Note: This page/post may contain affiliate links. We may earn a small commission (at no additional cost to you), if you make a purchase using our link. See our disclosure for more information.
The traffic in Bali is insane! Beep beep, toot toot. 2 traffic lanes but 3 cars and a dozen scooters all crammed in. People in the right turning left. People on the left turning right.
It is absolute chaos! Save yourself the stress and head ache and just hire a private driver.
Sounds easy, but how do you hire a private driver in Bali and more importantly, how do you find a great one who won’t rip you off!
There are 2 aspects to this question.
Rent and drive a scooter or rent and drive a car.
Straight up, there is absolutely no way I am riding a scooter. I don’t ride a scooter or motorbike at home. I don’t have a license to ride one so why would I consider doing it in Bali .
The HUGE, number 1 reason I wont rent a scooter is that without an Australian licence, if I do have an accident my travel insurance will not cover me as I am an unlicensed driver.
Pretty straight forward in my opinion. No licence, no drive.
Even if I had a license, I really don’t think I would want to tackle the mayhem that is driving around in Bali .
I don’t know where I’m going.
I don’t understand the unwritten “laws” of the road that the locals live by.
It’s so easy watching the locals. Beep beep and go. When the locals are riding their scooters 6 wide and people are going in all directions, it is smooth and while choatic, it works incredibly well.
As soon as tourists enter the sceen, it changes rapidly. They tourists aren’t 100% certain how to proceed and this slight hesitancy causes chaos with everyone trying to second guess what is going on.
In my opinion, don’t do it. Don’t rent a scooter.
Don’t want to rent a scooter, fine. Go rent a car.
I caution to you to stop and rethink. Everything I said about the traffic applies to driving a car as much as it does a sccoter.
I think that in a lot of ways, it’s even harder to get around in a car than it is on a scooter.
If you come from a country where driving in your lane, leaving distance to vehicles around you, obeying solid and broken overtaking lanes are a thing. You will find it confronting in Bali.
It really is the wild west here. 2 marked traffic lanes but 3 or 4 cars wide with a dozen scooters thrown in for good luck.
There is nothing about driving a car here in Bali that has any appeal to me in any way.
Crazy Bali Traffic Where Rules Don’t Exist On our first couple of trips to Bali, we used a company for our day trips to all the incredible sight seeing in this amazing island. While it was a great service, we realised it was a very expensive way of doing things.
The companies we have used are structured where you have a company vehicle, a company driver and a company tour guide. In our experience, the drivers spoke very little English, so a tour guide was a necessity.
With this setup there is 2 peoples wages to be paid, plus the vehicle costs plus the salesman who comes to your accommodation plus the company profit.
In reletive terms of Australian dollars and what we pay in Australia for a tour, it was still cheap. BUT it is far more than you will pay by doing some research and picking your own private driver.
As with a lot of things when planning your travels, Google and Facebook will be your friends.
I did a lot of searching on Google for “best private driver in Bali” or “hire a private driver in Bali” or “Hire the best private driver in Bali”etc etc. Mix and match what you search for. A lot of the results will take you to forums like TripAdvisor or Reddit .
I would stay away from searches such as “cheapest driver in Bali” as you really are looking for trouble by looking at the cheapest in anything in life. Especially when the difference is only going to be $10 or $20.
I created a Google sheet with the names and contact details of drivers that seemed to keep popping up.
After spending a few hours reading and processing information we started to narrow it down to 3 or 4 with outstanding reviews and had been around for a while.
Everything is done on WhatsApp in Bali. I really didn’t want another app on my phone but gave in as this is just the way business is done here.
As we had been here before several times, we knew what we wanted to do and see this trip so we were quite specific when we started talking with the different drivers.
If you are visiting for your first or second trip, it may be easier to throw it open to your potential driver.
Tell them where you are staying and what you are interested in. It may include
Cultural things such as temples Adrenaline like white water rafting Spiritual things like a Hindu water blessing Sight seeing. Maybe Tegalalang rice paddies Island hopping over to Nusa Penida Water sports Instagram moments and photo opportunities the list is endless.
A good driver will have a load of standard day tours but more importantly, they will be prepared to mix, match, chop and change to suit you and what you want to do, see and experience.
There are literally hundreds if not thousands of private drivers in Bali.
Old cars, new cars.
Good English speaking and not so good English speaking.
Note: Regardless of your language requirements, you will be able to find a good driver who speaks your language very well. We have seen Italian, French and German just in the last week.
Fixed price and honest, versus lets say less honest business practices.
A good driver will have the ability and willingness to work with you to design trips that suit you – not the driver.
This is your holiday, by all means be guided by your drivers experience but do not be pushed into doing something you don’t want to do or conversely not doing something you want to do.
As you refine your tours chatting on WhatsApp, keep information in a Google Sheet or similar of your days.
Record your pick up and drop off times. What you will see and/or do each day and the cost.
Make sure your driver will lock in a lump sum amount, usually in rupiah, for each day. As a general idea, as of the day I am writing this, the going rate for a driver and car (all inclusive) is between 100,000 and 120,000 rupiah per hour from pickup to drop off.
If you want to try and barter to get a better price, do it now, not on the day of your tour. Once your agree or accept a rate it is very bad manners to renegotiate later.
We made our final choice based on a number of things including
Ease of communication Willingness to modify the days to suit us Price (not the cheapest!) Other reviews. 
