Hiking Javanese volcanoes has been on our bucket list for a while. In fact, we were supposed to go there last summer, but then we switched last minute to Vietnam. This year, we were supposed to go to Turkey, but the canceled flights around the Middle East changed our plans, so I pulled out my old itinerary for Java and we headed there. It was an unusually intense trip with the early wake-up calls, but we left absolutely in awe of East Java and its countryside. Here’s how we hiked its two most famous mountains: Mt Bromo and Ijen Crater.

Our itinerary was:

Day 1: Sunrise hike at Mt Bromo -> Train to Banyuwangi
Day 2: Hike around Licin and waterfalls
Day 3: Morning hike at Mt Ijen
Day 4: Train back to Surabaya

How to get to East Java

The easiest way to get to East Java is through Surabaya International Airport. It has multiple connections from Jakarta or regional hubs such as Kuala Lumpur. Another option would be flying to Banyuwangi, but I found significantly fewer connections there. Lastly, there are many overnight or multi-day tours from Bali, especially to Ijen.

Intermezzo: ‘First come, first served’ flights with Air Asia

Our volcano trip got its first eruptions before it even started. When we came to Siem Reap airport to check in for our Air Asia flight to Surabaya via KL, we were rejected for the flight. Reason? “We overbooked the flight and we apply first come, first served, so you cannot fly today.” It still sounds ridiculous that an airline treats flights like some market haggling and that a valid flight ticket, plus online check-in, doesn’t guarantee you will fly. But that’s apparently the reality with Air Asia, as I learned that’s not an uncommon practice for them. Just take it into consideration. Obviously, it’s a low-cost airline with good prices, but if you take into account all the cancellations we had to do and the lost day, it’s not such a good deal anymore.

Sunrise hike at Mt Bromo

Thanks to the Air Asia situation, we had to change our plans and went to Mt Bromo directly from Surabaya airport. We landed at midnight and were picked up by our driver and guide, then got on the 2.5-hour journey towards Mt Bromo.

We booked the Mt Bromo tour with Jon from Bromo Holiday Travel, who organized our guide and transport. It cost us Rp 1,300,000/person, all inclusive. His WhatsApp is +62 812-3306-6434. Technically, you don’t need a guide to go up with you, the hike is very straightforward.

When we arrived at the local mountain village under Bromo, it was apparent from the full parking lot that we were one of the last ones. We quickly changed and switched to one of the Land Rovers. Apparently, every local guide at Bromo drives a Land Rover and you’ll probably see over 100 modifications and colors. For someone who drove thousands of kms in his old Toyota over deserts and mountains, it was a bit nostalgic 🙂

Table of contents

The drive from the parking lot took probably around 30 minutes because of the intense traffic. It was just one long line barely moving. Walking might have been faster, but it’s an experience on its own. Then we disembarked and got on the hike to the viewpoint. It was completely dark, and we didn’t see much except a few rats running in the headlamp light and, later on, Bromo’s silhouettes.

We reached the top just after 4 AM, so the whole ‘hike’ took us around 40 minutes, and that was us walking at a very relaxed pace, with frequent breaks. The hike is no more than 2km long. It was cold, so the walk itself was not hard, but the elevation of more than 2,000 meters, together with lack of sleep, made us catch our breath more often. When we arrived at the viewpoint, already packed with people, we realized the hardest part: now we had to wait over an hour for the sunrise to at least see something. We ended up renting a mat from a local lady for Rp 30,000 so we could at least lie down on the freezing ground.

We should have packed more food with us. Having breakfast would have been a good way to kill the time. There are vendors selling food at the top, but it’s mostly overpriced fried crap-food. We at least got grilled corn to warm up a bit.

With the first sunlight around 5:15, the viewpoint got into a commotion, with everyone trying to get pictures from different angles. With the clouds traveling through the valley, we got different scenery every few minutes. We took some pictures and got on our way down. And frankly, that’s when we started getting some nice views. There are different viewing platforms on the way, which we didn’t really notice on the dark way up, that offer equally good views and significantly fewer people. It was around 6 AM when the clouds moved enough for us to get a good view of Bromo and also the volcanoes behind it, which had just puffed some smoke to make it even nicer for pictures.

