Nusa Penida
Nusa Penida is manta rays as close to reliable as wildlife gets, and between July and October a 2,300-kilo sunfish beside you in the water. Kelingking's headland and Broken Beach empty the moment the last ferry leaves.
Nusa Penida in a nutshell
Nusa Penida: what to expect
We counted 688,000+ planned stops across Indonesia on Stippl before writing this.
Nusa Penida is a dry limestone island forty minutes off Bali, and its whole appeal is a coastline you mostly cannot swim. Kelingking is the headland on every poster, with a near-vertical descent to a beach the sea makes dangerous. Broken Beach is a collapsed arch you walk over, Angel's Billabong a tidal pool the tide decides on, and Diamond and Atuh sit at the foot of staircases cut into the cliff. Manta rays feed at Manta Point year round, and mola mola come up between July and October.
Almost nobody starts a trip on Nusa Penida. Around three in a hundred of the trips that carry it open there, the lowest opening share we measure in the country, because there is no airport and the only way in is a boat from a Balinese beach. Travellers also decide on it late: 72 days of lead time, the shortest in Indonesia.
So stay 2 nights rather than day-tripping, and be at Kelingking before the boats land. The island empties after the last ferry, which is the version worth having, and the roads are steep and slow enough that sights which look adjacent are three quarters of an hour apart. Crystal Bay and Atuh are where you actually swim. Skip Nusa Penida if you are a nervous scooter rider or you came for a lounger.
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Divers and snorkellers
Manta rays at Manta Point are as close to reliable as wildlife gets, and mola mola come up between July and October; it is the island's strongest claim.
Landscape photographers
Kelingking's headland, Broken Beach's arch and the Thousand Islands view are genuinely extraordinary and genuinely worth the effort.
Anyone wanting the view alone
After the last ferry leaves the island empties, and most people give it 2 nights to see it that way.
Confident scooter riders
The island is rideable and rewarding if you can already ride in Asia, and unforgiving if you cannot.
Maybe not for you: swimmers and beach loungers, since most of the coastline is not for swimming; anyone who wants a relaxing beach holiday, because this is an adventure; nervous riders; families with small children, given the cliff staircases; and single-day visitors, who see car parks and queues.
The best time to visit Nusa Penida
Dry season
May to September
Calm seas and the best underwater visibility, and the reason every guide gives the same window. July to October adds the sunfish to the mantas.
Wet season
November to March
Rougher crossings, poorer visibility and a real chance of a cancelled boat. The island itself, scrub and limestone rather than rice terrace, hardly changes.
- Nyepi Laut, the sea silence day, strands you on these islands for 24 hours, and it is specific to them. No boat sails to, from or between Penida, Lembongan and Ceningan; the date moves on the Balinese calendar and Bali's own Nyepi in March stops the boats too.
- The mola mola come to the cleaning stations from July to October. Mantas are near reliable all year at Manta Point; the sunfish are the one thing here with a season, and divers get the encounter more than snorkellers.
- Nusa Penida is planned about 72 days ahead on Stippl, and September is its month. The island empties when the last ferry leaves, in every season; the night here is the decision that matters, not the month.
- A sarong is required at the temples and at the Peguyangan waterfall, for men and women. The island's temples take Balinese pilgrims on their own calendar, and on a festival day the road to Goa Giri Putri is a procession.
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Things to do in Nusa Penida
Photo by Anton Rymarev via Unsplash
Photo by Timur Kozmenko via Unsplash
Photo by Govinda Aryal via UnsplashKelingking Beach
See the T-rex headland from the viewpoint at the top, the island's signature and one of the most photographed views in Indonesia, about €1. The beach is a forty-five-minute near-vertical descent; most people should stay at the top.
Manta Point
Snorkel or dive with manta rays, reliably and year-round, on a boat trip from Crystal Bay for about €25. The single best reason to come, and the morning boats have the calmer sea.
