanned or frowned upon and can
get folks in some awkward situations.
So just know those kindof that before you start.
(02:31):
Yeah, that's a good point. Flint,
I think just spend some time doinga little bit of research or find
YouTube videos or some orblog posts that are related to
the destination that you're going toand what the ride sharing situation is
over there. It can be a hot topic.
(02:51):
Okay,
so I'm curious about travelingsolo because as a family
I think there are some things we can do,
but it's mostly just make sure we havea big enough vehicle and that kind of
thing. But traveling solo canbring some interesting challenges.
Why don't you talk about that a little.
Bit? Well, it's notnecessarily traveling solo, but
(03:11):
if you might be by yourselfand running an errand
while your family's staying at home andyou're going somewhere and need to get a
ride by yourself as a woman or there are
some considerations that I would needto keep in mind and if you're a solo
(03:31):
mom or if you are just a female traveler,
my main thing is usingthese ride sharing apps
safely and just beingaware of your surroundings,
checking that the person thatyou're supposed to ride with is
actually the person thatis picking you up and
(03:57):
another one is to sit behind the driver.
I mean this is the positionwhere you are in the car
can also help keep you safe. Somethingthat you probably don't think about,
but I think about all the time,
I never want to sit in the front seat.That driver can reach over and
assault me in some wayand even in the back seat,
(04:21):
the middle and the seatkitty corner from the driver,
they can still reach you. SoI think the one right behind,
behind the driver is thesafest. Alternatively,
if you're traveling solo with your kids,
maybe you might want to put the kid inthat position to keep them a little bit
(04:42):
safer, that type of stuff.
Just be aware of the situationsthat you put yourself in.
If it doesn't feel right,
you can always cancelor you can always stop,
try and get out of it if itdoesn't feel right for you.
Yeah, even if there's a penalty.
Penalty, safety is more important.
(05:04):
The penalty is usually a tiny fee comparedto your safety and I mean some people
may never have had problemswith ride sharing apps.
That tip also is not just ride sharing,
that could be taxis taxi too too.I think there are unfortunately people who
have had really unfortunateincidents with both
(05:25):
taxi drivers and ride sharing drivers.
So it's just something tokeep in mind. When we travel,
we're already putting ourselves in aslightly vulnerable position and so our
kind of rule of thumb is likedon't be closed off to experiences,
but just be aware.
I think that's the tip I think alongwith what you were saying there.
(05:47):
And the other thing that Iactually do a lot when we travel,
especially with family, whenthe family's in the car,
so I often sit in the front justbecause that's the way that the cars are
with the four of us.
So one of the things I always dowhen we get in the car is I have
Google maps open or something andI have the destination keyed in.
(06:10):
To.
Where we're going and so I kindof following along making sure
that we're headed in the right direction.This actually plays with taxis too.
Sometimes if the taxis are metered.
They.
Can go roundabouts to boost the meter.
So it's just a way to keepin check there as well.
So with that said, I think having a
(06:34):
reliable data plan orphone that can use data
overseas is going to be important and
carrying around a sparebattery or something or a portable charger just in case
your phone dies while you're travelingbecause you're going to be relying on the
phone to that. What other tipsfor using ride sharing apps?
(06:58):
Just general tips then would you suggest?
I think ride sharing is so popular rightnow and it's grown popularity overall,
especially when you're at airports orlarge shopping malls where things like
that. There's usuallya ride sharing section.
So.
A section to either get onto theride sharing or get dropped off,
kind of knowing wherethat is really helpful.
(07:18):
Luckily at airports now there'susually a lot of signage at big malls,
there's lots of signage,
so just knowing the etiquetteof where you're supposed to go.
We were in India and we we'retrying to get a ride sharing and
they were actually on the other side ofa four lane highway trying to pick us up
and there was no way they were going toget to us and no way we were going to
get to them.
(07:39):
So.
We had to cancel and eat alittle bit of a sea there.
So just trying to understand where youare in context to how you're picking up
and if you don't know,
maybe ask is there an easyplace to pick up ride sharing?
The other thing, Ithink this was in Japan,
I was reading that don't try to getride sharing. Don't get picked up,
(08:00):
ride sharing near where the taxis sit.
There's a beef between taxidrivers and ride sharing apps,
so try to keep some separation there.
So in North America,
I think Uber and Lyft are popular ones,
and I think Uber is in Europeas well in some parts of Europe,
(08:22):
but in Asia like Southeast Asia,
there's actually a different onethat is more common called Grab,
and that's the same thing.
You just download the appand set a payment thing to
it and then you can use it. Ithink in Japan when we were there,
they had an app that was morelike it, it's called Go Taxi.
