Island Hopping on Gili Meno & Gili Air

The Gili Islands are located North West of Bali, close to Bangsal, Lombok. The three most popular Gili Islands are called Gili Trawagan, Gili Meno and Gili Air. We decided to only visit Gili Meno & Gili Air as Gili T is the most touristy one with a big party scene.

How to get there?

We took a speedboat from Padang Bai to the Gilis with a company called Ekajaya. According to an expat living in Gili, this is one of the best companies of fast boat. I would recommend them because we didn’t have any issues, which apparently happens regularly. The only thing that they could have improved was their timing. It was quite hard to predict what time we’d arrive where, especially on longer trips. We paid around 70USD per person from Padang Bai to Gili Meno and back Bangsal to Jimbaran (close to Uluwatu).

In between islands, for example from Meno to Air, we did island hopping with small boats. You don’t need to book a ticket in advance. You can simply go to the harbour about 10-20 minutes early and get your ticket. Public boats leave less often but are definitely the cheapest around 35K per person from Meno to Air and 14K from Air to Bangsal. If you take the tourist boats, you’ll pay 85K per person.

Gili Meno

We started with two nights in Gili Meno and stayed at Villa Santai from Meno Island Villas located in the middle of the island. The island is very small and it only takes about an hour walk or less to go all the way around or 20 minutes by bike. That in mind, no matter where you stay, you’ll be relatively close to everything. The beach David and I loved the most is located North West of the island. There is some snorkelling to do there and during low season, it was empty and clean. Due to the size of the island and the fact that it is the least developed of all three, there isn’t much to do on there besides going to the beach & reading books. I am pretty sure it will develop in the upcoming years and is also more lively during high season. In our experience, it was a great place to unplug for a few nights but I personally wouldn’t stay much longer.

Gili Air

This was David’s first choice as it seemed more quiet than Gili T but not as empty as Gili Meno. In fact, Gili Air has some supermarkets, a much larger choice of restaurants and cafés, some shops and definitely more developed than Meno. This also means there are more people on Gili Air and so are there on the beaches as well. I have to say that the beaches from what I’ve seen where nicer and cleaner on Meno, however, I was able to swim in a turtle in Gili Air on the East side of the island about 100 meters from the shore. I really liked the fact that there was more life on Gili Air and although it was definitely not as quiet and the beaches were more crowded, I did enjoy our time on this island more. We also didn’t go much to the beach as we were staying at this beautiful villa which offered its own private pool with ocean view. The beach by the house is not very pretty, however you can easily rent bikes and ride up North to go to some pretty beaches.

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Chloé KianMarch 31, 2020