Nusa Penida Backpacker's Guide | Important Things You Should Know

If you have stumbled upon this post, you must have gotten the basic information you needed to go around Nusa Penida, but is still looking for additional tips that could help you around. However, if you have just started researching about what to do in Nusa Penida, this isn't the post for you - at least not yet - until you have done the former mentioned.

Diamond Beach - Nusa Penida

Assuming you have gotten the basics of how to get there, boat schedules, where to stay,  currency, and tours, I will list down some things that you might have not read yet. I will be attaching our itinerary as well at the end of this post (3 Days 2 Nights in Nusa Penida - Island tour and Swimming with Mantas)

Sanur Harbor to Nusa Penida

1. You can contact your accommodation to help you book tickets or book it yourself (150k one way)
We had someone who helped us book. His name was Puta from Penidago - this is his WhatsApp number  +62 813 3844 7944  (very responsive guy - even helped with the renting of motorbikes)

2. Be ready to be wet (lower part) when you board your boats from and to Nusa Penida :)

Motorbikes

3. Motorbike rents are per day - not per 24 hours (80K IDR per day) regardless of how many hours you have spent using it per day
4. You DO NOT NEED need a license to drive around
5. Petrol/Gas is available almost anywhere. Both from petrol stations or just bottled ones
6. They drive in the left hand side

Driving Around Nusa Penida

7. Yes. THE ROADS ARE BAD - most of the roads were already asphalted BUT it isn't big enough to comfortably have 2 medium size cars in 2 lanes. Most of the vehicles there are motorbikes anyway, but the road's sides are broken so most of the vehicles are forced to move to the center to avoid the potholes. As you go further to the places you want to visit, the roads become worse (including the roads a few kilometers from Diamond/Atuh beach, and on your way to Angel's Billabong & Broken beach)

Here's a video of a road to Diamond Beach

This is the easy part - the hard ones are those that are uphill and twice as "holey" as this.

There was 3 of us (all girls) and I was the only one who can drive a bike. During our stay, mornings were spent doing snorkeling/swimming. So we only had afternoons to go around the island - so hiring a private car was not an option since it was too costly. We decided then to just hire another bike with a local driver just to be safe. Luckily there were no accidents. There were times when I had to ask my friend to walk since the road was too risky. There are no fences to roads around cliffs, pretty scary if you ask me. I have also seen a lot of tourists tending to their wounds on the streets even in newly asphalted roads. Just really be careful - slowly but surely. Avoid driving when its getting dark (around town its okay)

It cost 250-350k per day with the extra bike with a driver (depending how far you are going) He didn't have to drive us around at night for dinner since I can manage having two passengers in one bike and the roads were okay near the main town.

Snorkeling or Swimming

8. There are a lot of tours and boats in Toyapakeh - either rent for a private tour (400k per person) or join a group

Swimming with Giant Mantas

9. IMPORTANT NOTE - Manta point and Manta Bay are different. You have more chances to see them when you go to Manta Point. When we went to Manta Bay, we swam with DOLPHINS, not Mantas :) 

The usual package tourists get is the snorkeling tour around Manta Bay, Crystal Bay, Gamat Bay and one more which name I forgot. They will tell you from the start that this has no guarantee of seeing Mantas. We were told that originally, mantas were around those areas, but as time passed, they decided to move further to avoid people. Manta bay, too, is where you can see Angel's Billabong and Broken Beach from below. It costed us 400k per person for a private tour around those four spots and 10$ (as far as I can remember) for a joiner tour. Both includes snorkeling equipment but no free lunch.

If you want get better chances of seeing the mantas, you better go to Manta Point - which is another 30-45minutes from manta bay. The locals will tell you what time best to check them out, so better visit your tour operator a day before your trip so they can inform you. Some people went as early as 6 AM and only saw 2 of them, the others went 9AM and saw 20 of them...so ask the locals.

Sometimes too you might not see them in Manta Point, so they will suggest to visit the other spots (manta bay, kelingking, etc...) If you decide to just check out Manta Point, that will only be 2M IDR, but if you want to check out the other spots, that will be 2.5M IDR.

What to visit

10. If you are not sure what places to visit - know where you will be staying and start from there. Open up a map of the island and see how long it will take you to drive.

We stayed 15 minutes away from harbor and almost every location we visited was 30-55minutes away. So swimming in the morning and land tours in the afternoon were okay.

11. Trek down Kelingking beach or Diamond Beach?  choose one if you ask me, or choose both if you have energy. Diamond beach is easier.

12. Diamond Beach, Atuh Beach & Goa Gi Putri Temple - you can go down and chill in Diamond Beach and head back up to see Atuh Beach (no need to go down since you have already spent it in Diamond Beach). On your way back to town, pass by Goa Gi Putri Temple - pretty solemn especially if you are the only ones there. 

13. If you are driving, make sure you are physically ready to drive and withstand heat to Angel's Billabong, Broken Beach and Kelingking. It is here where most accidents happen.

Avoid Tourist Rush Hours

11. Visit Angel's Billabong, Broken beach and Kelingking beach (and any other places) 7-8AM or 3-4PM to avoid loads of tourists that came from mainland Bali doing the Nusa Penida day tour. They start to arrive 10AM and most of them leave back to mainland around 3PM - so do the Math

Tourists taking a picture in Kelingking Beach

Where to EAT
12. I am not sure what its called but there are warungs open from 4pm to midnight a few minutes away from where we stayed and that's where we ate dinner. There are a lot of restaurants open too, but if you want to eat like a local, go on your bike and explore :)

Itinerary (3 Days 2 Nights in Nusa Penida - Island tour and Swimming with Mantas)

This was our original plan for our 3 DAY STAY in Nusa, but had to move day 3 activities to day 2 so we could get another chance to see the Mantas on our last day

Itinerary (3 Days 2 Nights in Nusa Penida - Island tour and Swimming with Mantas)

As you can see in our itinerary, we did the manta ray tours twice because we thought MANTA BAY AND MANTA POINT were the same. So, we had to take another tour since we couldn't see any mantas in MANTA BAY and had to pay more ( which you can avoid now that you know this :) )

If you have any questions, feel free to drop them in the comments below :) ENJOY