Getting around Bali: driver, Gojek or scooter

Three ways to move, one island

A day on a scooter in Bali costs Rp65,000. A day with a car and a driver costs $40. That is the whole decision, and it is 11 times wide. Everything after it is paperwork, insurance, and how far you actually plan to go. ^{1, 2, 3}

Most people arrive planning to ride, and the police plan around it. A rental operator's own guidance to its customers names Canggu, Seminyak, Legian and the roads into Ubud as the places where checkpoints sit and documents get asked for. That is a fair map of where the scooters are. ⁴

So this page prices the three options from the operators' and the government's own pages, read on 25 September 2026, then sets out the license and the policy wording that decide whether the cheap option stays cheap. Dollar figures use Bank Indonesia's reference rate of Rp17,917 to the dollar on that date. ³

How much is scooter rental in Bali?

One Bali shop's published daily rates across seven named vehicles, read on 25 September 2026.

Rp65,000 to Rp250,000 a day covers the whole fleet, from a Honda Beat at the bottom to a Yamaha X-max at the top. In dollars that is $3.63 to $13.95. Free delivery, two helmets and a rain coat come with every scooter on that price list. ^{1, 3}

Deposit terms are where shops differ, and they are worth one email. Bikago, which rents across southern Bali, advertises a zero-deposit policy: no credit-card hold, no cash bond and no passport kept. It adds free delivery to your accommodation or the airport on bookings of three days or more, and 24/7 English-speaking roadside help with a free replacement bike for a mechanical failure. ⁴

Then there is fuel, which the rental price leaves to you. Pertamina's Pertamax cost Rp15,950 a litre in Bali from 1 August 2026, with Pertamax Turbo at Rp18,300 and the subsidised Pertalite at Rp10,000 nationally. One litre of Pertamax costs about what a short ride costs: the fare corridor below puts a 7 km Gojek trip between Rp14,000 and Rp17,500. ^{10, 7}

Do I need a license to rent a scooter in Bali?

The document that works is an International Driving Permit with the motorcycle category on it, or an Indonesian SIM C. A rental operator's own compliance guidance states that Indonesian law asks for one of those two, and that a standard car license fails the test even with a car-category permit beside it. Roadside fines run about Rp500,000, roughly $27.91. ^{4, 3}

The law underneath it is Article 77 of Law No. 22 of 2009, which requires every driver on the road to hold a license matching the vehicle. A foreign permit is recognised in Indonesia under UN road-traffic convention or bilateral agreement, and an Indonesian legal-information service records that Indonesia has stayed outside that convention itself. Recognition rests on regulation and daily practice, so carry the right category and keep it simple. ¹¹

1. 01

   Read the categories printed on your permit

   An International Driving Permit lists vehicle categories. The motorcycle category has to be one of them before a Bali shop and a police officer count you as licensed to ride. ⁴

2. 02

   Arrange the permit at home, before you fly

   Indonesia issues its own international permit through Korlantas Polri for Rp250,000 new and Rp225,000 to renew, valid three years, and issues it to holders of an Indonesian ID card, plus foreign nationals holding a permanent stay permit. A one-month visitor sits outside that scheme entirely. Your own licensing authority issues the permit you need. ¹²

3. 03

   Carry the license, the permit and the passport together

   In January 2023 Bali provincial police asked rental owners to rent only to people holding a valid license, and reminded riders about helmets, licenses, seatbelts and phone use. Electronic ticketing cameras cover some locations, so a checkpoint is one of several ways a missing document turns into a fine. ¹³

4. 04

   Put the helmet on for every ride, including the short one

   Both insurers in the next section make the helmet a condition of cover, and the rental includes two of them. SafetyWing's wording covers the five-minute run to the warung as squarely as the ride out to Uluwatu. ^{5, 1}

In January 2023, Bali's provincial police asked rental shops to rent only to licensed riders, in a month when two foreign visitors died in separate crashes. That is the reason the helmet rule has teeth. ¹³

Will travel insurance cover a scooter accident?

Two insurers publish the same condition in plain words: proper license, helmet on. SafetyWing's policy requires a helmet during the use of a moped or motorcycle and an appropriate valid license for motorised vehicles, and excludes charges from an accident involving failure to be properly licensed or failure to use proper safety gear including helmets or seatbelts. ⁵

World Nomads reaches the same place from the other direction. Its help centre says there is cover for riding a motorbike, scooter or moped overseas if you are properly licensed to ride, and asks you to add motorbike or scooter riding to your list of activities when you buy the policy. Skip that step at checkout and the cheapest line in your budget becomes the most expensive. ⁶

One more line matters for a long stay. World Nomads rules out cover for touring and for using a motorbike as your main mode of transport, which is a fair description of a month of errands on a rented Scoopy. Ask your insurer in writing how it reads your trip, and keep the answer. ⁶

What does a Gojek ride cost in Bali?

