Hello!
Some of my friends, through Instagram and also personally asked me to share itinerary on my recent Lombok trip. So I've decided to do this! It's been really long since I last did a travel post, so please bare with me! I will try my best to keep it as precise as I can. We made it through the trip just for the three of us, so bare in mind if you had more people, it will be much more cheaper than what we had to pay.
1. Accomodation
- Puji Homestay, Mataram City - 2 Nights, MYR 150 (MYR 50/pax)
- Ratings: 3.5/5 - Just a decent place to spend your nights, basic necessities like towels and shampoo but no water heater, A/C available! Four options for breakfast - good enough.
- Bookings were done via booking.com, we had extra discounts due to our loyalty to the website.
- Scallywags Resort, Gili Trawangan - 2 Nights, MYR 670 (MYR 223/pax)
- Ratings: 4.999/5 - Serious! It's a 3 star hotel, that provides excellent services! Almost no downside, highly recommended! They have a pool, breakfast for buffet, really nice beach side vibe interior.
- If you check on booking.com, my ratings should still be there!
2. Itinerary
DAY 1
- Arrival at Lombok International Airport,
- Ground tour-taxi package from the ground desk available. (IDR 500K)
- They offered us a half day Kuta tour, up to dinner and also sending us back to our homestay.
- Lunch,@ Dapur Sasak (nearby airport) (IDR 224K)
- Rice, Chicken, Fish, Vegetables
- Sasak Village (IDR 150K)
- Sasak are the natives of Lombok, there are no entrance fee required though you may donate but not compulsory
- But, you will need a tour guide to bring you around the village and you'd need to pay
- Highly recommended as you realize in the modern world you've been so used to, there are still areas and people who lived so simply, they do not need electricity, and still used rainwater and well water to live their lives.
- Kuta Beach: Tanjung Ahn - Bukit Merese - Bat Cave - Batu Payung (IDR 130K)
- Depends on arrival time, if you arrive around afternoon 3-4 PM- Please hike up to Bukit Merese first! It's only a 5 minute hike and super pretty place for photo!
- There will be locals coming to you, offering you a 3 point visit boat tour, where they drop you off far in Tanjung Ahn rocky beach, away from the sandy ones. Then those two points mentioned above. Please discount kao kao. We got ours for 130k when they initially charged us for 300K.
- Super worth it, super love everything here. If you could, please come back in time around 6 PM to watch the sunset at Merese Hill as well! (Different feels before sunset and during)
- Dinner @ RM Taliwang Nada Alam Nyaman (IDR 200k)
- Out of courtesy, the waiter would ask on the driver's behalf if you'd want to treat the driver at another table
- Usually we do treat them, as we don't pay them any extra tips
- Back to Puji Homestay
DAY 2
- Ground Tour booked with our homestay to visit the foot of Mount Rinjani for two waterfalls - Sendang Gile & Tiu Kelep (IDR 500K)
- Bare in mind the journey is 5 hours to fro.
- Lunch @ Pondok Senaru Cottages (IDR 275K)
- Just at the entrance of waterfall
- Tour guide (IDR 200K)
- Many blogs recommended not to take tour guide if you're only hiking Sendang Gile, but to hike up to Tiu Kelep, I'd still recommend you to hire one.
- They'd bring you for more adventures eg: ours brought us down by going down the irrigation canals and that was really cool!
- Sendang Gile
- 30 minutes hike from waterfall - very very easy, no worries - stairs and pavement.
- Tiu Kelep
- Another 30-40 minutes hike, through rivers and rocks
- You'd be assisted by really cute local kids to cross the river. SO CUTE!
- Dinner @ Mataram City (IDR 104K)
- We walked around our hotel to get some taste of local food, and they're really nice
- Check for Mie Ayam, Soto Ayam, Tahu Campur, Murtabak
- Beer, local snacks (IDR 133K)
- Try Bintang, their local beer!
Total Spent DAY 2: IDR 1243K (IDR 414K/pax)
- Check out homestay, booked a Grab (ground tour as personal deal) to bring us to the temples mentioned below, and then Bangsal Harbour (IDR 350K)
- Pura Lingsar & Pura Meru (IDR 85K)
- Some of the oldest Hindi Temple!
