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Having a few days at hand and nothing better to do, we decided to explore Bali’s East Coast a bit and go for a 2-day ride.
How to get there?
Nothing easier then that: hop on your bike or rent a car and off you go. As we were 2 couples and in the mood for chatting all-way-long, we went for the latter option.
Our car was a Diahatsu Feroza, a slightly bigger kind of “Jeep” then a Suzuki Jimney. It offers enough space for 4 people and some luggage and with a price tag of Rp 100.000/day - a quite affordable one as well.
After just 3-4 hours of relaxed driving we reached the ‘harbour kampung’ Padang Bai, which is a port town for ferries from Bali to Lombok and to the Nusa Penida Island, which lingers between them. You can get cheap accommodation here (Billabong Hotel: Rp 50.000 per fan room/night, very clean, friendly staff) and a good choice of western and local food. The hotel price even included breakfast, which consisted of Coffee or Tea and Omelet or Pancake (Banana or Pineapple) plus a fruit platter (melon, banana, papaya, orange, pineapple).
That’s what I call value for money!
The best thing about Padang Bai is a bit hidden away. But it’s well worth looking for it! You can only reach it via a short hike through the jungle west of the harbour. What you will find is a perfect little bay with powdery white sand and crystal clear waters. Smooth waves clashing to the shores and besides a few bamboo huts, where you can buy drinks and some local dishes like ‘Nasi Goreng’ or ‘Mie Ayam’, there is just nothing else. What a great bay! We spent the rest of the day lying in the sun or floating in the salty sea. You can snorkel here as well, as there are a few lava rocks, but better bring your own snorkel gear.
I would rate that small beach at Padang Bai even better than Dreamland Beach on Bali’s Southern Bukit, which I thought before cannot be topped.
In the evenings, Padang Bai is pretty quiet, basically only the restaurants are open and the Ozone Bar, which seemed like a great place to hangout, with some relaxing background music and drinks on sale. Here is the place, where you meet everyone else who is in town and not sleeping yet.
The next morning saw us on the way further east: to places like Candidasa, Amed and Tulamben.
Candidasa was part of a real estate boom in the 1980’s, during which most of it’s coral reef was dug up and plundered as construction resources. As a result the whole beach front eroded and later had to be protected by huge concrete blocks in front of the beach.
It still looks okay, but actually nothing where I would like to spend more than a few hours. The overpriced Lotus Restaurant directly at the coast charged more than triple the usual price of a standard coffee or cappuccino in Bali. Not that they offered any outstanding service for that, but then; you probably pay for the sea view here.
The best thing about Candidasa was approximately 5 kilometres outside of town - an unspoilt and impressive view to Gunung Agung - Bali’s highest peak mountain and volcano. The weather was pristine and no clouds blocked the view.
Following the road further you reach Amed at the far-east coast of Bali, much of it still unspoilt and less developed than the rest of Bali. You even still have fishing village after fishing village here and time really moves slower, when talking to locals. This is the place where the famous Fire Arak is produced, an 80% Rice Alcohol, which is mixed 0.5 liter Fire Arak to 3 liter juices or coke to make it drinkable.
Even further up to the North-East Coast there is the Kampung Tulamben, which is mainly famous for diving. The coast here was full of black lava stones (see picture); a few Japanese and Caucasians got ready to dive the ‘Liberty’, Bali’s most famous ship wreck and diving spot, resting on the ocean floor.
The ‘Liberty’ is a 150m long American Cargo Ship, which is resting in about 30m depth here, making it a great target for divers. Besides the Liberty, there seem to be a lot of other interesting dive sites, as the divers, which came out of the waters at the time we stopped by, where quite impressed. The waters are clear and visibility seemed to be good.
So far so good.
After having some food at some beach hawker stalls, we went on our way back to direction Denpasar, which we reached about 4-5 hours later.
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Great article I allways pictured bali as a tiny island densely populated. obviously I was wrong
can you confirm the suzuki was just $11 a day ?
Excellent narrative there, Chris. I wish I was traveling with you, Hahaha…
Hey guys!
Yes, the rental prices are that cheap here. You can have a Suzuki Jimney (more for 2 persons) for Rp 80.000/day, which is about 7 Euro. That’s roughly the equivalent USD 11.
