Bromo and Ijen volcanoes in 27 hours, independent and budget

Climbing mount Panajakan in the dark

Waiting for sunrise over smoking mount Bromo and mount Batok

Then reaching the caldera and climb up to pay a visit to Bromo’s crater

And finally back across the moon-looking Sea of sand

Climbing up to the crater at night

Then climbing down to see the sulfur fumes and the amazing blue fire

And eventually see sunrise over the turquoise lake and the sulfur carriers

Bromo and Ijen are both located in East Java island at about 200 km from each other. If you consider this a short distance you never travelled in Indonesia. Even with a private transport it will take at least 6 hours to move from one to the other, with public transport consider 9-10 hours (including lead-time). This is why doing both in one day is quite a challenge if you are independent.

Yeah, Indonesia is beautiful but transportation slowliness is really frustrating and you easily get the feeling of “losing time” if you have just 2-3 weeks to spend there. But I’m not recommending you to rush for you holidays. If you have time spend two days in Bromo and then go to Ijen.

But if you don’t mind spending a lot of time on trains and buses and can go on with little sleep for a while, well you can quite easily do both Bromo and Ijen in one day.

Getting to Bromo

Before starting your adventure you need to reach Bromo entry point, Cemoro Lawang.
Several tour packages are available to reach it both from Central Java or Bali – I didn’t take them into consideration. I was in Java so I organized my trip from Yogyakarta (that everyone here calls Jogya). Many locals recommended me to travel by train when possible, after doing it I highly recommend too. Yes, they are slow (maybe 30 km/h considering they frequently make long stops) but going by road doesn’t save much time. On the other hand you have better comfort:  personal space (vs small and packed vans / buses), air con, no swinging mountain roads.
Closest station to Bromo is Probolinggo. It took me 9 hours to get there from Jogya. Once there, you’ll need to reach the Minivan station for Cemoro Lawang (next to main Bus terminal, about 15 minutes by angkot – small hop-on hop-off mini-buses). Minivans take about 15 people and they leave only when full, so be preparred to wait. To Cemoro Lawang is a 1 and 1/2 hours drive on mountain roads. You will find some hotel and several homestays in town and the driver will surly propose you some.
(See end of post for all timing and costs)

Feeling like sardines in the minivan to Cemorro Lawang

What to see in Bromo and how

Mount Bromo is a 2,329 metres-high volcano part of Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park. The caldera extend for several km, but most visitors focus on ascending to Mt Bromo crater, crossing the nearby “Sea of sand” and watching sunrise from Mt Panajakan (which offers the best view over the area).

The “Sea of sand” a lunar landscape as seen from Mt Bromo’s top

You have two options to do that, join a Jeep tour package or climbing/walking on your own.

1. Tourist package

The standard Jeep tour leaves from Cemoro Lawang at about 4 am and takes you to the highest viewpoint on Panajakan. Major con for this option, is that you are surrounded by hundreds people fighting for the best position to see surise. You are very likely not to enjoy it at best.
At 6.30 all jeeps go down and take people across the Sea of sand to the base of Mt Bromo. Here you must go on by foot (if you are lazy you can hire a horse for half way). It takes about 20 minutes to climb up to the crater. From the base the Jeep will take you back and drop you in Cemoro Lawang at around 10 am. Again since all the tour follow the same schedule in the morning the crater is crowded.

This option need some effort and to skip some sleeping time but is highly worth it. To see sunrise you must leave town at 3 – 3.30 am. You will be climbing Mt Panajakan in the dark therefore you’ll need a headlamp or torch. The path is not indicated but it’s easy to follow. Nevertheless, I recommend to use on your smartphone a offline map app such as Maps.me. It’s basiclally like using Google maps with no need of internet connection (meaning no need for a local SIM card). The following screenshot are taken from Maps.me.

From Cemoro Lawang you leave at night to reach one of the 3 sunrise viewpoints

It takes about two hours walk to reach the main viewpoint (blu pin), but you don’t want to go there because it’s packed of jeep visitors! You have two alternatives: a first viewpoint after 40 min walk (Seruni viewpoint – yellow pin), easy to reach, not very crowded but not exciting, and a higher viewpoint (red pin) after 90 min from where you have a great view over Mt Bromo, Mt Batok (in front), Mt Semeru (the big one behind) and the sea-of sand. When I was there in August I counted around 70 people (vs hundreds on Jeep viewpoint). I arrived at 4.30 among the first ones and waited untill 5.30 for sunrise. I later realized that another viewpoint is 5 minutes higher and that both can be reached with 10 minutes walk from the road (so I guess you can organize to get there by car/motorbike but apperently not many do it).

