Bali Tourist Traps

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Reviews from VirtualTourist Members

Shopping

by jeremy74

Do not enter a shop or entertain anyone who offer their products or services if you're not intereted. Bargain the price to 1/4 - 1/2 of their asking price. Do not settle anything more than 3/4 of their asking price. If they don't agree, just say thank you and walk away, chances is, they'll call you back and agree to your price. Learn to say no to all the persistent peddlers. And don't forget to smile cos that's what balinese are known for. Try shopping in the big shopping malls eg. Matahari. They have a wide variety of goods to offer under one roof and it's a lot more cheaper in here, plus it's cooling to make your shopping a pleasant one. Save the trouble of bargaining and feeling sorry for the persistent peddlers and salesperson.

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Don't buy stuff because you're forced into it

by rosie_b

This might be quite typical in a touristic places, that the sellers would come up to you and start offering stuff that you don't even need or want to buy. They can be very persistent and the more you say no the more they think you are just playing a bargain game. Especially if you "look" like a tourist, they will make sure that they can charge you ten times more than the regular price. Unless you don't want to buy the stuff they offer you, you should bargain at anytime. Just ignore them. Don't give eye contact or any indications that you're interested. This will solve a problem of being followed around by the sellers. An alternative to that is to bring an Indonesian guide whom you know very well or an Indonesian friend who can bargain well and say no to those sellers.

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Souvenir vendors

by blue_sky04

They are a bit annoying sometimes, because they try to force visitors to buy their merchandise. In Kuta beach, especially, they often walk around to find the "victims". If you are interested in purchasing the souvenirs, always bargain for the best price because they usually charge "very high" price to travelers.

Taxi, Taxi, which one do I take???

by Scottyj36

Being overcharged for a taxi ride. Always use the metered cabs. In Bali the Light Blue Taxi's do use the meter. If the drivers offers a flat rate to someplace the is a 90% chance you will be overcharged. Get an Idea from you hotel/hostel/guesthouse how much a taxi fare should be. Also ask how long a drive it is. If you must haggle for a taxi at least know the approximate cost. Use a metered cab, or hire a car and driver for the day.

Besakih Temple

by Scottyj36

This is more of a tourist trap before you go into the temple. You will be stopped after you pay the offical goverment admission fee at a guide stand. They will tell you that you must use a guide to go in the temple. No amount of arguing will get them to let you in. They wanted to charge me and my wife $300,000 Rupee for a guide. After much haggeling and me starting to get angy they reduced it to $200,00 but our driver and no tourist guide mentioned this. Also avoid the people right before you go by the guide spot who want to rent you for $50,000 rupee a small cloth sash to put around your waist or have you buy a Sarong. If you wear long pants you do not need one. Women should wear a Sarong though. Take your own Sarong, and wear long pants. Haggle hard for the guides. This is worth seeing. I am still not sure wether you have to have a guide.

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Expensive Restarunts

by Scottyj36

A average restarunt that charges at least twice what is the appropriate price. Often you get to these places if you hire a car and driver and they suggest this is a good place to eat. The driver gets a good cut of what you spend. refuse to eat here and you chose the restarunt You choose a restarunt.

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watch sellers

by danny1973

dont buy off them unless you feel sorry for them or like throwing your money away hold off buying until your last shopping day ,unless you really have no other choice. like you wont be going back to that location and thats the only place you have seen it for sale.give yourself a few days to get customed to bali style of selling.if it is the first encounter with hagglingyou will get burnt and maybe badly lol.if you are interested in buying an item ask his price example 10000rupiah,i instantly return it with "no 1000rupiah and a smile.watch what happens then shop early in the morning the balinese seem to want to negotiate a bit more in the mornings

Bali Zoo Park

by Wild_Orchid

Not sure that this strictly qualifies as a Tourist Trap because to be fair, it was a nice zoo, with a good easy-to-walk-on path (a bit slippery in parts due to recent rainfall-so be careful, my mother slipped and twisted her ankle slightly), with healthy animals in natural settings and beautiful landscaping and colourful flowers everywhere. I do think that it as a place that you might like to bring the kids to, if you have two to three hours to spare. It's just that I felt that it was a bit expensive. US$10 per adult (9,000 rupiahs)US$5 per kid (4,500 rupiahs)under 3 years old-free.Citibank Gold & Platinum Card Holders get 15% off, (but for any use of a card to pay, they will add on 3%)Apparently locals pay only US$5 per adult and half that for kids (so I'm told). Not sure if you can persuade them to charge you less, or pass off as a local. Anyway, if you are already there with the...

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Hard sell (and then conned)

by easyoar

A con that caught us out (at least at first) was a street seller who was trying to sell a very good quality wooden carving of a fisherman with a very delicately carved net. The guy was persistent beyond belief, and kept dropping his price until he got us interested. I then haggled hard and got the thing at an unbelieveably low price. We were with a taxi driver who had driven us to the village we were at. The seller then handed the carving to our taxi driver and made a play of taking the money. A few minutes later I suddenly realised that the carving the taxi driver was holding was a very poor imitation of what we had been shown. Of course the street seller had disappeared (or so HE thought!). I went up and down the street asking people where the seller had gone, only to be told he had gone down the hill. This I did not believe, and went up and down the street several more times until I...

Shopping scam

by Linda_T

Watch your items We had an unpleasant shopping incident from a watch dealer on the corner of Legian St and Padma St - we bought 5 watches and he put old discoloured watches into the bag instead of the ones we had picked, luckily we looked in the bag just around the corner and we took them back but it took quite a lot of arguing to get the correct ones back. So we always double checked what was in the bags before we left the shop as it is easy to be distracted.

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Tourist Traps: Cities in Bali
  1. Ubud Tourist Traps
  2. Kuta Tourist Traps
  3. Bali Tourist Traps
  4. Sanur Tourist Traps
  5. Uluwatu Tourist Traps
  6. Denpasar Tourist Traps
  7. Pulau Nusadua Tourist Traps
  8. Karangasem Tourist Traps
  9. Bedugul Tourist Traps
  10. Kintamani Tourist Traps
  11. Besakih Tourist Traps

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Questions and Answers

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Q:  How safe is it to travel around Bali? 

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A: "Safe"? Bali is very safe, as safe as any other part of the world at this point in time. We've been to Bali twice after the bombings and have never felt anything but... 

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