Nusa Penida Bali: The Ultimate Travel Guide to Kelingking Beach, Diamond Beach & Island Views

Nusa Penida is one island you really should not miss when traveling to Bali. This time, I am taking everyone across the water to Nusa Penida, an island located southeast of Bali. The island is packed with beaches, cliffs, rock formations, and nature that is honestly just as beautiful as Bali’s main island. With its gorgeous sea, Nusa Penida feels like another paradise for anyone who loves water activities, whether that is diving, snorkeling, boat trips, surfing, or simply swimming at the beach.

What made Nusa Penida especially famous on social media is its collection of iconic Instagram photo spots. There is the tree house with a backdrop of blue sea and dramatic limestone cliffs, the T-Rex-shaped cliff at Kelingking Beach, and Diamond Beach, one of the island’s most popular beaches where people come to swim among powerful waves and unreal coastal scenery.

For this trip, I crossed over to Nusa Penida for 2 days and 1 night, and I will take everyone around the island to cover its most famous landmarks. Each place is photogenic, scenic, and absolutely worth following along for. Let’s get into the full review.

How Many Days Do You Need in Nusa Penida?

If you are planning a trip to Nusa Penida, you really need to plan your route carefully, especially if you are thinking of doing a day trip from Bali and returning in the evening. I have to say this first: if you visit Nusa Penida as a one-day trip, you may not be able to cover all the main highlights. There are many attractions on the island, and most of them are quite far apart. Some routes can take almost an hour by car, and several places are also fairly rugged, requiring time and effort to walk down cliffs to reach the beaches. So if you are coming here, I recommend staying overnight for 2 days and 1 night. That way, you can explore the island’s landmarks and major spots properly in one trip. You can follow my itinerary below, and if your time is limited but you still want to do a day trip, try choosing only the places you really want to see and send the list to your driver first to check whether the route is realistic and doable within your time.

Nusa Penida 2-Day, 1-Night Itinerary

For my Nusa Penida itinerary, I planned it as a 2-day, 1-night trip so there would be enough time to breathe, slow down, enjoy the atmosphere of each destination, and still collect all the major landmarks across the island. If you stay overnight for 2 days and 1 night, I recommend exploring the island side by side, whether you start from the left side or the right side first.

If I had to recommend one route clearly, I would say start Day 1 by heading to the farthest attractions on the right side of the island, then slowly work your way across until finishing on the left side on Day 2, where you can take the ferry back to Bali from the same general side of the island you arrived at. After trying this route myself, I can say it works really well, and you can basically copy this itinerary and send it to your driver.

Day	Places to Visit in Nusa Penida
1	– Diamond Beach – Atuh Beach – Rumah Pohon ‘Tree House’ – Tembeling Beach and Forest Hotel: Bintang Penida Resort
2	– Paluang Cliff – Kelingking Beach – Angel Billabong – Broken Beach – Crystal Bay Beach
OTA Deals	ส่วนลด Klook ส่วนลด Agoda ส่วนลด Booking ส่วนลด Expedia ส่วนลด Hotels

This is only the itinerary for Nusa Penida. I also have a full Bali itinerary covering Central Bali, North Bali, West Bali, and South Bali, which I have already written as a separate review. If you want to follow a more complete Bali trip, you can continue reading here.

Read the full Bali travel review here

How to Travel from Bali to Nusa PenidaSanur Harbour <> Nusa Penida

For traveling to Nusa Penida, the main way is to take a ferry or fast boat from Sanur Harbour at Sanur Beach. You can buy a ticket directly at the harbour, or for convenience, book in advance through Klook. Klook has several boat operators to choose from, and they also sell packages that include ferry tickets together with a private car and driver on the island. I personally booked a package that included the ferry and a driver to take me around Nusa Penida, and honestly, it was excellent. The best part about booking online in advance is that you do not have to run around trying to buy tickets at the harbour or look for a driver once you arrive on the island, which would be a lot of hassle.