Sunrise over Mt Bromo (left), Mt Batok (front), Mt Semeru (back) as seen from Intermediate viewpoint on Mt Panajakan

If you can spend two days or more in Bromo there is no need to rush down. Early morning is the peak time to climb Bromo. On the other hand temperature is cooler in that part of the day. From sunrise viewpoint to get to Bromo’s base you need to climb down back and take a path that goes across the Sea of sand (Lautan Pasir). It takes about 2 hours from the intermediate viewpoint.
Alternatively, you can do like me. After sunrise with a couple of fellow Italians we went down the main road for 40 min and reached another viewpoint (lower and closer to Mt Batok). From there we took a motorbike taxi (ojek) to Mt Bromo’s base. This helped us to save some time (about 1 and 1/2 hour walking) and reach Bromo’s peak before the wind got too strong. The motorbike ride was an adventure itself, since my driver was riding like a motocross pro.

Regardless on how you got to Mt Bromo’s base, you then need to climb up for 20 minutes to reach the crater. There is the opportunity to pay for a horse ride for about half of it but I don’t recommend it. In any case, to reach the crater you will have at last to climb an extremely steep stairway. After that you will be on top and you’ll enjoy an amazing panorama, the moon-looking Sea of sand (with the Hindu temple) and the mountains around. One of Indonesia’s highlights.

  Walking on the edge of Bromo’s crater

I was back to Cemorro Lawang at 10 am. I then took a shower, had breakfast, packed and got ready to leave at noon. I took the minivan back to Probolinggo (again had to wait ’till it was full) which is faster on the way down (1 h). Once in Probollinggo I caught the train to Banyuwangi (6,5 h journey), which is the closest town to Ijen area. I talked to some people who took a tour from Bromo to Ijen and they all complained about the uncomfortable trip in a small van, so I guess train is the best option.
In Banyuwangi I joined some girls I met before in Jakarta and a local guy who helped me find a Jeep tour to Ijen. As far as I understood, there is no public transport to reach Ijen at night. The Jeep (for 4-5 people) takes you in 1 h and 15 min to Ijen parking (bumpy road at times). The reason you want to be there at night is to see the blue fire in the crater.

Climbing Ijen and getting into the crater

Coming with a tour at the Ijen parking  you will meet a local guide (mostly useless in my experience, since they give no explaination) and start climbing at around 1.30 am. There is an Entrance fee to pay, which was included in the Jeep tour I took.
(See end of post for all timing and costs)

The path is quite large and it’s impossible to get lost (second reason the guide doesn’t seem necessary). Nevertheless, it’s not easy. The path climbs up very steep (I was happy to use my trekking sticks). It takes about 1 and 1/2 hour (2 km) to reach the top. Because it’s dark you will need a head lamp or torch. If you can’t make it walking you can hire carriers to carry you up on an small cart. I was feeling uncomfortable when seing them, it looked like a scene from slavery times. If you are not fit, just don’t come here.

From the top you need to climb down to the crater (about 20 min on a steep stairway). Maybe at this point you are wondering “Is it safe??”. Well, (appearently) there is no eruption danger, but there is a risk from the sulfur fumes (in other countries it would be off-limits). A filtering mask is highly recommended even if not mandatory. Down in the crater the sulfur fumes are really disturbing, don’t risk just to save a few money (mask is included in tours or you can rent one on place).

Down in the crater you will see by close the amazing blue fire. It comes from ignited sulphuric gas which emerge from cracks at temperatures up to 600 degrees Celsius and can reach 5 meters high. Be aware that big sulfuric clouds are blown by wind at times, so you might get burning eyes (and lungs, if you don’t wear a gas mask).

* Climb up to Bromo’s crater (20 minutes)

* Motorbike ride (5 minutes) to Cemorro Lawang, 17k rupiah (1,2 €)

  (Alternatevely you can trek from Bromo’s base to Cemorro Lawang in about 45 minutes)