One Day Nusa Penida Island West with Snorkeling

Our driver arrived early at 6.15am but luckily we were ready. The next hotel pick up was not ready and we ended up waiting for a very long time! The Sanur boat transfer experience was… an experience! Finally, we managed to cram onto a boat. On arrival, we were greeted by Kadek cok who was brilliant at directing us to the scuba diving tour. Kadek would then be our driver for the second half of the tour on the island itself but first… snorkelling. We ventured out on the boat and snorkelled at 4* different locations. Location 1 was Manta Bay and we saw a couple of Manta’s up close… very cool! Stop 2 was pretty uneventful. There wasn’t much to see at all. Stop 3 we snorkeled along a reef which was very cool. Stop 4 was literally just a random spot in the middle of the bay - I don’t know why anyone would snorkel there. We reconnected with Kadek on land and then drove up into the island. We stopped for lunch at a typical tourist stop restuarant - the food was fine. Side note: I think the lunch should have been included with the price tag. Kadek then drove us to all the significant sights. He was very helpful in offering to take out photograph and was friendly and attentive. Thanks Kadek! The return boat was held up for a long time, first due to low-tide and then as we waited for more and more tourists to arrive. By the time we got back to our hotel we’d been at it for 13 hours. On that note, it’s a very long day and lots of travel but not a great deal of time at the actual sites you choose to travel to. If you want a one day snapshot experience it’s definitely a good way to see things but in hindsight, I would have preferred to spend more time at the places.

I really love this activity and day on Nusa Penida Island. It was a long day full of fun and great memories. We snorkeled in 3 different spots which were all beautiful (it should have been 4 spots but we all agreed the sea was too rough to swim in one location that day). After snorkeling for a few hours we got back to the island and our driver took us around to first get lunch at a nice local restaurant and then to see Klingking beach viewpoint and other great destinations. I highly recommend for the adventurous sea and nature lovers looking for a jam packed day.

The actual spots of nusa penida are breath taking a deffo worth a visit! However, the ferry boats were so disorganised and it took us an hour and a half total to get on a ferry back to main island! Spoilt the whole day! Snorkelling was good, but couldn’t swim in manta point due to rough waves so disappointing! Tour of beaches was good but tiring in 30 degree heat so beware if not used to hot weather!

The drive over to Nusa Penida has been a disaster - after a long procedure of boarding at Sanur harbour we headed over to Nusa Penida island. While we arrived we we're apparently not able to go by beach with the big boat due to small water depth, which is of course no problem. But what has been really annoying is that they transported approx. 100 guests with only ONE small boat to the beach, so all other people had to wait for an eternity until the small boat returned (also with new guests) for the second and third charge. I really don't understand why they didn't took more boats! We lost at least 30-45 minutes of our trip time because we we're the last charge that has been picked up. After that we got some snorkling equipment and went on a smaller boat again. First spot was Manta Point, I never saw such a crowded point with so many boats and people. Thankfully the boats didn't hurt anyone in the water while driving, whereas I saw a lot of near misses. Our guide only allowed us to snorkle for approx. 15 minutes at this point and of course we didn't saw any manta there (no wonder, how crowded this place was). Nevertheless I was very disappointed that we were not allowed to snorkle there for at least 30 minutes, at it's said in the offer. Next we went to Crystal bay, also too crowded and only dead corals. At third point only a few people went snorkling, also nothing special to see there. After snorkling we got back to the harbour and met our driver - I already heard about Nusa Penidas roads and drivers, but what we experienced there was really scary. Never saw such bumpy roads before and drivers who drive so close to the gap. He showed us three spots, also crowded by masses of tourists. But he shot some really nice pictures (even climbed on a tree for us). Had a good lunch in a warung he showed to us and he brought us back one hour earlier and organized an earlier boat trip back to Bali, so we didn't had to wait for another hour there. All in all - not really worth the money.