Lengkuas Island

Small island with a working Dutch colonial lighthouse and good snorkelling

Lengkuas Island is the highlight of any island-hopping trip from Belitung. A small island perhaps 300 metres across, it is dominated by an 1882 Dutch colonial lighthouse — still operational and still painted white — rising above the granite rocks and palm trees. Boats pull up on the beach and you are free to explore.

The lighthouse can be climbed (18 floors, steep stairs) for views over the surrounding archipelago: dozens of small granite islands in every direction, the sea a shifting palette of turquoise and blue. Below the lighthouse, the snorkelling is good — shallow coral gardens with reasonable fish life — and the beach is calm and uncrowded compared to the mainland. Most island-hopping tours stop here for an hour or two.

Access by boat from Tanjung Kelayang: approximately 30–45 minutes depending on boat type.

things to do sight
A story
The lighthouse on Lengkuas was built by the Dutch colonial administration in 1882 and is still operational today, still flashing its warning beam across the Java Sea. The Dutch called the island Kabeljauw — "cod" — though there are no cod in these waters. Climbing the 18 floors to the top gives a panoramic view over the surrounding islands and the peculiar granite formations that rise from the sea in every direction.