What to do on Nusa Penida in 2 days?
What to do on Nusa Penida in 2 days?
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On our 3rd trip to Bali, we decided it’s finally time to visit the three Nusa Islands, not far away from Bali. The biggest island is called Nusa Penida and surprised us with high cliffs and exhausting but beautiful hikes, while the smaller islands Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Ceningan keep up with chilled beach vibes. Nusa Penida is known to local Balinese as the black magic island. Before it became a tourist attraction, Nusa Penida was once believed by locals to be inhabited by dark spirits, luckily today practically nothing is visible of that. We recommend to stay at least 2 nights, because there is enough to do on two separate day tours. Also in the early morning the main attractions are less crowded.
Day Tour 1 – The South of the Island
On your first day tour you will visit all the beautiful viewpoints and beaches from the East to the South of the island. The best way to explore the island is by getting a driver for a day tour around Nusa Penida. We’ve never seen more injured people with leg or food bandages than on Nusa Penida. The streets are more than bumpy and very very steep sometimes. Therefore we would highly recommend to forgo driving a scooter on this island, however on the neighboring islands Nusa Lembongan and Ceningan it’s absolutely doable! Bring some good shoes for the cliff hikes, not only flip flops!
1. Rumah Pohon Treehouse for sunrise
Start with your day tour around 5 am and you will be able to enjoy sunrise at this amazing tree house. It became an Instagram spot for sure, but this place still has it’s magic! Be there as early as possible and you will not meet the crowds. You can find these tree houses on airbnb, but often they are fully booked long in advance. We also asked ourselves if it isn’t annoying to stay there with all the tourists. However, ask them if it’s okay to take a picture on the ladder. We had this place for ourselves until sunrise, when four other people came. It’s also an amazing spot to fly the drone and to walk down the little trail. The tree houses are located on a lower level then the parking spot.
2. Thousand Islands Viewpoint
We are not sure if we missed this place. Our driver told us that we saw it from the viewpoint of Rumah Pohon Treehouse. From the viewpoint you can see several islands in the water. Make sure to ask your driver for a stop at this place!
3. Next stop: Diamont Beach
This place is absolutely beautiful and you should spend enough time here to enjoy the first warm sun rays. Take some pictures on the stairs leading down to the beach. The view from there is breathtaking. It’s a long way down to the beach, at the end the trail hasn’t even handrails and you need to climb a bit. But going down there is definitely worth the effort, the beach is so beautiful and in the early morning you might be on your own there.
But be careful, the waves are often very high and dangerous. The next day we heard, that just 1 hour after we left this beach, a tourist was swept out by the strong current and died. Just stay out of the water and fly your drone from the beach. We also met a film maker from Jakarta, who captured this island on 40 days, we worked on some projects together later.
4. Next beach: Atuh Beach
Directly next to Diamont beach you will find Atuh Beach. It’s a lot better for swimming because the long bay weakens the waves. If you are too exhausted for another hike down, you can enjoy the view from above.
5. Suwehan Beach – only reachable by hiking or motorbiking
We would have loved to visit this beach. We saw incredibly looking pictures from this beach with almost no tourists. Unfortunately our driver told us, that the streets are too muddy for a car and we could only reach the beach by foot or by motorbike. Ask your driver about this location, maybe in another season the road is passable by car.
6. Teletubbies Hill – green smooth hills
This place isn’t that spectacular, but the views driving towards this viewpoint were really beautiful. You get a picture of how the island looks aside of the famous beaches. The smooth green hills are making the name fully justified.
7. Peguyangan Waterfall – the blue stairs
Well, don’t expect to see a waterfall arriving at the bottom, it’s only a trickle. We found only a little bathing hole down there, nothing spectacular. The highlight of this place is definitely the long and steep blue stairs winding along the rocks. You will need a sarong, for 15.000 IDR you can borrow one.
