Like most travelers passing through Bali, we made a stop over on the beautiful island of Gili Trawangan, more commonly known as Gili T. We spent 3 days exploring the tiny island, and here is what we did, saw, ate, and where we stayed:
Where we stayed:
We had the pleasure of being hosted at Martas Hotel, which is a beautiful guesthouse right off the main strip in Gili T. We wrote a whole blog post dedicated to Martas, so we’ll skip the details here, but we did enjoy our stay and would highly recommend it.
You can book at Martas here >>> LINK!
Where we ate:
We left Ubud and arrived in Gili T feeling a little bit underwhelmed by the food (because food in Ubud is SO good), but we did find a few good eats.
The Banyan Tree was the restaurant that we ate the most at, with an amazing vegetarian menu and a ton of a great healthy options for breakfast, lunch or dinner!
Kayu Cafe was our go-to for smoothie bowls, coffee and delicious desserts! Don’t miss this place while you’re on Gili T.
Pesona Indian + Sheesha served up some great Indian food and affordable drinks. They had great veg + meat options and we ate here not once, but twice! That’s a lot considering we were only on Gili T for 3 days!
The Garden Cafe at the Yoga Place serves a mean smoothie bowl! Unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to do yoga here, but next time we’re on Gili T, we’ll be spending a day at this serene place eating delicious food and practicing some yoga!
Diversia Restaurant and Lounge is probably the most random place we ate, considering it’s inside of a dive club, but it was one of the best meals we had on the island. We had amazing service here and really quality food for an affordable price (not as cheap as eating at the night market, but definitely affordable).
The Roast House serves up great chicken dishes, and even a couple of fish and salad options! This wasn’t our favorite meal on the island, but I think that mostly had to do with what we ordered. If you’re planning to eat here, go for the traditional roast chicken dish – the people beside us ordered it and it looked pretty tasty!
What we did:
Gili T is known for it’s parties and there seems to be a party every night, but since we aren’t big drinkers, we skipped the parties and opted to do other things.
Lounging at the Beach:
Two of our days were spent lounging at Pearl Beach Lounge. They are a bit further down the strip, have a beautiful beach side location with nice water, and the chairs are complementary when you order something!
Walking Around the Island:
We spent an afternoon walking the entire island and taking photos with the famous swings that are in the water. We also stuck around for sunset, which definitely didn’t disappoint! There are a ton of great places to grab a happy hour drink at sunset, so we would recommend timing your excursion around the island with sunset.
Treating Yourself to a Massage:
We got a good massage for an affordable price at Azure Spa, which is located in and behind Pesona (the Indian restaurant we mentioned above). It was the traditional 60 minute Balinese massage, and although it wasn’t the best Balinese massage we got in Indonesia, it was still recommendable.
Scuba Diving:
Unfortunately we need to take a refresher course (which wasn’t in the budget at the time), so we didn’t scuba dive, but the Gili’s are known for scuba diving! You could stay a week and do your PADI, or if you are already certified, join one of the many local dive shops for a couple of adventure dives. This was the one thing that we feel like we really missed out on, and would highly recommend you don’t miss out on during your visit!
What did you do in Gili T? Comment and let us know what else you would recommend!
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