Islands Near Bali: Which to Visit and How Long You Need

Which islands near Bali are worth visiting

Indonesia has thousands of islands and a surprising number of them are within reach of a Bali holiday. Some are half an hour away by fast boat and slot neatly into an existing itinerary. Others need a flight, a guide and several days, and pretending otherwise is how people end up spending their holiday in transit. The table below is the short version, and the sections underneath explain the reasoning.

Nusa Penida: the one everybody rushes

The largest of the three islands off Bali’s eastern coast, 202.8 square kilometres with roughly 65,800 inhabitants. The Badung Strait separates it from Bali and there are four different harbours you can arrive at.

The interior is hilly, topping out at 524 metres, and the climate is noticeably drier than on Bali, so the landscape feels harsher and far less tropical than the rice terraces people picture. Even the language is different: locals speak the Nusa Penida dialect of Balinese, which people from the main island struggle to follow.

What to see on Penida

• Kelingking Beach. The cliff shaped like a dinosaur head with a beach between its teeth, and the single most photographed spot in Indonesia. The descent is steep, down something closer to a ladder than a staircase, brutal in the heat, and the climb back up is worse.
• Angel’s Billabong. A natural rock pool in the cliff that you can walk around at low tide. At high tide and in swell it is lethal. If water is hitting the rock, stay out of it.
• Broken Beach. A circular collapse in the cliff with a natural arch that lets the sea flow through into the lagoon.
• Crystal Bay. The best beach for actually swimming, and the departure point for manta trips.
• Diamond Beach and Atuh. Bays on the eastern side with white sand and rock pinnacles standing offshore.
• Peguyangan Waterfall. A blue staircase bolted to the cliff face leading down to springs above the sea. Not a trip for anyone who dislikes heights.
• Diving with manta rays. Manta Point ranks among the best sites in Asia, and the season peaks during the dry months.

The island has far more corners than a round-up like this can cover. If it is already on your list, our separate guide to Nusa Penida and its 23 best places goes through the whole island viewpoint by viewpoint.

Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Ceningan: the easy ones

Penida’s smaller neighbours, linked to each other by the yellow suspension bridge you cross on foot or by scooter. Both islands are small, the roads are decent and you can ride the whole thing before lunch, which is the exact opposite of Penida.

• Dream Beach and Devil’s Tear on Lembongan, where waves smash into the rock and shoot up in columns of spray.
• The mangrove forest in the north, explored by small boat or kayak.
• Blue Lagoon on Ceningan, turquoise water below the cliffs.
• Snorkelling off Mushroom Bay and Crystal Bay, where mantas turn up if you are lucky.
• Seaweed farms. The traditional livelihood here, visible in the shallows at low tide.

Lembongan is the right choice when you want island calm without the logistics. Two days is about the sweet spot: any less and the crossing eats into it, any more and you will have seen everything twice.

The Gili Islands: no cars, no motorbikes

Three small islands off the coast of Lombok with one defining quirk: there are no cars and no motorbikes. You get around on foot, by bicycle or in a pony cart, which makes them quieter than anywhere else you will go in Indonesia.

• Gili Trawangan is the biggest and the liveliest, with bars, restaurants and dive centres.
• Gili Air is the compromise: enough infrastructure to be comfortable, but calmer.
• Gili Meno is the smallest and quietest, good for couples and for anyone whose plan is to do nothing at all.

The main draw is snorkelling with turtles, which move around in shallow water close to shore rather than somewhere out at sea. Add the underwater statues off Gili Meno and a set of genuinely good dive sites, and two days per island fills itself.

One practical note: the crossing from Bali takes roughly two hours by fast boat and it is unpleasant in swell. If you are prone to seasickness, take something before you board rather than halfway across.

Lombok: a holiday, not a day trip

The big island next door, and one that is not an excursion but a destination of its own. It is larger than Bali, far less touristy and predominantly Muslim, which gives it an atmosphere nothing like Hindu Bali. Come for five days or leave it for another trip.

