Mt Bromo

Top Things to Know Before You Go - UPDATED 2025

1. You don’t need a guide, it is easy to visit yourself.

2. There are two parts of the typical Bromo trip: the sunrise viewpoint, and climbing to the crater. A guide will do these one after the other. If going solo, I recommend you break these up. 

3. It takes 45 minutes to walk to the sunrise viewpoint/s from Comoro Lawang. It is only 10 minutes if you have a motorbike, with a 10-30 minute walk (depending which viewpoint you want to go to)

4. There are so many viewpoints that are less popular than the main one, and it is easy to find one without crowds when you arrive

5. In February, it starts getting bright just after 5am and the sun hits the horizon at 5:30am. This will change with the seasons. 

6. If you don’t mind a little walk, you can get to Bromo volcano for free without paying the 350,000 entrance fee. More information below. 

7. Bromo is a very easy climb, especially in comparison to Ijen. It took me 16 minutes to jog from the bottom to the top and 10 minutes to come down. It would take 30 minutes, or 45 max with breaks if you're going slowly.  

8. Bromo is the highlight of many people’s adventures in Java, so if you’re really excited to visit, plan 2-3 days here. If it is raining, the sunrise viewpoint will be obscured. LOTS of people travel all this way and don’t get to see it. There are waterfalls and other day trips you can do nearby to pass time, and the villages nearby are incredibly picturesque. 

9. If you’re travelling in rainy season, bring or buy waterproof clothes! 

Order to Visit the Sunrise Spot & Climb the Volcano Without Other Tourists

The tours will pick people up at their hotel around 3am (depending where your accommodation is) and drive them to the sunrise spot. From here, they will spend an hour or so waiting for the sun to rise. The tours leave quite quickly after sunrise and then go down to Bromo where the cars drive them to the base of the crater and wait for around an hour to an hour and a half for the visitors to climb to the crater, explore, and return back down for breakfast at the guest accommodations. There are little tarp huts here where you can buy snacks/tea/coffee/hot chocolate. The tours are then usually back in Comoro Lawang by 8am, or 9am at latest for the private tours. 

Straight up, that seems like an awful way to do it. Skip the crowds and visit at your own pace! Here’s my recommended order!

1. Go to the sunrise spot with the crowds, but get there early so you can find somewhere less crowded. If travelling in February, it starts getting light around 5am and the sun hits the horizon at 5:30am. Check on Time And Date for accurate sunrise times depending on your month of travel. If you’re walking from the Cemoro Lawang, it takes 45-60 minutes to get there. If you’ve got your own motorbike, it’s a 10 minute drive and a 15-20 minute walk. 

2. Then, I recommend you return to your hotel and chill out until 9am! If your hotel has a free breakfast, make the most of it, or otherwise have a nap, have a shower, read a book, or just walk around the town. There’s no point in rushing to Bromo though as you’ll get stuck in the crowds.

3. Around 9am once the tours have all finished, now is the best time to go and enjoy the Sea of Sands and Bromo’s crater. I actually went at 10:30am and I was the only person on top of the crater for the entire time I spent up there. There was a group of three Indonesian friends I spoke to on the way up, a German couple in their late 60s, a Chinese woman, and an Indonesian couple descending when I arrived. That was it - so peaceful in comparison to hundreds of tours all at the same time! I was here while it was raining, so it was cold and fewer people were visiting, but even on hot days there are significantly fewer people there after 9am.

Visiting the Sunrise Spots

If it’s a cloudless night, you’ll enjoy some of the most spectacular stars due to very low light pollution in the surrounding mountains. If it’s cloudy or rainy, you’ll likely end up huddled around a small fire, or eating hot cup noodles, or drinking tea/coffee/hot chocolate. I bought a hot chocolate for 10,000, so it’s not ridiculously overpriced.

The walk up from the car park is 15-20 minutes to the main sunrise spot. You go up a pathway that cuts back and forth into the mountain. If you’re travelling in dry season and its a sunny day there may be a few hundred people with you - in this case, consider stopping at the sunrise spot a bit further below, or going to one of the dozens of other lookout points on the mountain. I’d just recommend to get there early and decide which has the fewest people, you don’t necessarily need to plan in advance which spot to go to - just decide based on how many people are there on your night. Our night actually wasn't too populated due to rainy season. 

The main spot is Seruni Point. King Kong Hill is a good unknown alternative that gets very few visitors. There's also Secret Sunrise Spot in google maps which is half way between Seruni and King Kong. Just arrive an extra half an hour before sunrise and you'll have time to walk and explore a bit and find yourself a nook up in the trees somewhere without the people. 

