In Reply to: Car hire in Amed posted by Gianni66 on Monday, 25. April 2005 at 01:51 Bali Time:
Amed is a little fishing village. It has a few hotels and warungs behind the hotels. There are a few little shops. There are no Hertz etc car hire places there or anywhere nearby as far as we know. The nearest place may be Candidasa tens of kilometers away from Amed.
Amed is approximately two and half to three hours drive from the airport if you know your way. If you have never been to Bali, do not know your way or do not know the road rules (if such rules exist) it may take you much longer to get to Amed. You will have to hire a car from airport or somewhere nearby at exhorbitant tourist rates - after you have argued with people carrying your luggage away and then demanding money for their 30 meter walk with your luggage. Last thing you will want to do after spending several hours getting to Bali. Even coming from KL you will still have been on your way for at least 6 hours - 2 hour before flight, 3 hour flight, 30 minutes to 1 hour after landing to get out. It is nice, and time saving, to come out of customs and someone will be waving a piece paper with your name on it from Vienna Woods then straight into their car and on your way.
We (myself, wife and 2 adult daughters) have been several times now (coming again in June) and always get a driver to take us from whereever we are going. You can always negotiate for a driver back, or to wherever you want to go after Amed, from any of the hotels at Amed. If you do not know exactly what you are doing you will be much better of getting the Vienna Beach staff to pick you up. It should not be expensive and as someone has said you will be much better off enjoying the lovely scenery. Twelve months ago it would have cost us a maximum of 300,000 rupiah (ie 30USD). Also once at Amed it should be much cheaper to barter for a driver and car there than pay airport / tourist rates for a hire car that may sit idle for many days once you are there.
How long are you going to be there and what do you want to do? We always go for approximately 4 to 5 days, have never needed a car once there, and have always walked everywhere. Amed is gorgeous!
If you want to see something close by again organise a car through a hotel or get some of the local lads/girls that work in the warungs to take you on a motorbike somewhere.
Best of luck!
Lucien