IndonesiaAn overview of how and how to get to the Gili Islands
The tiny Gili Islands are located next to the large island of Lombok, just a few kilometers from the coast. The closest is Gili Air, then Meno, and then Trawangan. You can get to the islands only by boat, they are not connected by bridges either to each other or to the big island of Lombok.
The main entry points to Gili are the islands of Lombok and Bali, it is through them that most tourists arrive here, and the nearest airports are located there. From there you can get there yourself by local transport and a taxi with a transfer to ferries, but we can recommend this option from our experience only to those who have a lot of time, who travel and enjoy traveling. If you just need to get there faster and more conveniently, it is better to use ready-made transfers that are widely offered in travel agencies and hotels, and you can book them even online.
Read further detailed instructions on how and how to get to the Gili Islands, and also watch our video on the topic at the end of the article:
By plane
The closest international airport to the Gili Islands is on Lombok Island, the other one is in Bali. From the Russian Federation it is more convenient and easier to fly first to Bali airport, and from there to get to Gili. The thing is that international flights with transfers and even direct charters are operated to Bali from the Russian Federation. But to fly to Lombok, you usually have to make another transfer, and flights here are significantly more expensive.
However, flight options can be found at both airports. You can safely buy tickets to Bali or Lombok using the search form from Aviasales or Trip.com :
Minimum prices for flights from Russia to Bali (Denpasar Airport):
Minimum prices for flights from Russia to Lombok (Mataram airport/Praya):
How to get from Lombok Airport to Gili Islands
To get to Gili from the airport, you first need to get to the boat dock in Bangsal Village. Unfortunately, there is no public transport on Lombok Island, so you will only have to take a taxi or book a transfer. You can order a taxi through the Grab or Gojek applications, and BlueBird branded taxi also works here. The trip will cost from 450,000 rupees.
Please note that boats from Bangsal Port to Gili run only from 09:00 to 17:00. Since it takes about 2 hours to get from the airport to the port, plus you need time to get your luggage and find a taxi, then if your flight stays after 14 o'clock, you may well not catch the last ferry. In this case, it is better to spend the night in Matarama or Sengigi, and go to the islands in the morning. You can also spend the night in the village of Bangsal near the port, there is a place to stay. But this is a completely non-tourist place, as well as Mataram.
If you need to exchange currency after arrival, you can do it at the airport (the rate is low), in Matarma, in Sengigi and in Bangsal. But there are very few exchangers in Mataram. It is easier to exchange in Sengigi or Bangsal, there are a couple of exchangers with a good exchange rate on a city street that leads directly to the port. Well, we saw the highest rate at the exchanges on the main street of Sengigi.
When you arrive at the port of Bangsal, you will only have to take a slow or high-speed boat to one of the Gili Islands, but more on this in detail below.
How to get from Bali Airport to Gili Islands
It's a long and long way with transplants. In general, the route will look like this: first get to the port of Padang Bai (Padang Bai), it's about 2-3 hours by taxi, and then transfer to a high-speed boat directly to the Gili Islands, it's still 2 hours on the way. We have not seen any ready-made transfers with a transfer from the airport to Gili.
Considering that you still need to adjust the departure time, plus, upon arrival at the airport, get a visa and go through the controls, get luggage, buy a SIM card, exchange money, etc., we advise you not to go headlong to the Gili from the airport. It is much more convenient to first check into a hotel near the airport in the area of Kuta, rest for a night or two, exchange currency there at a good rate, and only then go to Gili. In this case, you don't even have to make your own transfers, because in street agencies in Kuta you can easily buy a ready-made transfer to Gili by minibus + ferry.
How to get from Bali to the Gili Islands
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Ready transfer
The easiest way to get to Gili from almost any resort is to simply buy a ready–made transfer, which includes a minivan ride + ferry. Transplants are coordinated in them, so you will be taken to the pier on the right island without any problems, and then you will only have to walk or get to the hotel. They also pick up, by the way, from the hotel.