The mentioned Feroza (up to 4 persons) goes for about 9 Euro per day (Rp. 100.000), the bigger Toyota Kijang (6-8 persons) goes between Rp 120.000-160.000/day.
If you don’t need a car, a small bike (scooter) sets you back currently Rp 25.000/day.
1 litre gasoline costs Rp 4.500.
Great, isn’t it?
Hey, Chris!
Yea, East Bali is a wonderful place to go. I had enough of South Bali’s crowdedness hehe. I like Amed a lot! Its so quite and peaceful. The presence of mt. Agung and the mt. Rinjani was very stunning hehe.. cant wait to travel there again. But next time up all the way up to north.
Hi Chris,
Which would you recommend: Philippines, Thailand or Bali for beaches?
And which is your favorite beach?
Thank you so much!!
Cheers!!
Hi Malyn,
for beaches I would recommend Philippines and Thailand (Phuket, Khao Lak and Ko Phang Nga).
I even wrote a post about the gorgeous Philippines Beaches. You can read it here:
http://www.nomad4ever.com/2007/01/18/visit-the-gorgeous-islands-and-beaches-of-the-philippines/
Bali has a few nice beaches too, but not in that abundance than the ones above. If you look at Sulawesi, the Riau Islands, Lombok, Ambon and other islands in Indonesia - you will find great beaches as well.
Maybe I will post some more about that topic soon soon.
Thanks for reading and all the best @ your travels!
Nice place, I wanna go to Bali. Can you give info about transportation from Jakarta?
[...] Chris presents Exploring Bali’s beautiful East Cost posted at nomad4ever. ** [...]
Hi Chris, nice to find your article…i plan to goto padang bai area for honeymoon, how do you recommend padangbai for honey moon? would be great or? did you see any great cottage around the beach area? thanks.
Anna, oops I missed out on your question here for a long while. I’m sooo sorry! The best mode of transport from Jakarta is of course to fly - Garuda, Adam Air or Lion Air are the biggest airlines. There are plenty of flights daily. Checkout this link for some news regarding Lion Air.
Rama, nice choice for sure! Just be aware that at Padang Bai there is construction ongoing at the moment directly at the ‘hidden’ Laguna to the west of the town. A Japanese Hotel Chain will build a 5* Hotel over there. In the long run, the access to the Laguna will surely be restricted.
There is of course always the chance to go to the main beach next to the ferry harbour in Padang Bai or to the Blue Laguna just across the hill to the east.
Anyway - cottages are aplenty in Padang Bai, starting at Rp 50.000 for a small room per night. I can understand, that you don’t just want to walk around for your honeymoon and check out what suits you best. But it’s not easy to recommend one, I stayed only in 2 different ones so far, all pretty basic - as almost everything in Padang Bai.
The only hotel a bit better I can remember, is the one next to that 2 storey restaurant in the middle of the small beach strip with the fishing boats. But I can’t for the sake of it recall the name. Can anyone else help?
[...] Here is some information about exploring other attractions at Bali’s beautiful East Coast. [...]
Hi Chris!
We are presently in Ubud because we tried to escape the Kuta region.
Exploring the East Coast of Bali in a rental car seems a very good idea!
One Question though: where did you rent the car?
Michael - I rented with a Rental Shop in Jalan 66 in Legian, but there are plenty of others offering basically the same at almost every corner in the main tourist areas (including Ubud). I’m not so familiar with Ubud; but just ask around and stick to the prices mentioned above. There is soooo much competition at the moment, so currrently (low season) there is no need to pay more. Good luck and have a nice trip!
Hi Chris,
Came upon your article as I was surfing the web for more details of Padangbai. Was only thinking of doing a day trip to check this place out and escape Kuta. But after reading your article do you think it will be adviceable to stay aday or two there?Will be in Bali on 24Dec.
Monica, I can only recommend to take at least 2-3 days for Bali’s east coast, if not even more. You have here affordable accommodation and great food and the nature is simply breath-taking!
Padang Bai is a good choice to use as a base to explore the whole north-eastern coast of the island and way inland up to Gunung Agung or Batur.
You can even go from here to Lombok or Nusa Penida via ferry or speed boat.
If you only stay in Kuta you won’t see anything of Bali’s natural beauty.
Hi Chris, Where did you rent the car from?
