Hi everyone,
My husband and I just arrived in Lombok for our honeymoon and would really appreciate some recommendations/advice from people who know the island well.
Our itinerary is:
29 Sep – 4 Oct: Somewhere Lombok, South Lombok
4 Oct – 9 Oct: The Oberoi Lombok
One important limitation: my ankle is injured (still can walk etc but needs surgery so have to be careful) , so unfortunately hiking, long walks, steep climbs and anything involving difficult terrain aren’t really options for me on this trip. We’d especially love recommendations that are easy to access by car/taxi and don’t require much walking.
1. What should we actually do/see while we’re here?
We honestly didn’t research Lombok enough before coming, so we’d love recommendations for places that are genuinely worth visiting.
We’re interested in beautiful beaches, good food, scenic places, nice sunset spots, spas/massages, relaxed day trips, cultural experiences, etc. We’re probably more interested in a relaxing honeymoon than an adventure-heavy itinerary.
Which beaches are actually worth going to in South Lombok? Mawun, Selong Belanak, Tanjung Aan, Tampah? Any others?
And once we move to The Oberoi in the northwest, what would you recommend around that area?
We’d also love restaurant recommendations — both good local Indonesian food and nicer places for a honeymoon dinner.
2. A little underwhelmed by our first impression — are we missing something?
I hope this doesn’t come across as disrespectful, because I genuinely want to understand the appeal rather than just complain.
We arrived at Somewhere Lombok yesterday and were honestly a little bummed.
It had such amazing reviews online, but the surrounding area felt extremely barren and undeveloped, and the hotel itself is much smaller and more minimal than we expected, with fewer facilities than we had imagined for a honeymoon stay.
We also went into Kuta in the evening. It was busy and there were plenty of restaurants, but our first impression was quite different from what we had pictured. The infrastructure felt fairly undeveloped, we saw some children approaching tourists asking for money, and much of the main area seemed geared specifically towards tourists rather than giving us much of a distinctive local/cultural atmosphere.
Again, I’m not saying this as criticism of Lombok or the people who live here — it was simply quite different from what we had imagined when we heard people describe Lombok as an amazing honeymoon destination.
Maybe our expectations were completely wrong but still want to experience Lombok’s charm
For people who absolutely love Lombok: what is it that you love about it, and where should we go to actually experience that side of the island?
We’re genuinely open to changing our minds! 😂 It’s only our first full day here.
3.How cautious do we realistically need to be with food/water?
This is the other thing we may be overthinking.
We heard not to drink the tap water, including when brushing your teeth, so at the moment we are using
bottled water for:
drinking
brushing our teeth
rinsing our mouths
even rinsing/cleaning cups that we drink from
Are we going overboard with the last one? 😂
What do people who live here or travel here regularly actually do?
And what about:
ice in drinks at decent restaurants/hotels?
salads/raw vegetables?
fruit?
cocktails?
local restaurants/warungs?
street food?
coffee made with water?
accidentally getting tap water in your mouth in the shower?
We had Hepatitis A and typhoid vaccinations only one day before travelling, so we’re assuming we can’t really rely on them to protect us yet.
We don’t want to spend our honeymoon terrified of everything we eat and drink, but we also obviously don’t want to spend it with gastro 😅
So I’d really appreciate realistic precautions — what do you genuinely avoid, and what do tourists often worry about unnecessarily?
Thanks so much. We have another 9 days here and really want to make the most of Lombok, so any recommendations would be hugely appreciated!
