Nusa Penida Loop

Indonesia | October 2023 |

Nusa Penida, technically part of Bali, is a great place for a quick moto tour, excellent diving, and decent sightseeing. To get to Penida from Bali I did a 45-minute ride from Seminyak, parked my Aerox at Sanur harbor parking lot, then caught a fast ferry (45 mins port to port) I had booked earlier online. On arrival to Penida I rented a Yamaha Nmax 155 cc scooter at the ferry harbor, 150,000 rupiah/day I think it was. I configed my trusty ROKstraps, secured my roller bag of 20 kg of dive gear, and rode 20-minutes to my guesthouse. Gotta say: this was maybe the easiest, fastest, most seamless inter-island trip I have done in Indo - and there have been a few.

My main prerogative at Penida was to go diving, which I did for 2 days - and it lived up to the hype (see my post on Diving Penida for all the details). But, of course, I also wanted to tour as much of the island as possible on the Nmax.

Peninda is a throwback to "old Bali", a pretty gritty place, no fancy hotel chains, a backpacker vibe - just fine for me. The island is dry, covered in scrub, the landscape almost completely transformed with terraces of volcanic rock or coral, most of which is overgrown with trees and brush. It seemed like most of the farmland is abandoned, which struck me as a bit odd in agriculture-intensive Indonesia. Penida begs the question: Water dried up? Depopulation? Seasonal farming? Moved to Bali?

Anyways, back to the main point: I did manage to complete a couple of decent short and quick 2-3 hour rides on the island, taking in some of the main tourist attractions.

The first ride was down the east coast to Diamond Beach, along the coastline of coral reef lagoon where the main industry is seaweed farming; it's as if that part of the island has a blue frill around it, surrounded by the dark Lombok Strait. I stopped at Diamond but didn't muster the energy to hike to the viewpoint or beach, mostly due to the massive numbers of mini-van riding Bali day-trippers onsite. From there I rode up the middle of the island, through some decent hills and sights.

The next day I rode down the western middle route to Kelingking "T-Rex" Beach. Unfortunately, it was more packed than Diamond Beach, basically an anthill of people, mostly selfie seekers. Anyways, it was a spectacular sight, a true must-do if you have time in Bali or to tie into your dive trip on Penida. I also managed to take a few selfies, as it was possible to find a "private" vantage point (along the cliff, where a few people must fall off each year). After that I rode back through the center of the island to my 1.5-star accommodation.

Penida is not exactly easy riding. The roads can be downright dangerous - narrow, rough, continuous road hogging manic mini-vans, mixed with no helmet shirtless rookie-rider tourists learning to ride in one of the worst places for that essential skill.

Off-road (literally), the most impressive ride I had at Penida was on a dive boat journey around the west coast of the island to Manta Point. This route includes some truly world-class terrain, including massive cliffs and a rugged coastline straight out of Jurrasic Park. The view of T-Trex beach from the water is almost as good as from the cliff above.

Aside from diving, riding, and sightseeing, Penida has some great restaurants, and I am calling our Mevui Vietnamese as superb; my expectations for Vietnamese food on Penida were pretty low, but the Hanoi Bun Cha I had was the next best I have ever eaten (I was happy to discover, Mevuiu has numerous outlets around Bali; I ate the same thing in Lovina and Legian). For accom, I booked in at Tropical Garden a cheap well-reviewed place, on Agoda - it was not great, with backpacker party scene, one night until 3:00 am.