You can add an extra stop on Umrah airport transfer bookings with Pilgrim Taxi, and the stop works best when it is written as an exact address with a plain purpose: who gets in or out, what bags move, and roughly what happens there. A journey can include up to 8 stops between the airport and the hotel, entered in the order the vehicle will reach them. A stop is a brief call on the way, such as collecting an aunt from her building in Jeddah or picking up apartment keys, not a period of waiting. The more precisely you describe it before you pay, the less the driver has to guess on the day.
This guide is for the family organiser, often planning from home, who needs the arrival journey to do one more thing than go from the terminal to the hotel. It covers the common reasons for a stop, how to describe each one so it is usable, why a stop is not the same as waiting, how the person joining changes the vehicle you need, what to do if the stop is added after booking, and how to decide between a stop and a separate journey. There is a worked example, a decision table and a checklist at the end.
What a stop is in a Pilgrim Taxi journey
Every Pilgrim Taxi journey has one pickup place, one destination, a pickup date and time in Saudi local time (UTC+3), a passenger count and a luggage count. Between the pickup and the destination you can add up to 8 stops. Each stop is a place the vehicle will call at, in the order you list it.
Three consequences follow. The order is the route: list the pharmacy before your aunt’s building and the driver goes to the pharmacy first. The stop is part of one continuous journey, with the same vehicle, driver and lead traveller throughout, not a second booking. A stop is short by design: time for someone to get in, get out or collect something, not for a meal, a visit or a rest. Anything that needs real time on the ground belongs in its own journey.
If your family is split between two hotels, our guide to planning transport for an Umrah family in different hotels covers that case in detail. This article is about the other kind of stop: a call at a place that is neither the airport nor the hotel you are sleeping in.
Common reasons for an extra stop on Umrah airport transfer journeys
Most arrival-day stops fall into a few types, and naming the type in your notes helps everyone understand what is needed.
Collecting a relative on the way to the hotel
A relative already in Saudi Arabia, perhaps working in Jeddah or staying with friends, wants to travel to Makkah with the parents who have just landed. Collecting a relative on the way to the hotel is the most common reason for a stop, and it is the one that most often changes the vehicle, because the passenger and luggage count grows part way through the journey.
Dropping someone off before the hotel
The reverse happens too: a cousin who shared the flight gets out at a family address in Jeddah while everyone else continues. The vehicle must still fit the full party from the airport to that stop.
A short errand
A pharmacy, a shop for a local SIM, or an office where a document must be handed over. Errands are where descriptions are usually weakest. “Quick stop at a chemist” leaves the driver unsure where, why and for how long. If the real need is health advice rather than a purchase, the Ministry of Health’s 937 service offers medical consultation 24 hours a day, which may be a better first step than a detour.
Collecting keys for an apartment
Families renting a serviced apartment are often asked to collect keys from an office at another address before reaching the flat. That has its own planning issues, and our guide to collecting apartment keys at another address sets them out.
How to describe a stop so the driver can use it
A useful stop description answers five questions. Write it once, in the booking notes, in short numbered lines rather than a paragraph.
1. Where exactly is it?
Give the full name of the place and its street address, not only a district. If the stop is a residential building, include the building name, the street and the district, and the flat number only if someone must be collected from the door.
Saudi Arabia uses a National Address system. According to Saudi Post’s description of the National Address, each address has a four-digit building number, a street, a district, a postal code, a city and a secondary number, and there is also a short address made of four letters and four numbers. If your relative can tell you the short address or the full National Address for their building, add it to the notes. It is far more exact than a building name that several blocks might share.
Always check the pin in the route summary after you type the stop. Places with similar names are common, and our note on what to do when the hotel name and map pin disagree applies just as much to a relative’s building or a pharmacy.
2. What is the purpose?
One short line: “Collect Khadija (1 adult, 1 large case)”, “Drop Bilal and his cabin bag”, “Collect apartment keys, the lead traveller goes in”. Purpose tells the driver whether the engine stays running for two minutes or whether someone needs to find a counter inside a building.
3. Who gets out, and who gets in?
State the people by name and role. “Khadija joins at stop 1” is clearer than “one more person”. If nobody leaves the vehicle at a stop except the person joining, say so.
4. Which bags move?
Luggage causes more delay at stops than people do. Say whether bags are loaded or unloaded, and how many, and label any case that leaves the vehicle there.
