Introduction
On 7-9 June 2024 the team of Rundung Bali Tours made a trip to Nusa Lembongan, this is the story about our trip.
Information about the tickets for the fast boat
Tickets for the fastboat, you can get them everywhere, we choose to leave from Sanur but you can also leave from other harbours like Serangan or Padangbai. You can buy the tickets online via the website of the different boat companies or buy them yourself at the harbour, if you do this a day before departure they will certainly be available (of course it will be more busy during the high season). You can also have them arranged by your driver, they often have connections and can get the tickets at a discount. We went with the boat from D’Stars and got the tickets via Martha Brawijaya from D’Stars, WA number +62 819-1314-7159.
Friday, June 7
For different reasons and mainly due to the busy traffic, we arrived too late in Sanur harbour and the boat was waiting and ready to go with everyone on board so we could leave immediately, we went with a boat from D’Stars to Nusa Lembongan. Because of the harbour it is a lot easier now to get onto the boat, it is 30 minutes boat trip from Sanur.
Arriving at Lembongan beach, there is no harbour and it is still the old way and you leave the boat via a small staircase and step into the water, we were allowed to keep the luggage with us and to keep the shoes on, so it all went very smoothly, the place of arrival was Jungutbatu.
Because we were late there was hardly any time to take pictures at the harbour in Sanur.
Motorbikes
We rented 3 motorbikes via Wayan from Jungutbatu Motorbike Rent (WA: +62 852-0554-9545),
one Yamaha NMax and two Honda Scoopy for 2 days and it was quite a good deal, IDR 600,000 rp for 2 days, (Honda Scoopy IDR 75,000 per day and the Yamaha NMax IDR 150,000 per day). Google Maps is ideal to use for navigation.
After we received the motorcycles, we went for lunch next to the “harbour” Nusa Indah ONAI Hotel, Restaurant & Bar.
Dream Beach Cottages
This hotel was a good a good choice and was booked via Booking.com, click here for the location. The wooden cottages were quite spacious, a veranda with nice chairs, a partly open bathroom and a good bed with a mosquito net. The complex was not too big, there were 10 of these types of cottages, there is a swimming pool with sun beds. A beautifully landscaped garden with trees and many colorful flowers and it all looked fine and clean. For sure it was not expensive and value for money. One little comment, the breakfast was not great and could certainly be better but not sure if this was the standard.
Cloudland Cliff
An afternoon was lost due to the rain. Around 5 pm it was dry and we went for a ride, we ended up at Cloudland Cliff located on a high cliff and it lived up to its name because there were dark clouds hanging over the sea, but if there are no clouds this would be a great place for the sunset, but also with the clouds the view was beautiful.
It was beer time so we enjoyed a beer and the music because one of the guys brought a JBL speaker but it wasn’t the most ideal place to have dinner, so we decided to go to a other place for dinner.
Hai Bar And Grill
This restaurant is located on Mushroom Beach, click here for more information, a beautiful white sand beach and a popular spot given the crowds and normally it would be a great place to watch the sunset.
The food was very good and it was Happy Hour and Prost beer was on the “buy 5 get 6” offer. Hai is also a kind of day club with a huge swimming pool, there was also a resort but that was pretty expensive.
After dinner we went back to the hotel.
Nusa Lembongan has virtually no nightlife and everything closes before midnight.
Saturday, June 8
Snorkeling trip
There was a snorkeling trip on the program, this trip was organized by Aquaman Snorkeling Lembongan and when the trip was booked it was indicated that there was no interest in going snorkeling at Nusa Penida because we already done that before and they suggested that we go snorkeling at 2 places: Mangrove Point and Turtle Point, we were with 5 people and paid IDR 400,000 per person.
It was a 16 minute motorbike ride from the hotel to the northwest side of the island.
We walked to the beach and saw a wild sea and were thinking if we have to snorkel here it will be difficult, it also started to rain but luckily the rain lasted only a few minutes.
We were 20 minutes early and had to wait in the office. At 11 o’clock someone came and it turned out that, due to the circumstances, we would not leave from the beach but from another place and we had to drive there ourselves. We then got on the motorbike and followed the man who took us to the beginning of the mangrove, because we were going to go snorkeling at Mangrove Point. It was a nice and comfortable polyester boat and before we were on the open sea it was a nice trip and the drone made a nice footage during the trip through the mangrove.
Once on open water we went to Mangrove point and it was beautiful spot for snorkeling, lots of beautiful coral and lots of fish, the water was fairly calm and it was easy to do.
What a beautiful place to do some snorkeling, the colors of the fish and the coral, it is so beautiful.
