A common question that older travellers heading to the Gili Islands for the first time ask is: “Which of the Gill Islands is best for older adults (or couples)?” Googling that question produces dozens of search results all saying much the same thing: Gili Trawangan is the party island, Gili Meno is the solitude island, whilst Gili Air is a nice compromise between the two.

Based on that advice, most older travellers head to Gili Air, and that’s exactly what we did. However, after spending a week on Gili Air and exploring the other two islands as well, I concluded that was not good advice. Or at least it is advice that should be qualified.

The Gili Islands, located off the northwest coast of Lombok, Indonesia, used to be a little-known backpacker destination, and one that attracted mainly those into scuba diving or snorkelling. But all that has changed in the past decade or so as more direct ferry services from Bali opened up and word spread about the superb dive sites in the crystal-clear waters around the Gili Islands.

As well as direct ferry services from Bali, the islands can be reached by taking a flight to the Lombok International Airport, which opened in 2011, and from there a 90 mins taxi or Grab ride to Bangsal Port from where there are local ferries to the Gili Islands.

The islands are not particularly scenic. They are flat with only Gili Trawangan (or Gili T as it is known locally) having a small hill, and they are not lush and green as you might expect tropical islands to be. They are dry and dusty for much of the year and many of the old houses of the Muslim villages on the islands are rundown or abandoned.

However, the islands do have a laidback atmosphere to them, some lovely beaches, and when the weather conditions are right, colourful sunrises and sunsets and glorious views of the 12,000ft high Rinjani mountain range on Lombok to the east, and the impressive Mount Agung volcano on Bali to the west. Visiting the islands also feels as if you are stepping back in time as there are no cars or motorbikes on the islands – only horse-drawn carriages, electric bikes and pushbikes. For those not into diving, it’s the relaxed and slow pace of life that draws visitors to the Gili Islands

So why did we not think Gili Air is the best option for older travellers? If you are only there for a night or two, then Gili Air will probably satisfy your needs, but if you are there for more than a few days then there are two reasons why Gili T is the better option.

Firstly, Gili T has many more restaurants, cafes, coffee shops and bars than Gili Air, so for anyone staying more than a few days there’s a much great choice of places to eat and drink than on Gili Air. That’s not to say there aren’t good restaurants on Gili Air. If you’re into Italian food, then the Italy Pizza & Cucina on Gili Air is hard to beat, but Gili T has many more eating places than Gili Air, so if you’re not planning to eat all your meals in a resort, Gili T has far more options for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Secondly, one of the fun things to do on the Gili Islands is to explore them on a pushbike. However, most of the ‘road’ that circumvents Gili Air is a sandy track, and on about 50 percent of it, the sand is too soft to ride on. That means you spend half the time pushing your bike through soft sand. On Gili T, however, there is a sealed road or path around most of the island, with only a short stretch of sandy track on the north coast near the Gili Beachfront Suites.

Gili T is larger than Gili Air, so there is more island to explore. The interior roads on Gili T are in better condition than those on Gili Air. For those who enjoy horse riding, STUD Horse Riding & Rescue at the southern end of the island (below the Hilltop Hiking Viewpoint) offers both island and beach tours on horseback.

Don’t let Gili T’s reputation as a ‘party island’ put you off. Most of the late-night music sessions and full moon parties are held along the main tourist strip on the southeast coast of the island. Just make sure to book accommodation away from that area if you don’t want your sleep disturbed by loud music. The long early morning calls to prayer from the mosques on Gili Air disturbed our sleep as much as any bar music on Gili T would have done.

What about Gili Meno? Would that suit older travellers looking for peace and quiet? Yes, but be aware that it’s the least developed of the three islands and there are limited dining options on Gili Meno outside of the few beach resorts and local ‘beach shack’ type restaurants. Most of the resorts on Gili Meno cater for honeymooners who will stay in the confines of their resort for most of their stay.

And the track around Gili Meno is even less suitable for cycling than Gili Air (although the interior roads on Gili Meno are not so potholed as Gili Air). The only attraction that Gili Meno has over the other islands is a small saltwater lake surrounded by mangroves in the interior, but the boardwalk around the lake has been neglected and is currently not safe to walk on.

