Nusa Lembongan Island: A Complete Travel Guide

A mere 45 minutes by boat from Bali lies a paradise oft overlooked by many visitors to the island. Friends often report back on trips to Ubud and Kuta, but rarely do I hear about Nusa Lembongan.

Why? Well I have absolutely no idea.

Nusa Lembongan is 8 kilometres square and is surrounded by the clearest turquoise water imaginable. Some beaches are populated by boats, others are teeming with coral and marine life. Others still remain deserted. The population of 5000 hardly requires a transport system of any kind so visitors are reliant on either that provided by their accommodation or the restaurant they choose to dine at.

Of course, a scooter if my preferred way, giving ultimate freedom to zip with the locals on the roads where only scooters and pick up trucks with bench seats in the trays. Any other vehicle is virtually never seen.

Nusa Lembongan is slowly being discovered by the world, however. And it isn’t discussions online or IRL that tell me this; it is the amount of construction work going on. A few villas were being built next to mine, and one place was even building a small water park. Yes, this place is absolutely about to explode and for a very good reason.

Nusa Lembongan is one of the best places to visit in Bali, providing a perfect balance between raw natural beauty, relaxation, and adventure. And of course, the price tag is very attractive to your foreign dollar. Even the expensive things are reasonable.

Well if you’re not convinced yet, you will be soon. This Nusa Lembongan guide is everything you need to know about visiting Bali’s not so hidden paradise.

In a hurry? Click here to download this article as a PDF and take it with you.

How to get to Nusa Lembongan

Put simply, your best option is to get a fast boat to Nusa Lembongan. I spent a lot of time considering our options. I read a lot of reviews of fast boat services that ranged from poor customer service and pickups not turning up to rough trips at sea with everything getting wet and the driver losing control. So my decision was taken from a “which operator?” as well as a “should we actually go?” perspective.

The boat to Nusa Lembongan is only a 45 minute trip (not half an hour like everything else says) from Sanur, and it was a clear day both ways so we had no issues. I’m so glad we went. On the way back the swell was larger and the boat did bounce a few times over the waves, waking B-Man up from his nap in my arms. Regardless, we never felt unsafe.

There are a number of fast boats that do the trip including Rocky, Scoot, Marlin, Sanur Express, Glory Express and Eka Jaya. There may be others but these were the boats I saw either at the beach in Sanur or around Lembongan Harbour. In the end, we decided to go and went with Rocky because they seemed to have the best reputation and reviews. Rocky was also one that was recommended by our villa.

My tip: choose a ferry service that leaves in the morning as boating conditions are almost always better in the morning.

Orientation

Your fast boat will most likely drop you at Jungut Batu Beach. This is the long beach on the north eastern side dotted with boats. Jungut Batu is one of two main villages on the island and is where most activities will begin, including snorkelling, boat trips, and surfing days.

The other village is Lembongan village. If you’re looking at a map (see below), it is located on the southern side around that small grid. When you are whizzing around, you’ll see a large temple, this is the heart of Lembongan village and on religious festival days like Nyepi, full moon or a wedding, the temple will be abuzz with activity. From Jungut Batu, you’ll pass Nick’s place on the right, turn right and the temple will be on your left. You’ll go straight to go to Mushroom, Dream or Sandy Bay Beach, or turn left after the temple to continue around to the yellow bridge.

You’ll find that you’ll spend most of your time around the beaches on the western side as it is a lot more built up. The north-east is covered in a lot of mangrove and there is a lot less development in those parts. There are a number of accommodation options and restos on the north on the way to the mangrove but there are a lot more on the hill that overlooks Jungut Batu Beach. This hill is where our villa was located and seemed fairly central to everything. I found this to be a great location. (Look for Lembongan Harmony Villas on the map to see where we were located).

Things to do on Nusa Lembongan

Take a Lembongan island tour

If you aren’t keen on hiring scooters, an island tour is a great way to get acquainted. We paid 300k rupiah (~AUD$30) for a 4 hour tour, which took us to Dream Beach, Devil’s Tear, through Jungut Batu village to Mahigiri Beach, the yellow bridge, and the Mangrove forest. Because we didn’t have all day, we didn’t spend a lot of time at each place, but the best part of the tour was honestly, just riding around in the back fo the truck all morning. It was a great way to get a taste of the island life, attempt to get our bearings by following along the map, and seeing a lot of the roads in a short amount of time. It was pretty close to a full lap.

Devil’s Tear

Devil’s Tear is a blowhole around the point from Dream Beach. The ocean crashes into the cliff resulting in a subtle (at times) mist rising from the sea. I was surprised at the number of tourists at the attraction, actually. It’s a decent spot for a photo opp, but I wouldn’t rate it as a must sea (pun intended). There are plenty of blow holes around the islands, this is just the easiest to see from land.

