I came to Lombok the way most people do, on a fast boat from Bali, half expecting a smaller copy of it. It isn’t. The island is mostly Muslim and Sasak, the call to prayer drifts across rice fields from a thousand mosques, and the roads empty out within an hour of any town. In the north Rinjani fills the sky; in the south the coast breaks into horseshoe bays with sand like peppercorns. Off the northwest corner, the three Gilis float in water so clear that the boats seem to hover over their own shadows.
These routes are the ones I would hand a friend: the classics, a few long hikes, some villages and a couple of empty islands. Lombok is still rebuilding and changing fast after the 2018 earthquakes and the new Mandalika development, so check trekking rules, boat times and prices locally before you set out.
