Make no mistake about it, forget your imagination of a tropical paradise, close that image search of white sand and tropical beach - GILI TRAWANGAN IS A DUMP !!!
It is actually borderline disgusting.
The fact that this island is so hyped, and one of the 'Top 10 islands in Asia' blows my mind.
Agreed, YEARS ago, it was a bit of a paradise, did have that tropical allure, and still had some white sandy beaches - but fast forward to today - July 2017, and the place is a dump.
Seriously, I walked around the whole entire island yesterday, and there in not one stretch of sand that you could call 'white' (its mainly grey, scattered with liter and broken coral).
Additionally, for those who have visited before, you may be unaware, in Feb 2017, the government made all the business rip-down every-single building and structure on the beach side of the road around the whole island ! (Stating that they didn't comply with building/planning rules etc etc..)
What this means is, the whole beach side of the main st, (like, the actual damn beach!) is basically dirty area, after dirty area of where former structures where. It's horrible.
My girlfriend who had never been here before said 'it looks like all the tourists left in 1995, and the place has just decayed'.
Compounding that, is the constant construction of new buildings on the other side of the main rd, making the whole environment dusty and gross.
It's really as far from 'idealistic' as you can get.
We were expecting to stay a week, but on the first day after 6 hrs, I was like 'lets GTF out of here'.
Until then we are staying in our Villa by the pool, regrettably stepping foot out into the street unless we have to.
We are not precious at all, I've traveled 70+ countries in some of the most hostile environments around the world, and I also live on the beach at home in Australia, so take this as solid travel advice, lower your expectation, and be prepared for a disappointing shock if you still choose to go to Gili T.