You can buy such transfers in almost all street travel agencies, this is a very popular route. They cost from 350,000 to 500,000 rupees, it depends on the city or resort of the shipment. The cheapest from Kuta, Legian, Seminyak, Ubud and Chandidas. You can also buy these transfers online at 12go.asia , Klook, GetYourGuide and others like that, but they don't accept Russian cards there.
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Independently via Padang Bai
If you are used to doing everything yourself, then you can get to Padang Bai by taxi or buses, and there take a high-speed boat to Gili. This route is easy to do in one day, but you need to leave in the morning. About how to get to Padang Bai, read this guide.
Important! Slow ferries from Bali do not go directly to the Gili Islands! There are only high-speed tourist boats.
Theoretically, there is an option to get on cheap slow ferries through Lombok, but you will have to take a taxi through the whole island of Lombok, and most likely to spend the night there. Therefore, we do not recommend considering this option.
When you arrive in Padang Bai, you will be immediately met near the port by "helpers" who will offer several options for high-speed boats of different companies. Ticket offices are also located here on the street in front of the port. You can compare prices, schedule and choose what suits you best. It is not necessary to buy tickets for these boats in advance, but if you want to check the schedule and prices, you can look at 12go.asia .
Fast ferry from Padang Bai -
By rented transport
If you rent a motorbike or a car in Bali, you can get there by it. However, you will not get directly to Gili with transport: this is prohibited and generally impossible due to the lack of freight ferries. Nevertheless, everything is well organized for this, so this is quite a working option, and we did it. Here's how to do it:
First you need to get to Padang Bai. There you can park your vehicle in the parking lot for 10,000 rupees/day for a motorcycle (0.61 RUB), or 30,000 rupees/day car (rate temporary unavailable/span> rub.), and then take a high-speed boat, as indicated above. When you arrive at the port, the very "helpers" who sell tickets will arrange everything for you with parking and tickets.
But there is another option: to cross from Padang Bai by your own transport to Lombok, drive through the island, leave it at the paid parking lot in the port of Bangsal and then to Gili by boat. However, here again it is necessary to take into account the operating time of ferries on Gili, because they run up to 16 hours. Here's how to do it all:
From the port of Padang Bai to Lombok there are slow cargo ferries to the port of Lembar (Lembar port on the map). They go around the clock and they have a schedule. But as we have seen in practice, it does not work, they are sent in fact. Therefore, you can simply come to the port and buy a ticket on the spot. But you will have to fend off the "helpers" who will instead offer you to leave the transport here in the parking lot and sail on a more expensive high-speed boat. Sometimes they even cheat and report that a slow ferry does not exist.
Bali-Lombok Slow Cargo Ferry Ferry from Bali (Padan Bai Port) to Lombok (Lembar Port)
- It runs around the clock according to the schedule, but in fact it is filled out every 1-2 hours, sometimes less often.
- The journey takes 4-6 hours, depending on the weather.
- Due to weather conditions, they may be suspended, but this is rare.
- The cost of a ticket per passenger is 75,000 rupees / 4.6 rubles
- The ticket price for a motorbike + 2 passengers is 169 000 rupees / 10.37 rubles
- The cost of a ticket for a car + passengers is 313,000 rupees / 19.21 rubles
- When buying a ticket at the ticket office and on the website, an additional commission of about 5-10% is charged.
The system of buying tickets for slow ferries has been completely converted to electronic form. You need to buy them on the site trip.ferizy.com , but it's in Indonesian. There you need to register using email, then issue a ticket and pay for it only with a LOCAL bank card or local electronic wallets. As a result, you receive an e-ticket with a QR code by email and in the personal account of the site. We did all this, paid for the ticket with a GoPay wallet, everything worked out. This procedure is very complicated and it takes a lot of time.
But there is an easier alternative to buy a ticket! There are ticket offices near all ports where they will issue this e-ticket for you for a small additional commission (10 000 – 20 000 rupees). Important! These are not official ticket offices of the port, they are something like ticket offices of travel agencies. There are several of them in Padang Bai, you can easily find them right in front of the entrance to the port by the inscriptions "Slow Ferry" or "Ticket Ferry".
