This section is dedicated to take away all your "I wish someone had told me that before I went!" experiences. This way, you can spend less time settling in, and more time making new friends in your chosen hostel.
Kuta (Lombok) is a village as well as beach destination in the southern part of the Indonesian island of Lombok. It offers visitors beautiful, quiet white sand beaches and a crystal clear sea. Around town, there are good surfing spots and undiscovered beaches. Most accommodations offer only private rooms, but there are a few hostels for those who are more open to meeting new friends.
Unlike Kuta Bali, Kuta Lombok is a more quiet beach town with serene beaches. It's also a good base to explore the rest of southern Lombok, where other practically abandoned beaches can be found. Tourism in Kuta Lombok only started to develop a few years ago, making the town far less commercialized and crowded than the more famous neighboring island Bali. Within an hour and a half drive from Kuta Lombok, visitors can also find beautiful hiking paths and waterfalls, ideal for swimming underneath. Each of those places outside Kuta Lombok can be reached easily by rented motorbike or organized tours. Most hostels as well as several shops on the main street rent motorbikes for a low cost.
Kuta Lombok is a small town with an equally small city centre. The centre is concentrated around Jalan Pariwisata Pantai Kuta, where most shops, local restaurants and tour operators can be found. A few hostels are also available in this area. Beware of possible scams when booking a tour from one of the shops in the street. Cases where guests were not picked up are not unheard of. The main street is also located a mere 5 minutes or less walking distance from the beach. Several bars can also be found on the main street, where visitors can enjoy a beer or other exotic drinks. Most hostels sell beers as well. For the reason mentioned above, the city’s centre is the best place to book a hostel in Kuta. Alternatively, reaching the centre from hostels located a bit farther away normally takes less than 5 minutes by motorbike.
Most Kuta hostels offer a combination of dorm rooms and private rooms. Oftentimes, private rooms are cheaper than dorm rooms when traveling in pairs. At most hostels, breakfast is included, which gives guests a great opportunity to try out Indonesia's famed banana pancake.
Written by local expertz for Kuta Lombok
Martin Straatman