Bernice - I rented with a Rental Shop in Jalan 66 in Legian, but there are plenty of others offering basically the same at almost every corner in the main tourist areas. Simply ask around and stick to the prices mentioned above. There is soooo much competition at the moment, so currently (still low season) there is no need to pay more. Good luck and have a nice trip!
Thanks Chris. Do you think it’s easier to rent a car or a driver? We will mostly be diving while in Bali but on our days off, we plan to visit some temples, do some hiking and perhaps go to Bali Barat National Park.
Bernice - that really depends on your preference.
Most people say that driving in Bali is quite tough (more here), especially if you are not used to left-side driving. While that is somehow true for the touristy areas and the capital Denpasar - where traffic is pretty heavy - driving around the countryside is pretty straightforward and rewarding. It’s not so much traffic and you are completely independent from other people.
A driver offers the same luxury, but it will cost you more (around Rp300.000-500.000 per day plus gasoline) and some people complain, that some Balinese drivers think they compete in a Formula One Race. Drivers can of course be a good source of insider information and maybe even bring you to locations you wouldn’t otherwise never know about. Some simply do their job, as anywhere else. While most Car Rentals offer Driving Services as well, I would recommend renting a Driver from a Hotel for (driving) security reasons.
In all cases you probably have to deal with Traffic Cops, if you get stopped. A driver will most likely pass through his ‘donation‘ to them to you, when driving yourself it’s up to you how to handle them.
I would prefer the privacy when driving myself over a Driver, but that’s only me.
Hi Chris, hope you don’t mind me passing this little info here for Bernice.
You may like to try contacting Rico 81239822230. He works at Poppies Restaurant and he has got 2 vehicles depending on the size of your group.Car with driver at Rp400-450,000 per day inclusive of gasoline. I have used his vehicle a few times and it is very good and reliable. Hope this helps.
Thanks Monica & Chris
Thanks for helping out, Monica!
Hi Chris, We read somewhere that we can get a Indonesian driver’s license for cheaper than getting an international driver’s license. Is this true and do you know how we can get an Indonesian license?
I read that we would need help filling out the Indonesian Driver’s license form since it’s in Bahasa Indonesia.
My husband is English and is used to driving on the left and I’m Malaysian
(living in the US) so I can understand Bahasa Indonesia.
Which would you recommend we get?
[...] In Bali paying the right Official or Banjar currently still ensures that you can build your own Villa development project at unspoiled beaches or in natures reserves, neglecting construction or environmental laws, as currently happening in Dreamland or Padang Bai. [...]
Bernice, you have some good questions there. I’m not so sure about that whole Indonesian license thing. I knew a guy who got a local license for about Rp200.000 or 300.000, but he left already. Anyway it was only valid for a year.
Here is an article on how that works in Jakarta, but I’m not so sure how up2date it is and how it works in Bali.
There must be a department somewhere in Renon in Denpasar, where most official governmental institutions work. Maybe someone else knows more and can help out? You might want to check out as well the following article about Traffic Cops in Bali.
Best of luck!
Chris
What was the name of the beach you went to in Padan Bei if you know it…was it a cove?
Thanks
Paul
paul, there are mainly 3 beaches near the Padang Bai village and they are basically all small coves. The main one is where the ferries to Lombok and Nusa Penida start. It’s calm and quite pleasant to swim there, although many boats and plenty of vendors who want you to buy something. Just right of the harbor beach is a nice small bay, it goes by the name Pantai Putih/White Beach, but there is construction ongoing for a new resort, so access to the beach might be limited.
To the left of the harbor bay, there is a beach known as Blue Lagoon, which has shallower waters and offers great snorkelling, although there are plenty of sharp stones and the waves could make it difficult to get to the better spots. Further east of Padang Bai there are plenty of other beaches as well, all the way up to Amed or Tulanbem in the North East, with more yellow or even stony/pebble shores.
Better plan at least 2 days to explore the whole area. You could take Padang Bai as your base, as it offers cheap accommodation and explore from there. Have a great trip!
[...] Do sports here: dive, snorkel, surf, kite, trek, bike, hike, play beach games. Ride a bike or car around the island and explore its hidden gems. Check out its neighboring islands like Lombok, Nusa Penida or Nusa [...]