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Filming a Nusa Penida day trip

Four cliff stops in a day: Kelingking, Diamond Beach, Broken Beach and Angel's Billabong. Where to stand, the 2026 fees, the climb with gear, and where a drone makes sense.

Updated October 2026 · Bali Creator Gear

That green cliff shaped like a sleeping dinosaur, with a white beach tucked under its chin and water you can see the bottom of, is Kelingking, and it's the reason people get up at six to cross to Nusa Penida. Most come back with the same flat midday phone photo everyone else has. The difference is small: being on the clifftop before the tour boats land, knowing the beach faces the sun at a certain hour, and carrying gear that handles salt, wind and a near-vertical scramble. This is how to film the four west-coast stops, Kelingking, Diamond Beach, Broken Beach and Angel's Billabong, in one day and go home with footage worth the crossing.

Is a Nusa Penida day trip worth it for filming?

Yes, if you start early and treat it as a filming day, not a swimming one. In a single day you can stand over the Kelingking T-Rex cliff, shoot a natural stone arch at Broken Beach, and watch sunrise light hit Diamond Beach. Nothing else near Ubud gives you cliffs like this. The catch is the day is long: a boat across, a driver or scooter between spots, and a lot of standing on exposed clifftops in the sun.

Skip the Kelingking descent, or the whole trip, if stairs are a problem. The climb down to the sand is steep and the climb back is harder. This coast is also unforgiving if you wander: one guide notes a visitor died in a fall in September 2026 after stepping off the path for a closer shot. The clifftop viewpoints give you the photo. You do not need to be near the edge, and no frame is worth the drop.

Kelingking Beach: the T-Rex cliff shot

The shot everyone wants is the whole T-Rex headland in frame, green cliff curving down to the beach, turquoise water wrapping around it. You take it from the clifftop. There's a small concrete platform and railing right where you arrive, and that's the classic angle. You do not have to climb down for the hero shot; the descent is for a different photo.

Light decides this one. Early morning, roughly 7:30 to 9, lays soft angled light across the cliff face, and you'll have the railing to yourself. Golden hour before sunset is the other good window, quieter again once the day tours leave. Day tours arrive around 9 and the viewpoint is busy by 10, so the plan is simple: be standing at the railing before 9, or come back after 4.

If you do climb down, know what you're carrying gear into. Recent guides put the descent at 30 to 45 minutes and the climb back at 60 to 90, on a trail that pitches to 70 to 80 degrees in the steep sections, with timber steps, wooden handrails and lengths of rope to grip. One photographer counted 156 steps. You want both hands free and nothing swinging off your shoulder, which is why an action camera on a chest mount beats a big camera round your neck here. And you can film the beach but not swim it: swimming has been banned since February 2023 because of the currents.

Broken Beach and Angel's Billabong: the arch from above

Broken Beach and Angel's Billabong sit side by side and, since the fee change, share one gate. At Broken Beach the shot is the round stone arch with the sea moving through it, taken from the clifftop path above, best in sunrise or sunset light. This is the one spot on the trip where a drone clearly earns its place: guides say Broken Beach looks best photographed from above, and the full circle of the lagoon only reads from the air.

Angel's Billabong is the natural rock pool next door. At mid-tide the water settles into layered blues and greens and it photographs beautifully from the rocks around it. Film it from the clifftop or the dry rock, not from in the pool: waves here have swept people off the rocks before, and a surprise set is both a safety problem and the end of your camera. Mid-tide on a calm day is the window.

Diamond Beach: the staircase and the sunrise

Diamond Beach is the postcard on the east side: a cliff staircase dropping to white sand and sea stacks. It faces east, so sunrise and early morning light are what you want. By afternoon the cliff throws the beach into shade. The descent is several hundred carved steps and takes 15 to 25 minutes, so if you're chasing the light, be at the top before the sun is up. The limestone catches first light and the water is at its clearest in the morning.

When should you go, and in what order?

Run it clockwise and chase the light, not the map. If sunrise matters most to you, start on the east at Diamond Beach, then cross to the west coast for Kelingking, Broken Beach and Angel's Billabong. If Kelingking is the priority, be at its railing before 9 and do the arch and the pool after, saving Kelingking's golden hour for the end if you have time before the last boat. The ferry across from Bali is about 40 minutes. Either way the rule holds: the viewpoints are quiet before 9 and after 4, and a wall of people in between.

Fees and rules for Nusa Penida in 2026

This is where other pages are out of date. Nusa Penida changed its fees on 1 September 2026, and spots that were free now charge at the gate, so ignore any guide that still says "free" for Kelingking or Broken Beach. Carry small rupiah notes; it's all cash.

On Diamond Beach, a newer listing shows Rp 60.000 covering both Diamond and neighbouring Atuh Beach, so expect the gate price to sit somewhere in that range and treat these as a guide, not a promise. Drones are allowed at Kelingking and along this coast, but allowed is not the same as anything goes: you still fly under Indonesia's national rules. Our drone rules guide lays out the altitude and line-of-sight limits from the Indonesian sources, which is what actually governs you here.

The drone shots, and where not to fly

A drone is the single most useful piece of gear for this trip, because the three best frames, the T-Rex cliff, the Broken Beach arch and the Diamond Beach coastline, all read from above in a way the ground can't match. A sub-250g drone keeps the paperwork lighter and packs into a day bag for the boat.

Where a drone makes sense: high and out over open water at Kelingking, Broken Beach and the Diamond coastline. Where it doesn't: tucked low against the cliffs or over Angel's Billabong pool. These headlands are windy and exposed, wind swirls hard at the cliff edge, and a low pass over a surging rock pool is how drones end up in the sea. Launch from the open clifftop, gain height, and shoot from out there. For the full day in the air, see the Aerial Go Bag.

Gear for the climb and the salt

Two things make Nusa Penida hard on gear: the Kelingking scramble, where you need both hands, and salt air and spray at every stop. An action camera answers both. It's waterproof, it rinses clean in fresh water at the end of the day, and on a chest mount it leaves your hands for the ropes on the way down.

For the clifftop photo itself, the one you'll print, a pocket gimbal camera is the smart call on a trip with a scramble: stabilised, small enough for one hand, and it shoots the wide cliff cleanly. Bring a full-frame Sony with a 24-70mm if you want the big landscape file and don't mind the weight at the top.

• Expose for the bright water and sky. The midday sea is very bright. Let it guide the exposure and lift the darker cliff later. Shoot RAW or your camera's flat profile.
• Fly with ND on the drone. Without filters, aerials over this water in full sun look harsh and video-game smooth. ND brings back natural motion blur.
• Wipe the salt off. Spray dries as a haze on the lens. Keep a cloth in a dry pocket and check the glass before each clifftop frame.
• Mid-tide for the pools. Angel's Billabong and the Broken Beach water sit best at mid-tide. Check the tide before you book the boat.

The day, start to finish

Catch an early boat with cash in small notes. If you're chasing sunrise, open at Diamond Beach on the east, then cross to Kelingking and be at the railing before the 9am rush, drone up and out over the water for the T-Rex shot, then down the ropes with the action camera if your legs are willing. Broken Beach and Angel's Billabong share a gate and a mid-tide window, so time them for calm water. Keep a cloth moving over the lens all day, and leave before the last boat with the light still good. You'll make this crossing once, so bring the gear that actually gets the shot.

The Go Bag for this dayThe Adventure Creatorfrom Rp 375.000 a day, delivered to your villaAction camera, mounts and spare batteries in one case for the climb and the salt.See what is inside →

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