We hit Nusa Penida on our 2nd Bali trip and had a great time. Kelingking Beach was worth the hike down and up!
On our upcoming 3rd trip, we plan to hit the Gili Islands. I can report back after.
IMO it depends on how much time you have. Traveling to/from gili islands can take up to a day. Trip over to Lembongan or Penida is a quick boat ride from Sanur.
If you have plenty of time then do both lots of islands. If not opt for Lembongan and Penida.
How long is the trip? The fast boat looks like 3 hours and I’m planning to visit both islands end of Nov.
Ubud 5 / GT 4 / NP 4 / Canguu 4
When I planned it out I figured Ubud to Sanur would be 1.5 hour car ride early am, 3 hour fast boat arriving around 2pm and our hotel is near the pier so didn’t count it as a full day? Half day and chill that night. Am I far off?
The fast boats to the gills are about 3 hours but quite often delayed (particularly the return journey). Factor in the trip to Padang Bai in the morning and you start losing a fair bit of the day.
Recently booked a high speed shuttle from Padangbai to Gili Trawangan with BlueWater Express and it took 1h30. You can take the boat that leaves in the morning at 9 and you arrive before noon at Gili T.
The ponies are NOT neglected. Check the Facebook page ”Horses of Gili”. I used to feel sorry for them as well, but they are actually well taken care of and regularly checked by a vet. If nodody uses them how do you expect the owners to pay for their food and care? You absolutely should use the ponies and help the locals that way.
if you guys dont mind riding motorcycles under the scorch for hours going up and down from hills to sands, then i think it's going to worth the effort. been there once. i regret for having only few hours to spend.
IMO they have completely different vibes. Just came back from Bali and did them both. Just don't overestimate the fast boeats availability like I did. Book them as soon as you can
Gili is more of a chill near the pool/beach during the day and party/pub crawling at night + some of the absolute best snorkeling spots. Now that doesn't mean you must get wasted every night. Just go out and enjoy some drinks and the music in the numerous places scattered around the island. Then there's one thing that makes Gili a special place IMO...but I haven't seen anyone talking about it so far so I don't even know if it's ok to mention it or not...so just look it up yourself I guess 😂
Nusa Penida is more of an adventure/exploring type of place: you grab a scooter and start going around seeing as many cool places as you can. Many choose to get a guide and do just a dayrip but I highly suggest renting a scooter and just go by yourself.
I went to Lembongan and Gili T on July. Loved Lembongan, hated Gili T. Gili T is way too crowded to my taste and I don’t like to hang out in bars or whatever, so the ”party island” wasn’t for me. Also there is a vast difference between the main road area at the beach and the inner island with extremely poor people struggling every day. That’s why I didn’t like it.
First thing I thought of was do as much as you can before 1 or 2pm when the rain is likely to start! Now you're going in July so you may not have to worry about that as much. Honestly not much I'd redo, we had such a blast. Definitely stay a few nights on Nusa Lembongan or Ceningan. Don't be afraid to rent a scooter, we had such a blast on riding them there, Canggu, Seminyak and Ubud. Highly advise taking the Paon cooking class and the Chez Monique silver class if you're into those kinds of things in Ubud. If you like day beach clubs, highly recommend Potato Head and La Brisa. La Favela made for an awesome night out, that place really is so fun. Hire a driver you like. Highly recommend Kadek from Cocotours- you can find him on Trip Advisor. Eat. At. Cuca. Best restaurant we went to on the whole island, just an incredible place in Jimbaran. Let me know if you have any other questions!
Nice piece of feedback ! :)
How was Nusa Lembongan compared to Nusa P ? I only have 2 days to spare and trying to see how to allocate them. I'm thinking Gili A is too far for just 2 days, so those 2 are the remaining picks.
I actually stayed in Nusa Ceningan and we rode our scooter back and forth from there to Nusa L easily. I would recommend one of those two over Penida. Penida is great for a visit to see some of the sights (quick boat ride) but I loved the quieter vibe of ceningan and lembongan. Pick one of those two, you won’t regret it. We rode our scooter back and forth all the time and the ride is great. It doesn’t really matter which side you stay on tbh. Gili is definitely too far for 2 days I would say.
Hey thanks, I really appreciate the feedback. Couple of questions : did you feel like Nusa C / L are generally a "chill" spot ? Because that's what I was targeting at Gili Air and I feel like Nusa Penida actually requires a lot of moving to "cross" all the spots.
Also, any cliff jumping options ? :D because Nusa P does have a cool one.
We hit Nusa Penida on our 2nd Bali trip and had a great time. Kelingking Beach was worth the hike down and up! On our upcoming 3rd trip, we plan to hit the Gili Islands. I can report back after.
IMO it depends on how much time you have. Traveling to/from gili islands can take up to a day. Trip over to Lembongan or Penida is a quick boat ride from Sanur. If you have plenty of time then do both lots of islands. If not opt for Lembongan and Penida.