5. Who is the contact at the stop?
If someone is joining, add their name and a phone number that will work on the day. The lead traveller should message them as the vehicle leaves the airport, and they should wait at street level with bags ready, sending a live location as the car gets close.
A stop is not waiting time
The most common misunderstanding about an extra stop on Umrah airport transfer bookings is that it includes waiting. It does not, in any fixed amount.
Each vehicle class does have an included waiting allowance at pickup, and the allowance differs by class, but it is not shown on the search results and it is not a promise of free waiting at every stop. If your plan depends on the vehicle waiting somewhere, ask the booking team to confirm the arrangement in writing before you rely on it.
In practice that means:
- The person joining should be ready at street level, not upstairs finishing packing.
- An errand should be something one person can do quickly while the others stay in the vehicle.
- If the errand might take a long time, for example a key office that may have a queue, write that honestly in the notes and ask what can be agreed.
Where a vehicle can stop outside a building is decided on the day by traffic, road layout and local rules. We do not promise a car can pull up at a particular door. Agree a nearby meeting point with the person at the stop, and have them send a live location when the vehicle is close. Our note on what a map screenshot cannot show explains why a live location beats a screenshot.
Capacity: the fullest point of the route decides the vehicle
When someone joins or leaves at a stop, the number of people and bags in the vehicle changes along the way. The vehicle has to fit the fullest point of the journey, not the average.
For collecting a relative on the way to the hotel, the fullest point is after the stop; for a drop-off, it is before. Enter the passengers, large bags and cabin bags for that fullest point when you search, because the search shows only vehicle classes that pass the capacity check for those numbers.
The published capacities, with example models shown “or similar”, are:
| Vehicle class (example) | Seats | Large bags |
|---|---|---|
| Economy (Toyota Camry class) | 4 | 2 (Camry 3) |
| Business and Executive | 4 | 3 |
| VIP van (Hyundai Staria) | 6 | 2 |
| Premium SUV (Chevrolet Tahoe) | 6 | 4 |
| Family van / MPV (Hyundai H1) | 7 | 6 |
| GMC Yukon XL | 7 | 6 |
| Toyota Hiace | 11 | 10 |
| Minibus (Toyota Coaster) | 19 | 11 |
A single extra case can move you up a class. In live checks, four adults with four large cases were offered only a Premium SUV or larger, and five adults with five large cases only seven-seat vehicles or larger. If the person joining brings a suitcase, count it.
Children and infants are entered separately; if someone joining needs a child seat, infant seat or booster, add it in the search so it is confirmed for the vehicle.
Multi-stop Umrah taxi booking: putting the stops in order
A multi-stop Umrah taxi booking with more than one extra stop needs a sensible order. There is no fixed rule, but these questions help.
Which stop is on the way? Jeddah Airport to central Makkah is about 94 to 97 km by road. A stop in Jeddah city that is roughly on that route adds less distance than one in the opposite direction. The route summary shows you the difference for each order you try.
Which stop has the most uncertainty? A stop that might take longer, such as a key office, should sit where a delay affects the fewest people, or become a separate journey after check-in. Older parents fresh from a long flight are rarely helped by an errand that could wait until tomorrow.
Do the directions matter? Road distances differ by direction because of one-way systems and junctions. Our live checks found about 14 km from the Jeddah Hilton to Jeddah Airport, but about 21 km the other way. Do not assume a stop that looks close on a map is close by road.
Stop or separate journey: a decision table
Not every extra task should become a stop. This table sets out the usual choice.
| Situation | Usually better as | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Relative ready at street level, on the route | A stop | One vehicle, one confirmation, little extra time |
| Relative not sure when they will be ready | A separate journey | A stop does not include open-ended waiting |
| Short errand, one person goes in | A stop | Others stay in the vehicle |
| Errand with possible queues or opening-time doubts | A separate journey the next day | Tired travellers are not held in a vehicle |
| Key collection before an apartment | A stop, if the office confirms timing | The keys are needed to reach the flat |
| A visit, meal or rest at the stop | A separate journey | That is waiting, not a stop |
| Relative going to a different city | Their own journey | One journey has one destination |
Each journey has a minimum booking value equivalent to £40, so a short errand booked on its own can cost more than a stop. Search both versions and compare. Our guide to reading a quote per vehicle rather than per person helps with comparing.
