Guide to Snorkeling at the Gili Islands Under Water Sculpture Garden
Snorkeling at the underwater sculpture garden off of Gili Meno is an iconic part of any Bali travel itinerary. Snorkel tours in Gili Trawangan get very crowded and I recommend:
- 1) Going at sunrise to beat the crowds.
- 2) Booking a private boat tour.
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All About the Snorkeling in the Gili Islands
While you can just rent a snorkel and go right from the beach, the only way to reach the famous underwater sculpture garden is via a guided boat tour. All of the standard snorkel tours go to the same places whether you’re departing from Gili T, Air, or Meno. First, you go to the underwater sculpture garden off of Gili Meno, then your guide takes you on a hunt to find sea turtles, and then you’re left to snorkel freely in the coral reefs – The whole tour takes 2 hours.
Katie’s Tips ✶
If you want to have the BEST experience snorkeling in the Gilis, is to book a private boat as early in the morning as possible; 5-6 AM, especially if you want to take photos. The iconic sculpture garden gets crowded fast, especially if you wind up being there at the same time as a group tour.
Glass-bottom boat tours also visit the sculpture garden, and they just plow through the snorkeling tourists in the water! NOT fun, I got hit in the head by one while snorkeling.
After you leave the sculpture garden your guide will take you to a location famous for spotting sea turtles. I couldn’t see ANYTHING but our guide managed to spot sea turtles 15 feet below the surface and free-dove to tap them so they’d come up for air. The snorkel tour guides are incredibly impressive, although I felt a little bad that the turtles were disturbed.
Sea turtles need to breathe air, so when the guide tapped it, it was coming up for breath rather than just to give us tourists a show.
The final leg of the tour, unguided snorkeling at the coral reef, was the least exciting part. The most fish we saw were at the sculpture garden at Gili Meno, which is surprising because there are always tourists there (I suspect they feed the fish to attract them). In contrast, there were almost no fish at the coral reef, and the reef itself looked rather dead – I think it’s been unfortunately suffering from over-tourism.
How to Book Gili Trawangan Snorkeling Tours
Snorkel tour boats depart from the same port in Gili T where the ferries arrive – as soon as you arrive you’ll be accosted by a TON of people trying to sell you on a snorkel Tour. If you don’t have a trusted contact pre-arranged, I recommend arranging your tour ahead of time. I was scammed on my first trip to the Gilis, and now I wouldn’t book a tour from the guys on the beach again.
🤿 Private Gili T Boat & Snorkel Tour With Sunrise Option
✔️ Private Half-Day tour
✔️ Sunrise options for less crowds
✔️ All 5-star reviews
✔️ Flat rate for groups of up to 4
💸 Budget Group Snorkel Tour
✔️ Departs from Gili T or Lombok
✔️ Group Tour
✔️ Budget option!
✔️ Includes snorkel equipment
Katie’s Tips ✶
The guys on the shore near the port at Gili T aren’t the ones who run the tours, they’re just intermediaries. Their job is to up-sell the tours and they get a cut from the boat owners and tour companies for doing so. All the snorkel tours are the same so you could wind up paying 2-3X the price for the exact same experience if you don’t negotiate or book from a reputable seller.
