An island that rewards the slow route
Lombok packs a volcano, a coral bay, an empty south coast and a living Sasak culture into an island you can drive across in three hours. Here is what we send our guests to see — starting with what is floating just off our beach.
Where you are
Our home water is Sekotong, on the south-west peninsula. It is the quiet corner — a broad, shallow, island-studded bay that most visitors drive straight past on their way to the surf breaks or the ferry.
Everything on this page sits within a day of here. The Secret Gilis are on the water in front of you. The south coast beaches are an hour east, where we run our three-day kayak journey and stand-up paddling in Kuta. Rinjani and the waterfalls are a longer day north, and worth every minute of the drive.
The Secret Gilis
Everyone has heard of the three Gilis off the north-west coast. Almost nobody has heard of these — a scatter of small islands across Sekotong Bay, most of them reachable by paddle in an hour or two.
Photo: Goldenlombok / CC BY-SA 4.0
Gili Nanggu
Powder-white sand and water so clear the kayak throws a shadow on the seabed. The reef fish here are used to being fed and will crowd a snorkeller. Shade under the casuarinas, and a small turtle hatchery.
Sekotong Bay
Gili Sudak
A good lunch stop on a full day in the bay. A couple of warungs under the trees, a long shallow sandbar and the best hard coral on this side of the bay in the channel toward Nanggu.
Sekotong Bay
Gili Kedis
A sandbar with three trees on it. You can walk around the whole island in four minutes. Utterly disproportionate to its size in how good it feels to arrive there under your own steam.
Sekotong Bay
Gili Asahan
Bigger, hillier, properly inhabited. Walk the ridge track at the end of the afternoon for a view back over the whole bay with Bali's Mount Agung on the horizon if the haze allows.
Flying fox — the dusk fly-out. Photo: Charles J. Sharp / CC BY-SA 4.0
Gili Layar
Sleepy in the best sense. A single stretch of beach, a handful of bungalows and a fruit bat colony that lifts off the trees at dusk in a stream you can hear from the water.
Sekotong Bay
Gili Gede
A working island with fishing villages, a boatyard and pearl farms in the lee. Good for a half-day circumnavigation and a look at how the bay actually earns its living.
Paddle it: Discover Sea Kayaking (3 hours, from Rp 750.000) and One Day Sekotong (full day, from Rp 985.000) both run in Sekotong. Want the famous northern Gilis instead? One Day Gilis is a full day there, from Rp 985.000.
Two things people miss
The pearl farms
Sekotong Bay is one of Indonesia's centres for South Sea pearls. The rafts you paddle past are working farms, and several will show you the grading shed if you ask nicely in advance. The scale of the operation surprises everyone.
Bangko Bangko & Desert Point
The far south-western tip. Desert Point is a world-famous left-hand barrel that only works a handful of days a year — but the drive out through the dry forest, and the cliffs at the end of it, are worth doing whether or not it is breaking.
The south coast
Lombok's south coast is a run of wide horseshoe bays separated by headlands, with a fraction of the development you would find on comparable coastline anywhere else in the region.
Photo: Cath1406 / CC BY-SA 4.0
Selong Belanak
A perfect crescent of shallow, gently shelving sand. The best beginner surf beach on the island and, at the eastern end, one of the prettiest stretches of sand in Indonesia.
Mawun
A deep, near-enclosed bay between two green headlands. Steeper shore break than Selong Belanak and usually much quieter. Bring your own shade.
Photo: Dhika Ayu Agustin Cahyani / CC BY-SA 4.0
Tanjung Aan
Two bays in one, with famously coarse “peppercorn” sand at the eastern end that feels like walking on couscous. Calm, wide and good for a lazy swim.
Photo: Pradnyanandana / CC BY-SA 4.0
Bukit Merese
The grassy hill above Tanjung Aan. Fifteen minutes up, and the best sunset on the south coast — rolling headlands stacked into the distance in both directions.
Photo: Maurits & Marjol / CC BY-SA 2.0
Kuta Lombok
The south coast's hub, in the heart of Mandalika. Warungs, coffee, surf shops and a night market, without anything like the density of its Balinese namesake. A good base if you are staying down south — and where we run our stand-up paddle sessions.
Scalloped hammerhead. Photo: Kris Mikael Krister / CC BY 3.0
Blongas Bay
A dramatic fjord-like inlet west of Kuta, ringed by cliffs. Its offshore pinnacle is one of the few reliable places in Indonesia to see schooling hammerheads — strictly for experienced divers.
Paddle it: Journey South Lombok is the only multi-day kayak adventure on the island — three days, beginner-friendly, from Rp 3.950.000. Short on time? SUP Boarding in Kuta is a morning or sunset session for Rp 350.000.
Mountains and waterfalls
Barujari cone, from the rim. Photo: Midori / CC BY 3.0
Mount Rinjani
Indonesia's second-highest volcano and the reason Lombok looks the way it does. The classic trek is two to four days from Senaru or Sembalun. Check the national park's status before you plan — it closes in the wet season.
