Getting around Bali: scooters, private drivers, and Grab

Short answer: Bali has no trains and no useful buses, so you'll get around three ways — a scooter if you're confident, a hired car and driver for the day (the easiest, and cheap), and the Grab / Gojek apps for short hops. Distances look tiny on the map and take forever in reality, so the real decision is where you base, not how you move.

The hired driver — the easy default

For most visitors this is the answer: hire a car with an English-speaking driver for the day — about Rp 700,000–900,000 (~US$45–58) including fuel — and they'll take you to the temples, rice terraces and waterfalls and wait while you explore. It turns Bali's brutal distances into a comfortable, air-conditioned day, and it's the only sane way to do the far-flung sights. Book through your hotel, a driver you liked on arrival, or the ride apps.

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The scooter — freedom, if you can ride

The local default, and gloriously cheap — Rp 70,000–100,000 (~US$4.50–6.50) a day — but only if you genuinely can ride one. Bali's traffic is chaotic, the roads are patchy, and crashes are the single most common thing that ruins a trip here. If you do: wear the helmet, carry an International Driving Permit (police checkpoints fine tourists without one), and never ride in flip-flops or after a drink.

Grab and Gojek — with one big catch

Grab and Gojek are the ride-hailing apps — a cheap car or scooter-taxi, plus food delivery, all in-app, for Rp 20,000–50,000 (~US$1.30–3.20) a short ride. The catch: in parts of Ubud, Canggu and Uluwatu, local driver associations ban app pickups — you'll be quietly told the app "doesn't work here," or asked to walk to a corner out of sight. It's real; don't fight it, just use a local driver in those zones.

The traffic truth

• The south is jammed. Kuta, Seminyak and Canggu grind at peak hours — a "twenty-minute" trip can take an hour. Ubud's centre is nearly as bad.
• Base near what you'll do most, and treat everything else as a driver day-trip. Hopping bases mid-trip (a few nights south, a few in Ubud) beats one hotel and long daily drives.

From the airport

• Airport transfer — from Ngurah Rai (DPS), a pre-booked car or an official airport taxi runs about 30 minutes to Kuta/Seminyak or 60–90 minutes to Ubud, traffic depending; agree the fare or pre-book rather than haggling on arrival.
• Grab/Gojek from the airport works, with a designated pickup point — usually a little cheaper, if you don't mind the walk to it.

Don't fight the map — let the plan draw it

Which sights pair into one driver day, which base to sleep in, when the traffic will eat your afternoon — that's exactly the tab-switching we take off your hands. We do about 80% of that research for you, in roughly a minute: tell us your dates and we'll build your Bali days around a sensible base, each day shaped so you're not crossing the island twice. A solid first cut you can run with.