We were back in our 4×4 by 6:15 and headed towards Bromo itself. It’s a short drive and, since the sun was already up, it was much more enjoyable. When we arrived under Bromo, there was a long line of cars already parked. That’s because some tours simply do it the other way around: they go for sunrise to Bromo and only then to the viewpoint. Again, there are some shops and vendors at the parking lot, as well as plenty of horses with questionable hairstyles to ride if another 1.3km is too much to handle. It was a much smoother walk, finished by some 200 steps to the Bromo crater rim.

The moment we walked in and saw the crater, as well as the views around it, was unforgettable. By that time, the sun was well up and the clouds had cleared, so we could see the full valley under us, which was spectacular. We spent maybe 45 minutes at the top, enjoying the views and watching the volcanoes. After that, we just slowly descended, found our car, took the mandatory pictures with it, and headed back towards the parking lot.

Personal verdict: Both mountains were beautiful and the views were spectacular. The whole Bromo valley is magical and definitely worth the trip. BUT… doing it at sunrise felt absolutely unnecessary. You might be lucky and have absolutely clear skies to watch the sun rise up, but that’s not very likely in the mountains. So you might as well save some sleep, avoid the crazy crowd and 1 hour of waiting at the top, and easily start your hike at 5 AM. You wouldn’t miss anything, you’d have great views on the way up as well, and perhaps would be able to avoid much of the traffic. That’s what we did for Ijen later on and it worked perfectly.

From Bromo, we headed to Probolinggo, which is on the way to Surabaya, to catch the 11:20 train to Banyuwangi. It was about a one-hour drive.

Trains in Java

The train system in Java works incredibly well. You can book online through the railway application Access by KAI or third-party websites like tiket.com or 12go. I found the prices the same between these three. Either way, you can link your ticket in the app and use it for boarding the train. We booked executive class for both our trips. The trains are air-conditioned, our seats were huge with plenty of leg room and power outlets for charging, but no wifi. You can even buy decent hot meals and less decent coffee on board. The best perk is actually the spectacular views you get on the way. It’s unbelievable how beautiful Java’s countryside scenery is.

Hike around Licin and its waterfalls

We stayed at Lintang Luku Tent Resort in Licin, a small village around 20 minutes from Banyuwangi. And it was honestly one of the best accommodation choices I’ve ever made. The resort is tucked in the forest around a riverbed and you just listen to the river and forest sounds all day and night. We totally loved it.

On our first full day here, we went for a hike around to find something for lunch and to reach Jagir and Kettegan waterfalls. We were walking on the roads, which wasn’t super comfortable, but the more we got off the main road, the easier it was. Either way, this was a surprising highlight of our trip. The landscape around Licin, its rice fields, fruit farms, and small villages are picturesque, and we couldn’t get enough of just walking between the fields and taking pictures of the beautiful scenery.

We made it to Jagir and Kettegan waterfalls. To sum it up, they are nice, but I wouldn’t break a leg to see them if it doesn’t fit your plans already. When we reached what was marked as Jagir Waterfall entrance, it looked closed, but local girls advised us to go in anyway around the barrier, which we did. At Jagir, there are a few cabins and even toilets, but also quite a lot of garbage, so we didn’t spend much time there and continued to Kettegan. That one is a bit more hidden and harder to reach, so there were significantly fewer people. It is also the more spectacular one of the two.

After that, we got on our way through more rice fields and villages. It took us about 1.5 hours to reach our resort.

Extra tip: If you’re around Licin, make sure to check out Kunci Kupi Cafe & Bakehouse, an amazing cafe tucked in the rice fields with great food as well. It’s a hidden gem we found by luck and couldn’t believe such a great place is hidden there.

Morning hike to Ijen Crater

Learning our lesson at Bromo, we changed our Ijen tour timings to later, and it seemed we hit bingo with that. We got picked up at 3 AM, arriving at the main parking lot under Ijen mountain just before 4 AM. There, we got linked up with our local guide and started walking up while it was still dark. Right after the car park is the ticket checkpoint where, I assume, they check for the health certificate, which is supposedly mandatory. Our tour guide organized them for us. We didn’t visit any facility. In fact, we hadn’t even seen the certificate, so much about how useful such rules are.

