The Gili Islands With Kids: Turtles, Bikes and No Cars at All

Ninety minutes by fast boat from Bali there are three islands with no cars, no motorbikes, no dogs and a coral reef you can swim to from the beach. The Gilis are where Bali families go to slow down, and they are the best beach days in Indonesia for children.

Pick the island first. Gili Trawangan is the big one, with the restaurants and the night market and a bit of a party at one end. Gili Air is the family one, small, calm, a village and good snorkeling. Gili Meno is the quiet one, a lagoon and a turtle sanctuary, and it is perfect for three nights of nothing. I book Air for families with a mix of ages.

The turtles are the reason. Green and hawksbill turtles graze the seagrass off the east side of Air and Meno, and you swim out from the beach with a mask and find one within minutes. Kids over six with a mask and fins. Younger ones from a glass bottom boat. It is the moment of the trip.

The rhythm of an island day

Rent bicycles and ride the whole island in forty minutes. Walk the beach at low tide to the rock pools. A horse cart to the boat when you leave, which the kids will treat as a ride. Snorkel trips by boat between the three islands with a stop at the underwater statues off Meno.

There is no tap water and no ATM on Meno. Bring cash from Bali, drink bottled water, and eat at the beach restaurants where the fish comes off the boat. Grilled fish, nasi goreng, banana pancakes, fruit shakes. Every menu, every child.

The fast boat from Padang Bai or Serangan takes ninety minutes to two hours and can be rough. Sit at the back, take the morning boat, and give a nervous child a seasick tablet before. Then three nights, or four, and back to Bali for the flight.

Planning Indonesia with kids? Start with the full Indonesia family travel guide, or send me the ages and the dates and I will come back with what is really available.