Lombok News

Senggigi is the main tourist area on the mainland, with the town stretching along several fantastic bays on the west coast, and is only 20 minutes from the island’s Selaparang airport. It is the ideal base from which to explore the island, and all major tourist attractions can be reached by day trips from Senggigi, including boat trips from Senggigi Bay out to the Gilis. There is a wide range of accommodations ranging from the five-star Sheraton Senggigi Beach Resort to elegant private villas to comfortable small hotels and home stays. The main street in town runs parallel to the beach and is lined with restaurants, shops, banks, moneychangers and other tourist facilities. Nowhere near as developed as Kuta in Bali, Senggigi is a delightful place to stay while relaxing, dining and exploring. (more…)

“Come and get shipwrecked,” advertised an island brochure, and that is precisely what it felt like as we followed a group of French, Russian, and Australian tourists off the speedboat after a 2 1/2-hour trip from Bali to this little island in the Indian Ocean.

There are no cars, no motorcycles, no police on the Gili Trawangan. There are, however, dollar Bintang beers, $4 rice dishes, and small gazebos where you can rest 20 feet from the bluest water you ever saw and watch the Lombok volcanoes get painted by the sun. (more…)