How to travel in Pakistan: getting around by taxi, car and driver

If you are working out how to travel in Pakistan, the short answer is this: most visitors move by road, and the realistic choice is between a pre-arranged car with driver, a taxi called through an operator, intercity coaches, the railway and domestic flights. Inside the big cities, a phoned or pre-booked car beats a street taxi. Between Islamabad, Lahore, Peshawar and Multan, the motorway network makes a private car a practical option measured in hours rather than days. For the north and for the long run to Karachi, flying or a split itinerary usually makes more sense than one heroic drive.

Before any of that, one constraint overrides convenience. The UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office currently advises against all travel to several parts of the country, including the whole of Balochistan, Peshawar city and a long list of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa districts, and against all but essential travel to others. That shapes which routes a sensible plan uses, and it comes first below.

Decision summary: which way to travel, trip by trip

Most itineraries are a mix. Use the table to match each leg, not the whole trip, to a mode.

Safety first: what the official advice rules out

Read the FCDO travel advice for Pakistan before you fix a single leg. It is updated often; the version we checked was updated on 22 September 2026. At that point it advised against all travel to:

• anywhere within 10 miles of the Afghanistan border, and within 10 miles of the Line of Control;
• the whole of Balochistan province;
• a list of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa districts that includes Peshawar city, Swat, Upper and Lower Dir, Bannu, Kohat, Dera Ismail Khan and the Waziristan districts;
• the Karakoram Highway between Mansehra and Chilas, via Battagram, Besham, Dasu and Sazin to the N15 junction;
• the N45 from north of the Mardan ring road to the edge of Chitral, including the Kalash valleys.

It advised against all but essential travel to Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Sindh north of and including Nawabshah, Dera Ghazi Khan, the Malakand, Mardan, Nowshera, Shangla and Swabi districts, and within 5 miles of the India border except the Grand Trunk road via Wagah and the Kartarpur Corridor.

Two practical consequences follow. First, a route can be off limits even when its endpoints are not: the classic road from Islamabad up the KKH to Gilgit passes through the Mansehra to Chilas section. Second, travel insurance often depends on following this advice, so check your policy wording before committing to anything on the list. If family commitments take you into one of these areas, treat it as essential travel with specialist planning, not as a leisure add-on.

How to get a taxi in Pakistan’s big cities

The question of how to get a taxi in Pakistan has changed in the last few years. Careem, long the best-known ride-hailing brand in the country, stopped offering ride-hailing in Pakistan in July 2025, and the market has reshuffled around the remaining apps, local fleets and phone-booked operators. For foreign visitors the FCDO’s position is blunt: avoid street taxis and e-taxi or ride-hailing app services, and use reputable, licensed companies where you call for a taxi and the operator contacts the driver.

That operator model is worth understanding, because it is how most careful local families already move a visiting relative around. You deal with a dispatcher, not a stranger at the kerb. The booking has a record, a named driver, a vehicle and a pickup point. If something slips, there is someone to phone.

What works city by city

• Islamabad and Rawalpindi. The twin cities sprawl, and Islamabad International Airport sits well out of both centres. Sector addresses (F-7, G-9 and so on) are logical once you know them, but a driver who knows the markaz layout saves real time.
• Lahore. Dense traffic, old-city lanes that suit small cars, and wedding-season evenings that jam the main boulevards. A car kept for half a day often works better than a string of separate rides.
• Karachi. The distances are large and the airport run is the journey most people pre-book. For multiple stops across the city, a day car with one driver is simpler than several separate taxi rides in Pakistan’s largest city.

Taxi rides in Pakistan: a checklist before you get in

1. Book through an operator or a platform that gives you the driver’s name, the car and a registration number in advance.
2. Match the plate before you load bags.
3. Agree the pickup point precisely: terminal, gate, hotel entrance or a landmark, not just the area name.
4. Keep a phone number for the dispatcher, not only the driver.
5. Carry your photo ID; the FCDO notes police may ask for it and failure to produce valid ID can lead to detention.

For arrivals, our Pakistan airport transfers page covers the airports we list and how a pickup is requested; every request is checked against a real vehicle and driver before it is confirmed.

