Nusa Penida

IslandsBali,Indonesia

A cliff-walled island off Bali where a 180-metre headland curls like a crouching dinosaur over a white cove, with mantas circling the reefs below.

September·Peaking now

Jul–Oct

Mola sightings peak in August and September. Seas stay dry-season calm, and the clifftop viewpoints fill fastest now.

Year-round Reef manta rays patrol the cleaning stations at Manta Point all year and the karst cliffs, arches and coves stand in every season; the sea's calm, clarity and the mola upwelling are what change.

Nusa Penida is a cliff-walled island off the southeast coast of Bali, Indonesia, where a headland 180 metres high curls over a white cove like a crouching dinosaur, and manta rays circle the reefs below it all year. The headland is Kelingking, and the picture that made the island famous is taken from the cliff top, looking down the dinosaur's spine to the beach; the path to it runs down the ridge on a timber-and-rope staircase pinned to the rock. The island is limestone lifted out of the sea, dry and rough, with the coast cut into stacks, arches and coves. At Broken Beach the roof of a sea cave has collapsed to leave a near-perfect stone arch and a round, cliff-walled lagoon that the ocean pours through with each wave, and a path runs around its rim. On the east coast the grassy cliffs at Atuh look down on a scatter of jagged rock islets standing offshore, best at first light. Diamond Beach, below them, is reached by a staircase cut into the cliff. The island's other half is underwater. At Manta Point, on the wild south coast, reef mantas circle a cleaning station in the current all year, and divers drop in to hang beside wings four metres across; along the walls the coral belongs to the Coral Triangle, the richest reef region on Earth. From July to October a cold upwelling draws the mola mola, the disc-shaped ocean sunfish, up from the deep to Crystal Bay to be cleaned, and divers brave water as cold as 18 degrees to see a fish that can weigh a tonne. Nusa Penida was for generations an island the Balinese feared, a place of exile ruled in legend by the demon lord Ratu Gede Mecaling, blamed for plague and misfortune. It is also one of the last wild homes of the Bali starling, a snow-white songbird with a blue mask that collectors poached almost to extinction. The dinosaur on the cliff is the island's postcard, and the mantas below it are its secret.

Worth knowing

Good to know

April to October is the dry season — calm seas, clear water and firmer dirt roads; wet-season swell can close boat access to the western coves.
Kelingking and the west-coast viewpoints fill by mid-morning — come at first light or late afternoon to share the cliff edge with far fewer people.
Diving the mola-mola upwelling means genuinely cold water — it can drop to around 18°C at depth from July to October, so pack a thicker wetsuit than Bali's warm reefs need.
One island loop can't do both coasts well in a day — roads are steep and slow, so pick the west (Kelingking, Broken Beach) or the east (Atuh, Diamond) per trip.
Angel's Billabong is only safe at low tide — rogue waves have swept visitors from the pool's seaward rim, so check the tide and never turn your back on the ocean.

Things to do

1
Climb down the cliff stairs to Kelingking and Diamond Beach
The Kelingking headland is the cliff shaped like a crouching dinosaur, and the path to its cove runs down the ridge — the dinosaur's back — on a timber-and-rope staircase pinned to the rock. The scramble is slow and hard on the knees, 180 metres above the water, and at the bottom there is a near-empty crescent of white sand. Diamond Beach, on the east coast, has its own staircase hand-cut into the cliff, dropping to a curve of sand guarded by a triangular sea stack. Both climbs back are hard work in the heat, and at both the surf is strong enough that you should not count on swimming.
2
Dive the manta station and drift the Coral Triangle walls
Drop into the current at Manta Point on the wild south coast, where reef manta rays circle a cleaning station all year. They glide past within arm's reach, wings beating slowly and mouths agape to feed — one of the few places you can count on their company in any season. The same currents make most diving here drift diving, sweeping you along walls thick with hard coral and clouds of orange anthias. Reef sharks, turtles and trevally pass on the same stretch, so the reef is worth the dive even when the mantas stay out of sight.
3
Watch first light over the Atuh sea stacks
From the grassy cliffs at Atuh, on the island's east coast, the sea breaks into a scatter of jagged rock islets standing offshore. Come at dawn, when the light turns soft and gold and the crowds have yet to arrive, and the viewpoint is yours alone above the surf.
4
Walk the rim of Broken Beach
At Broken Beach the roof of a sea cave has collapsed, leaving a near-perfect stone arch and a round, cliff-walled lagoon that the ocean pours through. A short clifftop path circles the rim; next door, the tide-fed rock pool of Angel's Billabong sits calm between sets of waves.

Watch

Nearby

32 km