Gili Air, the Best of the three Gili Islands

Travel Day 676 – Gili Trawangan to Gili Air, INDONESIA

Since Gili Trawangan, as a busy tourist extension of Kuta on Bali, proved to be the wrong place for me, I was already on the move as early as possible…

Empty and Relaxed Beach on Gili Air in Indonesia

For some strange reason it had been impossible yesterday to get a sound answer as to when the public island hopping boat would embark and so I got up really early, went down to the harbor and talk directly with the boat office guys. Luckily the People were helpful, while everyone else on Gili Trawangan seemed to have been only interested in selling their overpriced private tickets. Since this was actually one more negative thing that I noticed about Gili T., after some nice breakfast it was more than time to leave this tourist trap behind…

The island hopping boat was going first to Gili Meno which was dubbed to be the couples’ island and the most expensive one of the three Gili Islands. But Gili Air, the last island before reaching Lombok again, seemed to be a good compromise and it actually came recommended by some other travellers. This seemed reason enough to make the little village on hustle free Gili Air my home for the next couple of days…

Sunset over Gili Meno, seen from Gili Air, Indonesia

The prices on Gili Air appeared to be quite normal again and the local people were once more friendly and helpful. I even managed to find the first dorm room in months and because they just opened the facilities on the previous day, I even had a cheap dorm room all to myself. So far the relaxed island of Gili Air had a lot going for it and since there was even an actual village in the center of the island, it was even possible to find really cheap local food. Although in comparison to Gili Trawangan, even the seaside restaurants were actually quite reasonably priced…

So after some great local lunch, I was off to first explore the island a little bit and then relaxed in the sun for the rest of the afternoon. The spot on the empty beach turned out once more to be a great place for watching the sun set, only this time it happened over Gili Meno. Luckily by the time it was completely dark, I had finished the walk around the entire island of Gili Air. This wasn’t a very big island and it wasn’t a hugely popular place, but because of that, Gili Air was a nicely relaxed getaway and probably the best option to visit of the three Gili Islands…