NUSA PENIDA: Expectations vs. Reality (Travel Guide)

This is Nusa Penida.

Nusa Penida is an island just off the southeastcoast of Bali and it’s becoming one of the most popular destinations to visit when you’rein Bali.

Now you’ve probably seen Instagram photosthat look like this, or this, but we’re gonna take you through our experience todayof getting to there, being on the island, and giving you a real, raw look at what theexperience is like.

Basically what Nusa Penida Expectations vs.

Reality is.

We got a driver from our place in Ubud downto Sanur Pier, which is down a little bit further south.

There are tons and tons of companies that’lltake you from Sanur, on Bali, to Nusa Penida or plenty of other islands.

If you’re trying to go to Nusa Penida, planon taking a boat in the morning or in the early afternoon, but around noontime there’snot a lot of options.

So right now we’re waiting for our guideto come back for an 11AM to Nusa Penida.

Should be about a 45-minute ferry.

So now we’re heading over to the boat, theyactually have a big luggage cart thing, so they took everyone’s luggage, which is reallynice, because I thought we had to carry our own luggage down the water to the boat, sowe’ll see how it goes! And as we read on online and have seen everywhere, you’re going to have to walk in a little bit of water to get on the boat, so when youcome, don’t be wearing socks with shoes.

Wear flip flops or something else.

Now that we’re on the boat, one of the fearsthat we had was that it would sell out like we couldn’t just show up and get a tickethere and be able to get on the boat because it’s high season.

But it looks like there’s a ton of seatson here.

It’s a 3×3 configuration, pretty far upand pretty far back.

If you want to be really, really safe, youcan probably book online and probably pay a little more, but there’s a very good chancethat you can just show up.

You can just purchase it.

We paid 200000IDR for ours, maybe you canget it for cheaper, but that seemed pretty reasonable to us, especially given the wehad a guide that basically drove us here and helped us set everything up.

If you are coming and you’re just goingto buy stuff when you arrive, make sure to come to Sanur at least 30-45 minutes beforeyour boat leaves because there’s a little check-in process.

So on the way there, it looks like we’regoing against the current.

So if you get seasick like me, I recommendtaking dramamine, that’s what I did.

I just don’t want to risk getting sick andpuking or feeling sick once I get there.

Just take it to be safe, no harm! Make sure it’s non-drowsy or else you’llpass out! 45 minutes later, we’ve arrived and I’mnot seasick so yay! Just got off the boat and it was another operationwhere you kinda have to go through the water.

Anyway we had our driver meet us here, thereare a lot of people here that are offering to rent scooters.

In the car now on the way to Atuh Beach, andactually one thing that we noticed was that there was a little station set up with likea table and chairs, I didn’t film it, but basically they’re asking for 25000IDR perperson that’s coming through as a tourist.

Didn’t really seem legit, though, and ourdriver just went through it and we didn’t pay so keep an eye out for that, try to avoidit if you can, but they’re just trying to make a buck off you.

It took about like an hour to get here andnow we’ve parked on the side of the road.

So now we’re heading over to Diamond Beachand Atuh Beach.

So Diamond Beach is on one side and Atuh Beachis on the other side.

Walking down is easy right now because we’regoing downhill, but walking up is going to be all uphill.

It’s going to get really sweaty, but it’llbe worth it, it’s really pretty there.

So after you come from the parking and youstart walking down, you get to the view on one side of Atuh Beach and the other sideis Diamond Beach and there’s a little sign and they basically accept donations.

We left 20000IDR, but I think you can leavewhatever you want.

We see in front of us right now the staircaseethat leads down to Diamond Beach that we’ve seen a million times on Instagram.

It’s definitely really packed, everyoneis just on the stairwell and it’s kinda really hard to get a photo without anyonein it, it’s really tough, but it’s really, really, really pretty here! For the most part, there’re stairs, butat the end, the stairs are kinda like manmade stairs with rocks and they get a little tricky.

At the end you just have to jump to get getin the sand because there’s no stairs, just a big fat rock.

But we made it! Getting here was a little rough, the roadsare so bumpy, the roads are also very narrow, it looks like it’d fit 1 car but technicallyit’s 2 lanes so cars would constantly be going back and forth and it’s really, reallywindy at some points.

But it’s OK because we are here now andit’s so beautiful here! Alright so keeping with the theme of expectationsvs.

reality in this video about Nusa Penida.

