Nusa Penida on Your Own: The Complete Guide — How to Get There and Around, What to See, Budget and All the Details
Nusa Penida is an island next to Bali with some of the most spectacular scenery in all of Indonesia: turquoise coves, sheer cliffs, the famous dinosaur-shaped headland and snorkeling with manta rays. It’s easy to visit on your own for a couple of days. This guide covers everything in order: how to get there, where to stay, what to see, how much to budget, and which details to watch out for so your trip goes smoothly.
The key thing about the format: the island is large and the distances between spots are considerable — 30–40 minutes from one place to another, sometimes up to an hour, on roads that aren’t the easiest. So for a proper look around, plan for two full days with 2 nights on the island. You definitely won’t rush through it all in a single day. We left on Saturday morning and came back Monday morning — that amount of time was enough.
1. How to Get to Nusa Penida
Boats to the island run from two ports on Bali, and your choice depends on whether you’re traveling light or bringing your own vehicle. If you’re bringing your own vehicle, you need the port in Amed; for most people, the port in Sanur is the one.
Sanur Harbour — this is where the fast speedboats leave from. It’s the closest port for anyone staying in Canggu, Kuta or on the Bukit:
Tickets
The easiest way is to buy tickets online in advance on Trip.com. You pick the date, time and boat. On arrival at the port, go into the ticket office, show your voucher and collect the QR codes for boarding. If you can’t find your company — just ask the locals, they’ll point you to it. Also read the instructions carefully, they’re detailed and explain everything; you can message support if anything is unclear, they reply quickly.
⚠️ About the traffic — important. Roads on Bali are perpetually jammed, so a taxi from Canggu to the port can take an hour or more. Give yourself a buffer: aim to leave for the port at least 1.5 hours before your departure. If you want a full first day on the island, take an early boat (say, 9 AM) and leave home around 6–7 AM.
The crossing by speedboat usually takes 30–45 minutes, but with waves and bad weather it can stretch to an hour.
2. Getting Around the Island
The most convenient way to get around Nusa Penida is by scooter. You can rent one right at the port: as you come off the pier, there’s a large parking lot behind a stone wall on the left. Many people write that the port scooters are beat up and pricier — that’s partly true, but in practice renting straight away is convenient and the price is fine. The main thing is not to grab the first one you see, but to look around and pick a newer scooter with good tires.
Price: around 200,000 IDR per day. They usually count not by 24-hour periods but by calendar days. You can negotiate: we took ours on Saturday and returned it Monday — technically 3 days, but we agreed and paid for two.
Fuel: the scooter most likely won’t have any. There’s a gas station a couple of minutes from the port, they’ll show you. A full tank is cheap and lasts two days, enough to cover the whole island.
⚠️ The roads really are bad. To popular spots like Diamond Beach the road is beat up in places: steep drops, potholes, gravel, heavy traffic. If you’re not a confident rider or you’re nervous — don’t risk it. And if you’re traveling with family, kids or parents — hire a driver with a car to take you around all the points. It’s safer and more comfortable. One more thing: there’s no street lighting on the island, so plan to get home before dark.
Where to find a driver on Nusa Penida:
- On Trip.com
- At the scooter rental spots near the port: they’ll point you to a driver or offer one themselves
- Taxi drivers at the port exit: they wait right by the pier, and you can agree on a price on the spot
- A driver recommended by our followers: his social media profile is @priariadi, with contact details in the profile bio. We haven’t ridden with him ourselves.
- Another driver recommended by our followers, in case the first one is busy: message him on +62 858-8302-0108. According to a follower, a car with a driver costs about 900,000 IDR per day. We haven’t ridden with him or checked him ourselves.
A fair price for a car with a driver is around 1,000,000 IDR for one day and up to about 1,700,000 IDR for two days.
At the end of this article you’ll be able to add all the popular spots to Google Maps in one click, plus there’s a list of place names you can show your driver.
3. Where to Stay
We booked our hotel on the same Trip.com (not an ad 😁 — the platform genuinely offers good prices and we really do use it in many cases, so I recommend it happily and often) and chose one near the port: that’s where all the infrastructure is (including the morning departures to the mantas) and the cafés, it’s a short ride to drop off your bags and freshen up, and it’s convenient for leaving on your departure day. There are almost no luxury hotels on the island, so choose by reviews and by how the place looks in photos.
