techgirl

I'm friends with him on Facebook. He's been concentrating on his B&B and from what I understand, the guests there get priority for his driving.

westside8

Taking this from the thread I started....

Definitely planning to hire a cab or a driver for a couple of days in Bali. What is the etiquette there in terms of paying for a driver? Is it per hour? Flat rate per day? Based on where we visit? And are we do pay for a driver's meal if we have him for a full day?

mapboyPHL

when we scheduled our driver, the company had a daily rate for a certain number of hours (I can't remember how many, maybe 12?) regardless of where you went.

We were told (after our arrival) that Balinese custom would suggest that our driver would prefer to eat on his own. At lunch time, he dropped us off where we requested, had lunch by himself and waited with other drivers until we were ready to move on.

At the end of the day, we had not used the whole day's worth of time, but we paid him for a full-day's work (he said we did not need to do that). We also gave a gratuity as well.

DeepUnderground

A lot of times, when the driver brings you somewhere to dine, they will covertly hook him up with some food, so don't worry about that.

Honestly, this thread isn't really that useful. Just walk outside your hotel, pick the vehicle you like, negotiate a price, and off you go. Pretty difficult to go wrong.

Just to give you an idea, lately i've paid 50-60 ribu per hour or around 600ribu/day. Anything in that neighborhood should be achievable in the Kuta area for an APV or Avanza.

Astrophsx

I finally got a hold of Wayan. We used one of his drivers, Made. This guy is amazing! I believe for an 8 hour day it was $50, 8+ hours is $55, airport pick up $25, and coming back from the islands he picked us up at the boat dock and took us to Ubud and it was $17.

If you can get him or Wayan I think it is worth the extra amount due to the fact that they will tell you the history and point things out. He also took us to some of the most memorable places to eat. Makes me want to come back and do a longer tour with these guys.

If you guys have a stop in Ubud check out Room 4 Dessert. It opened about 3 months ago and is a wine bar that does a 9 course dessert menu. It is right next to naughty nuri's, so cheap dinner and then expensive desserts ^

techgirl

Made from Wayan's group drove us one day a couple of visits ago. He's great.

I am very intrigued by Room 4 Dessert - mainly because I usually need something to soak up the gin after a couple of martinis at Nuri's!!!

adampenrith

I have used the same driver for years, and he was recommended to me by a friend who still uses him.

Would highly recommend him, great knowledge of English, and has a new Avanza which is very well maintained.

Happy to share his contact details if anyone wants to PM me.

For a full day tour - I normally pay 800 000 if its Kintimani or Amed type of distance, plus his meal, and a tip at the end of the day.

A private car tour for less than $80 USD pretty good value in my opinion.

There has been a suggestion just to find a driver , but some of these do not have insurance or drivers licenses, so a personal recommendation is always worthwhile

Astrophsx

I think that we went through at least 3 police check points around Ubud where they were looking for drivers without licenses and paperwork. I was told this was more about bribes though, but would kind of ruin your tour if the driver couldn't get out of that situation with a bribe.

glennaa11

I think if you want a guide in addition to driver you need to make sure that is what you are getting otherwise I think you're just getting transportation.

I am here in Bali now. Arranged my whole trip through a travel agency. The driver/guide I've had here in Bali is very good and it's nice to see the same guy every day. You couldn't pay me to drive on these roads. The stress would kill me. The driver I had in Jogja was awesome and the guides were OK.

DeepUnderground

I think this country is slowly moving that direction, but for that situation, you're probably not going to have to worry about that quite yet.

With that said, I tend to use the same driver every time.

Also, 80 dollars for an Avanza to Amed or Tulamben is about 100% overcharge. Should be about 500,000 IDR (40ish dollars)

SoroSuub1

Um, that's called the taxi driver taking you to an overpriced restaurant where they earn commission. Fortunately for them, most tourists don't notice.....

But yeah, most people are better off finding a driver on the street rather than getting an unknown driver from a team, as you can talk to the driver to test their English, see their car and take off right away if you're happy (and find a different driver on future days if not). Reviews posted by other users generally don't mean anything since most tourists aren't discerning enough to figure out if their taxi tour took them to shopping/dining/attractions purely based on commissions they'll earn (usually you can tell based on how many other tourists there are there!).

bryanwallace

bali cab offer a 10hr service for 45$ is this good value??

also ,im wondering whether to spend time in ubud or just do a day trip from kuta with a service like above..
any tips?

DeepUnderground

45 bucks for 10 hours is reasonable

jmail1

I'm finding out now that hotels are not throwing in transport to the airport, does anyone have a recommendation for a driver for that purpose? We ride motorbikes everywhere else.

DeepUnderground

Jmail1,

For the purpose of getting to your hotel, if it's not 2-3 hours from the airport I'd just use a taxi. After you exit the corral outside the international terminal where all of the resort drivers are holding up the names, head to the right and you will find the official airport taxi desk. That is where you will get the best price. Many drivers will approach you and try to charge you more.

If you're traveling far, to the north coast for example, you might want something a bit cushier or fancier than a taxi. There are a million options and I'm sure any name or phone number in this thread would be fine.