It’s our second day exploring Nusa Penida, a little paradise island off the coast of Bali. After discovering the magnificent Diamond Beach, today we’re heading out to swim with manta rays, one of Nusa Penida’s must-do experiences, and explore the western part of the island. This is where you’ll find Bali’s most famous beach: Kelingking Beach. We first visited in 2017, and we’re looking forward to seeing this wild, unspoiled viewpoint overlooking the Indian Ocean again. But is it still as untouched as we remember? Since our first visit, social media has also discovered this once-hidden beach, which is no longer much of a secret! Overtourism, urban development, litter, a giant elevator: is Kelingking Beach still worth visiting in 2026? Here’s our somewhat mixed verdict.
Heading to Manta Point in Nusa Penida
Tuesday, February 17, 2026
Swimming with manta rays is one of the must-do activities in Nusa Penida. While the island is famous for its paradise beaches and breathtaking viewpoints, its underwater world is just as impressive! So, naturally, we book a half-day excursion to swim with manta rays. After a hearty breakfast at the hotel, Rémi and Mom hop into our host’s old Jeep and head to the port! As for me, I decide to stay behind and relax at the hotel, as I’m not particularly comfortable with deep water. From the port, we can see Mount Agung, Bali’s highest volcano, which we climbed last week.
Swimming with manta rays in Nusa Penida
After an hour cruising along the coast, the boat reaches Manta Point. And it certainly lives up to its name! Huge manta rays glide through the current. This is actually a cleaning station, where the rays come to have small fish clean them. With their enormous wings, they seem to fly peacefully underwater. Manta rays are the largest rays in the world, with wingspans ranging from 3 to 9 metres! They have been a protected species in Indonesia since 2014. Fishing for them and trading in them are now prohibited. Although the reason behind this protection is purely financial (tourism), it’s still great news for the manta rays.
It’s an incredible experience, both for Mom, who is swimming with manta rays for the first time, and for Rémi, who has done it once before. It’s always a tremendous privilege to encounter animals in their natural habitat, and there’s something truly magical about the experience. And the good news is that this won’t be our last encounter with manta rays in Bali.
They both return to the hotel delighted but exhausted. Mom especially, who felt quite sick on the way back! 🤢 She heads straight off to rest while Rémi and I enjoy the pool and have lunch at the hotel restaurant. All this time, a man has been waiting at reception, occasionally glancing over at us. After lunch, we finally realise he’s our driver, who’s been waiting for us for over an hour! We wake Mom up, and off we go to explore the highlights of Nusa Penida’s west coast.
The incredible views of Kelingking Beach, one of Bali’s most beautiful beaches
Our first stop is the famous Kelingking Beach. It’s the best-known beach and certainly one of the most beautiful in Bali (the two often go hand in hand, after all). Nestled at the foot of an impressive T-Rex-shaped cliff, with its white sand and clear waters, Kelingking Beach is a little slice of paradise on Nusa Penida. The view from the top of the cliff is simply incredible.
Kelingking Beach, ruined by mass tourism
Kelingking Beach has also become a symbol of the incredible tourism boom in Bali and Nusa Penida, fuelled by social media. Back in 2017, we came here from the neighbouring island of Nusa Lembongan to explore Nusa Penida by scooter in a single day. At the time, Kelingking Beach was still a hidden gem on Nusa Penida. We had the deserted beach almost entirely to ourselves, a place that was still virtually unknown and incredibly difficult to reach. Since then, social media, particularly Instagram, has worked its magic and turned Nusa Penida into one of Bali’s iconic destinations. Tourists from all over the world now flock here to admire the beach, sometimes making a special day trip from Bali just to get that one photo.
The Kelingking Beach elevator scandal
Today, Kelingking Beach seems to be a victim of its own success. Where there was once an untouched, pristine landscape, there’s now an entire village. Buildings are going up right in front of the viewpoint. The place no longer feels natural at all. Crowds gather to take the perfect photo at the top of the staircase carved into the cliff, which allows the more adventurous visitors to make their way down to the beach. And for those who aren’t so keen on the climb, no problem: a gigantic panoramic elevator has been under construction since 2023. Or rather, was under construction.
Standing 182 metres tall, it was supposed to make the descent to the beach safer and faster, while offering spectacular viewpoints along the way. The problem? The project sparked a wave of opposition from local residents, elected officials, travellers and environmental groups. And rightly so! The metal structure completely spoils this iconic Bali landscape, not to mention all the damage caused to the environment and the beach below. Construction was suspended in 2025, but the structure is still there, sadly disfiguring the natural landscape. The matter is now in the hands of the courts, but the structure is expected to be dismantled in the coming years.
Our mixed feelings about Kelingking Beach on Nusa Penida
We’re genuinely saddened to see one of Bali’s most beautiful beaches being altered like this to satisfy a few investors eager to attract ever more visitors. We honestly wonder who could have thought that building such a structure in such a beautiful place was a good idea. There’s no doubt the motivation is primarily financial, once again putting the environment and local wildlife second. The place was so peaceful and untouched just a few years ago. We can hardly imagine what it will look like in the future.
Kelingking Beach perfectly illustrates the downside of tourism in Bali. Behind the dreamlike photos flooding Instagram lie overcrowding, rapid urban development and construction projects that are gradually threatening everything that made this place so special. The view is still spectacular, but the magic has been tarnished by ever-increasing tourist pressure.
Even so, Kelingking Beach remains a breathtaking viewpoint, and it seems hard to skip this iconic spot when visiting Nusa Penida. Your best bet is probably to visit outside peak hours, avoiding both sunrise and sunset.
Visiting Broken Beach on Nusa Penida
We leave Kelingking Beach and head to another must-see spot on Nusa Penida: Broken Beach. It takes a good half hour to get from Kelingking Beach to Broken Beach, and by the time we arrive, the afternoon is already well underway. It’s quiet, with very few people around, which makes for a pleasant visit.
Visiting Angel’s Billabong on Nusa Penida
Next, we head to Angel’s Billabong, located at the same site as Broken Beach. Here, the crowds and selfies are nowhere to be seen. We can stroll peacefully along the cliff, taking in the colours of the sunset. Angel’s Billabong is a sacred place for the Balinese, so swimming is forbidden. It’s a natural pool where ocean waves crash in, disturbing its otherwise smooth surface. Today, however, the tide is too low to see this phenomenon, so we simply enjoy watching the waves crash against the cliff in a burst of white spray.
After these wonderful discoveries, we head back into town. We stop at a small roadside restaurant, where we enjoy delicious grilled fish and seafood skewers. Then it’s back to the hotel for our last night on Nusa Penida.
On to Lombok for the next part of our Indonesian adventure
Wednesday, February 18
We absolutely loved exploring Nusa Penida over two days. If you want enough time to enjoy all the island’s wonderful sights, two days seems like the bare minimum. We visited beautiful Diamond Beach on the eastern side of the island on our first day. Then, the following morning, we went swimming with manta rays before exploring the west coast in the afternoon, including Kelingking Beach. On the morning of our third day, we enjoy a little more time at our lovely hotel on Nusa Penida and its swimming pool.
Then we hop into the hotel’s Jeep and head for the port! Mom’s large suitcase is loaded onto the roof, Rémi and I climb into the back with our backpacks, and off we go for a little ride with the wind in our hair. We love this laid-back Indonesian way of doing things, where anything seems possible. We follow the coastline to the port, where our fast boat is waiting. But where are we headed?
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It’s now time to leave this little island and head to another one. We board a fast boat, heading not back to Bali, but to the island east of Bali: Lombok. We’re off to explore southern Lombok and its famously beautiful beaches!
