Nipah Beach, Lombok: A Local’s Guide

Nipah Beach is the bay on Lombok’s north-west coast where we’d stop for grilled fish and a swim, with a decent chance of seeing a turtle from the surface. It’s about 11 km north of Senggigi on the coast road, and locals call it Pantai Nipah.

We’ve been here more times than we can count, because it’s on the last morning of the Lombok Loop. The snorkelling is modest, so we won’t oversell it. We keep coming back for the fish, the calm water and the local group that turned a turtle egg hunting beach into a hatchery.

Nipah Beach at a Glance

Nipah’s a lunch, swim and turtle stop, with a sunset if you’ve got no plans that evening. The reef is thin.

• Location: Malaka village, Pemenang district, North Lombok. Some listings say Senggigi, but it’s further up the coast
• Distance: About 11 km north of Senggigi, around 20 minutes by scooter
• Road: Paved the whole way, winding over the headlands. Any scooter can handle it
• Entrance and parking: Usually no ticket, and about 5,000 to 10,000 IDR to park. Reports vary, so carry small notes
• Food: A long row of seafood warungs on the sand, open through the day
• Facilities: Public toilet, snorkel and kayak hire. Shade is mostly under the warung roofs
• Safety: No lifeguard
• Best for: Lunch, an easy swim, turtles and a sunset over the water

Why We Stop Here on the Lombok Loop

Sunday morning on the Loop is deliberately slow. After three days of riding, the group has breakfast and then gets some time on the sand at Nipah before we work back down the coast to Senggigi for the last lunch. It’s on the trip itinerary for that reason: after three days on the bike, the group’s ready for a swim.

If you’re staying in Senggigi, this is where we’d send you for lunch, and our Senggigi guide says the same. Our 7-day Lombok itinerary uses it as the easy stop before the end of the ride.

It isn’t a postcard beach, and you’ll see that as soon as you park. Fishing boats pull up on the sand, the warungs are bamboo and thatch, and currents can leave rubbish along the tide line. We like it for that working feel. If you want a long empty beach, go south to the coast around Kuta.

Eating at Nipah: How the Warungs Work

Fish is the reason this beach got busy. Warungs started appearing here around 2008, when it was still mainly a landing spot for fishing boats, and Mongabay reported dozens of them by 2018. Fishers supply them directly, and you point at what you want before you sit down.

• Pick your fish first. Baronang (rabbitfish), red snapper and ikan kue (trevally) are the usual choices, along with prawns and squid.
• Agree the price before it goes on the grill. Warungs have tended to price per fish instead of by weight, and haggling moves it only a little. Size is what changes the bill. Local press put baronang or snapper at about 65,000 IDR a portion in July 2025, with squid at 50,000 IDR, rice at 5,000 IDR and a coconut at 10,000 to 15,000 IDR. TripAdvisor reviewers report paying 150,000 IDR for a baronang and 170,000 IDR for a big red snapper, so ask about a smaller fish if it’s too much.
• Order plecing kangkung with it. It’s Lombok’s water spinach with a hot tomato sambal, and it’s what we’d have with any grilled fish on this island.
• Allow 30 minutes. They cook it when you order. Take your swim first if you’re hungry and impatient.

We won’t crown one winner, because there are too many to call. Recent reviewers like Ikan Bakar Bu Yuli and Warung Ibu Jur, and Warung Pak Udin was one of the first on the sand. Otherwise, pick a busy place where you can see the grill going.

Local Tip: Lunch is when the tables fill, and weekdays are quieter than weekends.

Swimming and Snorkelling

The bay slopes gently and the water’s usually calm, so it’s an easy swim. There’s no lifeguard, though, and a recent visitor who hired a mask reported a strong current. Have a look at the water before you get in, and stay close to shore if you’re not a strong swimmer.

Don’t expect a reef off the sand. We’d call the snorkelling modest, and the rocks at either end of the bay are where we’d get in. They beat the snorkelling at Senggigi. For coral, look at our guide to snorkelling in Lombok. Masks and kayaks are for hire on the beach, though we’d bring our own mask if we had one.

