Twenty minutes by boat from Sanur, the island of Nusa Lembongan is where Bali was thirty years ago — single-lane roads, no traffic lights, mangroves that channel between the village and the reef. The luxury here is the absence of luxury everyone else now expects.
Twenty minutes by boat from Sanur, the island of Nusa Lembongan is where Bali was thirty years ago — single-lane roads, no traffic lights, mangroves that channel between the village and the reef. The luxury here is the absence of luxury everyone else now expects.
Manta Point, off the south-west corner of Nusa Penida (a 25-minute boat from Lembongan), is one of the world's most reliable manta-ray dive sites. The mantas come to feed and to be cleaned at the same shallow reef, year-round. Snorkelers see them three metres below the surface; divers see them slightly deeper.
The early boat leaves Lembongan at 6 AM — you're in the water by 7. Most of our guests come up at 8:30 with the day's photographs already taken.
On the eastern side of Lembongan, between the village and the open sea, a dense mangrove forest creates a network of narrow channels you can navigate by paddle. A jukung captain takes you in at low tide; the air is cool, the canopy closes over the boat, and the only sound is the paddle stroke.
An hour and a half, $35, and one of the most underrated experiences in Indonesia.
Lembongan's western beaches (Mushroom Bay, Dream Beach, Sandy Bay) face the silhouette of mainland Bali — Mount Agung and Mount Batur on a clear afternoon. The sun drops behind both volcanoes between 6:10 and 6:35 depending on the month, lighting the sea between the two islands the colour of brass.
The cliff villas above Mushroom Bay have a frame for it. Sandy Bay Beach Club, on the southern coast, has the only outdoor pool that looks straight at it.
Tell us the dates, the group size, and one preference. A curator picks three options that fit, and holds them for forty-eight hours.
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