Day visit to Nusa Penida island with snorkeling at Crystal Bay

We spent a day visiting Nusa Penida island off Bali. This post shares my experience.

Nusa Penida is 30 minutes by boat from Sanur, Bali. Unfortunately we missed the 8 AM boat, so had to wait till 11 AM for the next boat. This left us with very less time at Nusa Penida, had to skip some of the planned attractions.

The boat ride from Sanur to Nusa Penida
Boats to Nusa Penida leave from Sanur, at fixed intervals. Unfotunately we missed the 8 AM one and had to wait till 11 AM. Cheapest are public boats, IDR 2,00,000 one way (USD 15). Refer time table and rates at the end of this post. Our boat was operated by DWI Manunggal. Our guide had to reschedule the tickets as we missed the first boat.

Getting on the boat will require you to walk in knee deep water, hence shorts n slippers are recommended while visiting Nusa Penida. Our Boat had 5 Suzuki made engines each with 250 HP. Viewing the waves created by the boat is a visual treat.

 
Boats do not have AC, so get very hot while stationary. Once they start moving it is very pleasant experience. The ride lasted for about 30 minutes. Music was played in the boat for entertainment. Life vest stored in overhead racks. Not mandatory to wear while seated.

Arrival at Nusa Penida

Spot the error in above board.

Upon arrival we were taken in MPVs to a restaurant for lunch. Nusa Penida has narrow but good network of roads around its periphery, so road journey was nice with ocean on one side, trees and hills on the other. The restaurant was called Warung Jukung and was nicely located next to the beach. We had some fun with objects around while the food arrived

The food was great. Their menu had iced fresh tender coconut water but when I asked for it, I was told they are out of stock. Vegetarian options were good- we were served spring rolls, rice and veg curry, besides fresh juices and desert.


Above: Our transports in Nusa Penida- Note that both are exactly same cars, but branded differently- sold as Toyota Avanza and Diahatsu Xenia.

Crystal Bay
Next we boarded a boat to go to Crystal Bay. Boat journey lasted about 10-15 minutes and was fairly scenic.

Above: if you can afford you can hire a luxury boat or yacht and relax
Below: Snorkeling in progress.

Had great time snorkeling in Crystal Bay. Since there was no official briefing given and few didn't have experience using the snorkeling gear, I took the initiative to brief them on how to use it. Just a few meters of the coast, sea bed is very scenic. Unfortunately I couldn't capture them as I missed carrying proper mounts for GoPro. Was risky to carry it in hand without a mount, as it might slip to ocean floor. With life jacket on swam around as long as we pleased, dived around to take a look at the ocean floor and had good fun. Below 2 photos were supplied by the boat's official photographers.. Lots of fish food was thrown into water to attract fishes!

Return Journey from Nusa Penida

Once done with snorkeling, we changed cloths at the Crystal bay beach. (5000 IDR for use of makeshift toilet/rest rooms). Basic food n drinks available here. Tender coconut 25000 IDR. The ride back to ferry point almost reminded us of Kerala. Scenic ride in between coconut trees, lots of turns and twists. We got on the 5 PM boat back to Sanur.

Bloggers at Nusa Penida- From left: Manjulika Pramod, Swati Jain, Dipanshu Goyal, Johann B Kuruvilla and Shrinidhi Hande. The tag we are wearing is our ticket to the boat...

Public boat timing and fees from Sanur beach, for your reference.

Nusa Penida has more places of interest - such as Angel's Billabong, Pasih Uug beach, Kelingking beach and so on. May be next visit I can explore some of these.

Stay in Nusa Penida:

Many visitors prefer to spend a night or two in Nusa Penida. There're lots of budget to luxury accommodation options in Nusa Penida. You can use below booking.com widget to check and book

Booking.com
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