> Book Bali–Nusa Penida ferry tickets through Klook

If you do not book in advance, you can still walk around and buy a ticket at the harbour. There are several ferry operators around the area calling out to customers and offering tickets, almost like the vibe of a bus terminal where staff wave you over to buy from them. If you come without an online booking, you can choose whichever operator you prefer at the harbour. Boats from Bali to Nusa Penida run from morning until evening, and the crossing usually takes around 30–45 minutes, so you can walk around and choose a schedule that works for you.

Recommended Hotel Near Sanur HarbourSri Phala Resort & Villa

Whether you are visiting Nusa Penida as a day trip or staying for several days, I recommend choosing the earliest outbound boat and returning on the latest boat on your final day so you can maximize your time on the island. For the boat ride from Sanur Beach to Nusa Penida, it is best to arrive at the harbour a little before departure time. If you are taking a morning boat like I did, staying near the harbour the night before is a very good idea because it saves a lot of travel time in the morning.

The night before I crossed over to Nusa Penida, I stayed at Sri Phala Resort & Villa. The location is close enough to Sanur Beach Harbour that you can walk there easily. The hotel is good, affordable, comfortable, and the best part is that you can wake up in the morning and walk straight to the boat. The night before departure, you can also tell the hotel reception that you have an early boat, and they can prepare a boxed breakfast for you. It is a very convenient hotel, and if you want to book the same place, you can check it out here.

One last thing I want to recommend before taking the boat is to wear shorts and sandals. The harbour, at least when I visited, was not the kind of fully built pier where you walk directly from a bridge into the boat. The boat parked by the beach, and we had to walk through seawater to board. If you wear long pants, they will definitely get wet before you even get on the boat. Also, if you are worried about big luggage like I was at first, you do not have to carry it onto the boat yourself. The boat staff will help lift large suitcases onto the boat, which is a relief.

Getting Around Nusa Penida

On Nusa Penida, there is no public transportation for tourists, and self-drive car rental is not really a thing here either. I have to say this first: the roads on the island are quite narrow. Bali is already not the easiest place to drive, but Nusa Penida is even more intense. Many roads go uphill and downhill, and some sections are very steep and narrow. So there are basically two main ways to get around the island, as below.

For the places you want to visit, you can specify your preferred stops when booking. Another thing I really liked during the actual trip is that the driver also helped review and adjust the itinerary. For example, he suggested changing the order to avoid tour groups or going at a time when the light and atmosphere would be better. The driver helped adapt the plan so that we could enjoy the trip and still cover all the places we wanted to visit. One important thing to know is that private car charters usually have a fixed duration, such as 6, 8, 10, or 12 hours depending on the operator and package. If you go over the included time, you will need to pay extra for the overtime.

The private car booking does not include overnight accommodation on the island, so you can book your hotel separately through Agoda, Booking.com, or any OTA you like, then tell your driver where you are staying. After the day’s itinerary is done, they will take you to your hotel, and the next day the driver can pick you up there again. It is very easy.

DAY 1 Diamond Beach

After crossing over to Nusa Penida and getting into the car, our driver took us to the first stop of the trip: Diamond Beach, one of the most popular beaches on Nusa Penida. This beach is famous for looking like paradise on earth, with a beautiful white-sand beach, turquoise water, and a huge diamond-like rock standing dramatically in the middle of the sea. The most iconic Instagram spot here is the elevated view from the staircase leading down to Diamond Beach, which you can see as soon as you arrive at the entrance. It is incredibly beautiful, and honestly, my first impression of Nusa Penida was already amazing.

Since Diamond Beach is located below a tall limestone cliff, there are basically two ways to experience it. The first is to put in the effort and climb down to the beach, where the view is absolutely spectacular. The second is for content people who just want to get a few beautiful photos without going all the way down. Choose whichever style suits you best.

