7 Tourist Scams in Bali

You've just landed at Ngurah Rai International Airport and you need rupiah — fast. A bright sign on Jalan Legian advertises an exchange rate that's 30% better than the airport. The young man behind the counter is friendly, counts out a stack of bills right in front of you, slides it across the glass, and you count along. Everything looks right. You pocket the cash and head toward your hotel. Three blocks away, you recount. You're short by 300,000 rupiah — about $20 USD. The extra bills you thought you saw were just tucked underneath as 'bookmarks,' then palmed back by the counter man in a sleight-of-hand you didn't catch. Multiple r/solotravel users report this happening on the busy money exchange strip in Kuta, where dozens of identical-looking booths compete for your attention. As one commenter put it: 'The ones outside official banks have a magic trick with counting — always recount every single bill before you leave the counter.' The worst cases involve exchanges near the Beachwalk Shopping Center and along Jalan Sunset Road where totals are short by millions of rupiah. Some shops rig their counting machines to skip bills. By the time you're back on the street, the scammer has already called it an 'honest mistake' to the next victim.

You wheel your luggage out of arrivals at Bali's international airport and immediately a dozen men press in, waving laminated cards. One grabs your bag and starts walking — you follow instinctively. He says he works for the 'official airport taxi' and names a flat fare to your hotel in Seminyak that sounds reasonable. You agree without checking and hop in. The driver takes a suspiciously long route, and the meter either doesn't run or starts at an inflated number. By the time you reach Seminyak, the fare is three times what apps like Gojek would charge. A r/bali user described paying 500,000 rupiah for a trip that should have cost 150,000: 'He said there was a 'surcharge' for luggage, airport toll, and night service — none of which were mentioned when we agreed the price.' The real official taxi stand is inside the terminal past customs, but unofficial touts intercept you before you reach it. Ride-hailing apps are actually banned from picking up at the airport itself, so drivers operating Gojek and Grab must meet you slightly away from the terminal — a detail scammers exploit by pretending their car is your app-booked ride. Always match the license plate before getting in.

You arrive at Tanah Lot, the famous sea temple perched on a rocky outcrop near Tabanan, and you're wearing shorts. A man positioned right at the entrance — he could pass for an official — shakes his head sympathetically and says you need a sarong to enter. The temple requires modesty, which is true, but what isn't true is his price: 100,000 rupiah for a rental that should cost 10,000 or less, or is often free. He's counting on you being embarrassed and eager to comply quickly. Some freelancers go further: they hand you the sarong, tie it on you helpfully, and then demand a 'donation' for the temple on top of the rental. At Uluwatu, r/bali visitors reported being surrounded by a small group near the gate who insisted their entrance ticket wasn't valid for the cliff-top section and demanded a second 'spiritual fee.' These unofficial gatekeepers evaporate the moment actual temple staff appear. The monkey forest zone near Uluwatu has its own variant: trained monkeys (allegedly trained by locals, according to r/travel comments) snatch items from tourists, and a 'helpful local' appears offering to retrieve them for a fee. Whether or not the monkeys are organized is debated, but the helpers are definitely real.

Your hired driver is taking you between temples in Ubud when he suddenly slows and points ahead. There's a 'ceremony today,' he says — the road to your next destination is blocked. No problem, he knows a shortcut. Ten minutes later you're pulling up to a batik factory or silver workshop that, coincidentally, is run by his cousin. Inside, a very charming woman explains the traditional craft, offers you tea, and shows you the retail section. The prices are three to five times the market rate. This is perhaps the most-documented scam across all r/solotravel and r/travel India/Bali threads. One user described being taken to three different 'art cooperatives' in a single day tour: 'I didn't buy anything but felt so uncomfortable I almost wanted to just to end the pressure. The whole day felt fake.' The driver earns a 20-30% commission for every tourist he delivers. Your hotel concierge, tour agent, or even the 'helpful local' who struck up a conversation at the Ubud Royal Palace may all be in on the same network. The ceremony story is a classic because it's plausible — Bali genuinely does have frequent road closures for religious processions. But a real ceremony closure doesn't redirect you to a retail store.

You've rented a surfboard on Kuta Beach for a few hours of fun in the waves. The rental guy hands it over with barely a glance at the board's condition — no walk-around inspection, no photos taken. After a great session, you bring it back, and suddenly he crouches down and points to a ding on the rail. 'This is new damage,' he says. 'You must pay repair.' You're fairly certain it was already there, but there's no documentation to prove it. R/bali has an entire thread on this — one user was asked to pay 1,000,000 rupiah (about $65 USD) for a small ding on a beat-up rental board at Echo Beach. The rental guy became aggressive when the tourist resisted, blocking the path to the parking lot. 'He said he'd call the police if I didn't pay. I paid 400k just to end it,' the commenter wrote. Some operators maintain a stable of pre-dinged boards specifically for this purpose, cycling through tourists all day. The scam escalated to confrontation in a viral r/bali comment where a surfer refused to pay a 1,000,000 rupiah demand for a 'snapped cord' (which turned out to be an old repair), and the rental operator gathered other beach vendors to intimidate them. Community opinion was mixed — but the pattern of inflated damage demands was confirmed across multiple responses.

You search 'Bali tourist visa online' and click the top result — it looks official, has the Indonesian flag, and walks you through a familiar-looking form. You enter your passport number, travel dates, and credit card details. Days later you receive an email saying your 'visa has been processed.' Then you notice unfamiliar charges on your card. R/bali has multiple pinned warnings about this exact scam, with one moderator post noting: 'Beware of scam/phishing when applying for Indonesian Tourist Visa online — we used a site that looked official and our credit card details were compromised.' Indonesia's actual eVisa site is evisa.imigrasi.go.id, and Bali's tourist levy is paid at lovebali.baliprov.go.id — anything else is a third-party operation at best, a phishing site at worst. The scam exploded in 2023-2024 as Indonesia rolled out the tourist levy system and scammers rushed to build convincing clone sites before tourists knew the correct URLs. Customs declaration forms are also replicated by fake sites. One r/bali user had their credit card fraudulently charged $176 USD multiple times (totaling hundreds of dollars) weeks after using an unofficial customs app they thought was government-issued.

You've arranged a pre-dawn hike up Mount Batur to catch the sunrise from the crater rim. The trail head at the base of the volcano in Kintamani is buzzing with activity at 3am. Before you can start hiking, a group of men blocks your way and informs you that 'guides are mandatory' for the hike. The 'mandatory guide' will cost you 500,000 to 800,000 rupiah — around $30-$50 USD — for a trail that is entirely walkable without assistance. This isn't a legal requirement in any official capacity, despite what these men insist. A r/bali post that went viral in March 2025 laid out step-by-step instructions for hiking Mount Batur without a guide, noting: 'Don't pay for the guides, it's a scam and a tourist trap.' The local guide association has pressured authorities to enforce 'mandatory guide' rules informally, and some of the men at the trailhead are quite aggressive about it — especially in the dark and chaos of a 3am start. If you do want a guide legitimately (some trails in thick fog or off-trail sections genuinely benefit from one), book through your accommodation the night before at a fixed rate of around 150,000-200,000 rupiah. Never negotiate with men who physically block your path at the trailhead.