You can snorkel as long as you want and take all the time you need and after seeing it all we went to Turtle Point but when we got there it turned out that the conditions were not optimal as there was a lot of wind and it was said that there probably wasn’t much to see because of the sand in the water which would make it blurry and since no one wanted to try it was decided to go to Nusa Penida instead, but also there were a lot of waves, the water was colder and there was a strong current and it did not look very nice underwater.
According to the arrangement, a photographer would come with us, but he was still asleep when we left so we went back to pick up him up, he was waiting on the beach with his camera and other stuff, we went back out to sea to another point where it was the idea that we went into the water and then pictures would be taken with an HD underwater camera and the result was impressive.
We were asked to swim down and pictures would be taken.
That was the last part of the snorkeling trip and it was so much fun, then we went back through the mangrove to the starting point.
Even though the trip went slightly different than planned, the price did not change, they provided all snorkeling equipment, water and snacks and of course the photographer who takes underwater pictures, you will receive the pictures via email with a link to the We Transfer website. When you book the snorkeling trip indicate clearly what you want and negotiate a bit about the price.
Jibaku Beach Club
It was time for lunch and another nice place had been found, Jibaku Beach Club, a nice place on the beach and the food was very good. Once again the necessary “burgers” were ordered and also Sate Ayam which was also very good.
We spent some time there and around 3 pm it was time to go back to the hotel, one hour later we would go to Nusa Ceningan.
Nusa Ceningan
This island is located next to Nusa Lembongan, with 3 km2 it is the smallest of the three islands, Nusa Lembongan is 8 km2 and Nusa Penida is definitely the largest island with 200 km2.
The yellow bridge connects the 2 islands and by motorbike it is the only way to get to Ceningan and if you have a hotel on Ceningan then you have to drag your luggage over the bridge. The bridge hangs over a kind of bay and is very striking, unfortunately we only did a small part of the island because it started to rain again.
Ceningan Cliff Restaurant and Bar
The roads are generally bad on Nusa Ceningan and we soon came across a kind of day club with a beautiful view, Ceningan Cliff Rest Area, we were the only visitors at that time so the JBL speaker was turned on again and we enjoyed the view with a beer.
Huge dark clouds came in, but they drifted over and the sun came out again and when we left there was a beautiful blue sky again.
The Sand Restaurant and Bar
Because it was a sunny day there was also a sunset which we saw from The Sand Restaurant and Bar sitting in a comfortable chair with a beautiful view over the bay where the seaweed fields are and it was a beautiful sunset.
Around 6.30 pm we left and went back to Nusa Lembongan and had dinner at Cookies Coffee Shop and Warung, but the food was not great.
Sunday, June 9
Unfortunately it rained quite a bit in the morning, but the rain stopped around 11 am and we drove to Devils Tear.
Devils Tear
The Devil’s Tears is a collection of blow holes along the cliff face in Nusa Lembongan and they shoot water high in the air creating misty spray and huge amounts of noise.
Before we went to Devils Tear we ended up in another place, driving over a narrow path into a kind of field (and this is the advantage if you are on a motorbike) and so we stood on a cliff by the sea next to Devils Tear.
The intention was Devils Tear, which was known from a earlier visit a few years ago, but nowadays you also have to pay an entrance fee there, IDR 25.000 and because we were out of time it was decided to sent the out the drone to make some footage.
After the short stop at Devils Tear we had to go back to the hotel because we had to check out at noon and had to drive to the point where the boat would leave from, return the motorbikes and because they were right on schedule at 12.30 pm we were on our way back to Sanur, this crossing was more comfortable because of the bigger boat and the weather was better and in 30 minutes we arrived in the harbour of Sanur around 1 pm.
Conclusion of this trip
- Nusa Lembongan is a nice island where you can easily stay for 3 days, having transportation is important, there are a number of options and if you have a motorbike driverslicense, rent a motorbike for those days and drive around the island and hop over to Ceningan, these are fun rides, sometimes the roads on Nusa Lembongan are quite a challenge and be sure to watch out for the potholes in the road. There are also pickup taxis driving around, and there are also golf carts for rent, but they are mainly for the main roads and you can not go to Nusa Ceningan with it. Although we have no experience with this you can also rent bicycles, for example from Paradise Bicycle Lembongan.
- There are many restaurants, beachbars and warungs so plenty of choice when it comes to food and drink, there are also a number of ATM’s on the island but always make sure you have enough cash with you as it can happen that they are empty.
- For the snorkeling tours Aquaman Snorkeling tours is recommended, everything was well arranged, you can contact them via WA, the number is mentioned on the website.
- Gede Putra Wibawa is a professional photographer, videographer and drone pilot and made the pictures with the drone.
Rundung #Megae 