Option 1 is to walk down to Diamond Beach itself. If you want to touch the soft sand, get close to the blue sea, and experience the dramatic waves, I recommend this option. But I have to warn you that it takes effort. The path down to the beach is quite intense because you have to follow a very steep staircase carved along the cliff, winding all the way down to the sand. The most exciting part is near the end, where there are no proper railings, and in some sections you need to hold onto a rope and carefully climb down over rocks instead of walking on stairs. If that sounds manageable to you and you want beautiful photos or a moment to chill on the beach, then go for it. It is absolutely worth it.

I personally could not miss the chance to climb down to the beach. Once I reached the bottom and saw the view up close, it was absolutely worth the effort. From the viewpoint above it was already beautiful, but standing on the beach itself made everything feel even more dramatic. The white sand against the crystal-clear blue sea, the powerful waves crashing against the shore, and the sound of wind hitting your skin all came together in a mood that was both stunning and moving. I noticed that most of the people who climbed down were foreign travelers, many of whom immediately changed into swimwear and ran into the waves. It looked so fun that I also ran down to let the waves crash into me. Each wave hit so hard that it almost knocked me over. After a while I was exhausted, but honestly, it was really fun.

Option 2 is for those who want photos and content without walking all the way down. I recommend walking down only the first section of the stairs. This is where you get the Instagrammable staircase angle that everyone takes, with the beach and the diamond-shaped rock clearly visible in the background. That said, take your photos quickly and move on or head back up, because the staircase is quite narrow and is also the main path used by people going up and down from the beach. If you are happy with just this shot, you can stop here.

Atuh Beach

Just across from Diamond Beach, there is another beach called Atuh Beach. To reach the sand, you also have to walk down a staircase until you get to the bottom. Personally, I did not walk down because I had already used a lot of energy climbing down to Diamond Beach earlier. Instead, I chose to sit and relax at a small drink stall above the beach, order a refreshing coconut, and enjoy the sea view from up there. Honestly, it was still really good.

The difference between Atuh Beach and Diamond Beach is that Atuh Beach has beach chairs and small shops where you can lie down, relax, and get something to eat by the sea. There is also a popular photo spot with a beach swing, which looks like it is standing in the middle of the sea when the tide comes in, with a beautiful mountain backdrop behind it. A lot of people come here for photos too.

Overall, Atuh Beach is a good place to lie down, rest, and enjoy the sea breeze. If you are tired after climbing around Diamond Beach, you can come here to relax and grab something to eat. The atmosphere is casual and easygoing, and in terms of beauty, it is definitely comparable. If you are too lazy to walk all the way down, sitting at the drink stall above the beach and enjoying the elevated view like I did is also a very good option.

Rumah Pohon ‘Tree House’

Less than five minutes by car, we arrived at Rumah Pohon ‘Tree House’, another famous landmark on Nusa Penida and one of the island’s most popular Instagram spots. I believe anyone who searches for Bali travel reviews or Nusa Penida attractions will definitely come across photos of people sitting on the stairs of this tree house with the sea in the background. The cover photo of this review was also taken here.

Let me explain a little first. Rumah Pohon ‘Tree House’ is actually divided into several parts. There are tree house accommodations where tourists can stay, viewpoints, and different photo spots that you can walk around and explore. The spot I came for was the actual tree house perched on the cliff edge facing the sea. This is the main highlight where people love standing or sitting on the wooden stairs with a backdrop of blue ocean and dramatic rock formations.

The story behind the tree house’s popularity is that, at first, this was just a normal accommodation. Then someone came here, took a photo from this angle, and the picture went viral. Now the owner has turned this house into a paid photo spot instead. If you want to take photos here, you need to pay an additional fee. When I visited, it was 75,000 IDR (around US$5) per person for only 2 minutes of photo time. It felt very expensive for what it was, but since I had come all the way here, of course I still paid and took the photo.

From my experience visiting in person, here is a tip if you want to take photos at this exact spot. Before going up, decide where you want to stand and think of your poses in advance. As soon as you step up, they start timing you immediately. Once your 2 minutes are up, they blow a whistle and tell you to come down right away. It is intense.