(08:45):
That was the one that we used wherethere were a couple other taxi apps.
And that's becoming more commontoo. I know Indonesia has.
The UK also has a taxi.
App the UK has. Yeah,
so a lot of the taxi services havecome around now and they have taxi
apps that essentially operate the sameway. So that's actually been really nice.
And in the UK we like to take theblack cabs just to feel fancy,
(09:09):
so it's nice to have that.
What other things mightyou consider for using
ride sharing while you're traveling?
Ride sharing is awesome andpredictable. Like I said,
it can also be unpredictable.Rides can get canceled easily,
they can drop you off in the wronglocation. This happened to us in India.
He couldn't find where hewas supposed to drop us off,
(09:31):
so he literally just dropped us off onthe side of a street and we were still a
decent away away from where we were tryingto go and it was in the middle of New
Delhi and we didn't know where wewere and our kids were really young,
we didn't speak the language,
and so luckily we found an auto driverthat spoke English that kind of helped us
get where we needed to go.
(09:53):
But.
Know where you are, and I think this iswhere the maps thing comes into play,
where you're going try to kind offigure out where the context of that is.
Try to get landmarks so if the Uberdriver's confused or something,
you can at least get dropped off at alandmark where there are other taxis
or autos or rickshawsor whatever the case is.
(10:15):
There's usually otherpublic transportation there that can get you where you
need to go, but landmarksare super critical. Also,
landmarks are helpful ifyou're just taking taxis.
And.
They're like, they're never going tofind the apartment I'm staying in,
so you can just tell them,
drop me off at this monument that'sfive minutes away from my house. Yeah.
(10:36):
I would also add build in time for waiting
because especially ifit's a busy time of day,
if it's a lot of traffic. And we
in Indonesia, a recent trip toIndonesia, we saw our driver.
(10:58):
I was following in,
he was like one minute away and then heshowed up and then he just drove past
us. He couldn't see us, and then hecanceled the trip. I was so annoyed.
Then we ended up waiting for an hour,
then we had to wait forthe new ride to pick us up.
So just make sure to build in someof that or expect some of that
(11:19):
into your days, I guess.
So if you're trying to getsomewhere at a certain time,
that's potentially a riskof using a rideshare.
One other quick little tipthat's interesting in Asia,
I think it plays along lines tothis is Indonesia for example,
especially in really busyareas like Bali or Jakarta,
(11:42):
is that cars are a lotslower than scooters.
And so what's cool in Asia is that theride sharing apps usually have scooters
as well, so it's a little harder whenyou have kids, but you can still do it.
We see people do it all the time whereyou book a scooter instead and a person
will show up and then you jump on theback of their scooter with them with a
(12:02):
helmet. And if you have a kid,
you should put a kid between you ifthey're small, if they're small enough.
Otherwise, if your kids are older,
they can ride their ownscooter with a person,
so you may have to book multiple scooters.
The trick or where thatcomes handy though,
is often where a car could be stuck ina traffic jam for over an hour because
there's just small compact areas,scooters, this may terrify you,
(12:25):
but it actually is fine with us.
Scooters can actually bob andweave a bit and get through.
And the ride sharing apps willusually have much different
estimations of time isthe scooter versus the.
Cars. Yeah.
Anyways, anything else?
I think that's it. Do.
You have any references.
Resources? Yeah, I talkabout it in my website,
(12:49):
so I have a blog post on mywebsite about using Uber safely
overseas, so if you want a littlebit more information about that,
feel free to check out the site for that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Anything else?
Nope. Okay. Well that's all for today.
Thank you for joining us on this episodeof World Schooling q and a with Astrid
(13:10):
and Clint.
Be sure to check out the show notes forany links we mentioned in the episode
and visit my website,
the wandering daughter.com to divedeeper into world schooling and family
travel.
If you like what you hear,
please consider supporting theWandering daughter on Patreon.
It really helps us outand keeps the show going.
You'll also get exclusive perks likeepisode transcripts, additional resources,
(13:31):
access to office hours with us and more.
You can find us on Spotify orthe podcast app of your choice.
If you're listening to this on Spotify,
you can tap the bell icon to getnotified when new episodes come out.
And if you like this episode,please give us a five star review.
It really helps new people find our show.
If you're watching this on YouTube,
don't forget to like and subscribe andtap the bell icon to get notified of new
(13:54):
episodes.
You can follow me on Instagram at wanderdot or follow the wandering dot on
Facebook. Links to theseare also in the show notes.
If you have any world schooling questionsyou'd like us to answer for future
episodes, feel free to throwthem in the comments or send us a
message@thewanderingdaughter.comslash podcast.
(14:15):
Until next time, happy travels. Bye.
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