• Mount Rinjani, one of the hardest and most beautiful treks in Indonesia. Budget two to three days with a guide.
• The southern beaches around Kuta Lombok, empty and with reliable surf.
• Sendang Gile and Tiu Kelep waterfalls in the north.
• Sasak villages with traditional architecture and hand weaving.

If Lombok is the direction you are leaning, our full guide to Lombok and its 22 best places covers the routes, the beaches and the Rinjani trek in detail.

Menjangan: the best coral near Bali

While everyone heads east to Penida, the best coral wall in the area sits on the opposite side of the island. Menjangan is an uninhabited island roughly eight kilometres northwest of Bali and part of Bali Barat National Park. The name means deer in both Balinese and Indonesian, and it is meant literally: locals say herds swim across the two-kilometre strait seasonally.

• Why come: one of the best preserved coral gardens in the region. The wall drops away vertically and starts just a few metres from shore, so snorkellers get as much out of it as divers do.
• When: April to November has the clearest water. In the rainy season, run-off from the mainland cuts visibility.
• Getting there: by boat from the village of Sumberkima or from Pemuteran, a crossing of about half an hour. You are entering a national park, so there is an entrance fee and you go with a registered guide.
• Where to stay: in Pemuteran on Bali’s northwest coast. It is a quiet village with dive centres, and you can snorkel straight off the beach over the Biorock artificial reef project.
• On the island itself there are three Hindu temples and a handful of monks. No accommodation, no shop, nothing to buy.

Serangan: the turtle island next to Denpasar

The closest island to southern Bali, and so close that a causeway has linked it to the mainland since 1990, meaning you drive or ride there. Worth half a day, not a night.

• The turtle centre. A rescue station on the island treats injured sea turtles and releases hatchlings. It is a deliberate counterweight to the island’s old reputation as a place where turtles were traded.
• Kitesurfing and windsurfing. The shallow lagoon with cross-shore wind is the best place in southern Bali to learn.
• Pura Sakenan temple, one of the significant temples of southern Bali and the site of large festivals.
• Boat departures. Fast boats to Nusa Penida and Lembongan leave from Serangan, usually cheaper than from Sanur.

If you would rather skip the boats altogether and stay on the main island, our round-up of the best beaches on Bali sorts them by what you actually want from the sea.

The secret Gilis off southwest Lombok

The famous Gili Islands are three, but gili simply means small island in the Sasak language, and there are dozens of them around Lombok. The interesting ones lie in Sekotong Bay in the southwest, where almost nobody goes.

• Gili Nanggu. The best known of the three, white sand and reef right off the beach. Easy to visit for the day by boat from the mainland.
• Gili Sudak. Smaller still, one restaurant and a shallow lagoon.
• Gili Kedis. An islet you can walk around in five minutes. There is nothing on it, which is the entire point.
• Getting there: by boat from the jetty at Sekotong, anywhere from a few minutes to half an hour depending on the island. Arranged with local fishermen or through your accommodation.

Be aware that there are no cash machines, no pharmacy and no reliable signal out here. This is a trip for an empty beach, not for facilities.

Gili Asahan and Gili Gede: the Gilis for a longer stay

Two larger islands in the same Sekotong Bay, and the only ones in this group with real accommodation, which makes them workable for several nights rather than an afternoon.

• Gili Gede is the biggest, with villages you can walk through to see ordinary daily life, plus a handful of eco-resorts.
• Gili Asahan is smaller and quieter, with a viewpoint on the hill and sunsets over Bali.
• Transport: by boat from Sekotong, around fifteen minutes. From Lombok airport it is about an hour to the jetty.
• Who it suits: anyone who wants the Gili atmosphere without the bars and the crowds, and long-term travellers happy with a slow pace.

Sumbawa and Moyo: beyond the tourist map

Past Lombok begins Sumbawa, an island considerably bigger than Bali that only a fraction of visitors ever reach. This is not an excursion, it is a trip of its own.

