Bali to Lombok... What to do and What not to do!
So you’re planning on visiting Lombok? In this blog post we will outline how to travel from Bali to Lombok and include all current 2023 prices plus keep reading to find out our story of travelling to Lombok to make sure you don’t make the same mistakes.
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Fast Boat
The most popular way to travel from Bali to Lombok is by fast boat and you will find many different companies that will offer competitive prices for this. Pedangbai is the name of the port in Bali, here you can book via any of the tour booths and make your way to the boats. You can also book online or from a tour company in any area in Bali.
All of these options will get you a ticket but prices may vary, for example there will be room to negotiate if you purchase in person. From our research, prices for a single journey should be anywhere from 400,000 IDR all the way up to 800,000 IDR. The tickets that you purchase will be for the same boat so make sure you shop around a little to find a good rate.
The boat takes around 1-2 hours however this does include the time waiting for others to board, from our experience they wait for the boat to completely fill before setting off; allow another hour for your journey time.
The time of departures were not strictly kept and seemed to be flexible, the company that you purchase your ticket will be able to inform you of the time of your boat. There are around 2 a day per company and many operate from the port.
The conditions of the boat are as to be expected with adequate space to sit and they will allow you to sit upstairs too and take in the sights.
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The smoothness of the ride will depend on the conditions but we experienced it as very comfortable and only a little bit rocky.
When boarding the boat there will be street merchants selling snacks and drinks plus when sailing you can purchase snacks too. Note the prices have become inflated so it is best to pack your own.
When arriving in Lombok you will most likely be dropped in Senggigi where the boat crew will unload the bags and you can continue on your journey. There are many taxi companies that will offer their services if you do not already have transport organised. Gojek is also available but you will be waiting a longer time as there are not as many drivers here in Lombok.
Overall the fast boat was comfortable and if we were to travel this route again this would be our first choice.
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Slow Ferry
The slow ferry is an alternative for those that do not mind travelling from Bali to Lombok in a slower and cheaper way.
You can board the boat from the same port as the fast boat in Padangbai.
When arriving, there will be one ticket office to purchase your ticket. From around the start of 2023 it seems that you can no longer pay with cash and depart, you must buy a travel card that you add credit onto. The price of this card offered to us was 100,000 IDR and this did not include the price of the ticket which was around 70,000 IDR.
Similar to the fast boat you will have to wait for the seats to fill up before you leave so the times of the boat seem to change from day to day. You may have to wait a little longer, try to get there as early as possible.
Once on the ferry you can choose any seat and there are no reserved areas; it is completely first come first served.
The condition of the boat also differs greatly so this is down to luck how comfortable you are going to be. Some will have screens and multiple sockets to charge your appliances while others will be a lot more basic.
The motion of the water will affect the boat less purely because it is a larger boat so if you don’t enjoy the rocking of a smaller boat this could be a good option for you.
The Ferry ride takes 5-6 hours depending on conditions so make sure you have plenty of power packs for your devices and lots to keep you entertained.
You will arrive at a port in Lembar so if your final destination is Kuta this could be a better option for you as it is a lot closer.
Flying
The final option when travelling from Bali to Lombok would be to fly, this is great for people who do not like boats or want to reduce their travel time to Lombok.
The plane to Lombok leaves from Bali’s airport in Denpasar and arrives in the Lombok international airport in only 40 minutes to 1 hour.
The price is a lot more than taking either boat and prices for one single journey start at 1 million IDR plus the extra charges for baggage etc.
The plane will be a light aircraft most likely with propellers and only a few seats for passengers which some people may find a little bit out of their comfort zone.
What Not to Do!
So now we can tell you about our personal experience travelling from Bali to Lombok. After spending around 3 weeks in Bali; mainly in the Canggu area, we were feeling ready for another adventure and did a little research into some more areas that we could explore in Indonesia. We stumbled upon Lombok and after speaking to a few friends that had visited this island before we decided to check it out.
The next issue was just how to get there. We researched the different options and couldn’t find a whole lot of information on this journey: most of the websites that we visited just took us to links to book a fast boat and did not actually give us any other information.
Issue #1
We decided to try to save a little money and take the slower and larger local ferry, when you’re travelling with a budget sometimes you have to sacrifice the luxury options and endure longer travel times and worse conditions.
On the morning of our planned journey we ordered a Gojek and made our way to the port – this was our first mistake. It would have been much easier and most likely cheaper if we headed to an area that was nearer to the port and stayed there for the night prior to leaving. If you have ever been to Bali then you will know that the traffic can slow you down considerably and what was originally an hour and twenty minute journey slowly crept up to well over two hours in the taxi.
We recommend staying in surrounding areas; maybe Kuta or Denpasar, to avoid this long travel time.
Next up we arrived at the port and made our way to the ticket booth for the ferry, upon arriving we were immediately bombarded by local men trying to sell us different tickets to their fast boats. We knew that we wanted to save money and go on the local ferry but many of them took a lot of refusals before they would leave us alone.
This is quite common in lots of areas in Bali and Asia as a whole, it’s definitely something that is hard to get used to coming from England where this doesn’t really happen, it is easy to feel overwhelmed when you are surrounded.
Make sure to remain calm and do not feel pressured into doing something you do not want to!
Issue #2
In the end we caved and purchased a ticket with a company, we managed to negotiate down from 700,000 to 500,000 IDR for both of us to get to Sengiggi. We then made our way to the port. When we arrived they informed us that the boat we bought a ticket for was full and that we needed to pay an additional 200,000 IDR to get on a different boat. Again we are not sure if this is true or not but it seemed like we had no option.
After all of this hassle we made it with a ticket to queue for the boat only to be told that we needed to go back and purchase a port tax from yet another ticket office, this was another 10,000 IDR each.
Finally we were on the boat and happy to just be on the way to Lombok. The journey was smoother than expected and took around an hour and a half which we easily spent watching out the windows at the beautiful ocean and smaller islands and islets on the way.
Issue #3
The final issue came about 5 minutes before we reached Sengiggi: rain. As if just to welcome us to Lombok the sky opened and to say we got drenched would be an understatement. We picked up our bags off the beach and made our way to shelter in order to find transport to Kuta; our final destination.
We decided to stick with Gojek as we knew it was reliable and usually cheaper than local taxis, this didn’t work out too well for us and we were waiting for a long time before our driver could find us, I think the issue was that there were only a few pick up points they could get to and due to the rain we didn’t really feel like walking to meet them there.
But we made it into the Gojek and around 400,000 IDR later we arrived at our hostel and were met with a warm host and clean room. The struggle to get here was over!
Now you have heard about our story, let us know your experiences on Instagram. CLICK ME for all of our Indonesia related blog posts!
All prices are current to 2023 and in IDR.
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