As Bali welcomes in the 2026 peak season, here at The Bali Sun, we are bracing for traffic chaos! Returning holidaymakers to Bali will be preparing for sun, sea, sand, and pockets of gridlock.
Hope is at hand; however, new sea taxi services are set to launch soon.
Bali has been discussing the introduction of sea taxis for more than two years. With the island’s road network struggling to support the increase in vehicles, leaders are working to create a sea taxi system that would help remove some of the tourist traffic on the island’s busiest roads.
Badung Regency, which is home to Bali’s top tourist hotspots, including Uluwatu, Legian, Seminyak, Canggu, and Uluwatu, is home to one million vehicles, despite the area only technically being home to 500,000 residents. This helps offer some sense of scale of the issue.
With the peak season for travel just getting underway in Bali this month, leaders have been talking about solutions to the traffic crisis once again. Bali’s Deputy Governor, I Nyoman Giri Prasta, said that sea routes via water taxi services are one solution to reduce congestion in the Canggu area, especially from the direction of I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport.
He told reporters, “The sea toll (sea taxi route) is a must, it has been planned to be implemented, so that people going to Canggu from Ngurah Rai Airport will go directly to Canggu and no longer have to go by land.”
He highlighted that work is happening around the clock to help tackle the situation but that there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Deputy Governor Prasta was previously the Regent of Badung and has extensive experience in this issue. He noted that the Canggu Shortcut, for example, is one of the island’s most congested areas, but that the road cannot be widened due to temples and shrines that are close to the route.
He explained that work is underway to help create more shortcuts where appropriate and possible, but that the sea taxi option will go a long way in helping both locals and tourists navigate the province.
Deputy Governor Prasta explained, “Since I took office, I’ve only been able to complete one shortcut, and even then, it hasn’t been optimal because the road is already like that, and it’s impossible to widen it because there’s a Hindu place of worship, a stone carving, and it can’t be moved.”
He confirmed that to support sea taxi services, the government plans to build several stopover points at several strategic locations.
The coastal boundary will be widened to 120 meters above sea level. Deputy Governor Prasta explained that these stopover points will also function as a breakwater so that sea waves do not directly hit the coastline along which the sea taxi route passes.
The provincial leader confirmed that the development of sea taxis would not replace urgent work needed to improve Bali’s road network.
He concluded, “We will make improvements to road facilities, one of which is communicating with the central government for underpasses. Astungkara will be in Jimbaran this year, and in the future, we will also have one in Tohpati.”
Some private sea taxi services are already available for tourists. For example, GoBoat’s Uluwatu-Canggu and Canggu-Uluwatu sea taxi service helps cut travel time between the two popular vacation destinations down to just 35 minutes.
In a car or even on a motorcycle, this journey takes at least 90 minutes by road, and upwards of three hours if driving during peak traffic hours.
Provincial leaders have not published a detailed plan of the proposed sea taxi network, but have told the media previously that the routes should first focus on improving connectivity between Bali’s I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport, directly to Canggu, with Nusa Penida coming in hot as a potential second destination in the development plans.
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Ferdi
Friday 29th of May 2026
With Indonesia’s fantastic safety record with sea travel; ferries, boats etc…I’m very confident in this working without any issue
Cable guy
Saturday 30th of May 2026
@Ferdi,I agree I would have no concerns in boarding a boat in the dark to take me from the airport to uluwatu, I am confident all maritime safety precautions would be stringently adhered to.
Cable guy
Thursday 28th of May 2026
So its land after a long flight, navigate various arrival obstacles then I assume get in a car and be taken to wherever the sea horse is collecting you with your family and luggage, then weather and tide permitting get on a potentially unsafe boat up to canggu or Uluwatu along with however many other travellers doing the same thing, then back in another car to your resorts after paying for 2 taxis and a dodgy boat trip......yeah that'll solve all the traffic issues for sure the roads will be empty!!
Steve bmi
Thursday 28th of May 2026
Another flop inwaiting
Michael
Wednesday 27th of May 2026
I couldn’t but help agree with Peter and shorties comments, I to do not think this idea of a a sea taxi service will work or put a dent in the traffic congestion in Bali , I love Bali , but so many of these “government officials “ideas seem to come with very little thought as to how they will be structured and implemented, like how do you get to your pick up point ? I don’t ride a motorbike nor does my wife so we would have to either walk or take a taxi ( wife will not use GoJek) when we get to the other end and let’s say our destination is 2-3 kilometres or more, well there’s another taxi , so where and how does that ease the road congestion ? Can I make a suggestion? Try fixing the footpaths around, Kuta , Legian and Seminyak, make them user friendly for tourists and locals, pull up the dangerous slippery tiles, resurface the footpaths and maybe then people will do more walking because they’re not afraid of breaking an ankle, leg , back from potholes and slippery tiles especially after rain and that I think may go towards more people walking and less traffic on the road. Idea number 2, make some depots where the taxis and GoJek drivers can wait for pick up phone calls and stop them driving around endlessly day and night looking for passengers, a very simple idea to implement, government buys or leases some land in various locations around the tourist areas like, Kuta, Canggu, Legian and Seminyak, the taxis and motorcycles are numbered, the calls go to central depots where receptionists take the call , they give the fare to the next numbered cab whose turn it is to take a fare , of they go and pick up and drop off their passengers, to easy , now all the taxis and GoJek drivers/ owners pay a monthly fee for the service, that pays for the land if it’s leased or purchased by a government loan and it pays for the receptionist wages and the running and maintenance of the buildings , win win for everyone concerned, roads are unclogged from taxis and motorcycles continually driving around endlessly, any one caught taking fares out of the central parking areas gets fined so hopefully that stops illegal taxis and motorcycles from doing pick ups and enforce it stringently, and yes I know this is Bali I am writing about and most things go out the door pretty quickly, and yes we all know there’s a thing called corruption, shhhh don’t tell anyone 😂😂🥸 but bloody hell it’s so easy to fix , ohhh well got that of my chest , back to the Bintangs
Steve bmi
Friday 29th of May 2026
@Michael, lokals can't walk
Shorty
Thursday 28th of May 2026
Michael the majority of taxi rides don't come from bookings. They're from street hails. Small strategically placed ranks are needed with no street pickup on selected streets.
Shorty
Tuesday 26th of May 2026
A sea taxi service will have bugger all affect on road congestion. Besides, passengers will still need to get to and from the jetty and to their final destination!
Exp
Thursday 28th of May 2026
@Shorty, It is idea by central gov and pushed by central gov. hence local gov. must abide. That is how things works here.
Rusty
Tuesday 26th of May 2026
@Shorty, totally agree and the traffic isn't just people going to the airport. It's locals going to and from work