Personally, I think the photo fee here is extremely expensive for just 2 minutes, especially because the time limit is so tight. There is also someone watching and timing you, which makes the whole thing feel rushed and slightly stressful. If you are not that into taking photos, or if you do not think it is worth paying nearly US$5 for one angle, you can skip this spot. Besides being expensive and time-limited, there are also many people queuing to take photos. But if you want that “I came all the way to Bali, so I need this shot” feeling, I recommend coming very early in the morning. I heard from Thai friends that if you come early before the crowds arrive, they may not be as strict with the time limit, though you will have to try your luck.

Besides the tree house, another really beautiful spot here is Thousand Islands Viewpoint, a high viewpoint where you can see the ocean and clusters of small islands in this area. If you look carefully from here, you can also see another angle of Diamond Beach. It is a beautiful viewpoint and takes great photos without having to pay an extra entrance or photo fee. Excellent.

Tembeling Beach and Forest

We ended the first day on Nusa Penida at Tembeling Beach and Forest, which is a little farther from the places we had visited earlier that day. It took almost an hour to drive from the tree house. Personally, I had not seen many Thai travelers review this place, but I found some photos on Google Maps and thought it looked beautiful, so I added it to the itinerary.

Tembeling Beach and Forest is a small hidden beach tucked into the cliffs along the island’s west coast. The highlight inside is a natural pool where you can soak in the water surrounded by nature. Getting into Tembeling Beach and Forest is fairly adventurous. If you come by car like I did, you cannot drive all the way in. There is a parking area at the front, and from there you need to take a local motorcycle taxi deeper inside. The service cost around 80,000 IDR (around US$5) per person when I visited, and the driver waited to take us back to the parking area afterward. The road inside is honestly quite rough. It is extremely narrow, the surface is not good, and there are many potholes. If you come by scooter but are not a confident rider, I really do not recommend trying to ride in yourself.

After the local motorcycle dropped us off, we still had to walk about 15 minutes along a path that winds through the hills. The walking path is actually quite well made. Before reaching the inner area, you will pass a small pool and Pura Taman Panca Gangga, a Balinese-style shrine where locals come to worship. After walking a little farther, the path opens out to a beach surrounded by many rock formations. It feels like a secret beach with a quiet atmosphere and far fewer tourists compared with the island’s famous spots.

The highlight here is definitely the small blue pool near the sea. It is a man-made pool fed by natural water, so the water is not salty like seawater. You can walk down and soak in it for free. After a long day of exploring, dipping into the cool water feels incredibly refreshing and helps ease sore muscles from walking around all day.

When I lay still in the water and let myself sink into the nature around me, with forest surrounding the pool, it felt surprisingly restorative. It was like my body completely shut down and entered real rest mode. Because the pool is so close to the sea, the sound of waves drifting in made everything feel even more relaxing.

I soaked in the pool for quite a while until the sky started getting dark, then walked back out to meet the motorcycle driver so he could take us back to the parking area. After that, our private driver drove us to the hotel, ending the first day on Nusa Penida. It was tiring, but also very fun and memorable.

Bintang Penida Resort

If you are visiting Nusa Penida and wondering where to stay, I recommend choosing accommodation somewhere around the middle of the island, between your Day 1 and Day 2 routes. This makes it easier to continue sightseeing the next day. If you are worried about how to get to your hotel, do not worry. You can tell your driver where you are staying when you book, and they can pick you up and drop you off directly at the hotel, which is very convenient.

For this trip, I stayed at Bintang Penida Resort because I checked reviews across different OTA websites and the scores were very good, while the price was extremely affordable. The reason I did not choose an expensive hotel is that we were barely at the accommodation during the day. Our plan was to go out exploring all day, so for this trip I focused on a convenient location, good reviews, and good value instead.

