How to visit Mt Bromo, Java

Mt Bromo is an Indonesian volcano with a mighty reputation. Its crater with rising gas clouds is well-known amongst backpackers and tourists, who visit at dawn to watch the sun rise above it.

I loved my visit to Mt Bromo so much that I have compiled this guide. It’ll give you more information on what the volcano is like to visit and answer some of the top questions that you might have about it too.

About Mt Bromo

Mt Bromo is an active volcano in East Java, Indonesia. It forms part of the Bromo Tengger-Semeru National Park.

Mt Bromo is just one of a group of five volcanoes located within the Tengger Caldera. This caldera is almost a million years old and has gone through multiple stages of development before it reached its current formation.

Nowadays, there are four cones which are inactive in the caldera. Mt Bromo is their youthful cousin – it’s the youngest and the only one which is currently active. Given that, it’s no surprise Mt Bromo is the most famous of the bunch.

A sacred site

Mt Bromo is considered sacred to the Tenggerese community, who live in the area surrounding the volcano. They continue to follow Hindu traditions with Mt Bromo incorporated into their rituals and practices.

Mt Bromo forms a legendary part of their traditions, and features heavily in the origin story of the Tengger tribe. Every year this manifests in the form of the Kasada ceremony, where livestock and offerings are thrown into the crater.

The religious importance of Mt Bromo is obvious when you visit. There’s a shrine to Lord Ganesha, the Hindu god of beginnings, on the crater rim, which any visitor to the volcano will pass when they climb up to look inside.

What is visiting Mt Bromo like?

Visiting Mt Bromo is a surreal experience, but one I enjoyed thoroughly.

You can walk up the volcano and along the crater rim. To get there, once you’ve crossed the Sea of Sands, the barren plain that fills the caldera, there’s an ascent of 250 steps. The walk took us around 20 minutes; it was pretty dusty.

When approaching the crater, you can hear the rumble of the magma beneath. The vent is covered entirely by a gas cloud which obscures what’s below. Occasionally puffs of gases are let out, which can be seen from further away.

Our guide said the gas cloud is normally white, and that, when it goes yellow, this is a sign of a potential eruption. I’m glad we never had to test this theory!

Why visit at sunrise?

Most tours to Mt Bromo – or, at least, those which are marketed towards backpackers – take you to see the volcano at sunrise. This is normally at a viewpoint overlooking the caldera, although I watched sunrise from the crater rim itself.

When sunrise means a 4 am start, it can be easy to ask: why bother?

To be honest, I think the only reason to visit Mt Bromo at this time is for the view. Which, in my opinion, is entirely worth it.

The sunrise at Mt Bromo was one of the prettiest things I’ve ever seen. The Sea of Sands was filled with low clouds which burned off over the couple of hours after sunrise, slowly revealing the pretty landscape to us. The sun cast the crater in a warm glow as we hit golden hour. It’s an experience that was truly magical.

Getting up at 3:30 am was entirely worth it for those memories!

Is visiting Mt Bromo safe?

Given that Mt Bromo is an active volcano, you might be wondering whether it’s safe to visit. I certainly did!

Mt Bromo is actively monitored, and the national park can be closed during periods of high volcanic activity. Therefore, theoretically, the crater should be safe to visit unless you’re told otherwise.

Personally, I have some doubts as to this. Ultimately, walking around the rim of a crater has inherent danger. It’s only a metre or so wide and it would be super easy to fall into the vent or down the side of the crater. This isn’t an end I’d personally want to meet. And this is without factoring in the reliability of monitoring for the volcano. 

However, I should say that although I didn’t feel completely safe when visiting Bromo, I felt safe enough. For me, the risks associated with visiting were worth it.

Should you take a tour?

If you’ve decided to visit Mt Bromo, the next obvious question is how to organise the trip. There are two main options for this: taking an organised tour, or visiting independently.