We booked the Mt Ijen tour with Gemar, who organized our guide and transport. It cost us Rp 1,500,000 for both of us, including the health certificate, entry ticket, gas masks, and hiking poles. His WhatsApp is +62 813-2518-0865. Again, you don’t necessarily need a guide to go up. There’s nowhere to get lost and it’s a simple walk up and down.

There are 5 ‘stations’ on the way up: little shops, some of them with toilets, some of them with water. So you don’t really need to carry an insane amount of food and water, as you can buy things on the way if needed. This time, we had some snacks for breakfast with us and it was great.

If Bromo was all about Land Rovers, Ijen has its ‘Lamborghinis’. That’s what they call the carts pushed by 1 or 2 locals. There are many of them, so people probably do use them. Our guide said it’s really popular with Chinese and Indonesian ‘hikers’. It costs 1M on the way up, where one guy drags the cart on a rope and another guy pushes it from the back, and 500k, or less if you bargain, for the way down. If you know me, you know I would forbid such things. If people are too lazy to hike the hill, they should just stay down rather than go up with their big butt in a push cart drinking coke along the way. But it gives some extra jobs to locals, so let everyone do their thing.

With the 5 stations, the way up went by really quickly. It’s approx. 4km all the way up plus 1km around the rim. Some parts are quite steep, so we took our time and breaks again. We started from the car park around 4 AM and were up around 5:20, just when the sun started lighting the mountains around us, so we could turn off the headlamp for the last 20 or 30 minutes.

When you arrive at the top of the crater, there are basically three routes you can take: you can go down to the lake where the sulphate mining happens, or continue around the rim, where the sunrise spot is. We skipped the trek down to the lake since the sulphate cloud was quite strong there and it didn’t feel like we missed anything. Instead, we continued all the way around the rim, and that’s when we realized our plan was just perfect. In the other direction to us walked a constant line of what could easily be a few hundred people who were watching the sunrise and had now started to leave. We were almost the only ones walking toward the sunrise spot. There are dozens of popular photo spots, which we decided to check only on the way back, as there were queues of people waiting for them.

When we reached the end of the rim, it’s just closed at a certain point so you can’t continue 360 around the mountain, we really congratulated ourselves for the timing. At that time, we were literally alone there with one other couple, so we just sat down for our breakfast picnic, enjoyed the views, took some drone videos, and just enjoyed the spectacular views all around. We spent maybe an hour there just because it was so chilled. On the way back, we stopped for some pictures, which worked out nicely since the sun was already high enough to light it nicely. The way down was simple. Again, we barely met any people, only some desperate Lamborghini guys who were trying to convince you to ride the cart on the way down, and they would do it for almost any price since they knew there were not many people left up there after us. When we got down, there were some people starting their way up. They definitely got good light, but I can imagine it could be pretty hot at the top.

Overall, Ijen was absolutely spectacular and, thanks to starting 1-2 hours later than all the tours, we had an amazing time enjoying the hike ourselves while there were hundreds of people lining up for sunrise. The views are magical, and the sulphate smoke adds a special touch to the turquoise lake water. Oh, that reminds me: the gas masks. We got them from Gemar and used them for probably a total of 4 minutes, including posing for dramatic pictures. You really only need it when you’re walking through the sulphate cloud, and I’d say a regular face mask or scarf would do a good enough job. I definitely wouldn’t buy a gas mask because of this. The hiking poles are quite helpful on the other hand, since the path can get steep in places, so it’s helpful to have that support.

Verdict: Absolutely in awe of East Java

Despite the AirAsia sh*tshow, our anniversary and birthday trip to Java was nothing but amazing. The volcanoes are stunning and to hike them and see them was one of our travel dreams come true. Despite it being such a mass attraction, and despite the lack of sleep, we totally loved it. The beauty of the Javanese countryside was an unexpected cherry on the cake and I can’t rave enough about how much we enjoyed it. We’re already eyeing other volcanoes on Java or other Indonesian islands. Stay tuned 🙂

Lukas K

I love the airport buzz, planes and most of all – the feeling when you discover or experience something new. Together with Anna, we launched our gift voucher platform Ithara.ae. Photos are usually taken with Canon EOS 4000D, my Huawei Honor phone and DJI Mavic Pro.