Learn to surf

As you will read many times over, there are three main surf breaks on Nusa Lembongan: Playgrounds, Shipwrecks, and Lacerations. These are all located on the western side of the island and we could actually see all of them from the back of our villa (in the feature photo, you can see Shipwrecks and Lacerations). From the air, they all meld into one, but the distances and style of breaks ensure they have distinct names. There are plenty of surf schools along Jungut Batu beach so just head down the day before you want to have a lesson and book something.

Take a Nusa Lembongan snorkelling day trip

Of all the Nusa Lembongan activities I undertook, this was certainly one of the highlights. Over the course of three hours one morning, Captain Ricky took me to Manta Bay (on Nusa Penida), Crystal Bay, and the underwater Buddha statues. Each was a completely different type of snorkelling experience and I’m so glad this is how I did it, rather than just seeing coral and fish at each spot. Manta Bay was terrifying and intense, yet exhilarating and addictive; Crystal Bay had some beautiful coral and colourful fish that rivalled some spots I’ve been to in the Whitsundays, and the underwater Buddha was something else entirely. All three are worth visiting.

Shop at markets

There actually aren’t many spots to get your haggling fix on Nusa Lembongan. There is the odd stall here and there but we all know markets work best when you can hop between them. The highest concentration of markets with clothes and bags that I found was down south, past Lembongan Village, on the corner as you approach the Cenigan Channel (i.e. the water you see).

They are just before the Mamma Mia Bar and Grill and there’s about 5 or 6 of them all together. As a yardstick, I got a hat and a shirt for 120k. Remember, their opening price is just to test the waters. Little Grey Box has a great guide on how to haggle in Bali (though having experienced it first hand, the lesson is much better in person!)

DIY scooter tour of Nusa Cenigan

You could easily spend your entire stay on Lembongan without giving Cenigan a single thought, but when it’s attached by bridge accessible by scooter, the temptation is too great to pass up. It’s much quieter and I had an absolute ball whizzing along the highway, through the trees and past the many warungs, huts, villas and massage places. I mean, it’s a smaller scale, but it’s still built for tourism.

Eat at Le Pirate Beach Club, and have a drink at Seabreeze. Continue around to Mahana Point and jump from the 10m cliff jump spot (for a 50k rupiah fee). With the adrenaline still pumping ride around to Secret Point and Blue Lagoon where you can find more cliff jumping. You can take a zip line across the gorge at Driftwood bar and further round there are yet more cliffs to jump from.

Nusa Penida tour on scooters

If you aren’t planning to stay on Nusa Penida, it’s still worthwhile to take a day trip from Nusa Lembongan. Your accommodation should be able to assist in setting this up. Our tour was a full day from 10-5 and visited Angel’s Billabong, Broken Beach, Kelingking Beach (including the ridiculous hike down and back up), and Crystal Bay, where you can swim, snorkel, and even eat fish grilled on the beach for a few dollars.

Also note that there are loads more places to see on the island and you should be able to choose which ones you want to see, or at least have different tour options.

Read and swim in your villa

I found that relaxing on the beaches did not seem to be common. Because it’s so hot, the beaches don’t offer much shade, and there are no umbrellas, I think visitors prefer to chill out in their villas or hotels where there is shade and a private pool. We certainly felt like this. Some of the beaches are also not that inviting, which I’ll talk about now.

Nusa Lembongan beaches

Dream Beach

Tucked away on the southwest tip of Nusa Lembongan is Dream Beach, in my opinion, the best beach on the island. The beach is small in scale, but the sand is soft and waves are gentle. It’s often too hot to just sit out in the sun for hours on end, but it’s perfect for a swim, and the rocks on the eastern side do actually provide some shade for a few people.

From Dream Beach there’s a lovely walk around the coast along the rocky cliffs to Devil’s Tear and onwards to Sandy Bay. Don’t forget your hat!

Jungut Batu Beach

Jungut Batu Beach is the main beach where most ferries will pick up and drop off passengers from Bali. The water is littered with boats and the beach is covered in their anchor ropes. The anchor ropes actually seem like they act as a bit of a deterrent for sunbakers as the sand doesn’t feel all that inviting. The water is plenty clear though and very calm for swimming.

