My wife and I are traveling to France and Belgium in a few weeks. We will be renting a car in France to tour the Normandy area, and will be dropping it off at the Lille Airport. We plan to take an Uber from there to our hotel in Ypres Belgium. The Uber app shows that we can get an Uber for this trip. We are interested to know whether anyone has had any issues getting an Uber from the Lille Airport for a cross border trip into Belgium, and whether an advance reservation for the ride is recommended. Thank you!
Posted by
Atlanta, Georgia
335 posts
Going from country to country within the Schengen area isn't any more than going from state to state in the U.S.
Posted by
France Southwest - Occitanie
4220 posts
The French VTC (Uber) license is only valid for pickups within France, which prohibits unauthorized international cabotage. This means a French Uber driver can take you to Belgium if the trip starts in France, but they are not allowed to pick up passengers in Belgium once they have dropped you off. As a result, you might struggle to find an Uber driver willing to drive the 50 km back to France empty without being able to pick up fares outside of French territory.
That is the theory, in practice, I don't know how it is actually handled (legally or not).
Posted by
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
6086 posts
I haven't, but my experience with reserving Uber in advance for a city to city trip is spotty. I had booked a Washington to Baltimore trip and then a few days later a Baltimore to Dulles airport. Both times I had a confirmed driver and reservation quickly, but both times within 30 minutes of pick-up the drivers cancelled and we had to wait for a new confirmation. We were on pins and needles while waiting for the trip to Dulles and had to wait about half an hour beyond our pickup time to get a ride.