Finding the Turtles

Turtles usually come up 50 to 100 m from the shore, according to the local conservation group. That’s a long way to swim without a break, so take a float or hire a kayak. A visitor in August 2026 counted four large ones on the left side of the beach, around the rocks under the water. None of that’s a promise.

Give them space. Don’t touch them, don’t chase them and don’t dive down on top of them. The same goes for the dugongs: two were filmed here in May 2023, and local reports put the number at about four. Sightings aren’t daily, so you’d be lucky, and a marine researcher has asked tour operators not to chase them.

TCC Nipah and the Baby Turtle Release

The Turtle Conservation Community, or TCC Nipah, is a group of mostly young locals who run the hatchery on this beach. Mongabay reported in 2024 that egg hunting carried on here until about 2018, the year the group formally started, and that it had collected about 30,000 eggs and released more than 10,000 hatchlings. In October 2019 the regency set aside 32.5 hectares here as an essential ecosystem area for turtles.

Volunteers walk the beach at night looking for nests and move the eggs to the hatchery. It’s the part of Nipah we’d tell friends about: turtle eggs were hunted and sold off this coast within the last decade, and now locals guard them.

You can join a hatchling release, and weekends in May and August are your best odds.

• When: TCC Nipah’s chair told IDN Times in 2024 that they hold release events every Saturday and Sunday in May and August, when they’ve got plenty of hatchlings, and none in other months because stock is low. Other months can still work: researchers there in mid-2025 recorded one release a day, and the group released hatchlings on a Thursday in July 2026. Visitors report late afternoon, around 5pm.
• Cost: There’s no published price. Visitors report a small donation, and donations are how the group funds its work, so be generous.
• How to check: Ask at the hatchery when you arrive, and be flexible about coming back later that afternoon. Outside May and August, don’t plan your day around it.
• What else: As of 2024, the group also offered snorkel gear hire, boat tours and night turtle watching.

How to Get to Nipah Beach

You’ll need your own wheels or a booked driver. There’s no public transport worth planning around, and our scooter rental guide covers what to pay for a bike in Senggigi.

• From Senggigi: Ride north on the coast road, over the headlands past Kerandangan and Malimbu Hill. It’s about 11 km and around 20 minutes.
• From Bangsal Harbour: Head south along the coast through Pemenang. It’s about 14 km, so allow 25 minutes. It’s an easy stop if you’re coming off a Gili boat with a free afternoon.
• From Kuta Lombok: About two and a half hours each way. We wouldn’t do it as a day trip. Stay in Senggigi for a night instead.

Note: Gojek or Grab can get you here, but getting a ride back isn’t guaranteed. One visitor found no cars available and had the local crew sort a driver, so we’d arrange your return before you let your driver go. Our Senggigi hotel picks are the closest base.

Boats also run from here to the Gilis, with some snorkelling tours meeting on the beach. If you only want to reach the islands, go through Bangsal, which has the regular public boats.

When to Go

We’d come between April and October, when it’s dry and the water’s clearest. Our month-by-month guide covers the rest of the year.

We’re usually here in the morning on the Loop, which suits a swim. Lunch is when the tables fill. The beach faces north-west, so from April to September the sun goes down over the water, and you might catch a release too.

What Else Is Along This Road

We’d ride this road as a half-day from Senggigi. Kerandangan is the first bay up the coast and it’s quieter than Senggigi Beach. Malimbu Hill comes next, with a pull-in at the top and the Gilis offshore. It’s a short stop on the way up, and it gets busy at sunset. A second viewpoint, mapped as Malimbu 2, sits just north of Nipah.

Keep going past Nipah and you’ll reach the resort beaches around Sira and Medana, then Bangsal. For more options around the island, our guide to Lombok beaches covers the rest of the coast.

Nipah Beach FAQs

Nipah on the Lombok Loop

If you’d like to see Nipah without sorting the bike, it’s one stop on the Lombok Loop, our four-day motorbike trip around the island with riders, fuel and rooms covered. If you’re riding up on your own, go on a weekday, pick your fish before you sit down and ask about the turtles as soon as you park.