gster78

Submitted an online inquiry to Dewa Marco 4 days ago, but still no response.

JDiver

One thing about Bali: there are many festive holidays and days of obligation. Give a communication a few days to get there and be replied to.

lichenlt

sent in first email to Dewa Marco, got a quick response asking for more information. The second email was not replied after a week, had to follow up and got a response with edited itinerary. Then everything went silent.

To be honest, I don't even want to follow up again. I'm sure they don't need my business and probably don't even care losing one customer. Plus, their rate is ~$10 higher than others'.

Oh well, I guess good reviews don't mean everything. Time to find a new driver.

gster78

I had reached out to some of the others listed in the thread, but didn't get super responsive replies. So I ended up reaching out to the driver used by Adam at Point Me To the Plane, and he was great.

Patrick's English isn't perfect, but more than sufficient to communicate. He was 500,000 IDR for the day, and I highly recommend him. My family and I used him during our recent trip, and he was very accommodating in adjusting the schedule to where we wanted to go. Also, we had a baby in tow, and he was definitely okay with that. In fact, he and the baby had a 10-minute conversation of just "uh oh" and "uh uh" back and forth.

Lastly, driving in Bali requires some skill, and Patrick was able to get us to the various destinations and back home quickly and without harm. It's good to have a driver who can be aggressive but also safe at the same time.

He did bring us to places where I'm sure he got a commission, which I'm sure all drivers do, but he was never pushy about anything. I'd recommend him to anyone, and would definitely use him again when we visit Bali again.

You can reach out to Patrick at codet20 at yahoo dot co dot id. Tell him David and his baby Kyler sent you!

skyline101

Does anyone have any recommendations and cost of hiring a driver in bali?
Just basic car that fits 3 people.

5khours

Taxis are quite good or your hotel can arrange it.

SanDiego1K

There are two drivers who are often recommended on FT. I did a quick look, and found contact info for

Wayan Sueta
[email protected]
www.hiddenbali.com
https://www.facebook.com/cozy.bnb?fref=ts

Many of us have used him. I highly recommend him.

hemisphere

Depends on where you're going. Generally, for longer distances you will probably pay $10 USD/hour.

Everyone and his brother are drivers in Bali. I've only had 1 bad experience in 4 months there. If you're staying near the airport, just get a bluebird taxi. (NOT just a blue-colored one...they are almost all blue near the airport/Kuta/Semninyak)

There are lots of drivers with new SUVs, and you can even hire a mini bus with a driver for not much more than a car driver. They're usually quite new, and like all the cars, have A/C.

5khours is right. If you're arranging your hotel in advance they can handle it for you.

You can probably google the price range if you know where you're heading.

cathaygirlcx

Highly reccomend you dont do this. If a local crashes into you it is your fault. The law in Bali clearly states that they were the re first and if you hadnt come the accident would not have happened. This is one of the best scams they pull there as the hire cars have different plates on them and stand out like a sore thumb. This help the local police pull you over and demand money as a perk of their job.

aBroadAbroad

I think poster is looking to hire a driver, e.g., private car service, not to drive their own hired or rented car.

cathaygirlcx

Great idea so many tourist get stung by the scams there, this is a great place to go if you are street wise and dont try to do things on the cheap. It is a very corrupt country despite what people think.


Useful link here http://www.expat.or.id/info/soyouthi...iveinbali.html

Astrophsx

Anyone able to get a hold of Wayan recently?

Astrophsx

Any suggestions for drivers other than Wayan?

jpdx

FWIW, we booked with Dewa Marco again this year (our 3rd year in a row, usually multiple trips), but the driver he sent this time was a dud. Limited English, didn't talk or explain much, was unwilling to accompany us to the temples ("I'm parked here, come back when you're done"), and seemed focused on kickback-generating activities like a "thank god I'm current on my Hepatitis shots" buffet restaurant (even though we told him we wanted ala carte). It's possible this was due to my poor planning; I emailed Dewa Marco the day before and only got a response at 11pm, so perhaps one of his backup guys was pressed into service. We would have been better off with a taxi.

mapboyPHL

We had great luck with Bali Made Tour. We changed our itinerary the morning he arrived (didn't tell him until he picked us up), it wasn't a problem. We had a specific restaurant we wanted to eat at for lunch, he took us right there. He walked around one of the temples with us and explained a few of the customs, etc. They get good reviews on Trip Advisor as well (for what its worth). I would definitely use again:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractio...nyak_Bali.html