The Gili Islands are almost too beautiful to believe they’re real.
The gorgeous, crystal-clear, turquoise water begs you to dive in and admire the rainbow coral reefs and schools of fish and swim with the adorable sea turtles.
While traveling the very famous Bali island of Indonesia, we decided to take a trip to the Gili Islands and ended up staying for a week. I highly recommend scuba diving here.
In this article you’ll learn about the dive shop we used, about our fantastic divemaster and where we stayed!
This post is all about the Gili Islands.
1. all about the gili islands
The Gili Islands are made up of three main islands – Gili Trawangan, Gili Meno and Gili Air. The word Gili, in Indonesian, means small island! That means locals just refer to the islands as “The Gilis”.
The Gilis are located closest to the island of Lombok as they’re just off the coast to the northwest. They’re also northeast of the island of Bali making it easy for visitors to make their way from Bali to the Gili Islands.
The Gilis have no motorized vehicles making for an even more intimate island feel. Plan to get around by foot, bicycle or by a horse-pulled cart.
Who should travel to the Gili Islands?
Anyone who loves white sand beaches, serenity and tranquility, crystal clear turquoise water filled with coral, fish and many sea turtles. They focus on love of the natural world, coral and environmental restoration and preservation of culture.
2. Blue Marlin dive shop
We knew that becoming scuba certified meant that we wanted to find a PADI certified dive shop. After reading reviews we decided that Blue Marlin was a great fit for us.
Blue Marlin is the largest dive shop in all of Indonesia. They have dive shops on all three Gili Islands: Gili Trawangan, Gili Meno and Gili Air. We opted to stay on Gili Meno because its the quieter island with less of a party scene.
Here at Blue Marlin, they offer multiple different dive offerings. Whether you’re already certified or not they’re the perfect dive shop.
Their mission is Passion, Safety, Quality and Family.
We signed up for the Open Water Diver Certification Course. This allows us to be certified to dive internationally up to 18m/60 ft deep. The cost is much more budget friendly than many other parts of the world. The certification is 6,400,000 IDR or roughly $380 USD. This price includes all rental equipment, the online training course, a pool dive and 4 open water ocean dives.
To look into scheduling a dive or a certification here is a link to their website!
3. Our phenomenal divemaster eddy
It’s hard to express how much we loved our divemaster Eddy. Eddy was a calm and confident teacher who made sure to check-in on us throughout every step of the way.
Eddy also found amazing things underwater for us to see that we may not have noticed on our own. Learning how to dive, being deep in the water and experiencing the ocean is incredible, but it can also be daunting. Having a steady, confident and safe person that you can rely on while diving is super beneficial and Eddy was that for us.
Leaving the Gili Islands at the end of our trip was sad, of course, but saying goodbye to Eddy was even sadder. What a fabulous experience in a fabulous destination with a fabulous divemaster!
4. scuba diving in the gili islands
One of the only negative things about learning to dive in the Gili Islands is that you’ll be setting the bar very high. There is no shortage of things to see when diving here. Scuba diving is incredibly peaceful, meditative and fully immersive.
Regardless of which of the Gili Islands you stay on, you’ll be able to dive at the sites around any of the three islands. The divemasters will determine which sites are the best based on currents, clarity, trends and more – so you won’t have to worry about selecting a dive spot.
The four dive sites that we dove at were:
- Hans Reef
- Bounty Wreck
- Shark Point
- Turtle Heaven
I learned that I personally prefer reef dives rather than ship wreck dives. The rainbow coral was absolutely mesmerizing. We saw black tipped reef sharks, hawksbill sea turtles, an octopus, nudibranchs, clownfish, puffer fish, moray eels, parrotfish, cornet fish, red toothed trigger fish, box fish, different species of lionfish and many many more.
5. Where we stayed
We stayed at the Seri Hotel which is an adult-only hotel and is really quaint and in a fantastic location. We ate breakfast, lunch and dinner here almost everyday for a week and were very content with their offerings.
The walk from Blue Marlin Dive to the Seri Hotel is only ~10 minutes. It’s along the beach and is very quiet and peaceful for both pre and post dive.
The Seri Hotel has different types of accommodations and all are budget friendly. Basking in the sun on a white sand beach while sipping a fresh coconut AND it’s budget friendly? Sign me up!
6. How to get to the gili islands from bali
Traveling from Bali to the Gili Islands is surprisingly easy. Now, if you read Silver Jewelry making in Bali, then you may remember that Bali isn’t a city it’s an entire island. Depending upon where you’re coming from in Bali there are different ferry services.
The most popular tourist area on Bali is Ubud. If staying in Ubud, the easiest and most affordable is to get to the Padang Bai port. The ferry to any of the three Gili Islands is $20 USD and should be reserved ahead of time. Click here to reserve your ticket!
PAY ATTENTION: You must arrive 1 hour before your scheduled departure time and check-in at the counter check-in desk.
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