If you’ve exhausted all tourist options on the island of Bali and want to teleport back to a simpler time, hit the chicken (google a map of Bali – chicken laying an egg) and eyes right, to Lombok.
Kuta Lombok has echoes of Kuta Bali circa the late 80’s, early 90’s, but swap out the sarongs tied twenty ways for active wear, bum bags for cross body bags (same, same but different?) pushbikes for mopeds and thongs (the ones you wear on your feet lol) for crocs and you get the vibe. And if you head to Tanjung Aan Beach, the time warp is complete with the addition of squat toilets!
Kuta Beach Lombok is a misnomer. The beach is really a bay, dotted with fishing boats and a waterfront promenade that meanders next to and through warungs, providing a snapshot of the lives of the predominantly Muslim fishing families who live and work here. Downtown consists of a handful of streets with very little traffic, mostly tourists on mopeds. There are plenty of great restaurants, a vibrant local produce market, a strip of tourist shops selling Bali souvs, a couple of doof doof joints, a bunch of touts renting motorbikes, scooters, surf-boards and selling tours…and that’s it. Bliss!
There’s an abundance of accommodation options in Kuta Lombok, but I’m willing to bet none are as good as Rascals, an adult-only boutique hotel with just 38 rooms. Rascals is rated 3-star, only because it doesn’t have all the tick boxes you need for a 5-star, like 24-hour room service, a minibar or working TV’s (that might be a deal breaker for some), but it’s way more than that. Rooms have outdoor rain showers (including geckos on steroids!), pool views (there are 2), an incredible restaurant with funky food fusions and even funkier staff. Stop me now…I could bang on for hours about this property! Stay there!
One of the big hooks for Southern Lombok is the surf. Prolific googling indicated that the best way to access these surf beaches was by renting motor scooters. However, for those of us averse to death by motorbike, transfer options were sketchy. We were aiming for Tanjung Aan Beach, and here’s what they didn’t tell you.
- You can get a car transfer from Kuta Beach Lombok return to Tanjung Aan (a 15-minute drive from Kuta Beach) for 250,000 rupiah (yeah, there are better hagglers out there than me, but I’m helping keep tourism afloat in SE Asia!). Pay the tourist operator half as a deposit and the other half when they transfer you back to your hotel (They will ask for it all up front, but yeah, nah.)
- You can hire surfboards at Tanjung Aan Beach. They are around 50,000 rupiah for an hour, and another 50K for a return boat trip to the reef break.
- There are a multitude of thatched umbrellas with sunbeds lining the beach and you only need to purchase a drink or some food and you can lie there all day.
- There are super friendly beach vendors here, who like nothing more than taking the piss out of the tourists. They are up for a chat and some of them sold items you could only buy on Lombok (like a local woven throw that is my new fave.)
- Tanjung Aan has the most magnificent sunsets. You can walk up Merese Hill on the western end of the beach and soak up the sunset and panoramic views on both sides.
- The vibe at Tanjung Aan is retro Bali. Bring a book, crack a Bintang, relax and spend the day here!
Of course, there are many more amazing beaches to discover in Southern Lombok, like Pink Beach, Mawun, Mawi and Selong Belanak. Time restraints and an infatuation with Tanjung Aan prevented further exploration, but I’m a firm believer in leaving options for when you go back!