The government sets the band. The app sets the price inside it, live, every time.

Gojek prices every ride live, inside a band the government sets. Its help centre says GoRide, GoCar and GoCar L prices move with local supply and demand, that a small thermometer appears on the booking screen when demand is high, and that prices stay within the regulated floor and ceiling even then. ⁸

The band is public, which makes the estimate checkable. Under Ministry of Transportation Decree KP 667/2022, in force from 10 September 2022, online motorcycle taxis in Zone I charge Rp2,000 to Rp2,500 a kilometre, on a minimum of Rp8,000 to Rp10,000 covering the first 4 km. Zone I covers Sumatra, Bali and Java outside the Jakarta ring. ⁷

Grab runs the same kind of service on the island. Open both apps at the pickup point and compare the two estimates you are offered.

What a tap buys you is freedom from all the paperwork above. No permit category to check, no deposit, no parking to find. What it costs you is range: every kilometre is metered, so the long inland drives add up fast on a per-ride basis. ⁷

When a private driver is the cheaper answer

$40 buys a car, a driver and ten hours. One Bali operator's published rate is from $40 per car per day: an air-conditioned car of 2021 or newer, fuel included, up to six passengers, ten hours of service and up to 120 km of distance. Past 120 km it adds $5 for every 20 km. ²

Split six ways that is $6.67 a head for the day, which lands just under the Rp125,000 a Honda PCX costs to rent. The operator describes fifteen years of work and local Balinese drivers, and covers Kuta, Seminyak, Sanur, Uluwatu, Jimbaran, Nusa Dua, Canggu, Kerobokan and Ubud. It also runs 13-to-20-seat minibuses, with no price printed on the page, so ask for the quote. ^{2, 1, 3}

A long day breaks the 120 km allowance, and the arithmetic is simple. A 200 km loop adds four blocks of 20 km at $5 each, so $60 for the car and the driver and the fuel. That is the number to hold against four scooters, four helmets and four people reading a map in the rain. ²

The driver earns its price on the days the distance is long: the run inland to the rice terraces, or the drive across to the east coast. MMT prices that eastern trip in getting to Amed from Ubud or the airport, and the diving month it feeds in Amed for a diving month.

The toll road, and what it charges a scooter

The Bali Mandara toll road charges a car Rp14,000 and a motorcycle Rp5,500. PT Jasamarga Bali Tol's own rates, in force from 27 April 2024 under Ministerial Decree 769/KPTS/M/2024, put Golongan I, which is cars, jeeps, small pick-ups and buses, at Rp14,000, and Golongan VI, the two-wheelers, at Rp5,500. In dollars: $0.78 and $0.31. ^{9, 3}

The road runs 12.7 km over the water between Nusa Dua, the airport and Benoa, and gives motorbikes a lane of their own. For anyone comparing a scooter ride to the airport against a car, the toll is the smallest line in the comparison and the fastest to settle. ⁹

What does a month of getting around Bali cost?

Pick one of three shapes and the month prices itself. Thirty days on a Honda Beat at the daily rate is Rp1,950,000, about $108.84, before fuel. Ten days with a car and a driver is $400. Two 6 km Gojek rides a day for thirty days lands between Rp720,000 and Rp900,000, or $40.19 to $50.23. ^{1, 2, 7, 3}

• The scooter month is the cheap one, with conditions attached. Rp1,950,000 at the daily rate, plus Pertamax at Rp15,950 a litre, plus the motorcycle category on your permit, plus a helmet on every ride and an insurer who has seen the activity in writing. Ask the shop for its monthly tier. ^{1, 10}
• The Gojek month is cheaper still, and the least free. Between $40.19 and $50.23 of rides on the arithmetic above, with no permit to arrange, no deposit and no parking to find. Every kilometre is metered, so it rewards a base you can walk around. ^{7, 3}
• The driver month is a line you choose day by day. $40 buys ten hours and 120 km, fuel included. Use it for the long hauls and ride or tap for the short ones. Six people in the car is $6.67 each for the day. ^{2, 3}
• The cheapest month mixes all three. A scooter for the errands, a driver for the two long drives, a tap for the ride home after dinner. Every swap is checkable against the tables above, which is the point of printing them.

Where you base yourself moves this bill further than which scooter you pick. A month walked around one neighbourhood barely needs a rental; a month spread across the island needs either a bike or a budget for drivers. Canggu's remote-work costs and the wider Indonesia travel guide set the rest of the month around this one line.