Not far away from Bali, there's another lovely island called Lombok. As the famous island of Bali, Lombok offers dreamy beaches, nice surf spots, and good food. While I made my way to Lombok I visited two places, I definitely can recommend Gili Trawangan, one of the three Gili Islands located in front of the main island Lombok and Kuta, a surfer's town in the South of the island Lombok.
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Gili Trawangan
Surprisingly, this place turned out to be one of my favorite places in Indonesia. Gili Trawangan, or better known as just Gili T, is such a tiny place but has so much to offer and in my opinion, I could have stayed there for weeks. What makes it so special? Well, once you arrive there, you’ll notice that no cars or motorbikes are allowed on this island and if you need transportation you have two choices, a horse carriage (which I don’t recommend!) or using your own muscles and stepping into the pedals and riding a bicycle.
Accommodation
We were very lucky with our choice of accommodation, and I just have to share it with you. Katara’s homestay was the perfect place for our stay and we even extended for another night. It just literally has everything, a comfortable bed, spacious room, unlimited warm water, very good internet connection, free coffee, tea, and water, a small restaurant whenever you get hungry, and even a pool! The owner is very friendly and helpful, has their own bicycle to rent (30’000 IDR for a whole day) and the staff were welcoming as well. Within 5 minutes you’re on the main road, where all the restaurants are. Surely, one of the best places to stay in Gili T.
Things to do
Finally, after always riding on a scooter/motorbike, you can use your own muscles again. It was so peaceful to not hear the sound of engines and horns. I’d highly recommend renting a bicycle for your whole stay in Gili and driving around the island. It’s the best way to explore and the island can be easily circled around within an hour. You’re so independent with it and add your own stops, whenever you like to.
The best thing to stay on such a small island is, that you definitely have the sunrise and sunset view from somewhere. I’m not an early bird, so watching the sunrise wasn’t a thing for me, but maybe it could be you. If you’re like me, watching the sunset on a bean bag should be high on your to-do list during your stay in Gili T. Order a drink and enjoy the view. In some spots, they also have a bonfire or fire show. Keep your eyes open if you’d like to add some spice to your sunset view.
The Gili Islands are best known for being a good dive and snorkeling spot and seeing a sea turtle is guaranteed. Snorkeling is a must and you can’t miss it. You can rent snorkeling gear everywhere and the locals will tell you, where the best spot to swim is. There’s also a sea turtle spot, where lots of sea turtles are swimming around, or beautiful coral reefs with a huge amount of fish. Another great spot to snorkel is right at the shore of Gili Meno, where the underwater statues are located.
You could do an island hopping tour, where snorkeling will be also included. Especially when you’d like to see the statues underwater. We were following a more independent path, so we rented a kayak and made our own way to the statue. Kayaking can be a bit challenging, depending on the wind and the streams of the ocean, but you can enjoy some intimacy and decide on your own when you’d like to see what. You can also wait until one tour is over and then visit the statue, it’s the best chance to have it on your own, otherwise, you have to share it with lots of tourists. Within 15 minutes you’re at Gili Meno and you can also walk around this island and leave your kayak behind, or head to the next island Gili Air if you want. Just keep in mind, that you have to make it all the way back to Gili T, and should have left enough energy for it.
As already mentioned above, another thing to do is visit the other Gili Islands. Whether you do an island-hopping snorkeling tour, rent a boat by yourself, or explore it with a kayak, it can be a fun thing to do.
Diving is also another popular thing to do since the islands are surrounded by coral reefs and have rich sea life. You can do your PADI certificate here as well if you want to or just do a fun dive if you just want to try it out.
Party
There’s a lot going on here and every night belongs to one bar. You can do bar hopping, play beer pong or just go out and dance. I can’t really recommend a place, since non of the bars/clubs were outstanding. But I was surprised by how much was going on, on this small island.
Where to eat
The island is so small, but the options for food were amazing. It certainly has options for everyone.
For me, Hellocapitano had the best smoothie bowls on the island. The options for the base were endless with granola, coconut flakes, and fresh fruits as a topping. The bowl is lovely presented in half of a coconut, where you can indulge the flesh of it as a dessert.
At Coffee & Thyme, we didn’t make the best experience, since we waited for ages for our food. The food was good, nothing special though, but the cafe has a great location and invites you to sit around there for a bit. Yes, we are on an island here, so if you’re okay with waiting and not as hungry as we were, definitely worth a visit.
Kayu Cafe is located next to the harbor and is perfect for a quick breakfast, lunch, or dinner. It has great options for vegetarian and even vegan dishes, and the smoothie bowl was good as well.
It doesn’t matter if you’re not staying at Katara’s homestay, because Bonny’s Kitchen is open to everyone. I can recommend the Nasi Goreng and the vegetarian Spaghetti Bolognese, a great amount for the price.
If you’re looking for Thai dishes, Jali Kitchen will be your place. It’s a bit hidden, and not on the main road but worth the visit. Nice atmosphere, especially in the evening, and lots of vegetarian options too. I had the cashew veggie curry, which was very tasty. The Pad Thai was nice too, it lacked a bit of flavor, but does its job.
The award for the best restaurant in Gili T goes to Regina Pizzeria. It’s not a fancy-looking restaurant and it’s all about the food there, but let me say one thing; I visited this place three times during my 4-night stay in Gili because it was so good! The pizza is made by an Italian, who constantly bakes them in a stone oven. Within minutes after ordering you can enjoy a Neapolitan-style pizza, surely one of the top pizzas I had in my life. You also get a good amount of red wine (insider tip: don’t order a bottle, the glasses are well-filled) for an affordable price.