- Nice for pictures!
- Some temples required entrance + parking, some only compulsory donation but at no set value
- City Museum (IDR 15K)
- Nothing much, can skip this as they do not really provide comprehensive culture understanding (at least nothing near to the ones I visited in HCMC)
- Batu Bolong Temple (IDR 11K)
- Temple by the sea, really nice.
- No entrance fee, compulsory donation at your own ease.
- Public boat @ Bangsal Harbour to Gili T. (IDR 45K) (15K/pax)
- Please be aware of people trying to ask you to charter a private boat - it's almost 5x more expensive than the public boat
- If you have no sea-sickness etc, public boat is good enough
- The ride is only maximum 30 mins
- Just head to the official counter
- Lunch @ Gili T. (IDR 135K)
- Soto, sushi, drinks
- Check in Scallywags
- Rent bike for 24hours ++ (IDR 150K)
- We managed to ask them to rent us for more than 24 hours :p
- Cycled to the famous Gili Swings, watch sunset
- Dinner @ The Exile (IDR 300K) Beer etc
DAY 4
You may replace our dive packages with snorkeling and island hopping tour. But no idea how much they cost!
- 2 Dives @ Manta Point & Halic Reef (IDR 2394K)
- Simple lunch @ Scallywags Resort (IDR 100K)
- Seafood platter + Buffet dinner (IDR 720K) Sorry, can't remember where, it was at some hotel lol
- Island tour on bicycle! (FREE paid on D3)
- Really recommend this, to cycle all over Gili T., but please do this in group as some areas in the island are really secluded and the locals sometimes like to harass you verbally. Stay close in a group!
- It was around 2 hours-3 hours ride to finish the island depends on how often you stop
- Beach Clubbing - alcohols (IDR 450k)
- We had 5 cocktails, 4 Vodka shots, 3 big bottles of beer - not too bad for that deal!
DAY 5
- Check out Scallywags
- Booked a package of taxi+boat from Gli T. to Bangsar Harbour to Epicentrum Mall (IDR 300K)
- They are everywhere in Gili, just be smart about the price.
- Lunch @ Mall - Ayam Penyet (IDR 180K)
- Grab to Airport (IDR 100K)
- Dinner @ airport (IDR 180K)
Total spent DAY5: IDR 760K (IDR 253K/pax)
3. Total spent by categories
Total spent/pax = IDR 2646 K = MYR 752
Accomodation = MYR 273
Flight = MYR 312
Grand Total = MYR 1337
If you deduct our diving packages, it would only be around MYR1100.
4. What to pay extra attention to:
4. What to pay extra attention to:
- If you book ground tour, you will be taken to touristy restaurants, where the expenses will be quite expensive - MYR 20-40/ person. It is usually inevitable. The waiter will come and ask if you would want to pay for the driver's food - which we usually do, since we don't tip them.
- At temples, they will force you to rent the sarongs to cover up - hence just bring a long scarf to cover up if you are wearing shorts. However, for respects, they will ask you to pay for rental of a cloth belt (regardless of gender). Just pay for that.
- A lot of people will choose to live nearby the beaches when they are at the mainland of Lombok- Kuta & Senggigi etc, but the rates are higher and more commercialized. Another option would be living at Mataram City - lower rates, nearer to the city and more accessible, another plus point would be looking at how the locals live.
- Lombok does not have tuk-tuk, they only have the horse carriage ride OR taxi which I personally do not recommend as I felt the horses are being tortured. In Gili, horse carriage is the only mode of transport, but I personally feel everywhere is near if you live nearer to the jetty, and if you REALLY need to move around further, just get the bike. If you are an lazy ass, just book a stay nearby the jetty. Scallywags - the resort I booked was only a mere 10 minutes walk from the jetty.
- When exiting the airport, A LOT of people will barge in to you to offer you rates, and a lot of them are illegal (usually they approach you alone further from the tourist counters). I would advice to actually pick up packages from the counter - despite they may be a little more expensive - but at least you are safe, you get the receipt, company name and contact number. It's a smarter choice. You can bargain for a lower rate too!
That's all! I hope y'all enjoy Lombok as much as I did!
Thanks for reading!