Chilling on Gili Trawangan beach

How To Make Your Own Way To The Gili Islands – Budget Travel In Indonesia

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Visit Gili Islands, three small islands to the north-west of Lombok’s coastline that are a popular destination with divers and snorkelers as the waters offer great visibility and rich marine life.

The three main islands are Gili Trawangan, Gili Meno and Gili Air. Gili Trawangan is the largest and most developed of the three. Here you will find many bars and restaurants and even magic mushroom drinks to keep the parties going well into the small hours.

As we didn’t have much time on the island of Lombok, we decided to incorporate our visit to the Gilli islands into our time in Senggigi. From Senggigi, you can find numerous tour agencies offering trips to one, or all, of the islands. The packages for a island-hopping trip were around 700,000 IDR.

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Public Boats To Gili Islands

As is usually the case, there are cheaper ways than using a tour package company. We heard that public boats left throughout the day from ‘Bangsal Harbour’ (map). The information we found on the internet gave various times of departure so we just decided to turn up on the morning and go with the flow.

We got a Grab taxi to the harbour and he dropped us right outside the public ticket office. If you have to walk, be aware that you will be approached by many locals offering you their services. Politely decline and head to the ticket booth which is right next to the departure bay. You can only buy tickets for public buses from this bay. Anyone else will be selling you private boats at a much higher price. Tickets for all three islands were unavailable so we bought a ticket for Gili Trawangan for just 15,000 IDR.

We had heard horror stories about this harbour but, as we purchased our tickets almost immediately after getting out of our taxi, we were pretty much left alone.

The boats depart when there are 40 people. In our case, we had to wait around 10 minutes. The boats are filled up with produce to take to the businesses on the island.

Public boat to Gili Islands

Public boat to Gili Islands

Arriving On Gili Trawangan

The boat arrived on the east coast where most of the bars and restaurants are located. The first thing that we noticed was how busy it was compared to Senggigi. As there is no motorised transport allowed on the island, people get around by bicycle or horse and cart. Despite it being busy, you get an immediate impression of how beautiful the beaches are.

Gili Trawangan beach

Gili Trawangan beach

Gili Trawangan Coffee Shop

We decided to hire some snorkeling equipment and walk around the entire island looking for the famous turtles. But before that, we needed coffee and food.

‘Coffee & Thyme’ (map) is located right at the harbour and served great coffee with a friendly service. The food also looked good but we had already decided to visit a ‘warung’ for cheap, Indonesian food.

Warung Dewi Indonesian Food

Just around the corner from ‘Coffee & Thyme’ and through a local, open-air market was ‘Warung Dewi’ (map). Google Maps say it is a vegetarian restaurant but it is not entirely vegetarian. I had a delicious chicken dish and beef rendang alongside my vegetables. The food was delicious and cheap. It is definitely worth a visit.

Searching For Turtles In Gili Trawangan

We then hired some snorkeling gear and tried a few spots looking for turtles. We found some fish but nothing amazing and the snorkeling gear was pretty useless. We returned it and exchanged it for better gear. Top tip: when you hire the gear, check it in the sea when you first get it so you don’t have to walk half an hour back, as we did.

Further up the coast, Joanna saw her first turtle. I went in looking but found none, though I did find some amazing tropical fish.

On the island’s north coast, we reached a point where locals insisted we would see turtles. Joanna went in first but had no luck. I was beginning to think I would never see one.

“No, just go over there,” insisted the local, despite Joanna’s failure.

Disaster Strikes

I went into the sea and began to swim towards where the local pointed when I immediately realised my phone was still in my pocket. I got out and gave it to Joanna, hoping it could be saved but knowing deep down that it was gone. Hence the lack of photos on this page. All the images on this page are courtesy of Joanna Bek.

Feeling very annoyed with myself, I swam around without seeing anything of note when, suddenly, there it was. A huge turtle was swimming just metres away from me. I swam towards it until it was literally inches away. It was incredible. We both looked at each other for a moment before he went back to eating. I stayed with him for a minute or so before heading back to shore. I might have lost my phone, but at least I swam with a turtle.

Gili Trawangan West Side

We carried on with our walk around the island. The west side has some beautiful resorts but it was much quieter. Some places were practically empty.

The walk around the island was around 2 hours, not counting the stops for snorkeling. As soon as we began walking back up the east side, it got much busier again. We stopped for lunch at an outdoors bar which could have been ‘Naty’s 2’ or ‘The Jungle Bar’. We had no idea which restaurant we were eating at but the food was decent and fairly priced.

Chilling on Gili Trawangan beach

Chilling on Gili Trawangan beach

Taking The Boat Back To Senggigi

We returned to the public boat terminal (map) and had an even shorter wait for departure.

Are The Gili Islands Worth Visiting?

We had a great day on Gili Trawangan, despite the loss of my phone. In hindsight, we were glad we didn’t do the island-hopping tour as it would have been way too rushed and one day was plenty of time to enjoy Gili Trawangan. If we would have had more time, I would have liked to spend a night on each of the islands. I would definitely recommend including the Gili Islands in your Lombok itinerary.

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2 comments on “How To Make Your Own Way To The Gili Islands – Budget Travel In Indonesia

  1. Pingback: Visit Lombok: Budget Travel in Indonesia - Global Treats

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