Bintang Penida Resort is very wallet-friendly. When I booked, it was only around 320,000 IDR (around US$20) per night. For that price, you get a separate bungalow-style room, each standing on its own, which gives a nice sense of privacy. The room is fairly spacious and comes with all the essentials: a comfortable large bed, a clean and very spacious bathroom, plus appliances like a fridge and TV. It is a very suitable place to sleep for one night if you are crossing over to explore the island.

Besides the good price and comfortable room, breakfast is also included. It comes as a set where you can choose one breakfast dish, along with fruit and coffee. Overall, it is very good value. If you are visiting Nusa Penida and looking for a solid, affordable stay, I recommend Bintang Penida Resort.

Day 2: Paluang Cliff

We started the second day at Paluang Cliff, a clifftop viewpoint whose highlight is a large wooden boat structure extending out over the cliff, where you can sit for photos with a view of Kelingking Beach, or the T-Rex ridge, in the background. My original plan was to start at Kelingking Beach first, but our driver checked the schedule and suggested coming here first to avoid the crowds at this viewpoint, which apparently gets very busy later in the morning.

Paluang Cliff is located on the southwest side of Nusa Penida, close to Kelingking Beach. It is another viewpoint that is just as beautiful as the island’s other famous spots. When I visited, the entrance fee was 30,000 IDR (around US$2) per person, which covered the different photo spots at the top. These include the popular wooden boat that extends toward the sea, giving a full view of the T-Rex ridge, and a giant hand sculpture where you can stand on the stone palm for photos with the island’s coastline.

From this viewpoint, if you have sharp eyes, you may even spot large manta rays floating near the surface of the water close to Kelingking Beach, where tourists are out on boats and snorkeling nearby. Even from this high angle, I could clearly see the rays. I was honestly a little jealous of the people snorkeling down there, because they must have seen the rays up close.

Kelingking Beach

After seeing the ridge of Kelingking Beach from far away at Paluang Cliff, it was time to see the real thing up close: the famous T-Rex-shaped cliff at Kelingking Beach. This ridge and beach have become one of the icons of Nusa Penida. Thai travelers often call it the T-Rex Cliff because, from above, the limestone headland really does look like a T-Rex dinosaur stretching out into the sea.

If your main goal is to get the classic T-Rex ridge photo, you do not necessarily need to walk all the way down to Kelingking Beach. You can focus on taking photos from the elevated viewpoint along the path toward the beach. This is the must-have photo spot that almost everyone comes here for.

Honestly, I was very impressed with my driver here, so I have to praise him a little. When we arrived, he walked me to the photo spot on the bridge-like path down and pointed out exactly where to stand to get the best angle of the T-Rex ridge. He was really lovely.

For strong travelers who feel that coming all the way to Bali means reaching the destination properly, I recommend walking down the path all the way to the beach. But be warned: the descent is very steep and quite far. I think going down and coming back up could take around an hour or more. From where I stood, I saw many tourists walking down to the beach, and just from looking at it from above, I could tell the view from the bottom must be incredible. White sand, blue water, and that dramatic cliffscape would surely be worth the effort.

Overall, Kelingking Beach, or the T-Rex Cliff, is definitely one of the major highlights of Nusa Penida. Beyond taking beautiful photos and enjoying the view of the T-Rex ridge, this place is also great for sunset. You can watch the sky shift from orange to red before fading into darkness as the sun disappears into the horizon where the sea meets the sky. Just imagining it already feels romantic. If you want to catch sunset, you could plan to come here in the late afternoon of your first day.

Angel Billabong

After another roughly 30-minute drive, we arrived at Angel Billabong, a natural rock pool tucked into the coastline with an opening that connects to the ocean. When the sea is calm and the tide is low, the water inside the pool becomes crystal clear. But when the tide rises, the wind picks up, and waves come in, this spot can be very dangerous because waves can crash into the pool and sweep everything out to sea. In the past, tourists were allowed to swim here when there were no waves, but more recently access to the pool has been closed due to accidents caused by sudden waves.

Angel Billabong gets its name from a local legend that says this place was once a bathing spot for angels. The natural pool, surrounded by rock, was formed by repeated erosion from seawater until it became the pool-like basin we see today.