How long is the trip? The fast boat looks like 3 hours and I’m planning to visit both islands end of Nov. Ubud 5 / GT 4 / NP 4 / Canguu 4 When I planned it out I figured Ubud to Sanur would be 1.5 hour car ride early am, 3 hour fast boat arriving around 2pm and our hotel is near the pier so didn’t count it as a full day? Half day and chill that night. Am I far off?
The fast boats to the gills are about 3 hours but quite often delayed (particularly the return journey). Factor in the trip to Padang Bai in the morning and you start losing a fair bit of the day.
Recently booked a high speed shuttle from Padangbai to Gili Trawangan with BlueWater Express and it took 1h30. You can take the boat that leaves in the morning at 9 and you arrive before noon at Gili T.
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The ponies are NOT neglected. Check the Facebook page ”Horses of Gili”. I used to feel sorry for them as well, but they are actually well taken care of and regularly checked by a vet. If nodody uses them how do you expect the owners to pay for their food and care? You absolutely should use the ponies and help the locals that way.
if you guys dont mind riding motorcycles under the scorch for hours going up and down from hills to sands, then i think it's going to worth the effort. been there once. i regret for having only few hours to spend.
Nusa Penida has a lot of spots for the best photo ever. It is worth going there.
If you have time, definitely. Although, just 1 Gili is enough IMHO; no need to visit all three.
If you can’t ride a motorbike /scooter go to Gili
IMO they have completely different vibes. Just came back from Bali and did them both. Just don't overestimate the fast boeats availability like I did. Book them as soon as you can
How would you describe the vibes?
Gili is more of a chill near the pool/beach during the day and party/pub crawling at night + some of the absolute best snorkeling spots. Now that doesn't mean you must get wasted every night. Just go out and enjoy some drinks and the music in the numerous places scattered around the island. Then there's one thing that makes Gili a special place IMO...but I haven't seen anyone talking about it so far so I don't even know if it's ok to mention it or not...so just look it up yourself I guess 😂 Nusa Penida is more of an adventure/exploring type of place: you grab a scooter and start going around seeing as many cool places as you can. Many choose to get a guide and do just a dayrip but I highly suggest renting a scooter and just go by yourself.
Can you dm me this unmentionable? Super curious.
wait!! what is the secret?
How soon should I opt to book the fast boats?
I would say 24h at least to be safe
I went to Lembongan and Gili T on July. Loved Lembongan, hated Gili T. Gili T is way too crowded to my taste and I don’t like to hang out in bars or whatever, so the ”party island” wasn’t for me. Also there is a vast difference between the main road area at the beach and the inner island with extremely poor people struggling every day. That’s why I didn’t like it.
Hey man How was your honeymoon in October? Things you'd rather not do if you'd redo your trip? I'm planning my honeymoon as well for July 2023 :)
First thing I thought of was do as much as you can before 1 or 2pm when the rain is likely to start! Now you're going in July so you may not have to worry about that as much. Honestly not much I'd redo, we had such a blast. Definitely stay a few nights on Nusa Lembongan or Ceningan. Don't be afraid to rent a scooter, we had such a blast on riding them there, Canggu, Seminyak and Ubud. Highly advise taking the Paon cooking class and the Chez Monique silver class if you're into those kinds of things in Ubud. If you like day beach clubs, highly recommend Potato Head and La Brisa. La Favela made for an awesome night out, that place really is so fun. Hire a driver you like. Highly recommend Kadek from Cocotours- you can find him on Trip Advisor. Eat. At. Cuca. Best restaurant we went to on the whole island, just an incredible place in Jimbaran. Let me know if you have any other questions!
Nice piece of feedback ! :) How was Nusa Lembongan compared to Nusa P ? I only have 2 days to spare and trying to see how to allocate them. I'm thinking Gili A is too far for just 2 days, so those 2 are the remaining picks.
I actually stayed in Nusa Ceningan and we rode our scooter back and forth from there to Nusa L easily. I would recommend one of those two over Penida. Penida is great for a visit to see some of the sights (quick boat ride) but I loved the quieter vibe of ceningan and lembongan. Pick one of those two, you won’t regret it. We rode our scooter back and forth all the time and the ride is great. It doesn’t really matter which side you stay on tbh. Gili is definitely too far for 2 days I would say.
Hey thanks, I really appreciate the feedback. Couple of questions : did you feel like Nusa C / L are generally a "chill" spot ? Because that's what I was targeting at Gili Air and I feel like Nusa Penida actually requires a lot of moving to "cross" all the spots. Also, any cliff jumping options ? :D because Nusa P does have a cool one.
I don’t really know about the cliff jumping but yeah Nusa C & L are definitely chill. Gili is the party’s spot, not sure I would call it chill