If you do any search of the internet, most of the blogs which come up appear to lean to the latter. It is possible to get to Bromo independently, simply by turning up and walking in.

However, this route offers some uncertainty. If you’ve got time on your hands and enough guts to get there and traverse a volcano on your own, go ahead. But this one was not for me.

The alternative is to take a tour – either a sunrise tour from Cemorro Lawang, the nearby village, or an organised tour from a nearby city. The positive is that you won’t have to worry about the logistics, which can be tedious. However, these tours can be pricey.

The classic tour itinerary

Sunrise tours to Mt Bromo all follow a similar itinerary, regardless of what operator you use.

First, you’ll set off in a jeep before sunrise (probably around 4 am) to a viewpoint overlooking the Tengger Caldera. There are several viewpoints tour agencies pick from, but all should in theory give you gorgeous views of the area as the sun rises.

Once the sun is up, the jeeps will take you to Bromo itself, driving across the Sea of Sand. You’ll then have the opportunity to climb up to the crater rim and take a look into the vent.

These tours return you back to your accommodation around 8 am.

If you’re interested in my personal experience of the Bromo tour, I’ve written a separate account of this, alongside Kawah Ijen (another volcano to the east).

How to get to Mt Bromo

Getting to Bromo independently is something I didn’t attempt. It seemed not worth at all the effort.

First you need to get to Probolinggo, the nearest city. Getting to Probolinggo shouldn’t be a major problem as it’s a fairly big city with decent transport links.

From Probolinggo, you can get a minivan to Cemorro Lawang, the town next to the Tengger Caldera which is the base for all tourists. How easy this is to get, I’m not sure!

Of course, any organised tour will take you straight to Cemorro Lawang from wherever you’re coming from, but potentially at considerable expense.

Is visiting Mt Bromo worth the effort and expense?

My personal opinion on this one is: absolutely. I’d 100% recommend taking the time to visit Mt Bromo and see it for yourself.

This would be especially true if you’ve never seen a volcano up close, or have just started your trip through Indonesia. Both of these were the case for me. Visiting Mt Bromo as the first place on my trip was incredible, and it sticks out as one of the highlights from my entire South-East Asia trip.

However, I can understand why you’d skip it. Trips to Mt Bromo are expensive, at least relative to other costs in Indonesia – the entrance fee to the national park clocks in at 220,000 Rp ($14 / £11) before you even begin adding things like transport, accommodation and tours. And the many aspects of it, such as climbing up the crater rim or getting up so early, just aren’t accessible for all tourists or possible for all itineraries.

Ratings

As part of this blog, I give every place I visit a rating so that I can easily compare destinations and decide whether they’re worth a visit. Those are the scores you see at the top of the page!

This is how Mt Bromo rated:

• Safety: 2/5 – visiting Mt Bromo involves walking around a crater rim. Need I say more?
• Accessibility: 2/5 – it just wouldn’t be possible to visit the volcano if you have accessibility needs, as you’ve got to get up 250 steps. However, you’d still be able to get to the viewpoints and see sunrise.
• Enjoyment: 5/5 – I loved my visit to Mt Bromo and would go back in a heartbeat.
• Value: 2/5 – although incredible to see, the price of a trip to Mt Bromo, relative to other attractions in Indonesia, is ridiculous.

Overall score: 2.75/5

If you’ve already visited, let me know if you agree with these ratings! Just to note, the ratings are my personal opinion based on my visit, so you might have a completely different experience.

Conclusion

I had the best time visiting Mt Bromo. Sure, I was very sleepy, but it was incredible to get so close to an active volcano and see the sun rise from the rim of its crater.

I hope this guide helps you to plan your own visit to Bromo, whether you go independently or join an organised tour. Equally, if you decide to give it a miss, then that’s good too.

Do you have any questions about visiting Mt Bromo? Let me know in the comments!

If your plans take you to Bali, check out my other visitor guides to Ubud, Amed, Gili Trawangan and Gili Air