A worked example: collecting Aunt Khadija in Jeddah
Sana lives in Leicester and is organising her parents’ Umrah. Yusuf and Amina, both in their late sixties, land at King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah on a morning flight. Sana’s aunt, Khadija, is staying with friends in a residential building in Jeddah (sometimes written Jiddah) and wants to travel with them to the family’s hotel in Makkah.
Step 1: the facts. Yusuf and Amina have two large cases and two cabin bags. Khadija has one large case and one cabin bag. Khadija’s friends give her the building’s short National Address, and she sends it to Sana with the building name, street and district.
Step 2: the shape of the journey. Pickup: Jeddah Airport, with the arriving flight number entered at checkout. Stop 1: Khadija’s building. Destination: the hotel in Makkah, by its full name as shown on the reservation.
Step 3: the count. At the fullest point, after the stop, there are three adults, three large cases and three cabin bags. Sana enters those totals in the ride finder, so an Economy car, which fits two large bags, is not offered. She compares the classes that are offered.
Step 4: the notes. She writes:
- Lead traveller: Yusuf (father), phone number that works in Saudi Arabia.
- Stop 1: collect Khadija, 1 adult, 1 large case, 1 cabin bag. Address and short address below. Khadija will wait at street level.
- Khadija’s phone number.
- Nobody else leaves the vehicle at stop 1.
Step 5: the check. After paying, Sana waits for the booking to read Confirmed, then checks that the confirmation shows the stop and the right passenger count.
Had Khadija said she might not be ready until the afternoon, Sana would have booked her a separate journey instead, rather than keep her parents waiting in a vehicle after an overnight flight. If the relative is arriving on another flight and date, that is also a separate journey; see our guide to a relative joining Umrah a day later.
Adding or changing a stop after you have booked
Stops are part of the route, and the route is fixed when you book. Online, the only change you can request on a paid booking is a new pickup time. The place, destination, passengers and vehicle cannot be changed online.
So if a stop needs adding, removing or moving after booking:
- Contact the booking team first. Explain the change and refer to the booking. They will say whether the existing journey can be amended, and at what price.
- Or book a new journey with the right route, then request cancellation of the old one. Be aware that bookings are subject to our cancellation terms (free cancellation with a full refund up to 48 hours before pickup; inside 48 hours the deposit element of the price is kept) if the customer cancels, so this route can mean paying twice. Read the cancellation and refund policy before choosing it.
- If only the time changes, use “Request a new pickup time” in your account. An approved new time carries a £5 rescheduling fee, converted into the booking currency and added to the cash paid to the driver at pickup. A rejected request costs nothing.
Our note on changing one journey without changing the rest explains how to keep other bookings untouched while you sort one out.
The practical lesson is to settle every extra stop on Umrah airport transfer plans before you pay. A phone call to the relative costs less than a rebooking.
Timing, notice and confirmation
Online bookings need at least 48 hours’ notice before pickup, and that applies to the whole journey, stops included. A relative’s plan to join should be settled at least two days before the flight lands.
Payment secures a provisional request. The booking team updates the status within 1 to 12 hours, and the journey is booked only when it reads Confirmed. When it does, open the booking and check:
- the stops and their addresses, in the right order;
- the fullest-point passenger and luggage totals;
- any child seat or wheelchair requirement.
Raise anything wrong with the booking team straight away. Passport details, payment information and medical history do not belong in the notes.
Checklist before you book a stop
- Decide whether the task is a genuine stop (brief) or needs its own journey.
- Get the exact address, and the short National Address if the person can provide it.
- Type the stop in the ride finder and check the pin and the route summary.
- Try the stops in more than one order and compare the distance.
- Count passengers, children, infants, large cases and cabin bags at the fullest point of the route.
- Add child seats or a wheelchair requirement in the search if anyone joining needs them.
- Write numbered notes: purpose, who gets in or out, which bags, and a contact at each stop.
- Book at least 48 hours before the pickup.
- After paying, wait for the status to read Confirmed, then check the stops and counts.
- The day before, confirm with the person at the stop that they will be ready at street level.
A well-described stop turns one arrival journey into a small, clear plan that the driver, the lead traveller and the relative at the roadside all understand. When you have the address, the purpose and the fullest-point count ready, open the Pilgrim Taxi ride finder, enter your airport pickup, add the stop in order, and compare the vehicles it shows.
If you cancel, cancellation is free with a full refund up to 48 hours before pickup; inside 48 hours the deposit element of the price is kept, and your statutory rights are unaffected. If we or the transport provider cancel, you receive a full refund for the affected journey.