Despite the fact Gili Islands belong to Lombok, we still want to provide some information about Gili Trawangan, the team of Rundung Bali Tours made a trip to Gili Trawangan in June 2023 with the Ekajaya fastboat.
Ekajaya fast cruises
Ekajaya has one of the largest boats with a capacity of 210 people, when you leave the harbour they will tell you that you can sit on top of the deck and many people will go outside. The trip to Gili Trawangan takes about 2 hours with a stop in Sengigi, where many people got off the boat. Upon arrival at Gili Trawangan there is a kind of harbour and you first have to pass a counter to pay local tax (10,000 rp for tourists and 3,000 rp for Indonesian tourists), if it is not clear to you what to do, there is local police who will tell you what to do.
Transport is on Gili Islands is on foot so just walk and it’s not that far to the hotel as the island is not that big, The first lunch at the beach, and that’s not that difficult because it’s actually a long strip of restaurants right on the beach, we chose Warung Warna, the location was great under the trees with a nice breeze, a white sandy beach and a clear blue sea as a view and the food was great.
Villa Rika
Villa Rika is a small boutique hotel with 10 rooms, small-scale and located in one of the many side streets of the main road that runs along the beach. It is actually nothing special but just right, the location far enough from the main street and yet everything is close by, a great swimming pool, the rooms were actually 4 rooms in an apartment with 2 floors. We had the room downstairs and the 2 rooms upstairs, plenty of space, a good bed, a partly open bathroom, the stones on the floor in the shower area were not ideal, but otherwise it was completely fine.
Transport on Gili Trawangan
There are no motorbikes or cars on Gili Trawangan, there are bicycles for rent for 50,000 rp per day, the island is not big and you can cycle around the entire island in an hour.
West side of the island
After a refreshing dip in the pool we got on our bikes to cycle to Sunset Point, this is the place where the sunset is the most beautiful and that’s right because it was beautiful.
From the hotel it is a 30-minute bike ride to the west side of the island, through the busy part with the night market, you will then arrive in a quieter part of the island, but here you will also find several beach clubs on the beach and you drive from one music beat to the next, it all looks very nice with the coloured beanbags. We cycled along the beach and after we had passed a number of beach bars we stopped at The Exile, a great spot on the beach where you can experience the sunset from a bean bag, now they were all occupied so we sit at a table.
But when you have views like this who cares where you sit.
The next morning we went on a snorkeling trip, first flippers and goggles had to be fitted and then to the boat, which was ready and so we could board. It was a “private” boat and costs 700,000 rp, you can also choose a public boat which is obviously cheaper. The intention was to go snorkelling in 3 places at Gili Meno where the statues are on the seabed, at the coral reef and at Turtle Beach and it was beautiful, there was also a strong current and many waves, what you see under water is beautiful, it was interesting but certainly not the best snorkeling experience.
The pictures below are taken by Gede Putra Pictures during a other trip.
Later that afternoon we cycled to Sunset Point again, but this time via the northern route, this was a bit more difficult because the street turns into sand, so we went through the sand with the bike, after the sand part it went over again in a normal road where we could cycle along the northern side of the island, a part with many shops this part is considerably more quiet than the south part of the island and here you go a bit more on the island and you get more to the side where there is a bit of forest.
The next morning we spent in the shade on the beach. We had to check out at 11 am, but the owner of the hotel indicated that he was not in a hurry, so we could check out at any time.
We left at 1.15 pm, the boat was far from full so there was enough space but we had to stop 3 times to pick up people from other islands. Around 4 pm we were in Padangbai.
It was a nice trip, Gili Trawangan has the reputation of being a party island but you don’t have to participate in that if you don’t want to, it is great to spent two nights on Gili Trawagan, in that time you can do everything what the island has to offer.
Rundung #Megae 