Turtle Beach Hotel — Hotel in Gili Air

My wife and I stayed at Turtle Beach Hotel for 10 days in August 2023. It is one of the few mid-range beachfront properties with a pool on Gili Air, and is located on the sunrise side of the island looking towards Lombok. There are numerous restsurants and bars in close proximity. Good snorkelling can be had straight off the beach in front of the hotel. We saw turtles every day.| Gili Air is extremely chilled and overall we had a lovely relaxing stay. All of the accommodation is in thatched roof joglo - style Bungalows on either side of the pool. The Bungalows furthest from the beach have no view, and the bungalows backing onto the neighbouring Raja Bar may have some noise issues at night. We only occasionally heard the all from the mosque in the centre of the island, and it was too far away to be any issue. Breakfast each morning was adequate with toast, eggs, fruit and coffee. The onsite restaurant wasn't open for food other than breakfast, but Biba Beach Village hotel next door would do room or poolside service if you wanted. |Bicycles and mask/snorkle/fins are available for hire (50k per day) from in front of the hotel. (Bike lights don't work so bring a head torch with you). |The manager of Turtle Beach was friendly, attentive and engaging, however most of the staff were young, untrained and had little clue about what they were expected to do.|The rooms were large with four poster beads, mosquito nets, AC, room safe and fridge. All rooms had a balcony with a couple of basic chairs. Wifi was pretty useless. The bathroom was set below the room level, with a set of wooden stairs to enter it, which always worried my wife at night as her mobility isn't great. One of the lights in our room was hanging by the wires and only worked intermittently. The shower was cold. The room was serviced daily. |The pool was large, and the water clean, although the area around the pool was pretty dusty and grubby and rarely cleaned by the staff. The sun loungers were in various states of repair. I found this lack of simple maintenance a bit frustrating. The beachfront area was also very underutilised, with the furniture needing repair. Overall though, we had a very relaxing stay and the maintenance issues were more frustrating than problematic. |Laundry can be done same day just around the corner at Banana Cottages for 25k/kg. The best dinner deals on the sunrise side were at Chillout BBQ. Next door Biba Beach hotel did good...

What a great stay. We booked for seven nights and ended up staying 16 nights. Very conveniently located on the east coast, 10-15 mins walk from the port. Great snorkeling directly out front or a little further north or sth to see turtles. There are so many turtles around, you will likely start seeing them as soon as you get off the boat at the port. There are plenty of good eateries and bars within easy walking distance from Turtle Beach Hotel. If you'd rather stay by the pool or relax on the day beds overlooking the beach, you can buy beer, soft drinks, water etc from the fridge at the hotel. The staff here were amazing. Manager Basyir was very friendly and went out of his way to help us when he could(he spent ages trying to get my SIM card to work). Staffers Akbar, Alvin and Dewey were always smiling and polite, looked after us for breakfast and took care of our room requests happily and efficiently. The rooms are very large, air conditioned and clean. Several of the lumbungs were undergoing refurbishing while we were there so will be fresh for the next high season. The lumbungs are set around the pool in lush, well maintained tropical gardens. The hotel is situated far enough from the mosque, so that the morning call to prayer is not obtrusive. The hotel area is very quiet, with the only exception being Sunday nights, the nearby Rajah Bar plays fairly loud music until the wee hours, it didn't really bother us, but some people may get disturbed by it. We are looking forward to our next stay at Turtle...

Turtle Beach Hotel in Gili Air is a lovely little beachside hotel on the east side of Gili Air. About a 20 minute walk from the port. You can wheel your suitcases there but it is a bit of a hike. Horse and cart for around $15 AUD probably better. ||With great snorkelling directly opposite and lots of bars and cafes extremely close to town it’s well located and a little gem. Bikes and snorkelling gear can be hired next door and the island can be easily rode around in about an hour.||Set in beautiful traditional gardens, the rooms are wood filled bungalows with mosquito nets and outside showers which are quite novel. Lovely and quiet with excellent air conditioning and a good size fridge / freezer.||Staff are lovely and friendly, nothing is too much trouble. Breakfast is a basic set course of a tasty Mie Goreng, Nasi Goreng or eggs with fruit, fruit juice, tea or coffee. ||Look some TLC is probably needed to bring a few negative aspects up to scratch ... the pebble finish in the shower was incomplete, the toilet didn’t flush well at all and the room was very dark. So this may not suit some but most places in Gili Air are still a work in progress since the earth quake. Sensor lights made walking back at night feel really safe though. ||But look overall, great value at around $60 AUD per night. I’d...