Bali: Exploring Nusa Penida

Having completed exploring Amed (read here), it was now time to explore an island of the main island 🏝️. I am talking about Nusa Penida.

When deciding on an island to visit from Bali, the choices that one has to pick from are Lembongan, Ceningan and Nusa Penida. Another one that is considered, but much further off, are one of the Gili Islands. We chose to do Nusa Penida.

To reach Nusa Penida, one has to take a boat ride from the main island of Bali. For this, we had our hotel at Amed organise a drop off at the Kusamba Port. From there we caught a fast boat to Nusa Penida. The boat ride took around 30 minutes. We were to stay on the island for 1 night. We did this as it gave us the opportunity to cover more than the usual sites that people visit in Nusa Penida. Plus, like I had mentioned in my first post on Bali, we like to explore places at our own pace. To get around Nusa Penida, we had booked a private car with a driver. He was there to pick us up from the ferry point where our boat dropped off.

Here are the places we explored on Nusa Penida.

Tembeling Beach and Forest

Barely ever on the itinerary of day visitors to Nusa Penida, this is the first place we went to. In addition to the hope that it will be less crowded, we also chose it as it involved a hike. The hike is straightforward but does get quite steep at places when you come back up to the starting point. Do it at an easy pace and it is doable. Here are some pictures once at the beach.

There is also a nice natural pool that one can get into at the beach. So get your swimming clothes, if you wish to do so.

Kelingking Beach

It is famous for its iconic Tyrannosaurus Rex like shaped cliff side and of course turquoise colored waters. Most people, including us, take in the breathtaking views from the top. But it is possible to go down to the beach using a steep and narrow stairs. Here are some pictures:

Yes, those colours are for real! Be prepared for crowds though. There will be lllooottts of people 😁.

Angel’s Billabong, Broken Beach and Devil’s Billabong

These are located close to each other. One actually walks to them one after the other. Here too expect a lot of visitors. But still worth a visit.

Diamond Beach

This is another stunning beach on the island. It gets it name from the distinctive upside-down diamond-shaped rock formation protruding from the ocean. This beach can be accessed using a staircase of roughly 165 steps carved into the limestone cliffside. We climbed down the stairs but decided to return midway as it was getting very hot.

Atuh Beach

This beach is just across Diamond Beach. So one usually walks over to it after seeing Diamond Beach. Given that it was super hot and humid, we decided to just see it from the top of the cliff and not climb down it.

Raja Lima (Thousand Island) Viewpoint

Next we visited the Thousand Island Viewpoint. This was an easy one to do with the walk from the car parking being easy; a blessing when it is super hot and humid 😆.

Staying in Nusa Penida

For the place of stay for the night, there are plenty of choices for the overnight stay on the island. But we chose to book an Airbnb that gave us private access to the beach.