Gili Islands Dive School & Marine Walk
Explore the diving culture that has made the Gili Islands one of Southeast Asia's premier dive destinations — the concentration of dive schools, the accessible turtle population, and the underwater topography of channels, walls, and coral gardens surrounding the three islands create world-class conditions for every level of diver.
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Gili T Dive School Row
Gili Trawangan's dive school strip along the harbour front is one of the most concentrated dive learning environments in Asia — the competing PADI and SSI schools offering Open Water courses, fun dives, and dive master training at prices significantly lower than equivalent destinations have made the Gilis the most popular location to learn to dive in Indonesia, with an estimated 50,000 students per year completing their first certification here.
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Shark Point Gili T
Shark Point off the southwest corner of Gili Trawangan is one of the most reliable shark encounters in the Indonesian archipelago — the white-tip and black-tip reef sharks that frequent this site are visible from the surface during dives, and the channel current that flows through this point brings larger pelagics including occasional hammerheads during the right seasonal conditions.
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Manta Dive Site Gilis
The dive sites between Gili Trawangan and Gili Meno are frequented by manta rays during certain seasons — the plankton-rich upwellings that flow through the channel between the islands attract these filter-feeding giants to the area, and sightings during dive trips between the islands have made the inter-island channel one of the most anticipated dive sites in the Gili circuit.
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Gili T Snorkel Trail
The marked snorkel trail around the north and east coasts of Gili Trawangan is designed to maximise turtle encounters without boats — the buoyed line that guides snorkellers along the reef edge passes through the areas where green turtles are most reliably found, with information boards on the beach explaining turtle behaviour and the conservation rules that protect them from touching and harassment.
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Freediving School Gili T
The freediving schools that have established on Gili Trawangan represent a growing alternative to scuba diving — the courses in breath-hold diving taught here by internationally certified instructors attract a different market from the scuba learner, typically experienced swimmers wanting to enter the underwater world without equipment, and the warm, clear, calm water of the Gili lagoon is ideal for freediving training.
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Gili Islands Conservation Area
The Gili Islands Marine Reserve encompasses all three islands and the surrounding reef — the no-take zone that prevents fishing and anchoring on the reef has been credited with the recovery of marine life including the turtle population, and the mooring buoys that substitute for anchoring have prevented coral damage from chains, though enforcement remains patchy and the conservation area continues to face pressure from tourism development.