Angel’s Billabong is a rock pool on the west coast of Nusa Penida, in the hamlet of Sompang in Bunga Mekar village, carved into the cliff edge by the sea. At low tide on a calm day it holds clear green water and looks like a natural infinity pool. At high tide or in a big swell, waves crash straight into it and across the rock around it. It is also the most dangerous of the island’s headline stops, and the reason is not obvious from the photographs.
A pool with no wall on the ocean side
The name is borrowed. Billabong is an Australian word for an isolated pond left when a river changes course, but this is not a river formation at all; it is a basin eroded into the rock by the ocean. The pool sits on the seaward edge of a flat rock platform, and nothing separates the platform from the open sea.
That is the whole problem. The pool may look calm and inviting at low tide, but conditions change very quickly. Waves break into it without warning, with surges strong enough to knock people off their feet and sweep them out to sea, and on rough days the water runs right across the platform where people stand for photographs. Once someone is outside the pool, the currents and the sharp rock make it almost impossible to get back in.
Swept from the rocks, not only from the pool
The record here is grim and consistent. In June 2016 a woman on her honeymoon was swept over the edge with her eight-year-old sister, and both died. In March 2017 a 23-year-old New Zealander dived in after his German girlfriend, who had been knocked over the edge of the pool by a large wave; she was rescued by a snorkeller and his body was found days later in Crystal Bay. In July 2018 a 46-year-old Chinese visitor was taking a selfie with a friend on the edge of the cliff, about 10 metres high, when a wave pulled them both into the sea; the group’s driver jumped in and saved the friend.
The most recent widely reported case was on 16 October 2024. An Indian visitor, 59, was photographing the view with his wife at the cliff edge when a big wave hit the rocks and soaked them. Their driver warned them to move away. Before they could, a second wave struck; his wife survived, and his body was found the next day in the sea off Nusa Dua. A travel industry colleague later said it was a full moon and the sea was rough.
Picking your moment
The pool only looks the way it does in pictures at low tide in calm seas. The light needs the sun high enough to see into the water, so late morning gives the clearest colour and also the biggest crowds, as the busiest period runs roughly from 11am to 3pm. Early morning gives you the place almost to yourself with less colour in the water. Whichever you choose, check the tide before you set off, and treat any day with big swell as a day to look from a distance.
The ban came from the top. At the end of January 2023, Klungkung’s then regent, I Nyoman Suwirta, banned swimming at Angel’s Billabong, Kelingking and Diamond Beach after a run of serious call-outs for Nusa Penida’s search and rescue team, with the water to reopen only when conditions are friendly. People still climb in. They should not.
Parking, the levy and the drive in
Angel’s Billabong is around 40 minutes by road from Toyapakeh harbour and 20 to 30 minutes from Kelingking Beach. The road is paved almost all the way, and you park once and walk to both this pool and Broken Beach, a few minutes apart on the same headland. A small parking and retribution fee is usually collected on site. On top of that, from 1 September 2026 Klungkung regency charges a levy of Rp 25,000 per adult and Rp 15,000 per child at each tourist attraction, separate from the island-wide charge for foreign visitors. Bring cash.
Most west-coast tours pair it with Broken Beach and Kelingking Beach, with Crystal Bay as the place to swim afterwards. For the wider island, see our guide to Nusa Penida, the list of things to do in Nusa Penida and where to stay on Nusa Penida.