Getting around Pakistan by car between cities

Getting around Pakistan by car is easiest on the motorway spine, which is owned and maintained by the National Highway Authority and patrolled by the National Highways & Motorway Police. The main operational motorways, with lengths as listed on the motorways of Pakistan reference, are:

Note that a motorway existing is not the same as a route being advisable. M-1 ends at Peshawar, M-14 ends at Dera Ismail Khan, and M-5 runs into upper Sindh, all of which fall under FCDO warnings. The Islamabad to Lahore M-2 and the Lahore to Multan corridor are the everyday workhorses for visitors.

Tolls, M-Tag and the motorway police

Motorway tolls are collected electronically through M-Tag, an RFID sticker on the windscreen that is debited at the plaza. A booked car will already have one; if you self-drive, ask the supplier. Toll rates are revised from time to time, so check current figures rather than relying on an old screenshot; our guide to motorway tolls and drive times on the M-1, M-2 and M-4 keeps the working numbers in one place. The motorway police emergency line is 130, around the clock.

The GT Road alternative

The N-5 National Highway runs 1,819 km from Karachi to Torkham and was built on the old Grand Trunk Road. Between Lahore and Rawalpindi it passes through Gujranwala, Gujrat, Jhelum and a string of other towns, which is exactly why people still use it: if you are visiting relatives in Kharian or Jhelum, the GT Road takes you to the door. It is slower than the M-2, with more mixed traffic, and the FCDO notes that outside the major motorways road quality varies and driving standards are erratic, particularly after dark. Plan GT Road legs in daylight.

Car with driver or self-drive: the visitor’s trade-off

For most people arriving from the UK, the Gulf or North America, a car with driver is the default for visitors in Pakistan, and not because self-drive is impossible. It comes down to paperwork, liability and local knowledge.

The self-drive paperwork

The FCDO says British drivers need both a UK driving licence and the 1968 International Driving Permit in the vehicle, and that you cannot get the IDP once you are outside the UK. Driving without the right documents risks detention and a police report. Dual nationals should also think about which identity they are travelling on, because a hire contract, an insurance claim and a police stop all want the same name and document.

How the two compare

If you are torn, our longer comparison of self-drive versus a car with driver works through the costs and the scenarios where each wins. The dry version: self-drive saves money on paper and loses it the first time you spend two hours finding parking in Anarkali.

Travel documents and checkpoints on the road

Paperwork matters more in Pakistan than many returning visitors expect, particularly foreign-passport holders.

• Visa or NICOP. Most foreign nationals need a visa arranged before travel through the official Pakistan online visa system, which lists visit, business and other categories and a visa-on-arrival track for eligible nationalities. According to the FCDO entry requirements page, dual nationals holding a valid NICOP or Smart NICOP can enter without a visa and stay for an unlimited period.
• Passport validity and the entry stamp. The FCDO says your passport must have an expiry date at least six months after the date of your visa application, and it warns that leaving is difficult without an entry stamp. If yours was missed, the fix runs through the Ministry of Interior or a NADRA office, which is not how anyone wants to spend a last week.
• ID on the road. The FCDO tells visitors to carry photo ID at all times, because you may be asked for it and can be detained until you produce it. Keep your passport, visa and hotel details in the cabin with you, not in the boot under the luggage.
• Advance permission. The FCDO says you must obtain advance permission from local or federal authorities to travel in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and several districts of Azad Kashmir. It also warns against photographing military establishments, airports and infrastructure such as bridges and dams, so keep the phone down at the toll plaza and the barrage.

A local driver cannot fix a missing document, but a good one will tell you before you leave which checkpoints to expect and have the vehicle’s own papers in order.

Connectivity and payments on the move

A working phone is not optional on a road trip here: pickups are arranged by call and WhatsApp, and drivers share locations constantly.

Phones and SIMs

Pakistan’s telecoms regulator runs a device registration system, DIRBS, to keep unregistered handsets off local networks, and its registration facility can only be used from inside Pakistan. If you plan to use a local SIM for more than a short trip, check the PTA rules for your handset once you land rather than assuming it will just work. For a short stay, roaming on your home SIM or an eSIM is the simpler fallback, as long as you can receive calls from local numbers.