Broken Beach and Angel's Billabong
Walk over the collapsed sea arch and down to the natural tidal pool five minutes away, at the end of the worst road on the island. The pool is only safe at low tide; people have been swept out at high water.
Diamond Beach and Atuh
Climb down the limestone staircases cut into the cliff to the east coast's two coves, about twenty minutes down and more up. About €1, and the stairs are the reason to wear shoes.
Peguyangan waterfall
Descend 150 metres of blue iron staircase bolted to the cliff to a spring and a temple at the bottom, with a sarong required and a head for heights assumed. Free, and the climb back is the workout of the trip.
Crystal Bay at sunset
Swim and snorkel at the island's best beach and stay for the sunset, where the whole island goes to watch it. Free, and the warungs on the beach grill fish from five.
The neighbourhoods of Nusa Penida
The west coast
Harbours, most beds, the sights
The busy side: the harbours at Toyapakeh, most of the accommodation, and Kelingking, Broken Beach and Crystal Bay within an hour of each other. For first visits and anyone doing the island in a day.
The famous sights nearby, and the tour vans on the same roads.
The north coast
Working strip, market, dive shops
The island's working strip at Sampalan and Ped: the main town, the market, the cave temple and the dive shops, with guesthouses and a few resorts on the reef. For divers and for the island's practical side.
The dive shops and the town, and a coast of reef rather than sand.
The east coast
Cliff stairs, white coves, quiet
The quiet side: cliff staircases down to Atuh and Diamond Beach, a viewpoint over the limestone islets and a fraction of the crowd, with cliff-top guesthouses. For second days and for the beaches without the vans.
Beaches as good as the west with nobody, and an hour's drive from the harbour.
The south-west
Steep tracks, spring, cliff sunset
Steep tracks down to the Tembeling forest spring and the Banah cliff sunset point, reachable by motorbike or on foot only, with a couple of homestays. For effort and for the places a tour van cannot reach.
The island's quietest corners, and a hard ride to reach them.
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Where to stay in Nusa Penida
Stay on the west coast near Toyapakeh for a first visit: most of the beds are here and Kelingking, Broken Beach and Crystal Bay are within an hour of each other. Most people give Nusa Penida 2 nights on Stippl, one day west and one day east from the same bed. Book ahead for July and August; the bed stock is small against the day-visitor numbers.
The west coast
Guesthouses with a pool and breakfast around €45, budget rooms €15 to €30, and a few small resorts from €80.
The north coast
Guesthouses and dive lodges near the operators at Ped and Sampalan, €20 to €70.
The east coast
A handful of clifftop guesthouses and the treehouse rooms around €26, with a sunrise to justify the road.
The south-west
A couple of simple homestays reached by motorbike track, €12 to €30, and nothing else.
What to eat in Nusa Penida
Rice with a spread of small Balinese sides, the warung meal
Fried rice with egg, the other warung staple
Fresh seafood landed at Sampalan and the north-coast villages
Balinese ceremonial spit-roast pork, on the menu because Penida is Balinese Hindu
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Nusa Penida customs and what not to do
A sacred Balinese island
The etiquette applies in full: sarongs at temples, walk around the offerings, and no sightseeing in an inner courtyard. The island's reputation for black magic is a live belief, not folklore.
Two sites need a sarong
Peguyangan waterfall and Goa Giri Putri cave, men and women both, hired at the entrance for a small fee; both are working religious sites that happen to be spectacular.
It is poorer than Bali
The infrastructure is younger and waste, water and roads are all visibly strained by the visitor numbers; take your plastic back to Bali and pay the village parking without argument.
The cliffs have no rails
Kelingking's path and Diamond Beach's stairs are cut into the rock; a photo from the edge has killed people here, and the sea below is not for swimming anywhere.
Do
- Go to Kelingking between seven and nine
- Pin your stops and group them by coast before you set off
- Carry cash for entry and parking fees
- Take a sarong
Don't
- Try to do west and east in one day
- Rent a scooter here as your first scooter in Asia
- Swim at Kelingking, Diamond, Suwehan or Broken Beach
- Assume the boat sails on Nyepi or Nyepi Laut
What a Nusa Penida trip costs
Budget
€17–30
Guesthouse, warung meals, a shared scooter, site entries.
