Arriving at CDG with four kids and no car seat, the real choice wasn’t Uber or a taxi — it was whether the car would take you at all.
This is what we learned booking G7 instead of Uber for the ride into Paris: why the family car option solves the child seat problem, what it doesn’t solve, and why the pickup point cost us more time than the drive itself.
Why we didn’t risk Uber
We hadn’t brought a car seat for our youngest. We’d read that a regular Uber driver in Paris can refuse to take you if you don’t have one for a small child. That’s not a risk worth taking after a long flight with four kids and a pile of luggage. G7, the French taxi app, lets you book a “family car” and specify how many child seats you need. That settled it for us.
What the family car option actually gets you
The three older kids were fine with the Smart Kids Belt we’d brought from home — a portable harness that works without a fitted seat. For the youngest, we needed the real thing. G7’s booking screen lets you request child seats, but there’s no setting for four kids in one car. We requested what we could and hoped the rest would work with our own belt. It did. The car that showed up was clean and already had a seat fitted for the youngest. The ride to the hotel took about forty minutes.
INFO ・ CDG to Paris by G7 taxi
- Why G7: family car option with child seats; Uber may refuse without one
- Our kit: Smart Kids Belt for the three older kids, G7’s fitted seat for the youngest
- Time: about 40 minutes to the hotel
- Note: the pickup location is hard to find — check it before you land
Finding the pickup point was the hard part
Booking the car was the easy half. Working out which gate to use and where the car would actually arrive was not. We asked a staff member — possibly a volunteer, we were never sure — and went where they pointed. It was the wrong spot. We went back, asked again, and did the same loop a second time. All of this while running on empty after a long-haul flight with four kids in tow.
We asked a staff member — a volunteer, maybe — went where they pointed, found it was wrong, went back, and repeated that while running on empty.
Is public transport worth it instead
We didn’t take the train or RER from CDG this time, and after the taxi experience we were glad. With a lot of luggage and kids who are primary-school age or younger, dragging bags through a station and managing stairs and platform gaps is rough. A taxi that comes with a child seat already fitted removes one whole layer of stress, even if finding the actual pickup point adds another.
Verdict
If you’re travelling with a child too young for a portable harness and no seat of your own, G7’s family car option is worth the extra step of downloading a French app before you land. Bring your own booster or harness for older kids — the app has no setting for more than what looks like one or two seats per booking. And don’t expect the pickup point to be obvious. Ask early, expect to be sent the wrong way once, and build that into your schedule. If your kids are old enough for a simple belt and you’re not carrying much luggage, the train may serve you just as well and cost less.
