Nusa Penida

Nusa Penida is the largest of the three Nusa islands, across the Badung Strait from Sanur: big, dry, thinly built and slow to get around. The crossing is the roughest of Bali's boat routes: waves of up to about four metres have been reported, December to March is the worst of it, and morning departures are the safer bet.

The entry fees changed in 2026 and are still being argued about. Under a scheme called One Gate One Destination, each named attraction on the island charges IDR 25,000 per adult and IDR 15,000 per child. The list includes Kelingking, Broken Beach, Angel's Billabong, Crystal Bay, Bukit Teletubbies and Molenteng. Sources disagree on when it began: one reports it in force from 1 August 2026 with a grace period to 12 August, another says it was pushed back to 1 September. It is contested: a tour operator reported cancellations and the hotel and restaurant association plans to seek a review, so the figures may move again. On top of that sit the Nusa islands' retribution of IDR 25,000 an adult and the one-off Bali tourist levy of IDR 150,000.

Kelingking is the cliff in the photograph, and the walk down is harder than it looks: 156 concrete steps, then steep dirt and gravel with a bamboo handrail for the last two thirds. Published times disagree wildly, from 20 minutes down and 30 back up at one end to 40 to 60 minutes down and two and a half hours back at the other. Crowds are worst between 11 and 3, so go at 7 or 8 in the morning or 4 to 5 in the afternoon. Swimming has been officially banned at Kelingking, Diamond Beach and Angel's Billabong since February 2023 after drownings, and people have died on the cliff path, most recently in September 2026 after leaving the marked route. Ropes and a reinforced path went in during 2024 and 2025, and rangers work the clifftop in the busy hours.

The roads on Penida are genuinely bad. The main loop is described as roughly 70 per cent paved; the cross-island links and the approach to Kelingking are steep, narrow and in places gravel. Scooter crashes are the most common injury to visitors here, and nothing on Penida is worth driving at night for.

The water is the better half of Penida. Snorkel boat trips from Toyapakeh to Manta Point and the north-coast reefs run about IDR 250,000 to 350,000, and packaged day tours are quoted anywhere from USD 20 to 109.

A day trip from Sanur gives you perhaps five hours ashore, most of them in a car, arriving at each viewpoint in the hour it is fullest. Stay a night and you can be at Kelingking at seven with the cliff to yourself. We have been across to Penida's north coast, and we would not try to do the island in a day. If the cliffs are not the reason you are going, Lembongan gives you more for less effort.