Mahagiri Beach

Further north along the coast from Jungut Batu is Mahagiri Beach. I don’t think it’s an official beach title, but the name of a very large resort on the corner of the island. The resort itself has a huge restaurant and bar with good cocktails, and the beach is the widest and whitest on the whole island. There are beach chairs and umbrellas galore, and it has been colourfully decorated with flags, palm trees, beached boats, and of course, a large resort pool that you could easily sneak into. I could actually see myself spending time with a book on this beach. In fact, judging by outside appearances, it seems like a reasonable place to stay.

Mushroom Beach

Mushroom beach also sees its fair share of boats coming and going due to the calmness of the water. This calm also makes it a great swimming beach. There are a few resorts along the beach with good food and the village that winds up from the beach has some interesting warungs and local shops. If you’re not staying in the area it’s well worth a wander.

Sandy Bay Beach

Sandy Bay Beach might be more well known for the Beach Club and the sunsets. A confident swimmer would be comfortable swimming at Sandy Bay, just know how to navigate waves, rocks, and dead coral.

Where to Stay on Nusa Lembongan?

Lembongan is not well connected in terms of getting around, and with a population of only 5,000 across 8quare km, why should it be? So if you’re not planning on renting scooters, you might want to be somewhere within walking distance of some of the things to do and eat on Nusa Lembongan. Somewhere in Jungut Batu Village would be nice, because there is loads to do around the beach there, and it’s one of the few places trucks actually cruise to pick people up. There aren’t any taxis per se, but they are closest you’ll find. (We needed a lift back up the hill to our villa so we found a guy in a Scoot truck doing mainies and we paid him 50,000/$5 to for the ride).

Up on the hill would be my best recommendation though, purely for the views they afford over the island. The villas are scattered over the hill and there are walking paths down to the beach which will only take 5 minutes from the top. It is somewhat harder to arrange transport though if you need to go somewhere on a whim.

It was just indescribable waking up to this every morning.

We stayed at Lembongan Harmony Villas and I could not have been happier there. It is a complex of 3 villas so the management team were very focused on us. They were super helpful in arranging taxis, tours, massages, basically anything we did, it was just a call to the villa manager away. We had two double beds and a single spread across an upstairs and downstairs bedroom. We had our own pool and of course, no villa would be complete without deck chairs and umbrellas. And the view was the icing on the cake! It’s a perfect mid-range price point option for families.

Click here to book Lembongan Harmony Villas.

However, like much of Bali, you can find some real value very easily. You can find some really quality bungalows for under $50 a night. I won’t recommend any because I haven’t stayed at any, but use my guidelines above to find something I know you’ll love. Make sure to filter for those rated 9+, there’s loads of them under $50!

Booking.com

 

Nusa Lembongan, Cenigan, or Penida?

The Nusa Islands are made up of Nusa Lembongan, Nusa Cenigan and Nusa Penida. Lembongan is the second largest but the most developed. It is where all the boats from Bali land, it has the most accommodation options, the best roads, and infrastructure.

Nusa Cenigan is the smaller island in between. There are things to do on Nusa Cenigan and ample accommodation options, but it is only connected by a thin bridge that only scooters can cross. Lembongan is where all the boats land so you would need to work out a transfer once you landed, probably by local boat.

This is not impossible, resorts may provide a transfer if you stay on Nusa Cenigan, and if not, you could probably find someone on Jungut Batu beach to take you, but it is one extra step. And besides, you’d probably want to spend time on Lembongan as well. My experience showed that Lembongan was great to stay on, and Cenigan was a perfect day trip from Nusa Lembongan by scooter. I’d recommend Cenigan if you want to spend most time relaxing, away from people, and only venture out occasionally to do something active.

Nusa Penida, on the other hand, is much larger than both islands put together. There is plenty to do on Nusa Penida, probably as much as on Lembongan, but it is much more spread out. The roads are also awful. I mean, really awful. The traffic is light, but it takes a long time to get anywhere because many of the roads are so bumpy with potholes etc. I found that the times on Google Maps, while unbelievable given the distance, are actually pretty accurate because they are just slow going in many places. I spent an incredible day riding around the island but really needed another day to actually see everything. A night or two on Nusa Penida in addition to Lembongan would be a great idea if you can spare it.

How long to stay on Nusa Lembongan?

Or to put it another way, how long is a piece of string?

You could spend a few days, or you could spend a couple of weeks, depending on how you like to spend your days and how much time you have.

We spent 4 days and I feel like that was enough to get a really good taste for life on the island. I wouldn’t want to spend any less time, especially considering the travel time. A week would have been comfortable and would have provided ample time to relax by the pool, as well as find enough time to explore all 3 islands.

Honestly, if you have a good book, like cheap food, cheap accommodation, friendly locals (i.e. the non-hassling type), and beautiful islands to explore, there is no maximum. But 4 days would be my absolute minimum.