Diamond Beach: Can tell you that it’s absolutelybeautiful, reality has met my expectations in terms of how beautiful it is.

That staircase over there where you see peoplewalking down and having those beautiful leading line photos, that is also beautiful! However, it was very, very difficult to gethere and we haven’t even left yet but I’m also really worried about how it is goingto be getting back up.

Again you’re not going to see the peoplebehind me climbing those rocks on Instagram.

So if you’re visiting Nusa Penida and DiamondBeach, make sure to keep that in mind.

Fun part’s over, we flew the drone, playedaround here, now we’re gonna head back up and it’s gonna be a bitch, but it’s OK.

We’re walking down right now and this isway more steep than Diamond Beach.

I take it back, Diamond Beach was easy comparedto this.

We’re down on Atuh Beach now we got somenasi goreng, which is fried rice.

And there’re tons of food stands everywhereselling lots of small bites, lots of drinks, smoothies, there’s coconut if you want therehere, as well.

We’re just gonna relax for a bit and juststare at the water, it’s very peaceful and then head back up.

We recommend going to Diamond Beach first, get a little tired and then head back down here and just relax for a little bit.

About to leave Atuh Beach now, we’ve spenta little over an hour here hanging out, we had a snack, great place to chill and backup the stairs we go! Oh my god.

.

Some big steps here.

#shortpeopleproblems There’s actually aspecific name for this treehouse, it starts with an “R, ” but this is the ThousandIsland view pretty much.

Everyone comes here to take cute photos becauseyou can get the treehouse and the views behind you.

But other than that, that’s all you get! So it’s Day 2 and we’re at KelingkingBeach right now and my quads are sore from yesterday, but right now it’s around 9AMso there’s actually not that many tourists here yet, so I think they’ll head up heresoon.

So we’re hopefully gonna get an empty crowd.

We were actually debating heading down tothe beach, but kinda high tide right now so we probably won’t.

There’s no point in being down there, butit’s really pretty! This is my favorite shade of blue.

Blue ass water! Looks just as beautiful if not more beautifulhere than I saw in pictures online.

There’re a couple of monkeys up here! Casual, chilling on a branch! But in terms of expectations vs.

reality, it’s beautiful, but what you don’t see are these crowds behind us.

We’re here at like 9AM and this is beforethe big rush and there’s already a lot of people here, so still worth coming, though! So similar to Atuh Beach and Diamond Beach, some of these steps are honestly really high so if you’re short like me, it takes a bitmore effort to walk up and down.

And you can definitely see the workers bringingdown rocks and I think they’re actually re-cementing the sides right now.

And he was like telling me to be careful, so they’re just really, really nice people here.

In order to get down, it actually takes 1hour, so round-trip after hanging down there, probably like 3 hours.

And the tide is really high right now thewater goes all the way up to the rocks and all the way to the shore, there’s no pointin us going down because I think you can really hang down there.

I definitely recommend coming earlier to beat the crowd.

Came early, there’s still a lot of people, but it wasn’t too bad.

When we came back up, the crowd got way morepeople and I’ll say if you’re planning to actually go all the way down, wear actualshoes, don’t wear sandals, because you might slip! And on the way to Broken Beach are brokenstreets! Very bumpy right now.

So we’re at Angel’s Billabong and BrokenBeach and it is packed here! The tide looks like it’s really high sowe’re definitely not swimming down at Angel’s Billabong even though we wanted to.

So people have died here before because thewaves have come up and they don’t notice and they get swept away.

So Angel’s Billabong is really, really prettyand when we first got in here, it seemed like it was low tide and it seemed really, reallycalm down at the bottom, but then out of nowhere, giant waves started coming through and it’slike a washing machine down there.

There are even some locals that have whistlesthat are basically telling people to get away from the edge, because the water does comeup and reach and splash as close as like this edge right here.

This whole area up here is wet because thewater actually does come up here.

No joke, people said it was dangeours andI can see why now.

This thing is strong, I would say honestlydon’t swim in here unless… just honestly don’t swim in here because I mean maybewhen there’s low tide it’s probably safer, but from here it goes zero to a hundred reallyfast.

Angel’s Billabong, super beautiful and inthe same location just over there is Broken Beach, let’s go there now! So we spent about a half hour at Angel’sBillabong and Broken Beach over there and yeah you can see the power of the Indian Oceanin full action behind me at Angel’s Billabong.