8. Tembeling Natural Pool, Beach & Forest
Arriving at the entrance of Tembeling forest you can decide if you take a scooter for 50.000 IDR for the way down to the beach or to go by foot. We decided to walk, actually the 3.5 kilometers felt really long but it was a beautiful 30-minute hike through the forest. At the last section you have to take some steps down until you arrive at the first natural pool which was very dark. The second one, a few meters further down, was clear filled with blue fresh water. The beach next to the pool was really beautiful, too.
9. Poolside Restaurant
After this long day with many hikes you should enjoy some really good food. We found an incredible restaurant next to our hotel with many vegan options. They also built some airbnb rooms at this time, so check out if you can already stay there. The owners are really cute and create amazing recipes!
10. Chilling at the hotel – La Roja Bungalows
We hadn’t enough time at this beautiful location, because we came back late from our day tour. But it is the perfect place to relax after some exhausting hikes. Also they arrange the driver for the day tours for you. Our favorite café Poolside Restaurant is located only a few meters down the road. Unfortunately most hotels are in the North, but your driver will pick you up early enough to arrive in the East, North or West of the island for sunrise.
Day 2 – The West of the island
On your second day it’s time to explore the West Coast. Start early at 5:30 am to arrive at the famous T-Rex cliff before sunrise and before the tourist groups. Also, put all your luggage in the car, then you can check in to another hotel on the west coast near Crystal Bay in the evening.
Fun fact: Our driver overslept and we almost missed sunrise ;).
1. Kelingking Beach or “T-Rex Beach” for sunrise
At first take some pictures from above. You can walk along the cliffs until you will find a few spots to sit down and to enjoy the perfect view of the cliff looking like a T-Rex. But be careful, it’s steep there and we saw some monkeys climbing around. Kelingking Beach is relatively new, only discovered in 2003 by a few tourist divers who reached the beach by boat. Nowadays, Kelingking Beach is probably the most Instagrammed spot on Nusa Penida and gets more and more crowded. The path down is a little tricky, it’s more a climb than a hike. As you get lower, not only the path gets more and more steep and sharp, it also gets more broken. On the last part, there are only some bamboo shoots and really high steps. I wouldn’t climb down there with a children.
However, if you feel good, climb down until you reach the beach, most tourists go back up halfway, therefore the beach isn’t crowded. A red flag means there is a strong current and high dangerous waves. If you still decide to go for a swim, stay directly at the shore! It’s really dangerous and a lot of people died here!! Unfortunately our drone lost signal at the beach, but the cave at the end of the beach is a really nice point for pictures!
Bring enough water, the hike back up in the sun is absolutely exhausting! Also, don’t climb down with flip flops like us…From 9 am on this place gets really crowded, so be there as early as possible! We recommend to stay a few hours because this place is really a highlight!
2. Angel’s Billabong – the beautiful natural pool
By the time you leave Kelingking Beach the roads to you next destination will already be full of cars. Definitely go to Kelingking beach for your first stop, Angel’s Billabong is beautiful but not that fascinating and you don’t have to climb a lot. Angel’s Billabong and Broken Beach is located directly next to each other, so you can visit them at the same time. Angel’s Billabong is a beautiful natural rock pool that opens straight to the ocean. It wasn’t allowed to swim in the natural pool because of high waves bumping over the cliffs into the water hole. But we saw pictures of people swimming in there when there were less waves. There have been some fatal accidents where people got swept away and died.
3. Broken Beach – the arched tunnel
Just walk down the path to the next viewpoint: Broken Beach. It is famous as a viewpoint for an arched tunnel in the cliffs, allowing the ocean to flow into a pool, which is Angel’s Billabong. Enjoy the view!
4. Second hotel at Crystal Bay: Mahaloka Valley
Use the hot midday sun to check in at your second hotel Mahaloka Valley. We highly recommend to stay in a hotel near Crystal Bay for the second night, so that you are able to enjoy the evening and the sunset at the incredible beach there. The bungalows were clean and it was only a 10-minute walk to the famous beach along the incredible palm road.