This is probably a great time to tell you about my video on Nusa Lembongan. Hopefully it captures this blog post and puts it in video format.

How to get around Nusa Lembongan

There are two types of vehicles that frequent the roads of Nusa Lembongan: scooters and trucks with seats in the tray. The trucks largely carry the tourists, and the scooters everyone else (including the game tourists). Both are really easy to come by. In Bali, everyone knows a guy who drives or does tours. Some people are less official than others, but they all want to make some rupiah, so they’ll fulfil a duty and be on time.

For this reason, your accommodation will be able to organise transport really easily and really cheaply. We did a few tours and for everything, I booked through the accommodation. I also hired a scooter and this was a great way to see the island at my own pace, without needing to be reliant on others all the time. The scooter cost 7000 rp (~$7/day) and they didn’t need it to be filled afterwards. If you do need to fill it up though, just drive by the local petrol station:

Lastly, many food places will offer to pick you up and drop you back at your accommodation if you dine there. Since everything is pretty close, but not close enough to walk, they can do this very cheaply. We did this every night and was very convenient. If you don’t hire a scooter and aren’t within walking distance to restaurants, this does limit your options.

My biggest tip is to take advantage of Google Maps’ offline download feature. This means you can have the map saved on your phone and can still use the GPS with the phone in airplane mode. This uses zero data and was incredibly helpful in navigating.

Where to eat and drink on Nusa Lembongan

Food on Nusa Lembongan ranges from open-air warungs run by local families, to the swanky beach clubs owned and run by foreigners. The prices vary accordingly.

Two Towers

This was right around the corner from our villa and we ate there for breakfast twice. I loved their pineapple or banana pancakes and the omelettes. The coffee is good and everything is dirt cheap. We fed 5 people with coffees for around 350k (~AUD$35).

Nick’s Place

As you drive past Nick’s Place along the road between Jungut Batu and Lembongan villages, the sign reads “Coffee and Ribs”. Not the combination you’d expect, but it’s accurate. I live by the phrase “When in Rome”, so by that rule I had to order the ribs. The chef cooked them on the grill to the side of the restaurant and they were absolutely beautiful. Give them a ring and they’ll pick you up and drop you back from anywhere on the island.

The Beach Club @ Sandy Bay

Another of the more swanky options with quality food and a strong western persuasion, although everything here was a little slow. The beach club extends out onto the sand and is one of the best places to watch the sun go down. Sandy Bay will be happy to pick you up and drop off afterwards.

The Deck

Overlooking the clear waters of Jungut Batu Beach, The Deck serves quality western food for breakfast lunch and dinner, in addition to a long list of cocktails.

Bali Hai Bar and Grill

Located on beautiful Mushroom Beach Bali Hai is a resort restaurant so is a little more pricey, but the food was wonderful. I ordered the Beef Rendang with a generous potato cake and a papaya/mango juice. All this was served under a giant bamboo structure with high ceilings and clever light fittings, giving a distinct timber atmosphere and orange hue to the air. The main draw is the sunsets. Being on the western side, the sunset was magnificent. Bali Hai will also pick up and drop off if you give them a ring.

B’Fresh

B’Fresh is a warung in the heart of Jungut Batu village, one street back from the beach. It is currently rated #1 on TripAdvisor. The breakfast food and coffee were both very good, but the best restaurant on Lembongan is probably a stretch.

Panorama Bar and Restaurant

This restaurant is one that pops up on a lot of lists for Lembongan because of the view, but if you’re expecting a world-class meal, well, I think you’re on the wrong island for starters. That said, I thoroughly enjoyed my Mahi Mahi, and my large Bintang really hit the spot. It’s a classic warung with its open walled dining with a simple and cheap, but delicious menu.

Other restaurants that will pick you up, according to the list provided by our villa, include:

• Le Nusa Beach Club
• L-Good Restaurant
• Cafe Pandan @ Dream Beach
• Oishi Japanese Restaurant
• Mama Mia Bar and Grill (beautiful setting overlooking Cenigan channel)
• Tawe Warung (same)
• Lemon Grass Restaurant
• Mahagiri Resturant and Resort (huge resort at the end of Jungutbatu village, on the way to the mangroves)
• Kayu Manis
• D’Nusa Beach Club and Restaurant
• Suka Nusa
• Ginger Moon (quality Indonesian and Mexican, also delivers)
• Jibaku Restaurant and Bar
• The Sampan
• D’Paon

If you are considering a trip to Bali, and you don’t want to have to deal with pushy locals, noisy taxis and an excess of western food options, then Nusa Lembongan should be first on your list. We had such a fantastic time on the island and are already planning our next trip.

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