On Tuesday morning we began our journey to Lombok… starting with a terrifying (twisty narrow roads with a reckless driver) hour-long drive to Padang Bai and then an hour and a half long boat ride to Lombok. This experience prompted us to return to Bali by plane, which was cheaper, faster [and safer] than the journey by boat. Though the views from the boat ride were beautiful and I spent most of it trying catching water off of the waves to cool off:
All of the uncomfortable travel was well worth it when we arrived to the beautiful beaches in Lombok. We spent three nights at the Sheraton Senggigi Beach Resort, which was great and incredibly affordable. Everything in Bali was super affordable but Lombok put it to shame – hello, $6 for an hour long beach side massage! The island itself is much more laid back, quiet, and relaxed than Bali, which we really enjoyed:
The absolute highlight of going to Lombok, however, was our trip to the Gili Islands on Thursday. We hired a local to take us to the islands for about $60 and decided to hit the less-crowded Gili Meno and Gili Air. There are boats that do day trips from Bali to Gili Trawangan and Gili Air; Gili Trawangan is the largest of the three islands and the most developed.
The hour-long slow boat ride to the islands was beautiful (depending on where you stay in Lombok you can get a speed boat that will drop you off after a fifteen minute ride but we opted for a more leisurely tour) and we enjoyed seeing the local fisherman and the coastal views of Lombok:
Our first stop was at Gili Meno for some epic snorkeling (I only wish we had a GoPro to have captured the underwater beauty):
After our first snorkeling stop we swam to shore and camped ourselves out on this beach to soak up the sunshine and lay out on the warm white sand:
The water is crystal clear with beautiful coral reefs and marine life:
Our second snorkeling stop was equally beautiful and our guide helped us find a sea turtle to swim alongside (this image is from Instagram and was taken by someone else on the same day we were there so I like to think it was the same turtle):
I try to tag all of my Instagram pictures so I encourage you to check out this location feed from Gili Meno – some of the other users capture some amazing photos and videos underwater that perfectly reflect our snorkeling experience. It was really amazing and definitely the most beautiful place I have ever been.
After snorkeling we sailed over to Gili Air for lunch in a treehouse overlooking the water:
That white and blue boat on the left was our trusty mode of transportation for the day:
We walked around the island and enjoyed some coconut gelato (yumyumyum) – there are no cars or scooters on Gili so the primary mode of transportation is by bicycle or donkey and the streets are all covered in sand and lined with little shops and restaurants. It would be a fantastic place to spend the night or two and I hope we can return one day to do just that.We ended our time in Gili with one last dip before returning to Lombok:
For our last two days of vacation we headed back to Bali to the Westin Resort Nusa Dua, which was my favorite hotel of the week and was most likely due to the free upgrade to the Ocean View Suite on the top floor of the hotel; though the beautiful grounds and pool-side fruit popsicles didn’t hurt either:
It was hard to leave Bali after such a wonderful week and I hope that we’ll be able to visit again in the future. If we were to do it over again we would probably spend a night or two in Ubud and Seminyak and a night or two on Gili. If you are headed to Bali or Lombok Gili is a MUST DO! I’m also itching to travel to Central Java to see Borobudur Temple… nothing like taking a vacation to inspire more vacation!
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