I need to go to Benculuk (35 km south of Banyuwangi) end of the week for 2 nights. Does anyone have the contact of a reliable and affordable driver to bring me there? Would it be better to have him wait for me have him come back?

You do realize there is an ocean between the your origin and destination?

There is also a very frequent car ferry crossing said ocean, and it's indeed faster to go via Bali than Surabaya since the crossing takes only around 30 min (plus random loading/unloading waits).

My first thought as well, but I figured the OP was not so stupid that he didn't know the trip involved a ferry crossing.

Yeah, but that is sure a long and convoluted way to go when there are tons of cheap flights...geography is not everyone's strong point...

It's probably too late by now, but since you seem to consider yourself knowledgable on the topic, perhaps you could tone down the snark and instead post something that might actually be helpful to other readers if not the OP.

A good starting point would be to provide the name of an airport that is near to OP's destination so s/he can search for one of these plentiful of cheap flights of which you speak. Ideally it will result in an itinerary that doesn't take hours longer than the route s/he was already planning to drive.

And it should have a non-stop flight to HKG, the location from which OP is presumably traveling.

OK guys, I did the trip. Already back in the comfort zone in Bali. Spent a night in a farmhouse with the luxury of running cold water and electricity. Of course no beer in the whole village, so water it was.
The next hotel would have been at least an hour away and god knows where I would have ended up.

1. flights to Banyuwangi only from Surabaya and I wanted to go from DPS.
Furthermore I am not too comfortable with small local Indonesian propeller planes.

I ended up taking a taxi to Terminal Bas Ubung and a public bus from there.

Total travel time 6 hours. 4 to the ferry, 1 to cross and 1 thereafter.
Cost: 82000 for the taxi and 75000 for the bus.

It is not that I dont't know my way around. I just was looking for a reliable and affordable contact, as they are charging foreigners crazy rates.

So out of curiosity, what were you doing in Benculuk other than craving a beer?

Visiting a friend formerly working as my DH in Hong Kong and being very sick. I went to see what I can do. It was another 30 mins drive from Benculuk where I was picked up. I did a short tracking on my GPS watch to see where exactly I had been.

Hope he/she is Ok.

I am afraid not. But I can now better understand the situation. It was right to take the trip but it was tough.

Thank you for coming back and letting us know how your trip ended up, HKtraveller� very sorry to hear about your friend, and glad your visit was worthwhile.

I know of a very good driver based in Seminyak, who I would recommend if you need to do this trip again in the comfort of a decent small SUV. He speaks very good English after having worked on cruise ships in the US.

Hope your friend is comfortable

Oh yes, please pm me the contact details. Thanks.