Visiting Bromo For Free (by foot) - UPDATED 2025 

To make some extra cash, locals bring horses down to the foot of the volcano to carry people to the craters’ rim. To get to the volcano, they take the horses down a shortcut pathway from Cemoro Lawang to the Sea of Sand. This takes 10 minutes to walk, although it is covered in horse poo and can be muddy and slippery if it’s raining. 

The walkway is right next to Cerema Indah Hotel. When you’re looking at the sign for Cerema Indah (it’s bright white and lights up, so very easy to find!), you’ll be able to see a dirt track just to the right past the sign. Take this path and follow it down and it will lead you to the Sea of Sands, bypassing the checkpoint (where you have to pay 300,000 - 350,000 on weekdays and weekends respectively). 

Visiting Bromo for Free (by motorbike) - UPDATED 2025 

Some of the locals know that visitors and backpackers use this track to avoid paying, and may hover around the footpath next to Cerema Indah. As it was bucketing down with rain when I was going, I was more than happy to take up one local on the offer of a motorbike in order to save myself 40 minutes of walking each way. We settled on 80,000 for a lift to and from the volcano, and he waited for me at the base. To flag down one of these bikes, just go to the Cerema Indah sign and wait nearby it. There’s an alley next to it where you can stop if you prefer. Just look intently at each of the motorbikes going past, and if you’re wearing any hiking gear, it will help make it really obvious where you’re going. My motorbike driver, Fachtur, said that on a dry day he usually takes 3 people to and from, and 2 people on a rainy day. He has a few friends who do it to, and said that they usually wait around the area to spot foreigners looking to go without paying for the ticket. 

After settling on a price (he started with 150,000, I offered 50,000, and we settled on 80,000), I walked down the horse pathway to the bottom. This walk takes 10 minutes, whereas it took Fachtur 5-10 minutes to drive around as well. I met Fachtur at the bottom and we drove over to the bottom of the crater. He pointed to a second checkpoint where they check tickets, but we went to the crater on a different path.

Fachtur waited at the bottom of the crater for me. He said that people usually take 60-80 minutes up on the crater and that he was happy to wait. I gave him my phone number well and he called me to check that I had a rain jacket when the rain started to hit again - so sweet! He offered to run me up one if I didn’t but I was prepared. As they don’t check tickets on the way out, he was happy to drop me at my homestay on the way back. 

As I had hired a motorbike, I did check around the roads to see if I could bring my own bike to the Sea of Sands, but this was not possible. It is also absolutely not possible at all to take a motorbike down the horse path next to Cerema Indah and the official roads will make visitors pay, but locals (like Fachtur) can drive through for free. Also, the sand is very soft and if you don’t have good tyres, and haven’t deflated your tyres, you’re just going to get bogged. I can only imagine how uncomfortable that would be trying to explain to the authorities why you’re on the Sea of Sands without paying for a ticket and with a bogged bike - straight up, not possible. 

Getting to Cemoro Lawang (town next to Bromo) 

Cemoro Lawang is the town where you can see the three volcanos and from where you can explore the Sea of Sands and climb Bromo. There are four ways to get there. In order of my preference, here they are: 

1. Self-drive a motorbike at your own pace

2. Take a private taxi (Grab or Gojek)

3. Go on a tour

4. Take a “bus” to Bromo 

Self-drive a motorbike

You can hire a bike from many places in Probolinggo. We got ours from Dhika Adventures (8 minutes from the Probolinggo train station). It was 125,000 for a 110cc scooter and 150,000 for a 125cc scooter. The 110cc was fine, but it struggled to go past 27km p/hour on some of the slopes, cut out a few times, and the horn stopped working on it (odd). Worked fine, but my partner definitely enjoyed his 125cc scooter more than I did. 

The map will tell you its an hour to get to Cemoro Lawang, but expect 1.5 hours if it’s dry and 2 hours if it’s raining. Maybe less if you have a 150cc+ bike. On the return you’re going downhill, so expect around 1 hour if it’s dry and 1.5 hours if it’s wet. I would caution against doing this drive at night unless if you’re experienced and confident in driving a motorbike in the dark.

The road itself is actually pretty good. The Australian Government (usually - depending on the Prime Ministers’ international awareness) invests a lot in Indonesia as it’s largest neighbour. The road to Cemoro Lawang was built buy and is maintained by the Australian Government. If you’ve been to Australia, you’ll notice the yellow dividing lines on the road and big yellow and black arrows to signify corners. Parts of the road inevitably will fall into disrepair, but overall it’s an exceptional road and quite safe to drive. You also go straight the entire way from around 10 minutes out of Probolinggo, so don’t really need to have your phone up for maps. 

