Things to do in Gili islands

Gili islands located in Lombok is known as “Party Islands” for many years, specially Gili Trawangan, but its not the only thing the island has to offer, and that is not the reason why we in Balinest love this islands. So here is things to do in Gili Islands

Gili Trawangan street view

#1 Diving (scuba diving or freediving) / snorkeling

Gili islands has clear sea water, the visibility is around 20m and warm, most beach around Gili islands is shallow around 5 meter deep, then if you swim out for 20 meter it will drop from 5 to 30 meter deep.  With this condition there is diving spot all around Gili Trawangan, Gili Meno and Gili Air, with vary dept and condition, some area may best for scuba diving, some for freediving or snorkeling.

The best time to dive is from May to September, when the wet season ends.

Diving Freediving and Snorkeling in Gili islands, lombok

#2 Relaxing spa

After diving or snorkeling, or after a long bike ride around the island, or just tired because of hot temperature, there many reason to enjoy spa time. There many place you could try, but the one we would recommend is the one in Aston Hotel, the price is affordable, nice place, friendly therapist, good massage, relaxing spa treatment.

#3 Bike ride around the island

You might already know that there is automobile and motorized traffic is prohibited on the islands, the only method of transportation is walking, bicycle or horse cart. There are amazing view of blue sky, and turquoise beach around the island, sunset view and sunrise view everywhere; a real vision of heaven. Rent a bike and ride it along the sandy road around the island and experience all those amazing view, bring also your snorkel and fins just in case you feel like snorkeling in some spot.

If you in Gili Trawangan, start in the morning when the water is still a little cold and fresh, right after breakfast; you could also bring your lunch box, that way you don’t need to bring your wallet, just for safety reason, ride your bike and start pedaling. Riding bike, snorkeling in several spot, lunch at the beach, and back to where you start, all will take around 8 hours. But if you in Gili Meno or Gili Air, bike ride around will take less time, because the island is smaller then Gili Trawangan.

(remember to take lot of water, to prevent dehydration and don’t litter)

Bike around Gili islands, or use cidomo instead

Bike around Gili islands, or use cidomo instead

#4 Meditation / yoga

Yoga is a spiritual, mental and physical discipline, while meditation more focus on the mental and spiritual. Both yoga and meditation could practiced daily, but to get more result and faster progress, yoga and meditation need to be practiced in a long and continues time, that’s why most serious yoga and meditation practitioner would go on a retreat.

You could found many place to learn yoga and meditation in Gili Trawangan, Meno or even Gili Air, the service vary from beginner class to expert, even to serious retreat. Checkout GiliYoga…

(in north Bali, Brahmavihara Arama at Singaraja provide many meditation retreat through the year, in many discipline)

#5 Enjoy beach vibe

Maybe it’s the day you don’t want to do anything, you just want to have a moment with yourself, with someone important, or any reason; walking, reading, sun bath, enjoying peaceful beach vibe. Bring your towel and water, there is quite beach everywhere, some in walking distance, some need extra effort (depend on where you stay), but most nice and quite beach is in north of Gili Trawangan, if you in Gili Meno then its everywhere (this is the least popular island, second largest), if you in Gili Air then most quite beach is at west of the island.

enjoy holiday in Gili island, lombok with balinest

#6 Water activity

Its literally beach everywhere in Gili Island, other then diving, freediving and snorkeling you still can enjoy other water activity such as surfing, SUP boarding, canoeing, kayaking, and have fun with subwing. All of those activity can be easily found specially near the harbor, except for subwing, there is only one place that provide subwing service, here…

The subwing board is build from two separate board wings which are connected with rotatable swivel. By holding on the front edge of each wing with one hand, it can be easily be controlled in all direction. To make subwing fun, you will be towed, start from 2 knots to allow you get familiar with the board, after you give ok signal you will be pulled a bit faster, maximum speed is 4 knots.

Read More

Plan trip Jakarta to Gili Trawangan

Gili Trawangan is the largest island of Lombok’s Gili islands. Gili islands consist of 3 island, and Gili Trawangan is one of them, the other is Gili Air and Gili Meno. The name Trawangan originates from Indonesian word Trowongan mean tunnel, due to the presence of a cave tunnel build during Japanese occupation in world war 2, war of the Gilis. Gili Trawangan is famous among tourist who enjoy diving, snorkeling, nature and beach.

For scuba diver, diving around Gili islands is rather nice but nothing compared to other places like Komodo island or Bunaken. However it is a very good place for beginner divers as the conditions are usually good. The current is generally very gentle and the visibility good around 20m; that’s why Freediving is also big in Gili (this is the reason we go to Gili) there are Freedive Gili, Freedive Air, Freedive Blue Marine and Freedive Flow; this is several freedive center we can choose.

Gili islands located

To go to Gili Trawangan, we need to get to Bangsal Harbour in Lombok island, located in northwest of the island. The main access to Lombok is Lombok International Airport (LOP) or if you from Bali there is speedboat from Padang Bai harbor (located at east Bali). If you from the airport, there is several way to get to Bangsal Harbour, first by shuttle car (sharing or private) we try using lombokcartransport.com from internet; we contact them through whatsapp, and got replay quickly and book our car. Second option is to rent car, this will cost more but give more comfort along the road. The third option is to use official airport transportation which is a taxi directly to Bangsal harbour or take bus to Mataram city then take a taxi to Bangsal harbor.

Bangsal Harbour and Lombok airport

Then from Bangsal harbor crossing to Gili Trawangan have 2 option with regular wooden boat or with fast boat. Regular wooden boat will take approximately 45 minute, while fast boat will take 7 minute to arrive at Gili Trawangan. We can bought the ticket right at the harbor (we choose regular wooden boat).

So, roughly the transportation to Gili Trawangan and back home is clear. Now for the hotel, my friend recommend me to stay near the harbor, it would be more convenient if we want to go to the other Gilis / islands. 

Below is what we plan for our Gili Trawangan trip :

#first day – we arrive and take a rest, having a relaxing dinner and then a good night sleep. (because the road is long, from an early flight - 2 hour by car - then a boat - and last one is going to the hotel). And please note that there is no motor powered ride on the island, so the option is bicycle or horse cart.

#second day – we planning on biking around the island, swim on beach,spa at the hotel and have a dinner with old friends from Bali. (Its our first time to Gili, so we think we need to explore the island)

#third day – having a snorkeling trip around the Gili’s islands, then having a relaxing dinner (we decide to take the 5 hour trip which include snorkling spot at Gili Trawangan, Gili Meno and Gili Air)

#fourth day – we want to take a good rest in the morning, get ready to go back home (same reason with the first day, we need to get energized for a long road trip back to Jakarta)

For the hotel, in the whole Gili’s area there many option for place to stay, with vary price from 200.000 IDR to more then 5.000.000 IDR. But the main difference we found is that place with beach will cost more then the one without, the price range for place in front of the beach more then 800.000 IDR, while the one without beach will cost less then that. As you can see on our plan above, me and Endah will have a swim, beach walk, snorkeling and freediving, so we choose hotel with beach access. We end up choose Aston – Gili Trawangan because it has beach in front of it, and we familiar with the service standard. Flight, car, boat, hotel, and itinerary is clear, ready to gooooo….

Read More