Mid-range
€43–80
Bungalow with a pool, a shared tour, a snorkel trip.
High-end
€110+
Cliffside villa, private car and driver, private dive charter.
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Fun facts about Nusa Penida
Nusa Penida is one of few reliable places on earth to snorkel with mola mola. The ocean sunfish reach 2,300 kg and come up from the deep at Crystal Bay between July and October.
The island was the Klungkung kingdom's place of exile. That is where its reputation in Balinese belief as an island of black magic comes from, and the temples are pilgrimage sites.
Diamond Beach was unreachable until late 2018. Stairs were cut into the limestone cliff that year, and the beach went from invisible to one of the most photographed on the island.
Goa Giri Putri is entered through a gap barely wide enough for one person. The cave temple opens into a chamber that holds hundreds, and the priests bless visitors at the shrines inside.
Nyepi Laut stops every boat and every dive for a full day, once a year. The sea version of Bali's Day of Silence closes the water around the three Nusa islands, and nothing moves.
The island sits inside a marine protected area of over 20,000 hectares. Reef, seagrass and mangrove, plus a sanctuary for the critically endangered Bali starling, which was reintroduced here.
Local tips for Nusa Penida
The fast boat from Sanur
Thirty-five to forty-five minutes, about €15 return, and how essentially everyone arrives. Book the last boat back when you buy the first; the harbour is chaos at four.
Think twice about the scooter
The roads are steep, narrow and badly surfaced, and cars drive fast on them; every guide advises against renting unless you already ride confidently in Asia. A shared van tour is about €30 a person.
West and east are two days
Kelingking to Broken Beach is forty-five minutes and the harbour to Diamond Beach an hour; a day trip does one coast. Plan by journey time, not distance.
How long to stay
Most people give Nusa Penida 2 nights on Stippl, and a fifth come for the day. Two nights does both coasts and Manta Point without the four o'clock crush.
People drown on these beaches
Kelingking and Diamond have a shorebreak with no lifeguard, no phone signal in places and a forty-five-minute climb to help. Swim at Crystal Bay, and even there with a guide.
The tide decides the Billabong
Angel's Billabong is only a pool at low tide; at high water it is a wave that takes people over the edge. Check the tide and obey the guard; the staircases are the third hazard.
Nusa Penida questions, answered
Stay, and pick one base. The coasts are an hour of bad road apart, so a day trip buys you one of them in a queue. Only 3.05% of the trips including Nusa Penida start here on Stippl, so it is a stop off Bali rather than an arrival point. Put two nights and a driver into Stippl.
Two nights, to see both coasts properly. The Nusa Penida stops planned on Stippl run to 2 nights. One day for the west, Kelingking and Broken Beach, one for the east, Diamond Beach and Atuh, and the roads between them are slow.
A stay, on the unanimous recommendation of everyone who has done both. Hardly ever, and 20.94% of Nusa Penida stops planned on Stippl are the exception at one night. The boat, the transfer and the queue at Kelingking eat a day trip whole, and you go home having seen one viewpoint.
No. People have died on that descent and in that water, and the current at the bottom is serious. The famous beaches here are for looking at from the cliff. Crystal Bay and Atuh are the ones to swim at, and even there you check the conditions before you get in.
Only if you already ride confidently in Asia. The roads here are worse than Bali's: steep, broken and narrow, with drops and no barriers, and the hire bikes are tired. A driver for the day costs little and removes the whole problem, which is what most people end up doing.
July to October, when the cold upwelling brings them up to the cleaning stations, at depths that mean divers see them properly and snorkellers occasionally get lucky. The same water is colder than the latitude suggests, so take a thicker wetsuit. Book with a dive shop, not a boat tour.
Every guide is written by the Stippl editors and checked against the trips our travellers actually plan. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
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