When I started planning Bali, I already had a pretty good idea of what I wanted.
Ubud. Seminyak. Uluwatu. Mount Batur. Waterfalls. And obviously enough space between everything that we didn’t come home needing another holiday.
I’d researched for weeks. Probably months, if I’m being honest.
But there’s only so much Google Maps can tell you.
Bali traffic is real, travel times aren’t always what they look like on a map and something that seems perfectly reasonable when you’re planning from your sofa in England can make absolutely no sense once you factor in where you’re staying, check-in times and how long it actually takes to get across the island.
I knew I needed somebody on the ground who could tell me whether the trip I’d built would actually work.
Then Came the Facebook Groups
I’d done something similar when we went to Zanzibar, so I joined a few Bali Facebook groups and asked for driver recommendations.
Bloody hell.
If you’ve never done this before, prepare yourself. Ha!
The minute you post asking for a driver, your phone starts going. Companies, independent drivers, tour operators, packages, WhatsApp numbers and people sliding into your DMs.
It’s a lot.
After looking through them, I realised there wasn’t actually a massive difference between what most people were offering. Prices weren’t wildly different either. Everyone was reliable, flexible, spoke good enough English and apparently had the best price in Bali.
Which doesn’t exactly help when you’re trying to choose one.
So I didn’t try to reply to everybody. I picked a few, asked questions and paid attention to how they communicated with me.
That’s how I found Agus, the lovely Balinese man behind Auri Bali Tour.
What I Actually Needed From a Driver
Agus runs Auri Bali Tour, so depending on what we had planned, sometimes it was Agus driving us and sometimes it was another member of his team.
But there was something about the whole set-up that I really liked. I don’t actually know whether they were family or just a really close team, but it had that kind of feel to it. Everyone seemed connected, everyone knew what was going on and it felt warm and personal rather than like we’d booked some big faceless transport company.
From the planning stage, Agus was the person I could message with my endless questions and ideas. And trust me, there were plenty of them.
I’d already built the trip. I didn’t need someone to create it for me. What I needed was someone local who could look at my plans and tell me whether they actually made sense.
I’d send him my plans and he’d tell me when something was going to take too long because of traffic, when timings needed adjusting or when we’d end up unnecessarily zig-zagging across the island.
That local knowledge was invaluable because I could research Bali until the cows came home, but I wasn’t actually there.
And sometimes you need somebody who is.
What Did Our Bali Driver Cost?
The pricing was pretty straightforward too. At the time we travelled, Agus quoted me 500,000 IDR for up to six hours with a driver, or 750,000 IDR for up to ten hours.
For some of the bigger things we wanted to do, he’d give me one price for the whole experience instead, with our transport included.
Mount Batur was a good example. For the four of us, we paid 3,100,000 IDR. That included our transport from 3am until 1pm, hiking tickets, a hiking guide, a simple breakfast, water, tea or coffee and entry to the Batur natural hot springs. We also had the option to stop somewhere else on the way back to our hotel.
I liked booking things this way because I knew exactly what we were paying and what was included before we went. There wasn’t another transport cost to work out on top of the activity.
Just to be clear: these were the prices we were quoted for our trip in 2025, so I’d contact Agus directly for current prices rather than using these as today’s rates.
That Airport Feeling
I still remember walking out of arrivals and seeing my name on the board.
RELIEF.
After travelling all that way with four people and all our luggage, I didn’t want to start figuring out taxis, negotiating prices or wondering whether we were being ripped off.
Someone was there. They knew where we were going. We could get in the car and go.
Honestly guys, that set the tone for the rest of the trip.
More Than Just Getting Us From A to B
One of the waterfalls I’d originally picked was a perfect example of why having Agus there helped. It looked beautiful, obviously, which is probably why I’d saved it. But logistically it made no bloody sense.
Agus suggested another waterfall that fitted naturally into our journey between Ubud and Seminyak instead.
And I’m so glad he did.
That travel day ended up being one of the most special days of the whole trip for me personally. I’ll tell that story properly another time, but it’s also a perfect example of why having somebody local to bounce ideas off made such a difference.
The hot springs after Mount Batur were his suggestion too. They hadn’t even been on my radar, and again, they became one of those unexpected parts of Bali that I still think about now.
What I really appreciated was that none of his suggestions ever felt like an upsell. He’d suggest something, I’d decide whether I fancied it and that was it. There was never any pressure.
To be fair, Agus would have planned the whole itinerary for me if I’d wanted him to. He offered.
But absolutely not. Ha!
Planning the trip is half the fun for me. This is genuinely the sort of stuff I do for playtime.
What I loved was having someone local who could take all the stuff I’d researched and say, “Yep, that works”, “I wouldn’t do that” or “Have you thought about this instead?”
And that didn’t stop once we arrived in Bali.
Even on days when Agus wasn’t the person driving us, he’d check in to make sure everything was okay, ask whether we’d enjoyed ourselves and see if we needed anything. He’d send restaurant recommendations, places with nice views and little suggestions depending on where we were.
If another driver was collecting us, Agus would tell me who was coming. One morning he even sent me the driver’s contact details and a photo of him beforehand.
That might sound like such a small thing, but it made me feel incredibly safe. I knew who I was looking for and I always felt like Agus knew where we were and who we were with.
And when my daughter slipped and badly hurt her leg during our Mount Batur day, Agus was genuinely concerned. He messaged later to check that she was okay.
Those little things matter to me.
By that point he wasn’t just somebody I’d booked some transport through. He was the person in Bali I knew I could message if I wasn’t sure about something, needed a recommendation or just needed a bit of local advice.
He was kind, thoughtful and never overbearing. And honestly, that warmth was something we experienced from so many Balinese people while we were there. Agus was no exception.
Once that side of the trip was sorted, it was one less thing living in my head.
Choosing a Driver in Bali Without Losing Your Mind
If you’re planning Bali independently and thinking about hiring a driver, these are the things I’d actually do again:
Expect your inbox to go slightly feral. If you ask for recommendations in a Bali Facebook group, you’ll probably get loads. You don’t need to respond to everybody.
Pick two or three and have a conversation. Prices can be fairly similar, so I paid more attention to how people communicated, whether they answered what I’d actually asked and whether I felt comfortable dealing with them.
Ask the boring questions. What’s included in the daily rate? How many hours does that cover? What happens if you go over? Is fuel included? Can they do airport pickup? These things aren’t exciting until you’re standing in Bali wishing you’d asked.
Show them your itinerary. This was probably the most useful thing I did. Agus could look at what I’d planned and tell me whether the timings were realistic.
Don’t underestimate the traffic. Ubud, Seminyak and Uluwatu might not look ridiculously far apart when you’re staring at a map. That does not mean you should plan your days as though you can casually bounce between them.
WhatsApp makes life easy. We used it before the trip and while we were there. If plans changed or I needed to ask something, I could just send a message.
Don’t choose purely on the cheapest quote. If the difference is relatively small, I’d rather pay a little more for someone who communicates properly and makes me feel confident about what I’ve booked.
This is pretty much how I approach all our trips now. I work out what matters to us first, then build the holiday around it.
None of this is the sexy part of planning Bali. Nobody is sitting on Instagram dreaming about airport pickups and journey times.
But getting those things right meant that when we were actually there, I wasn’t constantly thinking about them.
I could concentrate on Bali.
And after spending months planning the bloody thing, that’s exactly what I wanted.
Zo x
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