Kuta
Kuta was our home base to explore the island of Lombok and we stayed for 7 nights in total. When we had to leave, we wished we could have stayed longer for so many reasons. It’s a smaller beach town with a homely community vibe, with lots of longer-staying tourists and ex-pats. We really enjoyed our stay here, had enough options for eating out, and a great place to stay.
Accommodation
If I could give an award for the best place with the best value in the world, I’d give my award to Rascals Hotel. For only 40$/night you have a wonderful room, the best shower I had in my life, a tasty breakfast with lots of options included, a beautiful pool, a kind staff, and the best environment for working on your laptop. I definitely wish we could have spent more days there. One day we didn’t even leave the place, because they just had everything we needed and we hadn’t had the urge to search for anything else.
Things to do
Of course, Lombok accommodates lots of beaches too and relaxing at one of those definitely belongs to the most does there. I prefer beaches, where you can walk a bit around, so I personally can recommend Tanjung Aan Beach. It’s a twenty minutes ride away from Kuta. Another nice beach, that also offers waves to surf is Selong Belanak Beach.
Every sunset people are coming to one wonderful place to see the most breathtaking sunsets at Bukit Merese. You need to pay a small fee to park your scooter there and afterward walk a bit to find the best spot for enjoying the sunset. Bring some drinks and snacks with you and enjoy the scenery. Don’t expect to be the only one, since it is a crowded place, but worth to see it.
The variety of restaurants is not as wide as in Canggu, but Kuta also has good restaurants to try. And if you’re like me, trying out the food places is another thing to do. Check out the next section, for the best restaurants I’ve tried during my stay there.
Kuta is also a popular spot to surf and offers all-level waves. Therefore, surfing definitely is a thing to do in Kuta. The best thing in comparison to Bali is, that it’s less crowded but sometimes you need to rent a boat to transport you to the waves since the break is further away.
The small town has some spots for drinking and going out. One of the most popular ones is the Surfer’s bar, where local artists have live concerts and tourists can join the band too. The good thing to know is, that some nights (Saturdays for sure) belong to the Rasta bar, and no other place is allowed to have a party on that day. They advertise it on the main road, whenever you see a sign, you’ll know that the party is happening at that place.
Where to eat
The entry of Jiang Nan is picture-worthy and gives Chinese vibes. It looks like how it tastes, great option for Chinese dishes. The dumpling was good, the tofu mapo stir fry and the fried beans were very tasty and the stir fry vegetable noodle, that was a bit too oily in my opinion. As with other places in Kuta, it was a bit pricey in comparison to Bali. Overall a nice place to dine in.
The Treehouse is a nice building and will beyond any doubt catch your eyes in the evening. It’s a good spot to have a drink and you could also dine in there as well. Sadly, the menu had just two vegetarian options, one of which was a Nasi Goreng. It was a good Nasi Goreng though, but you surely get a better Nasi Goreng for a less price. However, great vibe and atmosphere and is good for having a drink.
We went to Kenza Cafe twice, once for breakfast and the second visit was for dinner. Well, breakfast was great, especially the mushroom toast with egg and spinach - an explosion of taste. When we decided to stop by for dinner, we were disappointed. To be fair, maybe it’s not my style to have dinner, but it was expensive, the portion sizes were little and they just had a small variety of vegetarian food. Good place for breakfast, if you want to try out this place at night time, I’d reconsider it.
I really loved the industrial interior at Bush Radio. Perfect to have a healthy breakfast or lunch there and a great vibe to sit and chat a bit.
A place that I can recommend without any doubt was the Gratitude. It’s spacious, the internet was stable (a good place to work on your laptop) and the staff was so warmhearted. After a few visits, they already knew what we’d like to drink and were talkative as well. My personal favorite there was the matcha latte with oat milk, and if you’re really hungry, order their Nasi Goreng, because you’ll receive one of the biggest portions.
Well, I have to put Rascals Hotel on this list as well, I’m in love with this hotel and also can recommend their food. A must-try is the vegetarian poke bowl. The tofu is well seasoned, the rice perfectly cooked, and a great number of vegetables with a little mango as well. Additionally, if you’re into curry, they do have a tasty curry as well. In comparison to other places, the amount of curry was a little too little, but the taste was great. Nasi Goreng was also one of the better ones, and I bet, the non-vegetarian dishes are good there too. Also, the cocktails there (mojito and Moscow mule) were well-mixed and of great value.
At The Hut Restaurant, we had such a fun experience with the service there. It was almost the only place that offered food around 9.30 pm and we were desperately looking for a spot to get some food. By accident, we came across this place and didn’t regret it. I had the vegetable curry (the amount of curry is huge!) with rice, I made mine extra spicy, but that’s up to you. It definitely belongs to the creamier curries I had, but it was great. We also had the pita with fries, a good amount of food.
The interior of Milk Espresso caught my eye and sadly it’s only open until 2 pm. A good place to have breakfast or lunch and is a good working space as well. Very comfortable, friendly staff and good coffee.
If you’re a traveler on a budget, then I’d recommend eating at Mia Mia’s Kitchen. This place has Nasi Gorengs and Mie Goreng for only 15’000 IDR each. You can’t expect the best food there, and the quality was just okay, but as I said, if you’re on a budget, this is a safe place to satisfy your hunger.
It doesn’t really sound like it, but Loka Gym is actually a restaurant too. It’s open the whole day and has breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It was pricey, and the food wasn’t overwhelming.
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