Nusa Penida – 3 Day Itinerary
Nusa Penida is a big island with tons to do, and it may seem overwhelming. Nusa Penida and the surrounding Islands offer so much to do that it can be hard to judge just how much time you will need. If you’re thinking of traveling to Nusa Penida while your in Bali, three days is all you need. In this blog ill tell you how you can spend three days on Nusa Penida and see all the main spots.
How to get to Nusa Penida from Sanur?
We stayed in Sanur before heading off to Nusa Penida. We had to take a ferry from the Sanur beach port to the Nusa Penida pier. The boat ride is about 45 minutes and it cost $30 per person round trip for the fast boat. Be prepared to get wet getting on and off the boat, they don’t have boat docks, so you literally have to walk in knee deep water to get on and off the boat.
Once you get to Nusa Penida Island you are going to either need a driver (which we were lucky enough to have through our hotel) or hire a taxi. They are kinda pricy but it’s only because they know you have no other options, so try to bargain with them to save you some money. You can also rent scooters once you arrive on the Island but some of the roads are really bad and the scooters slide on unpaved roads. Another great destination to explore is the nearby Island of Gili T, with this ultimate Gili Trawangan Guide!
Come Prepared
The roads on the island aren’t the best… that being said if your one to get carsick, I would suggest getting some Dramamine and taking it before any car ride on the island.
Where to Stay
We stayed at Kubu Indah Guest House, it’s a 30 minute ride from the pier. The house was super nice, and spotless upon our arrival. Each little house has a bed, big bathroom and a sink. Nothing special but it’s all you really need for two nights.
What we liked most about this guest house is that we had our own driver, he wasn’t free (150,000 Rupiah to the hotel) but it saved us time and money since all the taxi drivers at the pier wanted to charge us 350,00 Rupiah. He picked us up from the pier and drove us the house, helped us unpack all our luggage from the car and told us where to check in.
Day 1 : Nusa Ceningan / Nusa Lembongan
- Devils tear
- Dream beach
- Panorama Viewpoint (little kids selling bracelets)
- Blue Lagoon
- Secret Beach
For our first day we did Nusa Ceningan and Nusa Lembongan. We couldn’t use our hotel driver for these two islands so we had to hire a taxi once we got there. Don’t worry its super easy to do, they are all waiting on the beach and ask “Taxi??”. You’re going to have to bargain a little bit on price because they will try to rip you off, so don’t take the first price they give you! Our Driver was trying to have us pay 500,000 Rupiah and we got him down to 300,000 Rupiah, split between 5 people it was a steal.
The taxis over there aren’t your normal taxi. They use pickup trucks and put bench seats in the back for you to sit on. Our taxi driver was a younger kid who was super nice and told us the best places to go and how much time he thought we would need at each spot. He also played good music along the way so that was a plus!
If you don’t wanna pay for a taxi , you do have the option to walk or rent a scooter. I’m not sure what the price for a scooter was but I’m assuming it’s a lot cheaper then a taxi.
Our first stop was Devils Tear. It took about 10 minutes to get there and we spent maybe 20 minutes there. On the walk down there are a bunch of little shops selling food and typical Bali souvenirs. What makes Devils Tear such a cool spot is that when the waves crash into the cove, it shoots a huge mist back out and it creates a rainbow right in front of you. We were lucky enough to get to see a sea turtle swimming in the water, and a bunch of crabs crawling along the cliff. Devils Tear is known to be an incredible sunset spot as well!
From Devils Tear, We headed five minutes down the road to Dream Beach. We originally planned on swimming here and just relaxing on the beach for an hour or so but once we got down there we quickly decided not to. The beach was somewhat crowded and the sand was covered in sharp seashells that hurt to walk on. We stayed there for about 15 minutes just collecting cool seashells and sea glass then headed to our next spot. In my opinion if you have Dream Beach on your “must see” list id take it off, it’s really not worth it.
After Dream Beach , our taxi driver took us to a cool overlook called Panorama Viewpoint before dropping us off at the bridge to get to Nusa Ceningan. To get the best view of the overlook you will have to walk up the stairs of a little store and stand on the deck. From the deck you get a gorgeous view of the island. On our way out we got stopped by a group of little kids selling bracelets they hand made. Obviously we all bought a couple of bracelets! It was like $2 usd for 3 of them.
Our taxi driver brought us back to where he picked us up from because cars cant go over the bridge to Nusa Ceningan. You can walk or take a scooter, we decided to walk. We headed towards Blue Lagoon. The walk was kinda far and mainly uphill so walking here is not for everyone. To get the best view of the lagoon, Go to Avia Villa Ceningan Resort. You get an amazing view of Blue Lagoon and the food here is AMAZING. We didn’t do it, but it looked like you could go cliff jumping into the lagoon. We saw a few people getting out of the water and climbing back up the cliff. We hung out here for a little bit, flew the drone over the lagoon then headed to Secret Beach for the rest of the day.
Secret Beach was a perfect place to end the day. The beach wasn’t crowded, the water was perfect, and there was cool caves along the beach you could walk around. After laying on the beach for a while we walked over to Mahana Point (Surf Place) for lunch. The food was decent, we only went there because it was the best place to watch all the surfers. They had two different spots you could jump off of into the water (if your into that) for 20,000 Rupiah / per jump.
