A Guide to Ride a Scooter in Bali – What You Must Do and Don’t
One of the best transportation in Bali is a scooter. With scooter you can tour to every part of the island. Many tourist who holiday in Bali always rent a scooter as their daily commuter and riding a scooter in Bali can be a lot of fun. But before you decided to rent a scooter and ride a scooter in Bali, you must know and follow some common sense rules. On this article, we are going to tell you everything you need to know about riding a scooter in Bali.
12 Tips Riding Scooter Safe in Bali – What you must Do & Don’t
By riding a scooter you will able to explore Bali Island at your own pace and discover hidden gems. Riding a scooter is not scary, but a lot of fun instead, if you know and follow all the rules. Here are we provide with a comprehensive guide on driving a scooter safe in Bali.
1 Park your scooter in a good place
It can be a challenge to find a parking area in Bali, especially in tourism area which has busy traffic. Generally, it is allowed to park your scooter almost everywhere in Bali as long as it is on the right place, doesn’t block the traffic, and not on walk side that can cause any inconvenience to pedestrians. However, some parking areas on the road side may charge a small fee, around idr 1000k to idr 5000k. Make sure you always bring some change with you.
2. Do not park your scooter illegally in Ubud
You can park you scooter anywhere in Bali but not in Ubud. If you don’t want your scooter end up with flat tires, never ever park your scooter on road side or sidewalk with sign “parking not allowed” in Ubud Bali. Ubud is one of the best place to visit in Bali and always full of tourists. Ubud offers a lot of beautiful things to enjoy, however; the roads are narrow and has heavy traffic. In addition, to resolve the problem, Ubud government provide some parking area for vehicles and forbid any kind of vehicle to park along the roadside. So, when travel to Ubud with a scooter, make sure to park your scooter at parking provided by Ubud government.
3. Lock your scooter when you leave it
Remember that you will take responsibility of the scooter you rent. Make sure that everything is safe before you leave your scooter at parking. Lock your scooter when you leave it is very important to avoid scooter being stolen. You can ask scooter rental staff how to lock your scooter.
4. Do not wearing a cross body bag
Bali may be one of the safest destination for traveler, but need to worry of small spike in crimes against tourists. Tourist who ride a scooter or motorbike wearing a single cross strap is one of the targeted by thief or robber. To avoid this happen to you, please use a backpack and wear both straps if you need a bag while riding a scooter in Bali.
5. Do not ride a scooter without a license
You can get scooter easily even without driving license in Bali. Many of scooter rental in street even never asking about your driving license. However, one thing you need to know is without driving license mean you are not legal to ride a scooter or motorbike in Bali. There are 2 important thing you must worry if illegally riding scooter in Bali. The first is when you are pulled over by police and you do not have one, then it could end up very expensive for you. The second is your travel insurance will not cover you if in case you have an accident on a scooter or motorbike.
Therefore, Get your International Driver’s Permit before holiday to Bali if have plan about riding a scooter in Bali. Getting an international driver’s license / permit is also possible in Bali, Rentscooterbali Company can help you to get it easy. Click here for more detail
6. Do not riding a scooter without a helmet
Ensure your safety when riding a scooter in a must. It is mandatory to wear a helmet while riding a scooter in Bali. It is not only for your safety, wear helmet when riding a scooter is a rule and can make you get fined if you don’t. You can get helmet along with rent a scooter. Usually Rental Company will provide you 2 helmets. However, the condition is usually not good. It can be dirty or without visor. I recommend you to rent a scooter at Rent Scooter Bali Company to get good quality scooter along with good helmets. Even you will also get raincoat and phone holder on the scooter.
7. Give your journeys enough spare time
Roads in Bali is one of the slowest road, especially in tourism area. Busy road and bad traffic are commons you will see in tourism area when traveling in Bali. The roads are narrow with many transportation and there are only a couple of highways on the island. So, always give more time on your schedule when you plan travel and never too trust Google maps because traffic jam is unpredictable in this island.
8. Don’t drive if you are not good at it
Never ride a scooter when you are feel not good. The road condition and traffic in Bali is super crowed at some place. You will be faced with roads with full of cars, scooters, and motorbikes, even some of riders drive reckless. So, it would be best if you are in good condition and always careful when riding scooter in Bali.