• Lakey Peak is among the best surf breaks in Indonesia, with a small surf settlement grown up around it.
• Moyo, an island off Sumbawa’s northern coast with waterfalls, bats and a luxury resort made famous by Princess Diana’s stay there in the nineties.
• Mount Tambora, whose 1815 eruption was the most powerful ever recorded and caused the so-called year without a summer. You can climb it with a guide.
• Getting there: ferry from Lombok to Poto Tano, or fly to Bima or Sumbawa Besar.

Komodo and Flores: the islands you fly to

These are no longer islands “near Bali” in any ordinary sense, but they are among the most common add-on trips from the island and plenty of people build them into a Bali itinerary anyway. From Denpasar it is roughly an hour’s flight to Labuan Bajo on the western tip of Flores, and every boat leaves from there.

• Komodo National Park consists of three large islands, Komodo, Padar and Rinca, plus another 26 smaller ones. It has been on the UNESCO list since 1991.
• Komodo dragons. Estimates put around 1,700 on Komodo and 1,300 on Rinca. They died out on Padar. You walk with a ranger, never on your own.
• Padar is the most photographed spot in all of Indonesia: a climb up the ridge with three bays of differently coloured sand visible at once.
• Pink Beach. The sand takes its rosy tint from fragments of red coral mixed through the white.
• Diving. Manta Alley, Batu Bolong and Crystal Rock rank among the best sites in the country, but the currents are strong, so this is not beginner terrain.
• How to do it: either one to two-day trips out of Labuan Bajo, or a liveaboard, meaning several days sleeping on the boat. The second option costs more and is the only one that makes sense if you want to see more than two stops.

How to get to the islands near Bali

Almost every trip starts at Denpasar airport, and from there it is either a short drive to a harbour or another flight. The crossings themselves are straightforward, but the timings matter more than people expect.

• From Sanur fast boats run to Nusa Penida and Lembongan, a crossing of roughly half an hour.
• From Padangbai on the east coast, boats serve Penida, Lombok and the Gilis.
• To the Gilis allow around two hours on the water.
• Book ahead, especially in high season and for morning departures.
• Boats are cancelled in heavy swell. Do not plan your return for the day you fly home. The risk is real.
• To Menjangan you sail from Pemuteran or Sumberkima in northwest Bali, around thirty minutes. Getting to the northwest from the south of the island is a four-hour drive.
• To Serangan you simply drive or ride across the causeway. No boat needed.
• To Sekotong Bay in southwest Lombok it is about an hour by car from Lombok airport, then anything from a few minutes to half an hour by boat.
• To Sumbawa, ferry from Lombok to Poto Tano, or fly to Bima or Sumbawa Besar.
• To Komodo, fly Denpasar to Labuan Bajo, roughly an hour, then continue by boat. Going overland and by ferry through Lombok and Sumbawa takes several days.

Where to stay on the islands near Bali

Each island works differently. On Nusa Penida most people stay in the north near the harbour at Toyapakeh, because the transfers from there are shortest. On Lembongan the centre is Jungutbatu, and on Gili Trawangan the accommodation runs along the shoreline.

• Backpackers: a hostel bed or a simple bungalow runs roughly 150,000 to 300,000 IDR (about £6 to £12) per person per night.
• Mid-range: a room with a pool from 500,000 to 1,000,000 IDR (roughly £20 to £40).
• On Penida: there is less choice and it sells out in season, so book well ahead.
• Practical advice: check whether the property has mains electricity and hot water around the clock. On the smaller islands neither is a given.
• For Menjangan you stay in Pemuteran on Bali, where guesthouses start at around 300,000 IDR (about £12) and there are spa resorts as well. There is no accommodation on the island itself.
• In Sekotong Bay the most developed islands are Gili Gede and Gili Asahan, where eco-resort rooms start at around 400,000 IDR (about £16). Nanggu, Sudak and Kedis are day trips only.
• In Labuan Bajo you will find everything from hostels to five-star hotels, but prices run about a third higher than on Bali, because everything has to be shipped in.

Compare current prices and availability through the accommodation on the islands near Bali.