Cash and cards

Plan for a mixed economy. Hotels, larger shops and airport outlets are the likeliest places to take cards; roadside dhabas, porters, parking attendants and many small traders do not. Carry smaller rupee notes for tips and incidentals, and confirm in writing how your transport is paid for before the trip: what is included, whether tolls and parking are extra, and what currency the payment is in.

Where trains and flights beat the road

A car is not always the right answer, and a good plan admits it.

• Rail. Pakistan Railways’ main line runs about 1,872 km from Karachi to Peshawar through Lahore and Rawalpindi, and express services link Karachi with Lahore and Rawalpindi. Current service information is on the Pakistan Railways site. An overnight train can replace a very long road day, with a car booked at each end.
• Domestic flights. For Karachi to Islamabad or Lahore, flying is usually the sensible choice. For Gilgit-Baltistan, remember that the classic road up the KKH runs through the Mansehra to Chilas section on the FCDO do-not-travel list, which is why a flight to Gilgit or Skardu is usually the cleaner plan. Mountain flights depend on the weather, so build spare days into any northern plan.
• Coaches. Intercity coach operators serve the motorway corridors and are a common choice for solo travellers with light luggage. They stop at their own terminals, so you still need a ride from the terminal to your final address.

The same fly-or-drive question comes up in the Gulf; our sister company Saudi Cab Co has a useful parallel read on domestic flights versus road transport in Saudi Arabia, handy if your trip combines Umrah and a visit home.

Planning a multi-city trip without losing days

The mistake most first-timers make is planning a trip as a list of places. Plan it as a list of transfers, because that is where the days go.

A sequence that works

1. Check each place against the FCDO map first. Strike or rethink anything on the all-travel list before you look at hotels.
2. Pick your arrival and departure airports separately. An open-jaw ticket, landing in Karachi and leaving from Islamabad for example, can remove a full day of backtracking.
3. Group stops along one corridor. Islamabad, the GT Road towns and Lahore sit on a natural line; Lahore to Multan is another. Zig-zagging between corridors is what makes trips feel long.
4. Decide mode per leg. Car for the motorway legs and family visits, flight or train for the long hauls, a driver on standby for city days.
5. Limit road time to one long leg per day. Leave a buffer for traffic at the city edges, meal stops and prayer times.
6. Keep the heavy luggage with the car. If one driver covers several days, bags stay in the boot while you move between relatives.
7. Write down every pickup. Date, time, address, contact name and flight number, shared with whoever is arranging the vehicle.

An example itinerary, labelled as an example

Example only: land at Lahore; two city days with a car on half-day hire; drive the M-2 to Islamabad with a planned stop; three days around the twin cities and a day trip to Murree; fly out of Islamabad. That pattern needs one airport pickup, one intercity car, a few local bookings and one airport drop, which is far easier to arrange in advance than a dozen ad-hoc rides.

For the intercity legs themselves, our city-to-city taxi service page shows the routes we cover and the vehicle classes available. If you prefer a gentler, family-focused planning flow, our sister service Pakistan Taxi, part of the iDrive network, has a city to city journey planner built for exactly that.

Your next step

Once your route is checked against the official advice and split into legs, send the legs, dates, passenger count and luggage to us through the iDrive booking page. We confirm what is actually available for each leg rather than promising a car in advance, and you get a clear answer on vehicle, timing and what the price includes before anything is final.

Questions people ask

Is it safe to use ride-hailing apps in Pakistan as a visitor?

The FCDO advises foreign visitors to avoid street taxis and e-taxi or ride-hailing app services, and to use licensed companies where you call and the operator contacts the driver.

Can I drive in Pakistan on a UK licence?

Not on its own. The FCDO says you need your UK licence plus the 1968 International Driving Permit, which must be obtained before you leave the UK.

Do dual nationals need a visa for Pakistan?

Holders of a valid NICOP or Smart NICOP can enter without a visa, according to the FCDO. Others apply through the official Pakistan online visa system.

Is the motorway or the GT Road better from Islamabad to Lahore?

The M-2 motorway is faster and patrolled by the motorway police. The GT Road is slower but passes through the towns in between, which suits family visits along the way.