I arrived around noon, and it was unbelievably hot, the kind of heat that feels like walking straight into an oven. But I have to admit, the place is beautiful. What impressed me most was not the pool itself, but the long coastline with waves crashing toward the shore. It looked amazing. At that moment, the feeling reminded me a lot of Australia, which actually makes sense because Australia is not that far from Bali after all.

Broken Beach

Right next to Angel Billabong is another beach hidden inside a collapsed sea cave: Broken Beach, also known locally as Pasih Uug. Broken Beach is a large circular basin surrounded by tall limestone cliffs, with the beach and water sitting far below where we stand. The geological wonder here was created by long-term erosion from the sea, which carved a wide opening through the rock, forming something like a natural stone bridge over the water. The seawater flows through this opening and forms the beach inside. The most beautiful time to visit would probably be around sunset, when the sunlight can shine through the opening. I can imagine it would be stunning.

Broken Beach also has an old local legend. The story says that there was once a village in this area where a giant snake appeared and frightened the villagers. The villagers gathered together, killed the snake, cut up its meat, and distributed it around the village. At the same time, an old man entered the village and asked about the killing of the snake. He had begged the villagers not to kill it, but they ignored him and killed it anyway. Moments later, the old man took out a stick, which some versions say was a coconut stem, and stuck it into the ground. He then asked the villagers to pull it out, but no one could. Finally, the old man pulled the stick out himself, and in an instant the whole village collapsed. Water rushed through the hole where the stick had been planted, swallowing every house and every villager. After that, no one ever saw the old man or the villagers again, leaving only the beach we see today.

If you are visiting Nusa Penida, you should come see the natural beauty of Broken Beach. Even though you cannot climb down to the beach below, walking around the rim from above and looking down at the seawater is still impressive. The scale and beauty of nature here are really something. If you are planning your route, you could consider visiting in the late afternoon or closer to sunset, because I think it would look much better than when I visited at midday, when the sun was painfully hot.

Crystal Bay

The final stop on the island before taking the boat back to Bali was Crystal Bay, a beach considered one of the best spots on Nusa Penida for snorkeling and diving, where you can see the underwater world. It is also one of the island’s beautiful sunset spots. Because the beach is not too far from the harbour, Crystal Bay is popular with tourists who come to swim, as well as people like me who just want to sit lazily by the sea while waiting for the boat back to Bali.

Honestly, the beach atmosphere here reminded me of a casual local beach back home — laid-back, lined with umbrellas, and popular with families. The beach is filled with beach mats and umbrellas, and I saw many foreign tourists sitting around, sunbathing, and looking for something to eat. The restaurants in this area are not too expensive either, so you can sit, relax, and grab something to eat before heading back.

If you look at the photos and feel neutral about Crystal Bay, you can honestly skip it. I do not think there is that much here. You might get more value by spending your remaining time at another attraction on the island, or by walking down to Kelingking Beach itself.

So if you are planning a trip to Nusa Penida and are unsure about Crystal Bay, I think you can cut it out. Personally, I preferred the mood of the beaches on the eastern side of the island much more. The coastline, nature, and sea there felt more beautiful and more inviting for swimming. In the end, choose whatever matches your own travel style.

And then it was time to board the boat, ending my Nusa Penida trip in Bali. I went all in and covered almost every major landmark in 2 days and 1 night, and overall I really liked the sea and beaches on this island. They have such a distinct character that, even from photos, you can immediately tell this is Bali. The blue sea here also feels quite different from what we have back home.

If you are planning to cross over to this island, I recommend spending around 2 days here and dividing your route by area so you can cover the main attractions properly. What I strongly recommend is hiring a private car with driver, because the roads here are tougher than Bali’s main island and much more intense than you might expect. If you are not confident on a scooter, I still insist that you should not ride one yourself. For the boat, choose the earliest outbound trip and the latest return trip the next day. That way, you can cover the island properly and fully enjoy the sea of Bali.

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