You can totally die here if you’re not careful, so if you visit Angel’s Billabong, be super careful! Broken Beach exceeded my expectations, thatis some blue ass water over there.

In summary, Angel’s Billabong and BrokenBeach are absolutely awesome, definitely recommend visiting them if you’re on Nusa Penida.

And then our last stop is Crystal Bay.

The sun’s out now so it’s really hot here, so bring sunscreen.

Man, it’s stunning here it’s another spotwith some really beautiful bright blue water.

People are chilling here with their umbrellasup and down the beach.

A lot of really beautiful views here and.

A lot of spots to get in the shade and hangout and also get some bites to eat.

Crystal Bay is really, really pleasant.

Love the waves crashing, again it’s nottoo rough and it seems pretty well developed.

This would a good place to come chill if you’relook for a place to come and chill all day on Nusa Penida and also since this is facingwest you can get some of the best sunsets on the island here.

And it’s definitely a very popular placefor people to come for sunsets, however, we’re going to miss it because we’ve got a ferryto catch.

Made it back to Toyopakeh Pier after goingback to our hotel and packing up really quickly, it was 150000 IDR per person to go back one-way.

Luckily, our boat company doesn’t make uswade in the water like that.

That’s Sri Rejeki, let’s get back on thisferry and had back to Sanur.

Made it onto the ferry and note to you guysthat it should be about 150000 IDR each way, so if you pay more, you might be overpaying.

See you in Seminyak! Boom, alright, and we’re back in Seminyaknow.

We got back from Nusa Penida yesterday andnow we’re at our villa.

So Nusa Penida is really beautiful, the beachesare gorgeous, the waters are gorgeous, but there are also things that weren’t the best.

And some things that we wish we knew beforewe went.

Here are some things we think you should knowabout Nusa Penida if you’re gonna visit that we did not fully appreciate going intoour trip.

So the first thing and this is obvious becauseyou’ve heard it a million times if you’ve heard about Nusa Penida, is the roads.

The roads, we’ve all heard that they’rerocky and you saw in the video that they’re rocky.

But they are REALLY, REALLY BAD! If you are going to Nusa Penida, unless youare incredibly, incredibly comfortable with a scooter and you’re also fine with beingreally uncomfortable on those really rocky roads, get a driver.

Because even in the back of a car, like acushy car with AC, it was pretty uncomfortable.

We were going back and forth, back and forth, also if you’re scootering, you’re going to be outside and on Nusa Penida, the islandis much hotter than Bali itself, the sun is stronger.

There’s also low clouds on most days, soit gets really hot, especially wearing a helmet, you’re definitely gonna get really sunburntand you’re just gonna get really hot, whereas in the AC car, you’re gonna feel a littlebit better, but you’re still hot in the car just because it’s super hot.

The money you’d save with a scooter, ifthat’s really, really important to you then OK maybe skip on a driver, but if you arewilling to pay just a couple dozen bucks to get a driver for the day, again, highly recommendit! We paid 700000 IDR for our drivers, I hadcalled around and WhatsApp’d a lot of different drivers and seen what prices they were givingus and it was all relatively expensive.

It was all about 700, 800, 900000 IDR so 700000was what we went with.

We saw that there were people renting outscooters right as you get off the boat and I think those were probably about 100000 IDRor so, and if you’re really trying to save money, then OK maybe take a scooter, but ifit’s not really, really, really important to you, get a driver.

We also went during high season so that mightbe why our prices were a little higher.

High season is usually around Christmas breakand summer break, so it could be cheaper if you go during the off season.

The food on Nusa Penida was definitely verylimited.

Overall, food is cheaper in Nusa Penida thanit is on the actual island of Bali, especially Bali, food was definiteyl very, very cheap.

But at the same time there’s not a lot ofoptions and the portions are a little smaller.

And also the places to eat food were really, really spread out.

There are those informal warungs kinda allover the place, but if you’re trying to be careful about food poisoning and tryingto pick out restaurants, do a lot of planning ahead of time.

There were some restaurants that we saw thatwere a couple miles from where we were going and then we told our driver that we wantedto go there, but it turns out it’s a couple miles but it’s 30-40 minutes because youhave to take 2 different roads and it’s super rocky.