9. Avoid to ride scooter in the morning and late afternoon
Bali is become main destination not only for tourist but also for local people from another island of Indonesia for work. That’s way Bali road has heavy traffic especially in the morning and late afternoon. At that time local people will go for work and back from work. So if you want to get better traffic, you must avoid morning time between 7.30 and 8.30, and late afternoon time between 5.00 and 19.00.
10. Always stay on focus when riding
Riding behavior in Bali is bad, it will seems that many people do not follow road rules in Bali. You must be careful and stay on your focus when riding scooter in Bali.
11. Do not follow if you see some of locals ride straight through red lights
You will see some of locals broke traffic rule such as ride straight through red traffic light. Do not be provoked and never follow them because traffic camera will record your scooter plat number and you will charged by traffic police.
12. Do not follow how locals ride
Good to know that people is Bali is not only Balinese and tourist, but there are many people from another island of Indonesia who stay and work there. If you see locals ride very badly and with no rule, DO NOT ride like them. Always think safety first.
13. Do not force to take over on a small gap
Never try to fit through a small gap. This is one of causes tourists had accident when ride a scooter in Bali. They try to follow locals when they have bad behavior in riding a scooter.
14. Adaptation with Traffic Rules in Bali
Traffic in Bali can be chaotic at some time in tourism area such as Kuta, Legian, Seminyak, Canggu, and Ubud. Here are we provide you some of traffic rules you need to keep in mind while riding a scooter in Bali. First, stay drive on the left side of the road. Second, give way to cars and trucks for overtaking. Third, use signal plus hand signals (if possible) when turning or changing lanes. Fourth, never drive on the sidewalks or in pedestrian areas. Last, avoid driving during rush hour.
15. Fill scooter with petrol
Scooter is same as motorbike which run on petrol. You can get petrol at petrol station called “Pertamina” or small stall on roadside. The name of petrol for scooter or motorbike in Bali are “Pertalite” or “Pertamax”. Petrol price in Bali is relative cheap, it is around 10.000 idr per liter.
16. Always rent a scooter at a trusted rental company
Scooter rental is easy to find in Bali. There are many on the street, especially around the tourist areas. But, you have to be careful to choose one of them as not all good rental in Bali has good quality scooters and good service. Never take a cheaper rental price, because cheap price does not mean you will get good quality scooter. The best way is to rent a scooter at a reputable rental shop. You can find them online, find out their customers reviews. Another way is by asking for recommendation from you friends or families who have rented scooter when holiday in Bali.
17. You must check your scooter condition
In general, good scooter rentals always check their scooter before they are ready to be rented. Unfortunately, it is not easy to find good rental in Bali. Many of them don’t care about the condition of the scooter and renter’s safety. Especially for rentals which offer cheap price to you. So always check your scooter before you accept it. Make sure that everything in good condition and work well such as its brakes, lamp, display screen, air tyres, battery, engine, and key. Also note for petrol as you need to return it in same when return the scooter. Last one you must remember overall condition of the scooter body cover, you can picturing or videoing it if needed.
18. Choose to rent a good quality scooter rather than a cheaper one
Scooter rental prices in Bali are relative cheap, especially for those older model or even new model but in bad condition. Some rental shop may also offer a cheaper price than others, but you must know that bad scooters always have lower price than good one. If you care about your safety, you shouldn’t mind if you choose a slightly more expensive price and get a scooter with good quality. Besides, good scooter condition will make you feel comfortable and less worry when riding it.
19. Do not put good helmet on the scooter when you away
Good helmet is easy being stolen if you put it on the scooter when you away. This case is often happen in Bali. Thief is waiting for the chance when you put a good helmet on the scooter and you leave it, although for a while. If you have a question in your mind of why thieves steal helmet, the answer is because there are used helmet stores in Bali. It is not owned by Balinese but Indonesian people from another island. Many Balinese rental hate those business in Bali, as it will make bad reputation of our Island. So every Balinese rental will always warn their customers to never put a good helmet on the scooter but keep it on scooter storage or hanged it on scooter hanger and the safest is by bring it and put on the safe place.
20. Where can I get good scooter in Bali?
If you are avoiding wasting time in finding good scooter rental among hundreds in Bali, then you can just check out this link. www.rentscooterbali.com . This is one trusted rental company in Bali where you can hire a good reliable scooter, and have it delivered right to your hotel or villa. Their rental price is comparable to what you will get, and may look a little bit higher than those side street rental.