Bali Travel Answers

Hiring a car & driver is your best option. It costs very little..........ask your hotel travel desk to recommend a driver. Most visitors hire cars&drivers, so they should have someone in mind. In any case- it will be much cheaper than an organized tour. The driver can also take you to Ububd markets- you have him for full days. Suggest that you read some Bali pages here on VT for things to see and do. Go to SEARCH box top right of page, entet BALI and click GO. Bali pages will appear- just choose a few, and scroll down for tips. My personal favourites were visiting temple at Tanah Lot, visit to ricefields, with Balinese tea (most have a 'tea-house) Also the Balinese Dancing is a must see- ask hotel for info. Nusa Dua has a good beach. We stayed at Sheraton Nusa Dua- the beach was clean and private. You can have a Balinese massage under the palm trees too.

When in Bali I always rent a car and a Driver. I was last there in September last year and it cost me 300 000 IDR which is about 30$ for the car and driver for the whole day who will take you anywhere you want to go.

Hi, I am interested in your driver. Can you provide me more info like his name, email account and contact number? thanks.

A private Balinese driver with his typical late model SUV is indeed the way to go. There is one very good reason for this: Nobody knows Bali better than the Balinese themselves. Often with touring companies, the driver won’t be Balinese, (rather from Java or elsewhere), and they most often don’t have a clue about Balinese culture. In fact, at many places they (the touring company) will simply discharge your group and leave you all to “local” guides. Yes, touring companies that herd together a nice group of tourists will be cheaper…and you can totally forget about a private Balinese driver taking you around for a whole day for IDR 300K. It’s impossible, as he’ll burn that in a day’s fuel consumption alone. Most private Balinese drivers will charge around 600K IDR for a full day of touring, and by full day I mean pick up at around 7AM and drop off some 12 hours later. Since you are staying in Nusa Dua…(a good two hours away from “the real Bali”) you don’t want to be thinking about short duration day trips. If you want to send me a private message through Virtual Tourist I’ll be more than happy to send you the contact information of a great private Balinese driver that I’ve known for many years…having lived here in Ubud for going on 15 years…see my home pages.

Imo, hiring a car is not always necessary and there are things than can be done efficiently with tour companies. (though I usually prefer doing things at my own) When in Bali last year, we took one package for water sports. What we did was that we picker many brochures from the airport lounge upon arrival. Compared them and selected those aligned with our preference. Called the tour company for details. Actually we got the exclusive tour and it was far far cheaper than hiring a car+driver. The package included pick and drop from our accommodation in a nice car, water sports, and even a modest lunch! Just to mention, it was 'fixed price' so we did not need to bargain which is unusual in Bali unless you think that one AUD makes a lot of Indonesian currency! On a side note, do note that you need to pay departure tax in cash at the airport, which is usually built in the ticket price in most other places. So keep IDR 150,000 handy per person on your return otherwise you might end up paying more (in the foreign currency) at the immigration..

Most definately, hire a local driver with his own vehicle (or access to one). If booking for a two day trip remember that you will have to consider the accomodation and meal requirements of your driver. Depending on where you intend to visit, two single day trips might be a better option, but what you will save in cash you will lose in travel time so it is up to you. If booking for two days you should be able to negotiate your driver down to around 450 to 500 k per day, depending on the quality of the vehicle. A Javanese driver is likely to be cheaper than a Balinese driver. When negotiating with your driver, be very firm with your planned itinerary. A very big negating factor with a Balinese driver is they can be very coniving in manipulating your journey towards where they want you to visit, rather than where you want to visit, usually some establishment selling a good or a service owned by a family member or where they will get some form of commission or kickback themselves. As soon as your driver starts any monkey business, put your foot down. You're paying the wages at the end of the day. A couple of my extended family members have a roaring trade as drivers because they have learnt to cut out the BS.

As for places to visit, here is a snippet from one of my previous posts: " Now, in my opinion, the best places that Bali has to offer and you really should see are Tirta Gangga, Gunung Kawi (though this place is physically challenging - a lot of steps down and a lot of steps up), the caldera rim surrounding Lake Tamblingan and Buyan (with undoubtably the most spectacular terraced rice padi on the northern side - makes the Ubud ones look tame) and to a lesser extent Bedugul, Tampaksiring (Tirta Empul) and Kintamani volcano (if you are real patient!) There are of course the man made attractions to visit also, which aren't too bad, for example the Bird park, Reptile park, zoo and several elephant and safari parks, though the latter tend to be overpriced in my opinion, relative to their quality. Honestly, just getting in a car and driving anywhere in Bali, regardless of tourist attraction or not, will be interesting and probably more rewarding. Avoiding locations where many tourists congregate will remove a lot of the ugly human character element that creeps into most Balinese when they smell money." The full discussion including suggestions by other posters is here: VT Forum temporarily unavailable I might add at this point that friends and family who have visited me her in Bali have recently enjoyed the agrowisata (agricultural tourism) establishments that seem to be popping up all over the place here now. Visitors are able to witness the production and processing of of coffee, cocoa and spices, among other things, at these places. I would recommend stopping at one while heading to Bedugul. In particular, if you like kopi luwak, or at least have heard about it, you'll get to see what goes on, warts and all.