Super windy, too! That’s why it takes longer to get to oneplace, versus going straight, you’re pretty much going like this.

But hey you know, it’s the island life! And honestly, we’re not bashing Nusa Penida, we are really glad we visited and we’d recommend you visit it, but we just really want to makesure that your expectations vs.

reality are not too far off, because it is super beautiful! It is honestly some of the most gorgeous viewsI have seen in my entire life, I’ve seen on Instagram, I’ve seen anywhere.

Nusa Penida is gorgeous, but it is still abit of a developing island and you don’t have a lot of comforts and even some basicthings like flushing roads and roads, so keep that in mind, because, again, Nusa Penida, gorgeous! But just make sure you know what you’regetting yourself into.

Also a lot of the toilets around the popularattractions such as Atuh Beach, Diamond Beach, Kelingking, all of them, they have bathroomsyou can use, you pay a restaurant and they’re really small shacks.

They sometimes have a lot of flies, they’rereally dirty, there’re not toilet paper, so bring toilet paper sometimes because theydon’t provide that, and actually some of the toilets don’t flush.

I saw like a bucket of water and you justpour water in there when you’re done.

Just so you know, you might be expecting that, I did not know any of that coming forward, things are just more undeveloped, that’swhy it’s like that.

So those are basically some important thingsto know before you visit Nusa Penida.

Now we kinda go into a brief review of ourthoughts on it.

So that things we liked: the views! Absolutely gorgeous.

Beautiful, beautiful views.

Kelingking is probably the most beautifulthings I’ve seen in my entire life.

Diamond beach was amazing.

Oh my god I love Diamond Beach! Yeah, that was awesome! Just the staircase going down, it really doeslook just as good if not better in real life than it does, you know, on your Instagramfeed.

Atuh Beach was also really nice, we went duringlow tide but we’ve seen pictures of it during higher tide and it is also very, very beautiful.

Also Angel’s Billabong was just so muchfun to watch.

I could just stand there all day and watchthe waves come in, it was beautiful.

It’s like nature’s infinity pool, whichis amazing.

We also went during high tide, we didn’tswim in it, because it was very dangerous.

There were red flags everywhere.

Every time a big wave would come, a localwould blow his whistle really loud, everyone would get out of the area just in case thewaves come really far, because the waves can come really far, too.

Broken Beach was also beautiful, the archwas amazing, if you go past— you can walk around the arch, you can see the water comingin there, the water was beautiful.

There are tons of people but you can definitelyfind room easily if you wanna take photos.

Also the locals there are very nice, they’revery friendly, I will say that! Even though they live on a very small islandthey’ve lived here for most of their lives, although they don’t speak a lot of English, they’re really nice and they try to help you with anything you need to know.

And as we’ve just explained, the thingswe were kinda surprised by and didn’t expect and were not particular highlights of theisland were the very, very bumpy roads, the food selection.

Again, it’s an island, it’s just somethingwe didn’t really account for going into it because we had just come from Ubud wherethere’s tons of great food, so Nusa Penida a bit of a change.

And the toilets were a little tough.

Overall, Nusa Penida is still a must-visit, it is gorgeous and it’s a lot of fun.

It’s just that we want to make sure thatpeople go into it with the right expectations.

In terms of itinerary, if you just want tosee Kelingking, and Angel’s Billabong, and Broken Beach, we’d recommend doing a daytrip.

Go from the Sanur Pier in Bali in the morningand then come back in the afternoon after having a driver take you around.

or if you wanna see Diamond Beach and AtuhBeach on the east side very beautiful, highly recommend, as well.

Then we recommend spending 1 night on NusaPenida and probably getting there around the afternoon or so like we did and then goingto Atuh and Diamond, going back to your hotel, and then the next morning early before thecrowds come, as you saw, go to Kelingking first because it gets super packed and thengo to Angel’s Billabong and Broken Beach and then head back to the pier.

I hope you guys find this information reallyhelpful, just knowing what to expect when you’re there.

I definitely would love to go back to NusaPenida, I bet you in a couple years, maybe a couple months, the island is going to changedrastically.

We saw so many things that are being builtthere, so I definitely think there are going to be resorts and villas in the next coupleyears and it’s going to expand like crazy! Thanks so much for watching and if you haven’talready, subscribe for more travel videos coming soon.

See ya next time :).