By self-driving, you’ll also be able to ride your motorbike to and from the sunrise spot, saving yourself around 45 minutes of walking each way in the early hours of the morning. 

DOWNSIDE - if it’s raining, you’re going to get soaked on a bike!! This was the case for us, and I’ve never been more drenched and soaked to the bone. It bucketed for most the way up and most the way down, and as a result I didn’t have single article of clothing left that was dry enough to wear once I returned to Probolinggo - despite having a bag protector and a water-resistant (not water-proof) jacket. I ended up buying some pants (35,000) a shirt (35,000) and a pair of socks (10,000) from a little shop on the way back. Nonetheless, it was a pretty easy drive back given the quality of the road, and most of it was downhill. There was only one turn on the way back down that we took mistakenly (we went left instead of right), but within a minute we realised that the road we were on was no longer smoothe and was full of potholes - as this was clearly not the road provided by the Australian government we turned around and rejoined the correct road. This straightforwardness of this road was very handy as we didn’t want to have a phone out during the torrential rain. 

Private Taxi 

If you’re not comfortable driving a bike, you can get a private taxi. Grab and Gojek are the two main taxi apps (think Uber equivalent) in Indonesia, and both work fine in Probolinggo. If you arrive in the middle of the night you may not get a ride, but during the daytime you’ll be fine. In 2025, the cost of this should be 350,000.

Alternatively, check on Grab and Gojek for the price, and then flag down a taxi to take you to Cemoro Lawang. If you tell them how much it is on Grab or Gojek, they’ll usually meet you at the same price. You could also tell them it’s slightly less (i.e 300,000 instead of 350,000) and they may agree to that price. If you’re staying at a hostel, you may encounter other travellers interested in splitting the fare. 

Go on a tour

Most people do this and enjoy it well enough. You can organise tours from any homestay/hostel/accommodation in Probolinggo. I’d recommend a private tour if you want to have more autonomy over how long you stay at the sunrise spot. The tour guides tend to rush everyone out straight after sunrise in order to be “the first to climb Bromo” (spoiler alert - between 5:30am and 9am hundreds of people go to Bromo, including people who skip the sunrise spot all together. You’ll never be the first there, and if you want to enjoy Bromo alone you just need to go after 9am by yourself).  

Take a “bus” to Bromo

In much of the developing world, a “bus” is a locally owned vehicle that won’t leave until it’s full. In the case of Bromo/Probolinggo, these are minibuses, although in some countries they may be Toyotas with a plank of wood in the back to add 3 extra seats. 

When you arrive at Probolinggo station, you’ll be hounded with people offering to take you on busses to Cemoro Lawang. Tickets can be as cheap as 30,000 for these, but the catch is that the bus won’t leave until it’s full. The minibuses are 12 seaters (11 passengers, excluding the driver) and you need 11 passengers to go. We didn’t do this option, as usually on these types of transport you end up either waiting hours for the bus to fill up (and inevitably end up paying more for the empty seats), or the other passengers start to give up and take taxis themselves. 

The bus drivers can also be very aggressive, and will tell you anything to make you think their bus is ready to go. If you do decide to take a bus, don’t hand them cash until the bus is full. Almost every other travel writer that mentions going to Bromo states they spent 3/4/5 hours waiting for a bus to fill up and either ended up paying to cover the empty seats, giving up and getting a taxi, or hiring a scooter in the end. Honestly, I recommend you only consider this option if you’re patient, have a good book to read, don’t mind waiting in the heat, or are travelling with an already large group of friends. 

Probolinggo: What to See & Accomodation 

I very rarely say that a city isn’t worth visiting, but Probolinggo really is one of those. I even found a local travel guide which highlighted the “red church” in Probolinggo as it’s number one attraction (spoiler: it’s just a red building and not an exciting church). The city is dirty, hot, messy, and is incredibly dull in comparison to Cemoro Lawang and the countless villages along the way. 

For accommodation, we stayed at Dhika Adventures. The rooms were 180,000 for a private double room with shared bathroom at 120,000 for a bed in one of the dormitories. Notably, the rooms have airconditioning units (that actually work really well!) and they give you a blanket with your bed (in case you put the aircon on max, as we did). This is owned by a local family and is very basic and down to earth. The food is reasonably priced too - Omlette or Nasi Goreng for 20,000, fried tofu or tempeh for 10,000. They have scooters that you can hire as well for 24 hours - 125,000 for a 110cc scooter, 150,000 for a 125cc scooter. They charge 10,000 per hour overtime if you take more than 24 hours to return the bike. It’s also located 8 minutes from the Probolinggo train station, and is only three turns away from joining onto the main road that goes straight to Cemoro Lawang, so it’s very easy to navigate without a phone.