Day 2 : Nusa Penida
For our second day, we explored all of Nusa penida. We used our hotel driver, he originally told us that the price was going to be 500,000 rupiah but then at the end of the day when we went to pay him he made us pay 1 million rupiah… but anyway he picked us up at 5am from our hotel and we headed to Diamond beach and Atuh Beach for sunrise.
It was a little bit of walk down to the viewpoints and chilly (so bring a light jacket). I definitely recommend doing these two spots for sunrise because its breathtaking. When the sun hits the beach the colors are amazing! To make it clear these two beaches are literally in the same spot. To the left is Atuh Beach and to the right is Diamond beach so you get to see both of them for sunrise.
Our next stop was Ruhmah Pohon “Tree House”. The hike down to the tree house is very tough due to the steep steps on the way down and the huge cliff of steps on the way back up, were in shape and we were both out of breath at the top. It is a cool spot to check out for like five minutes, take a picture and then leave. In my opinion it’s not really worth going to unless you are actually staying in the treehouse.
After Ruhmah Pohon we went to my favorite spot, Kelingking Beach otherwise known as “Dino Rock”. It was an hour or so drive to get there from Ruhmah Pohon. As we were walking down to the rock we noticed a little girl sitting on the side of the path with a box and she kept saying something to us but we couldn’t quite understand what she was saying, so we walked over to her and saw that she had 5 puppies all cuddled up in the box. So me, loving puppies asks if I can hold one and she hands my sister, my mom and I a puppy. We asked her all their names and she told us with the biggest smile on her face. The momma dog came running up to all of us and was giving us kisses while we held her puppies, IT WAS THE HIGHLIGHT OF MY DAY!
Once we got down to Kelingking Beach the first thing we noticed was how crowded it was just to take a picture from the top. The line was so long but we didn’t care cause we wanted a picture from a different spot anyway, so we headed to the left and down the steps. The hike down wasn’t terrible, just steep, but the hike up was a little scary to me just because of how steep it was and the fact that it was pretty much on a cliff. We took a couple pictures with the rock from the usual Instagram spot, then debated on walking down more steps to get to the actual beach. From where we were the water looked super rough and the people who were down there weren’t swimming so we figured it wasn’t worth walking all the way down.
Our last stops of the day were Angel Billabong and Broken Beach, 45 minutes from Kelingking Beach .They are both at the same location, just a 1-2 minute walk to get to the other. Angle Billabong is a natural infinity pool located between rugged rocks, it gets filled with water from all the waves crashing into it. We didn’t swim in it, but we have seen people on Instagram and other blogs who have done it, just be careful if you do decide to take a dip in the pool!
Broken Beach is more of a top picturesque destinations rather then a spot to chill at, There isn’t currently a way to get down to the actual beach.
To get to Angel Billabong and Broken Beach you will take the cement path all the way down. If your hungry, there are plenty of warungs down there that you can grab something to eat at and have a great view!
Day 3 : Snorkeling – Nusa Penida
Nusa Penida is know as one of the best spots for snorkeling and scuba diving. For our last day on the island we decided to do a half day of snorkeling. There are tons of tour companies all over the island so don’t feel like you have to book anything super advance, most places you can just message them or call and book a trip for the next day.
For our snorkeling trip we went with Nusa Penida Destination Tour . They over full day and half day snorkeling trips, as well as just tours around Nusa Penida. We chose this company for many reasons..
- They picked us up from the hotel and dropped us back off after the tour
- Lunch was included (Nasi goreng)
- Water was included
- The guide stays with you the whole time while snorkeling
- We got to stop at four Spots
Like I said above, we got to stop at four different spots. The guides let you stay at each spot for as long or as little as you wanted, we never felt rushed or anything like that.
Manta Point – Best Snorkeling Spot in Nusa Penida
First stop and the best spot was Manta Point. Jumping in to the middle of the ocean was a little terrifying at first, but once I was in and saw what was below me, all the fear went away. We were lucky enough to see 5-6 huge manta rays swimming next to and below us. The manta rays do swim very close to you but theres nothing to worry about since they aren’t harmful in anyway, even though they might look like it up close!
Gamat Bay
At Gamat Bay we got to see a lot of cool reefs, colorful coral, and so many different kinds of fish (a lot of them are straight out of finding nemo haha). The water was pretty shallow, maybe like 6-7 feet deep so we got to dive down to the bottom and touch all the reefs at the bottom. We all felt bad because there were so many fish around us that we felt like we were kicking them with our flippers but the guide assured us that we weren’t hurting them at all. Before we got out of the water our guide gave all of us bread to feed the fish, all the fish came up to us and ate right out of our hands.
Crystal Bay
Crystal Bay is right next to where the boat launces from at the begining of the trip. There wasnt much fish other than Tuna but there was some other awesome finds at the bottom. There was a bunch of old “shipwreck” looking debre and other random things that made it fun to explore eventhough there wasnt much fish. It was probably our least favorite spot of the day, but I still highly recommend going in for a swim.
Toya Pakeh Wall
This spot was the easiest one because the current just took us the whole length of the wall and we were all beat from snorkling all day. The best part about this spot was seeing a huge school of fish swimming against the current, there had to be thousands of them.
Snorkeling was such an amazing experience and I highly recommend you do it if you ever stop on Nusa Penida, we also recommend you book your tour through Nusa Penida Destination Tour, you get the most bang for your buck and they know all the best spots to stop at!
Another Great Destination to Visit while in Bali is the Gili Islands!
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