One of the activities Noah really wanted to do on our trip to Bali was snorkeling. I had been snorkeling a few times in areas around Bali – there are a few small islands to the east of Bali where snorkeling is excellent. Previously, I had been to Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Ceningan and I have awesome memories of those excursions. Back then, in 2002 and 2009, Nusa Penida was not even on the radar as far as tourism goes, and beyond flying by the island on those prior excursions, it was left unexplored. So, on this trip, I decided that we should definitely head over to Nusa Penida for snorkeling and other activities.

I booked the excursion through Forever Vacations – a comprehensive outfit who does tours all over Bali and Asia. Their webpage is easy to navigate, and the prices are in USD, which was helpful. Their Nusa Penida all day tour was highly rated on other websites as well, so I decided to book the 12 hour tour for $125 per person. Upon booking, they requested that I provide them with my WhatsApp info in order to communicate more easily. The company was super communicative via WhatsApp the whole time leading up to the tour, and even afterwards.

We were picked up early at our resort, and driven to Sanur port, where we would be taking a “Fastboat” to Nusa Penida island. The building and docks at the port seem to be pretty newly refurbished, and it was really nice there. There were tons of people waiting to go to different islands and different tours, as well as locals taking boats to get to their jobs as well. Our fast boat was retrofitted with old airline seats, which was weird but relatively comfortable for the 45 minute journey to Nusa Penida Island. The trip is definitely rough, and if you are prone to seasickness like me, definitely take your medication and sit near an open window, since the cabin is enclosed.

We arrived at Nusa Penida, where our guide Dapet met us and explained how our day was going to go. We hopped on a small boat with one other family and we were whisked away to Manta Bay where we were hoping to snorkel with some manta rays. Apparently, we totally lucked out, because we were able to see and swim with a ray who was hanging out with us in the bay – what a special moment! It was really enormous, but also calm and not scary at all. Once the ray was spotted though, there were at least 150 people in the water and at least 10 boats crowding around. It’s definitely the most crowded snorkeling spot I’ve ever been to, and after about 20 minutes or so in the water, we climbed out to go to the next spot.

Speaking of climbing out, our little snorkel boat had the best little ladder to get in and out of the boat I’ve ever experienced while snorkeling. It went down far enough into the water that it was relatively easy to hoist yourself up into the boat, and the metal rungs, which usually KILL your feet, were wrapped in a rubber/foamy covering which was such a welcome change from most other boats’ ladders. This was such a nice bonus, especially considering how many times we got in and out of the boat, that it’s definitely worth mentioning.

The next spot was Gamat Bay, where there were all sorts of pretty tropical fish and really cool corals that I had never seen before.

Next was Wall Bay, which was more fish and coral, with a lovely little current where you barely even had to work to stay afloat.

Finally, we went to snorkel in GT Bay, where we were able to see a few turtles briefly, as well as some more interesting corals and tropical fish. GT bay was a little bit sad, though, because you could really view the bleaching corals and all of the dead coral there as well. Some of the beautiful brown, purple and green corals were white at the tips and it just left me a little bit sad. By the end of this stop, though, we were pretty exhausted from swimming and getting in and out of the boat! The snorkeling, overall, was excellent – and it was really special to see the Manta Ray, as well as the pretty corals in Gamat Bay.

The boat took us back to the single-dock Nusa Penida port where Dapet met us again to take us around the island. He was really a great tour guide, and gave us a lot of info regarding the island itself since he is a NP native. He stated that tourism really didn’t even start there until about 2017, which explains why I had never been there before. As he drove around, he showed us points of interest too.

Our first stop was lunch, which we had at Batu Timbu Mesari, or “BTM”. Lunch was included in the price of the tour, and we were able to have a traditional Balinese rice dish like Nasi Goreng as well as fresh blended juice. It was not the best or most interesting food we had on the trip, but it was filling, which was really all we were looking for. For the price of the tour though, I think they could probably take tourists to a place with more choices and offering an appetizer and/or dessert as well.

Our next stop was the Kelingking cliff, to check out the views and get that Instagram shot that is absolutely required while on Nusa Penida. Kelingking cliff, by about 1pm,was completely bumpin’. The line for the main viewpoint was massively long, and it was super hot outside. Dapet suggested we walk a little ways to a different area in order to get an even better shot, so we went with him. We saw the breathtaking views of the cliffs and the beach below, and Dapet climbed up a small tree in order to take amazing photos of us! It was super cool to get the insider treatment there, and we didn’t have to waste an hour or so standing in line!

Finally, we drove to Crystal Bay beach, which is an absolutely beautiful black-sand beach on NP. The beach was super full, and we couldn’t get a chair or umbrella as they were all taken, but we sat down at one of the little shacks with a table and chairs, ordered a few beers and soft drinks and some chips and chilled out there for about an hour. The water there was lovely, and I would definitely recommend a stop here, probably for more than the hour that we had before heading back to the fastboat that would take us back to Bali.

The boat back was even more rough than on the way there, and I was glad to have taken a fresh Dramamine about an hour or so before we got back on the boat. We were picked up at Sanur port by our driver to be taken back to our resort. Unfortunately, somehow, the driver and the folks at Forever Vacations were unable to communicate to us that our trip home was going to take several hours (it took about 30 minutes to get there in the morning) due to the fact that one of the village roads was closed for a festival. So we sat in the car in virtually unmoving traffic for over 2 hours, and we ended up missing our dinner reservation. If we were informed of this, we would probably have stayed in the Sanur area, or gone elsewhere for dinner, rather than sit in a car that whole time. It was really brutal, especially at the end of a really long day when you’re tired and hungry. In the end, room service from the Four Seasons Resort, consisting of western food, including a pitcher of mojitos was delicious, and definitely the way to go after such a long day.

Apart from this relatively minor snafu at the end of our day, though, our experience on NP with Forever Vacation Tours was excellent. Note that, apart from the snorkeling, you will spend a lot of time in the car, since the roads are small and slow-going around the island, and the places you want to see there are pretty far apart. It’s a lovely island, though, and really reminded me of what Bali used to be like. Our guide was really good, and was always communicating with us about our options and made sure we were comfortable. If you want to get out to NP for some snorkeling, I would highly recommend booking this tour. If you don’t have time for the land portion of the trip, Forever Vacations does offer a snorkeling-only tour. I would recommend this as well, since they keep their boats to only 6-8 people at a time. So many of the other boats we saw there were jammed full over 30+ people which just seemed uncomfortable and borderline unsafe. Enjoy Nusa Penida!