Accommodations for private Balinese drivers while on overnight road trips is hardly ever an issue. Most hotels have free “driver rooms” available at no charge, or, the likelihood is high that the driver will either have family or friends nearby to stay with. “Avoiding locations where many tourists congregate will remove a lot of the ugly human character element that creeps into most Balinese when they smell money." That’s a rather despicable comment, especially from someone who purports to live in Bali. Perhaps you should work on your home pages so we have more to go on than your “word” that you live here. That “business” aside, your recommendations, including the various agricultural centers in the central highlands is excellent, IMHO.

Hi all fellow VTs, Thank you so much for your time and effort in your sincere replies. I have heard them and will take into consideration into my planning. THANKS TO VT for making this forum open and possible! I look forward to visiting BALI and experience the real charm the island offers! Once again, thank you folks :)

glad you find that helpful and enabling :) wish you a great fun journey.. VTers will be more glad if you can share a bit of your experience after the trip through tips and your homepage :-)

That’s a rather despicable comment, especially from someone who purports to live in Bali. Perhaps you should work on your home pages so we have more to go on than your “word” that you live here. Why, it's true. And my advice is sound and honest. Why the need for anything more?

“And my advice is sound and honest” And this is an example of your sound and honest advice?: “the ugly human character element that creeps into most Balinese when they smell money.” That’s an insult to the Balinese and it clearly reflects just how little you know them. You’re currently hiding in anonymity here on VT without even a basic profile introduction and with only an arrogant declaration, “I am Rajahbali. I am the Bali King!” My suggestion would be that if you want your forum postings to be seriously considered then you need to come out from under that rock that makes you feel comfortable disparaging your Balinese hosts...if indeed you really do live here.

Ubudian*** My thoughts exactly.........what a nasty person this is! I personally do not believe that he even lives in Bali

Lynne, many thanks for your supportive words. Unfortunately, Bali (and to some degree, all of Indonesia) has become a popular place to disparage...the reasons for which, I am not always totally clear about. A discussion on that topic doesn’t belong in this venue though, as it has nothing to do with the purpose of this site, which is to provide meaningful, honest, and up to date travel related information for those reading it, and considering Indonesia in their future travels. Having read your valuable contributions many times here on VT, I can only hope that you continue to offer your own unique insights, based on your own experiences here. In that alone can one find the true value of this web site, and its discussion forums. As would be said here, Selamat!

I agree that such remarks are a serious insult and should be avoided at any cost. Everyone has a right to express their views but respecting others would add value to the views. We have been to Bali last year and I can say that Balinese are generally friendly and polite, especially towards children. Although we just stayed there for one week but we got a lot of local exposure and were even invited to attend the long Ogoh-Ogoh parade which is usually attended by Balinese only! Having said that, one should acknowledge the fact that Bali is affected by the unchecked tourism influx which must have an impact on the local values. There must be smart people who might be eying the tourists to make some easy money. But this happens at every tourist target. I must praise my hotel (guesthouse) guy who was very friendly all the time with us. Although he tried to throw expensive packages to us but he did not get upset when I told him that we are going with cheaper alternatives. He remained friendly with us even though we did not give him the business. In fact he explained us why he is a bit expensive, which was genuine, imo. I see that RajahBali has given some good and honest advice otherwise and hope he will stay here so that more and more people can benefit from his experiences.

Hi all, I have returned from my trip and found a driver. If there is anyone of you interested, plse drop me a message and I will forward the details to you. Thanks to all VT members and have a nice day!

What you would pay to go on a tour with a "tour group", you could get a driver/car/guide. You pay for the car not the tour. Which means if there is 1/2/3/4/5/6 of you, you pay one price. Not 6 of you paying for the tour. We have used Merta for all of our 6 trips to Bali over the years. I would email him, ask him the price, for where you want to go, and also ask him for suggestions what else is there to see that close by. Not sure I said that right. But, say you want to definitely see a certain Temple, well maybe there is something to see on your way going or coming from that Temple. Merta speaks excellent English, is a Certified Guide, has his own van, is very knowledgeable and is trustworthy.
mertagct@gmail.com.