Lesser Sunda Islands

Join the Hipporoller Challenge

Help the Travel Guide reach 20,000,000 characters and we'll donate 63 hipporollers worth over $6000. Read more.

Contributors

• Utrecht (100%)
  from http://utrecht.travellerspoint.com

Help contribute to this article to share the ad revenue.

Introduction

Balinese Rice Farmer

© All Rights Reserved PANDE

The Lesser Sunda Islands, or Nusa Tenggara, form a chain of island in the central southern part of Indonesia. The are located west of the Greater Sunda Islands (including Java, Borneo, Sumatra and Sulawesi).

Geography

The Lesser Sunda Islands can be divided into three provinces: Bali, East Nusa Tenggara (including Flores, Komodo, Sumba and West-Timor) and West Nusa Tenggara (including Lombok and Sumbawa).
Geologically, the islands of Lombok, Bali, Sumbawa and Flores, are of volcanic origin, while islands like Sumba and Flores are non-volcanic and are part of the Australian Plate.

Cities

• Denpasar (Bali)
• Mataram (Lombok)
• Kuta (Bali)

Sights and Activities

• Komodo National Park is a stunning place covering and area of 1817 km² of which 603 km² of it is land. Originally founded in 1980 to prodect the largest lizard in the world, the Komodo Dragon, this park has been expanded its mission to protect all the different species in the park and sea life around it. The park offers great opportunities for hiking, scuba diving and bird watching/lizard watching.

Events and Festivals

Weather

Getting There

By Plane

Ngurah Rai International Airport (DPS) is located in the southern part of the island, just 13 km south of Denpasar. It is the third busiest airport in the country and now meets international aviation security standards. The airport has extensive international service and good domestic service, including flights to Jakarta, Surabaya, West Papua, Borneo, Sulawesi and Sumatra. Pretty much every country in the Asian and pacific region can be reached directly by flights from this airport.
Garuda Indonesia flies to/from Hong Kong, Melbourne, Nagoya, Osaka, Perth, Seoul, Shanghai Pudong International Airport, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo and lowcost airlines Air Asia serves Kuala Lumpur.
Several other airlines have some more destinations, including Taipei, Amsterdam, Dili, Darwin, Brisbane, Doha, Bandar Seri Begawan, Guangzhou, Broome, Bangkok, Moscow and Adelaide.
Some of the other islands, like Lombok and Flores, have connections to other Indonesian cities as well, and some international connections.

By Car

By Bus

By Boat

There a car and passenger ferry connecting Bali (Gilimanuk) and east Java (Ketapang), crossing takes about an hour.

Getting Around

By Plane

Most of the main islands have one or more airports with regular connections between them.

By Train

By Car

By Bus

By Boat

There's a car and passeger ferry between Bali (Padangbai) and Lombok (Lembar), crossing takes about 4 hours.
To get to the Gili Islands from Lombok, you can travel there from Senggigi or Bangsal. It is 15 minutes to Air, 30 to Meno and 45 to Trawangan.
There are now also some direct services from Bali as well, all of them either via Lombok, or continuing to Lombok after the Gili Islands:

• Blue Water Express travels from Benoa to Bangsal on Lombok, continuing to Gili Trawangan, taking about 2 hours
• Gili Cat travels to Gili Trawangan from Padang Ai (1,5 hours).
• Island Getaway travels there from Serangan (2 hours)
• Perama Express to Trawangan from Padang Ai, continuing to Senggigi.

Eat

Drink

Sleep