For reference: our hotel with breakfast came to about $40 per night. Breakfast wasn’t fancy, but it was just right to start the day.
Aim for roughly this area:
4. What to See on Nusa Penida
Below are all the island’s main spots with map pins. The island roughly splits into an eastern and a western half, and it usually makes sense to see them on different days (east and west are far apart). But so as not to tie you to our route, we’ll just list all the points — and how best to split them across days, see at the end.
On prices: entry to almost all the beaches and attractions costs about 5,000–20,000 IDR (with or without parking, it varies). We won’t break down the price at each spot below so as not to get sidetracked — the full budget is at the end.
Diamond Beach and Atuh Beach
One of the island’s most postcard-worthy spots: white fang-like rocks, turquoise water, gorgeous nature. From the viewpoint up top you get the classic shot. The descent down to the beach itself is very steep and high — if you’re afraid of heights it’ll feel uncomfortable, and in places there’s no staircase at all. We didn’t go down, we walked around the top.
Nearby is Atuh Beach — take a look at that one too, walk left and right, the photo spots are gorgeous.
Map pins:
Guyangan Waterfall
A stunning spot with a switchback staircase running down a sheer cliff and a temple at the bottom. The views are incredible, with huge waves. There are stairs all the way with proper steps and railings, but if you’re afraid of heights it’ll be intense (in places the staircase is see-through).
Mind the time: the way down and back up is about half an hour each way. At the entrance they ask you to wear a sarong, which you’ll need to rent.
The waterfall itself is right at the bottom, but the path and the view from above are just as beautiful — so this is more of a viewpoint spot: huge waves crashing against the cliffs and a waterfall with a temple at the end.
It genuinely feels scary in places, so it’s better to watch a video on my social media to decide whether you’d be too scared to go down and whether to include this point in your route.
Manta Cliff Viewpoint
A viewpoint on a cliff where you can spot mantas in the water below — they look small from up there, but it’s still a great sight. Important: the road here is one of the worst on the island (!) — huge potholes, in places you have to walk, you can get stuck. If you’re not confident on a scooter, you can skip this one. And cars probably won’t make it up there — the road is very narrow in places.
Angel’s Billabong and Broken Beach
Two spots right next to each other. Angel’s Billabong is a natural “bowl” of turquoise water that fills up with the tide. If you manage to arrive at high tide, you’ll catch a great sight — big waves smashing into the ledge — but be careful: in strong swell you could get swept off.
Broken Beach is a huge circular cove with a natural arch through which the ocean flows in. You can walk all the way around it, and continue further along the shore — there’s a beach there too, another great view.
Both spots are very photogenic, and you can walk around them in 30–45 minutes.
Kelingking Beach
The famous headland shaped like a dinosaur’s (or dragon’s) head — Nusa Penida’s main postcard. The views from the top are simply stunning. A steep trail leads down to the beach: if you go, it’s better to have trekking shoes or sneakers with good grip. We didn’t go down — it’s high and uncomfortable if you’re afraid of heights. Watch out for the monkeys: they can snatch something or bite, so don’t get close and don’t show your belongings.
There’s always a crowd there, so don’t be surprised or discouraged — you’ll still get to see it, and it’s worth it, just like this whole island!
Crystal Bay
A beach with clear water and a great spot to catch the sunset. You can swim and snorkel here too. We arrived in the evening, watched the sunset and headed home. There are also cafés on the shore, umbrellas and sun loungers. It sits in a cozy little cove.
5. Snorkeling or Diving with Mantas (Manta Point)
A standalone activity that many people come to Nusa Penida specifically for.
There are a few ways to arrange it:
1. If you’re staying roughly in our area, you can book a trip with this company:
You message them on a messenger and book a spot; they’ll tell you when you leave and where to come. From our hotel the base was 5 minutes away.
Choose the snorkeling trip specifically to Manta Point, for 450K per person — at Manta Bay the chance of seeing mantas is far lower.
We got this company’s contact at the hotel; I imagine you’ll find similar offers at many hotels — just ask the front desk, and I think they’ll quickly point you to the nearest snorkeling spot.
In general, all of this should be arranged in advance — and that’s what we did. We had actually planned a private tour, but they told us the weather would be bad and it would be dangerous to go, so our trip was cancelled. To avoid losing time, we asked around whether others would go on those dates, and they did, so our trip happened after all.
Again — choose the snorkeling trip specifically to Manta Point, for 450K per person; at Manta Bay the chance of seeing mantas is far lower.