Another question that is frequently asked about the islands is how long it takes to walk or cycle around them.

The track that circumvents Gili Air and Gili Meno is about 5km long, so it takes between an hour and 15 minutes and a hour and a half to get around those two islands. It takes the same time to walk or cycle because pushing a bike through the soft sand sections of the coastal track is slower than walking unencumbered.

The road around Gili T is about 7km long so takes a little over half an hour to cycle (allowing for the short sandy stretch on the north coast over which the bike has to be pushed) and under two hours to walk. You can achieve a faster walking pace on Gili T because most of the road is paved.

What if you don’t want to walk or cycle? Your only options on the Gili Islands are the horse and cart taxis (known as cidomos) or electric bikes. The cidomos cost 100,000 rupiah for a short trip (the same as the cost of hiring a pushbike for the day) and 200,000 rupiah for longer trips. 

A sightseeing trip right around Gili T on a cidomo will likely cost you at least 500,000 rupiah (about US$33) but that will depend on your bargaining power and whether the driver feels like making such a trip. When ferries arrive, the cidomo drivers prefer to focus on getting arriving passengers to their accommodation because that is where they earn most of their tips.

Finally, a word of warning about the ferries to the Gili Islands. The ocean between Bali and Lombok can be quite rough at some times of the year with swells up to 3-4 metres. When the crew come around handing out sick bags after leaving port, you will know that it’s not going to be a smooth trip.

Therefore, if you elect to take a ferry rather than flying to Lombok, select a ferry company with the largest boats. We used Eka Jaya for that reason and were thankful that we weren’t on a smaller ferry (of which there are many). However, be prepared for late departures and chaotic boarding procedures (which is par for the course with most Indonesian ferry services).

If you fly into Lombok and take a ferry from Bangsal Port, go directly to the fast Karya Bahari ticket office down by the wharf. The fare is 85,000 rupiah to any one of the Gili Islands. The ferry takes about 20 minutes to reach Gili Air and then goes to Gili Meno (15 mins) and Gili T (15 mins).

The ferry operates every couple of hours during the day and you can use the same ferry to transfer between the islands. The fare is the same between the islands as it is from Bangsal Port on the mainland.

Don’t use the public ferry as that is an old wooden boat and takes twice as long. The fare is only 40,000 rupiah ($2.50) but you’ll be sharing wooden seats with the locals carrying gas bottles and sacks of vegetables, and the public ferry disembarks passengers on the beach (which means wading through water) rather than on a jetty.

The Gili Islands do experience strong winds at some times of the year, and when the sea is rough the public ferries get tossed around like a cork in a child’s bathtub.

And be aware that Bangsal Port is full of touts and scammers that are out to deprive you of some of your cash by offering ‘special deals’ on charter boat hires. Don’t buy ferry tickets from the agents that operate from shopfront premises on the road down to the wharf. They will tell you that the fast ferry is fully booked and only the VIP ferry is available at 150,000 rupiah.

We fell for that story when we stopped at a coffee shop before going down the wharf to buy our tickets because I hadn’t properly researched the ferry options before arriving. The coffee shop also had a ferry ticket counter, and the ticket seller told us he had just two tickets left for the next VIP ferry. I became suspicious after handing over the cash and the ticket seller sent an employee down to the wharf to buy the tickets.

When he came back, he wouldn’t give us the tickets but said his employee would hold the tickets as he would escort us to the VIP ferry. It turned out that the so-called VIP ferry was in fact the regular fast ferry, and the reason he didn’t want us to see the tickets was they would have shown the price as only 85,000 rupiah.

When we got to the wharf, the ticket seller’s employee handed the tickets to a ferry crew member who promptly pocketed the two tickets, no doubt for the purpose of later calculating how the extra cash paid should be divided between them.

As the ferry pulled away from the jetty (with only about 80 percent of the seats filled) and headed towards Gili Air, I suddenly remembered that I hadn’t paid for our coffees. At least that gave me some satisfaction that they didn’t make quite as much out of us as they were intending!

All images: © David Astley