Nusa Islands Day Trips in Bali
Part of the Bali travel guide — see every topic in All Bali Guides.
The three Nusa islands — Penida, Lembongan and Ceningan — lie across the Badung Strait from Sanur, reachable by fast boat in thirty to forty-five minutes. Penida is the big, rugged one with the famous limestone coastline; Lembongan is small, developed and easy; Ceningan is tiny and joined to Lembongan by a yellow suspension bridge. They deliver the turquoise water and white sand that Bali's own beaches largely do not, which is why the day-trip boats leave Sanur full every morning of the dry season.
Nusa Penida in a day
Penida is much bigger than it looks and its roads are genuinely rough, so a day trip covers one side of the island, not both. The west circuit is the famous one: Kelingking Beach, whose headland reads as a dinosaur's head above a white bay; Broken Beach, a collapsed sea cave forming a natural arch; Angel's Billabong, a tidal rock pool that is dangerous at high tide and has killed people; and Crystal Bay for the sunset. The east circuit — Diamond Beach, Atuh, Thousand Islands viewpoint — is quieter and arguably better. Trying to do both in one day means seeing neither properly.
Lembongan and Ceningan
Lembongan is the relaxed option: eight square kilometres, a good beach at Mushroom Bay, Dream Beach and Devil's Tear where the swell explodes through a blowhole, and a mangrove forest at the north end you can paddle through. Everything is reachable by scooter in an afternoon. The Yellow Bridge takes you across to Ceningan, which has the blue lagoon cliff, a seaweed-farming shoreline and a couple of cliff bars. The two together make a far gentler day than Penida and are the better choice if you want to swim rather than drive.
Getting there and around
Fast boats leave Sanur from around 7am; the crossing is thirty minutes to Lembongan and forty-five to Penida, and costs roughly 200,000–400,000 rupiah each way. Book the return in advance in high season. The strait is genuinely rough — the boats are open-cockpit speedboats, the swell in the Lombok Strait is serious, and afternoon crossings are worse than morning ones. On Penida, hire a car with driver for the day (700,000–900,000 rupiah) rather than a scooter: the roads are steep, broken concrete, and the accident rate among tourists on scooters here is the worst on Bali.
Do it as an overnight
The single best improvement to a Nusa trip is staying a night. Kelingking at seven in the morning is empty; at eleven, when the day boats have arrived, there is a queue for the viewpoint. Staying also lets you split the island into two half-days and dive Manta Point in the morning when the water is calmest. Simple guesthouses run 300,000–600,000 rupiah and there are a handful of genuinely good cliff-edge resorts. If you only have one day, take the earliest boat out and the last one back, and pick one coast.
Nusa Islands Day Trips at a glance
| Crossing | Sanur to Lembongan 30 min, Penida 45 min |
|---|---|
| Boat fare | IDR 200,000–400,000 each way |
| Penida car + driver | IDR 700,000–900,000 per day |
| West circuit | Kelingking, Broken Beach, Angel's Billabong, Crystal Bay |
| East circuit | Diamond Beach, Atuh, Thousand Islands viewpoint |
| Best advice | Stay overnight; scooters on Penida are genuinely risky |