Lombok gets described in one of two ways: as the Bali of twenty years ago, or as the place you go for the Gilis. Both are a bit lazy, and neither is much use when you're deciding whether to give it four of your nine nights.
I grew up here. So this is the honest version, including the parts that will annoy you.
What it actually is
An island roughly the size of Bali with a fraction of the people, one very large volcano, and a south coast of enormous empty bays that would be world-famous if they were three hours further west.
It is quieter, cheaper, more Muslim and far less set up for visitors. That last part is the whole trade. There is no equivalent of the Canggu machine: the villa staff, the drivers who speak four languages, the restaurant that can take forty covers at nine on a Saturday. Some of that exists in Kuta Lombok now. Most of the island, it doesn't.
People don't fall in love with Lombok because it's easier. They fall in love with it because for whole days at a time, nobody is trying to sell them anything.
The south coast
This is the part I'd give you if you only had three days. A run of huge horseshoe bays: Selong Belanak, Mawun, Tanjung Aan and half a dozen with no signposts, where the water is flat and turquoise and you can still find a beach with four people on it in August.
The roads between them have improved enormously and are still slower than the map claims. Twenty kilometres is an hour. Plan two bays a day, not five, and take the third one you weren't planning on when someone tells you about it.
The Gilis, honestly
Three small islands off the north-west, and they are genuinely lovely, but they are not one thing, and choosing the wrong one is the most common Lombok mistake I fix.
- Trawangan is the busy one. Bars, dive shops, a proper night. If you're twenty-five, it's the best of the three. If you're not, it may be the worst.
- Air is the middle: quiet enough to read, social enough to eat somewhere different each night. This is the one I book most often.
- Meno is nearly empty, has the best snorkelling straight off the sand, and almost nothing to do after dark. Perfect for two nights, long by four.
No cars on any of them, which is the charm, and no hospital either, which is worth knowing before you take a scooter. There aren't any of those either, and that's for the best.
Rinjani, and whether you should
The volcano is the reason a lot of people come, and I turn down more of these requests than I accept. The full crater-rim trek is two hard days at altitude with a night in a tent, and people badly underestimate it because it's in a place with palm trees.
If you're fit and you want it, it's extraordinary and I'll arrange it properly, with a guide I know rather than the cheapest one in Senaru. If you want the view without the suffering, there are places on the northern slopes where you can see the whole thing over breakfast, and I'd rather send you there than watch you ruin the second half of your trip.
Who it suits
Couples who want a few days where nothing is scheduled. Families with older children. Anyone who found Bali louder than they expected and has three nights left to fix it.
It suits people who want a lot of options less well, and I'd say so before you booked rather than after. But if what you actually wanted was a very good beach and nobody on it, I don't think there's anywhere better in Indonesia, and I'd say that even if I hadn't grown up here.
Planning something like this?
Tell me the dates and roughly how you like to travel, and I'll tell you honestly what I'd do with them.