Photo: Giovari Max Purnama / CC BY-SA 4.0
Segara Anak
The crescent crater lake, with a young cone rising out of it and hot springs on the shore. You reach it on the trek, and it is the single most striking thing on the island.
Photo: JV06Nofi Andari / CC BY-SA 3.0
Sendang Gile & Tiu Kelep
Two waterfalls, twenty minutes apart. Sendang Gile is the easy one from the car park; Tiu Kelep is the better one, reached by wading a stream, and you can stand behind the curtain.
Waterfall, Lombok highlands. Photo: firstlomboktour.com / CC BY-SA 4.0
Benang Kelambu
Water falling through a curtain of vegetation in dozens of separate threads, which is exactly what the name describes. Paired with Benang Stokel a short walk below.
Road to Sembalun, Rinjani NP. Photo: Chafidwahyu / CC BY-SA 4.0
Bukit Selong viewpoint
A short climb above a valley floor quilted with vegetable plots and rice terraces, with Rinjani filling the sky behind. Go early before the cloud builds.
Long-tailed macaques. Photo: Deerpeter / CC BY-SA 4.0
Monkey Forest
The hairpin road over the hills between Mataram and the north coast, lined with long-tailed macaques. Enjoy them from the vehicle — do not feed them, and keep the windows up.
Combine it: want paddling days alongside the mountains? A Custom Trip can combine areas and activities anywhere in Lombok — price to be discussed.
Culture and villages
Lombok is a Sasak island, predominantly Muslim, with Balinese Hindu and animist Wetu Telu layers underneath. That mix is visible almost everywhere you look.
Photo: Midori / CC BY 3.0
Sade & Ende
Traditional Sasak villages with thatched houses and the distinctive horned lumbung rice barns. Both are set up for visitors, so expect a guide and a weaving demonstration — the ikat is genuinely good.
Photo: Focusfeel / CC BY-SA 4.0
Banyumulek
The pottery village near Mataram. Terracotta water jars and bowls thrown and fired in the yards along the main street, using techniques that have not changed much in a very long time.
Photo: Pinardi28 / CC BY-SA 4.0
Taman Narmada
A Balinese royal water garden built in 1727 as a scale model of Rinjani and its crater lake, for a king who had grown too old to make the climb. Spring water, terraces and a pool you can still swim in.
Lotus — it fills the temple tanks at Lingsar and Narmada. Photo: T. Voekler / CC BY-SA 3.0
Pura Lingsar
The island's most significant temple, and unusual anywhere: a shared Balinese Hindu and Sasak Wetu Telu site, with sacred eels in the spring pool that are coaxed out with boiled eggs.
Photo: David Stanley / CC BY 2.0
Mayura Water Palace
In the middle of Mataram — a floating pavilion on an artificial lake, left from the Balinese court that ruled west Lombok before the Dutch arrived in 1894.
Photo: Midori / CC BY 3.0
Pura Batu Bolong
A small Hindu temple on a rock arch on the Senggigi coast, pointed at Bali's Mount Agung across the strait. Busy at sunset, and rightly so.
Which trip goes where
All of our set trips are beginner-friendly, run by our local guides with all paddling and safety equipment supplied. Kayak trips take a maximum of 5 guests, so spots are limited.
Discover Sea Kayaking
Experience the secret part of Lombok. Perfect for first-timers; morning (08.00–11.00) or sunset (15.00–18.00) session, single or tandem kayak.
One Day Sekotong
Activities above and below the water level within a day. Longer time, longer distance — an eco-friendly way to explore the bay.
One Day Gilis
Activities above and below the water level within a day, around the northern Gilis. Suitable for beginners, single or tandem kayak.
Journey South Lombok
The only multi-day kayak adventure on the island, guided by a local sea kayak leader. Beginner-friendly.
SUP Boarding
Stand-up paddle in the heart of Mandalika. Morning or sunset session, perfect for beginners.
Custom Trip
Tailor the itinerary to fit your needs — combine areas and activities, with less worry about timing and group size.
What is living out there
Lombok sits on the eastern side of the Wallace Line, so the wildlife here is not the wildlife of Bali forty kilometres away. We have written up what you are most likely to meet.
Local Flora →
Frangipani, orchids, seagrass meadows and the beach plants that hold the sand together.
Trees →
Coconut, banyan, mangrove and the cashew and clove country inland.
Local Animals →
Macaques, fruit bats, sea eagles and the endemic Rinjani scops owl.
Local Reptiles →
Monitor lizards, sea turtles, tokay geckos and the snakes worth knowing about.
Fish →
What is under the kayak, from clownfish to the hammerheads of Blongas.
Our Trips →
From a three-hour taster in Sekotong to three days along the south coast, plus SUP in Kuta.
Build a week around it
Tell us how long you have and what you want to see. A Custom Trip can mix paddling days with the places inland that are actually worth the drive.