5. Road framed with palm trees for sunset
After relaxing a few minutes at your hotel, walk along this beautiful road framed by all of these palm trees just before sunset. The light and the shadows of the palm trees are amazing. Don’t forget to take a picture!
6. Crystal Bay for sunset
Arrive at the beach at least 30 minutes before sunset and grab a drink. It’s the perfect location to watch the sun going down behind the ocean and the perfect end after an exhausting day. Watch the fishermen coming back from the ocean and the cute dogs lying on the sand. We met the filmmaker from Java again and took some amazing pictures! Fun fact: I hit my toe at the palm road and he got sick from some food before, but the sunset was the best!.
More time left for Nusa Penida?
- Stay a little longer at Crystal Bay and book a snorkel tour. Keep in mind that the famous Manta Point isn’t Manta Bay! Most snorkel providers only have tours along the bays. We wanted to go to Manta Point far out the ocean and decided to go with a dive boat from Nusa Lembongan.
- Banah Cliff Point, we must have missed this place. But we saw beautiful pictures from there.
Where to stay?
Unfortunately there aren’t hotels in the East, South or West area where all the day tours go to. But your driver will pick you up no matter where you stay on the island. Our first night we stayed at La Roja in the North of the island. A few meters down the road was a really nice restaurant called Poolside. Our second night we stayed at Mahaloka Valley directly at Crystal Bay, perfect for sunset. Ask the hotel for a pick up from the beach where your motor boat will arrive.
Where to eat?
We hadn’t the time to try a lot of restaurants. But we really loved this one in the North of the island: Poolside restaurant. The owners were so cute and they created really good meals. We ate wraps, buddha bowls, banana cream with caramel fruits and a lot more. They told us that they are currently building airbnb rooms so keep an eye on the booking websites.
How to get around?
The prices were the only thing we didn’t like about the Nusa islands. It seems to be that the drivers had really high matching prices for day tours. We wrote a lot of drivers that we found on trip advisor but everyone seemed to take 800.000 IDR (55 US Dollar) for a day tour. We ended up booking a driver at our hotel for the same price. But it’s still better than having an accident on the steep and bumpy roads with a scooter. Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Ceningan have way better roads for driving a scooter! Start your day tours around 5 am, depending on the location of your hotel. Just make sure to arrive at your first stop for sunrise to avoid the crowds!
How to get there?
From Padang Bai we took a speed boat named Eka daya to Nusa Penida (2,5 stars on Tripadvisor). Definitely check before, how good they are! They also have an office at Padang Bai and from 350 IDR you can bargain them down to 250 IDR per person. The boat should leave at 3 pm, but we forgot about the slower “Bali-time”. 40 minutes later we were lying on the deck of the boat, hearing loud music while the boat was cleaving a way through the waves. The easiest and most popular option is to hop on a speedboat from Sanur Beach. There are three operators that do speedboat transfers from Sanur Beach to Nusa Penida and back: Maruti Express, Angel’s Billabong Fast Cruise and Mola-Mola Express.
The bigger boat stopped at a pontoon between the Nusa islands on the water. From there, a motorboat took us to Nusa Penida. Ask for a driver at your hotel to pick you up at the beach.
How to get to Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Ceningan?
Your hotel will organize you a transfer to the North-West of the island where most of the little motor boats leave to the other Nusa Islands. Just ask one of the providers at the beach, we got a last minute 50.000 IDR ticket with a small motor boat to Nusa Lembongan. The drive was amazing, we even passed the famous yellow bridge between Nusa Lembongan and Ceningan. Arrived at the beach of Nusa Lembongan, you have to jump into the knee-deep water.
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[…] Either you can arrive directly with a motor boat from Bali (they start at Sanur or Padang Bai) or you take a little motor boat from the North of Nusa Lembongan. Ask your hotel for a pickup at the beach.↠ Read here, how to get from Bali to Nusa Penida. […]