2. Buy tickets on Trip.com, but before that check where you need to go for departure, read the instructions, and if anything is unclear, message support to confirm.
Private tour: around 2.5 million IDR for the boat. Pricier, but they take you to several spots, it’s calmer and crowd-free. If you have your own group of 4–6 people, it works out well value-wise and is far more comfortable. If you’re interested, message me on social media and I’ll share the contact.
Things Worth Knowing in Advance
- You must go early. In the morning the mantas feed and there are more of them; closer to midday they swim off to rest. Arriving on Nusa Penida in the morning and heading straight to the mantas is a bad idea — you need to stay overnight and set off to the spot early.
- Weather decides. In strong swell, tours get cancelled or rescheduled. At Manta Point there are almost always waves, and the boat ride can be noticeably bumpy.
- Bring your own mask. Rental masks often leak, and disposable snorkel mouthpieces usually aren’t provided. It’s better to bring your own mask in advance — snorkeling with it is far more pleasant. By the way, if you plan to freedive on a breath-hold, the snorkel just gets in the way — a mask is enough.
- Photos from the guide: sometimes free photos/videos are included, but the quality — and whether you even get filmed at all — is hit or miss.
- If you can dive, that’s the best way to see the mantas up close and swim alongside them. But as I said earlier, the waves are big and there are lots of people; if you haven’t dived before it may not work out, so it’s better not to risk it and just take the snorkeling option.
And here’s roughly what we saw — this footage is included in the trip and sent to you afterward on a messenger:
6. Food and Cafés
Get the breakfast option at your hotel — that way you save precious daytime hours on the island. During the day, between spots, there’s not really anywhere for a proper lunch — grab water and a snack at a shop. For dinner it’s convenient to eat at cafés near your hotel, and there are plenty — choose by reviews. We went to Secret Penida and Penida Colada — we liked the second one more.
7. How to Build Your Route
There are a lot of spots on the island and they’re spread far apart, so it’s easier not to follow someone else’s ready-made route but to build one that suits you. Drop this whole article into our route planner and ask it to build a logical plan for 1 or 2 days — it’ll split the spots across days so you’re not zigzagging back and forth across the island. You can specify right away how many days you have, where your hotel is, what you definitely want to visit, and whether you’re on a scooter or with a driver.
👉 Build your Nusa Penida route
8. Budget: What We Spent
Here’s a breakdown of our real expenses for the trip, for two people (3 days, 2 nights on the island). Everything is in Indonesian rupiah (IDR) and US dollars. Rate: 100,000 IDR ≈ $6.
| Category | IDR | $ |
|---|---|---|
| 🚤 Speedboat there, 2 tickets | 500,000 | 30 |
| 🚤 Speedboat back, 2 tickets (Trip.com) | 392,000 | 24 |
| 🏨 Hotel, 2 nights with breakfast | 1,400,000 | 85 |
| 🛵 Scooter for 2 days | 400,000 | 24 |
| ⛽ Fuel | 50,000 | 3 |
| 🤿 Snorkeling with mantas, two | 800,000 | 48 |
| 🏖️ Diamond Beach, entry (two) | 60,000 | 3.6 |
| 💦 Waterfall, entry (two) | 40,000 | 2.4 |
| 💧 Angel’s Billabong, entry | 5,000 | 0.3 |
| 🦖 Kelingking, entry | 20,000 | 1.2 |
| 🍽️ Restaurant, day 1 | 350,000 | 21 |
| 🍽️ Restaurant, day 2 | 300,000 | 18 |
| 🛒 Shops, day 1 | 100,000 | 6 |
| 🛒 Shops, day 2 | 100,000 | 6 |
| 🥥 Coconut and lemonades | 135,000 | 8 |
| Total for two | 4,652,000 | ≈ $280 |
Total for two people over two days with an overnight stay — 4,652,000 IDR (≈ $280), not counting the flight to Bali.
Quick Pre-Trip Checklist
- Set aside 2 days with an overnight stay on the island
- Buy boat tickets in advance on Trip.com
- Leave for the port early, allowing for traffic
- Book a hotel near the port
- On the island, choose a newer scooter with good tires (or hire a driver if you’re not confident riding)
- Plan the manta snorkeling for early morning, and bring your own mask
- Get home before dark — there’s no lighting on the island’s roads
- Trekking shoes if you plan to hike down to the beaches