Padang Bai is a pleasant fishing village with basic accommodation on Bali's east coast, 1.5 hours from the airport and just south of Candidasa, with a couple of beaches nearby including the gorgeous, small white sand Blue Lagoon and a big reputation as a good diving and snorkeling base. The town houses half a dozen dive shops and snorkel rental gear.
Offshore the Blue Lagoon has fine snorkeling if the sea is calm but forget it if waves are sizeable as you won't see anything and the current might just drag you across to Lombok.
And on the subject of Lombok, most tourists passing through Padang Bai are en route for Lombok or the Gili Islands via the fast cat ferry - which takes about 2 hours - or the slow public ferry which takes at least 4 hours but departs hourly.
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