Here you can buy ferry tickets to Padang Bai To purchase a ticket, you need a passport and a valid technical passport for STNK transport. Check the date on STNK when you rent a motorcycle, as sometimes it is overdue. What STNK looks like and everything in general read about renting motorbikes in our full instructions here...
This is what the STNK motorcycle Bali data sheet looks like Payment at cash desks in cash. After the purchase, you will be given a printout with a QR code, it will be an electronic ticket. Then drive to the port to the turnstiles, but this is not directly on the droga to the port, but on the left side, this is the point on the map. There you need to show a QR code, and in return you will be given boarding passes with which you are already entering the port. Then you just need to wait for the next ferry and landing.
Transport by cargo ferry Then swim 4-6 hours. Transport at this time remains on the lower deck, and you go up higher. The conditions on the slow ferry are spartan, but for 100,000 rupees they offer beds, like in a hostel. There is also a large shared cabin with air conditioning, or you can sit right on the deck. In general, there are several ferries here, they are all arranged differently, this is just a rough description of what to expect.
Approximately the same conditions for passengers on the ferry Arrive on Lombok at the port of Lebmar. It is located on the opposite side of Lombok from the Gili Islands. You will have to drive almost the entire island 55 kilometers to the port of Bangsal. But the drogs here are good, wide, much better than in Bali. You can get there in 1-2 hours.
Bangsal Port Lombok When you arrive at the port of Bangsal, transport can be left here at a paid parking lot. There are several parking lots in the port itself and in front of it, the prices are the same everywhere: for 10,000 rupees/day for a motorcycle (0.61 RUB), or 30,000 rupees/day per car (rate temporary unavailable/span> rubles). Just don't let yourself be "divorced" for a lot of money. Reliable option: enter the port territory and drive to the left past the ticket office, there is a parking lot with prices on the sign. Here it is on the map. Next to another one with the same prices.
Don't forget to save the parking payment ticket Further from here it will only be necessary to take a ferry or a high-speed boat along the Gili, but more on that later.
How to get from Lombok to the Gili Islands
Ferries from Lombok to the Gili Islands run only from the port of Bangsal or Bangsal Port. It is located in the north of the island in the village of the same name (Bangsal port on the map). You can read and see other routes on the Internet and on maps, including from Sengigi, but we checked everything and found no other ferries to Gili from Lombok anywhere.
There are three types of ferries from Bangsal Port to Gili: slow boats (Local Boat), fast (Fast Boat) and high-speed (Speed Boat).
Slow Boats Local Boat
- They run from 09:00 to 17:00 according to occupancy. We swam twice, we didn't wait more than 10 minutes, but we may have to wait more at other times.
- The air fare is 18,000 rupees (1.1 RUB), Meno – 21 000 rupees (1.29 RUB), Trawangan – 23 000 rupees (1.41 rubles).
Fast Boats Fast Boat
- They run from 09:00 to 16:00 every hour.
- The cost for any island is 85,000 rupees / 5.22 rubles
Speed Boats Speed Boat
- There is no schedule at the ticket offices, they probably leave as a group of tourists gathers.
- The Air fare is 300,000 rupees (18.41 RUB), Meno – 350,000 rupees (21.48 RUB), Trawangan – 400 000 rupees (24.55 rubles).
It's not long to sail even on a slow boat, it's 20-25 minutes to the farthest Gili Trawangan. So there is no big point in sailing on a fast or high-speed boat, especially since they cost significantly more. However, when you arrive at the port, touts may try to "divorce" you in order to put you on a more expensive high-speed one. So get ready!
Tickets for slow boats are purchased at the ticket office for cash. There is all the information about the schedule and cost. You just need to clearly say that you need a "Public bot" or "Slow bot", and they will sell you the right tickets. After that, go to the waiting area (to the left of the ticket office) and wait for boarding. There is a person there who regulates everything, checks the tickets and directs you to the right boat.
