The Gili Islands was the first stop on our trip with Ulrika’s family. After one night in Kuta, we jumped on a fast boat out to Gili Air for diving and swimming in the ocean. If you follow Ulrika on snapchat, you have probably noticed how much she has been waiting for her family to come to Bali, and now it was time to explore the islands around Bali. It is very easy to move between the islands. Almost every homestay can arrange transportation to different locations on Bali or to other islands nearby. Pictures from Gili Air can be found below.

Ulrika has also translated and modified an episode of one of our favorite podcasts, “The Voluntary Life – episode 274“, into Swedish and had published it at the Swedish Mises-Institute, which is also behind another one of favorite podcasts, Radio Mises, which we highly recommend!


Giliöarna blev det första stoppet som vi tog Ulrikas familj till. Efter en natt i Kuta, så tog vi snabbåtarna ut till Gili Air för att dyka och bada. Ni som följer Ulrika på snapchat har nog märkt hur mycket hon längtat efter att hennes familj ska komma till Bali och nu var det dags att utforska öarna omkring Bali. Det är väldigt lätt att röra sig mellan öarna då nästan varenda homestay också kan ordna transport till olika platser på Bali och andra öar i närheten. Bilder från Gili Air kommer nedan.

Ulrika har även översatt och modifierat ett avsnitt av en av våra favoritpodcasts, “The Voluntary life – avsnitt 274”, till svenska och fått den publicerad på Svenska Mises-institutet, vilka också är grundare till en av våra andra favoritpodcasts, Radio Mises, som vi högt rekommenderar!  

Finally, my family arrived to Bali, but we did not stay long there. Our goal was to take a boat out to the Gili Islands.

The view in Padang Bai, a fishing village from which the fast boats depart to the Gili Islands.

We arrived at Gili Air almost two hours later. There are three Gili islands, which are located near each other. Gili Trawangan, or Gili T, is the party island where a lot of backpackers come to enjoy life and late hours. Gili Meno is the quiet islands, where often honeymooners end up at luxury resorts. Gili Air, is the laid back island, with a relaxed atmosphere and bars.

You can easily travel between the Gili islands with local boats and also get over to the bigger island Lombok.

There are no motor traffic on the islands, so horse and carriage
is the way to get around, together with bicycles and electric scooters.

Our accommodation on the island. The place is called Family Bungalows, which is a set of bungalows with air-conditioning in the middle of the island.

We went to Gili Air for the diving, and we were not disappointed. We chose to dive with 7seas and they were a very customer friendly dive center and they also had good diving gear. Here are we posing with our dive masters Efrin and Francesco, who took us out to incredible dive sites around the three islands.

Gili Air means beach time, and you can snorkel here if you’re not into diving. Ulrika showed Maja how to snorkel here!

Maja and Mats enjoying the warm water. The island is really close to Lombok so you can see the northwest part of Lombok from the beach.

Gili Air has a really relaxed atmosphere in the evenings and interesting bars to hang out in.

Air is really small, only 6.5 kilometers in circumference so it is possible to see the whole island in under an hour. We walked along the coast during low tide and took pictures.

The famous swings in the water at Gili Air.

Hairdresser, snorkeler and mother, Maja has more than one skill.

Evenings were spent talking and laughing.

We had a few lazy days on the beach before we moved on.

We went to an outdoor cinema the last evening on Air, which btw means water in Indonesian, before we took a boat over to Lombok.