10-Step Complete Guide To Hiking Mount Bromo Without a Tour

If you’re travelling through East Java, you’ve surely heard about Mount Bromo. If you haven’t, you must’ve seen pictures of it but perhaps just didn’t know its name. If no to both of those, welcome to the internet – this must be your first time.

Do an image search of Indonesia and you’re going to see photos of Mount Bromo. It’s one of the most iconic Indonesian photos, and frankly, one of the most iconic volcano photos worldwide (Acatenango in Guatemala is another that comes to mind).

Mount Ijen is another iconic volcano in Indonesia and I’ve got you covered for how to get there with or without a tour as well. But, back to Bromo.

I’m going to assume that if you’ve found your way to this page, you’re either interested in saving a few Rupiah or you aren’t really a tour person and would rather do the work yourself to make the reward just a touch sweeter. Or maybe you’ve got social anxiety and are afraid of groups? Whatever the reason, I’ve got you covered.

I’ve put together a 10-step, easy-to-follow process that will get you to Bromo by yourself. Ayo! (That’s like a “let’s go” in Indonesian).

1. Get to Probolinggo

The first thing you need to do is get to the town of Probolinggo. If you’ve got your own transport, easy. Find it on the map (it’s on the coast just a bit southeast from Surabaya) and head in that direction.

If you rely on public transport, my recommendation would be to take the train. It’ll be the easiest and quickest way to get there. The trains are comfortable enough and you can buy your tickets in advance online or just do it at the station. You can check schedules, buy tickets, and find your route online here at the official site (Kereta Api Indonesia).

Your other option would be to take a bus. Traffic can be hectic on the world’s most densely populated island but if you are somewhere that doesn’t have a train station this might be your only option. RedBus and Traveloka are two great apps for finding transport in Indonesia.

2. Stay a night in Probolinggo (Optional)

Arriving in Probolinggo you’ll probably be approached by people at the train station who will offer you Bromo tours, but we don’t want that do we?

Probolinggo isn’t a must-see town. There isn’t a lot going on so don’t feel bad if you just skip town as soon as you arrive. This will likely depend on what time you pull up to town, though. If you arrive in the morning or early afternoon, I’d just skip ahead to Step 3.

If you get in a bit later, you might be better off just staying a night and continuing on the next day. I ended up arriving in Probolinggo around 4-5pm so I opted to stay a night. The hostel I stayed at was called Happy Volcano. It was fine for a night but I’m not going out of my way to say that you need to stay here. It’s fine – nothing more, nothing less.

I never stayed there, but Dhika Adventure helped me out in Step 3 and they were very welcoming and friendly. I think this would be a good spot to spend the night if you need to.

3. Head Up to the Entrance of Bromo Park

Again, if you’ve got your own transportation, brilliant. Find Cemara Indah on your map (it should be right next to the park’s border) and start heading up to the volcano. You don’t have to go exactly to this place but it’s just a handy landmark to get you to the town. (Easter Egg: this location will come in handy in Step 7 if you want to save some money).

On scooter you’re looking at about an hour and a half riding. It’s a nice drive while you’re heading up the volcano – enjoy it.

If you don’t have your own transport, you’ve got 2 options: find your own transport, or take the bus.

My strong recommendation would be that if you are comfortable driving a scooter, save yourself the hassle and rent one. You’ll be able to come and go on your own schedule, stop wherever you want to take in sights on your path up the volcano, and, most of all, you won’t have to deal with the bus mafia.

There are a few different places you can rent a scooter from in Probolinggo. I price-checked most of them and found Dhika Adventure to be the best one (100,000/day). I can’t speak to any of their facilities, but they were very friendly with the whole process of renting a bike and allowing me to store my bag at their place while I went up to hike Bromo. It’s probably a good option if you need to spend a night in Probolinggo.

If you aren’t comfortable riding a scooter, you are left without much of an option but to take the bus. Perhaps things have changed in the past couple of years since I’ve been there, but there is a bit of a monopoly on transport to Bromo in Probolinggo. You won’t find Grab or Gojek, and if you do, they probably won’t take you to Bromo.

If you can, I’d recommend avoiding the bus from Probolinggo to Bromo. The bus mafia has a bit of a stronghold on transporting tourists and they don’t like people stepping on their turf. You can find this bus just to the south of Terminal Banyuangga. I’ve read a lot of reports of foreigners having trouble and even belongings being stolen by this bus mafia. Other taxis or rideshare apps face heavy intimidation from the bus mafia.

There isn’t a schedule for the bus. They just leave when the bus is full. Or, when passengers are tired of waiting around and they decide to buy all the seats on the bus so they can go. Unfortunately, I can’t remember exactly how much they wanted per seat on the bus. There were 4 of us waiting for about 4 hours for more passengers to show up before we got frustrated and gave up.

The two Russians found a car willing to drive them up the volcano – the car was chased and the driver threatened, but the Russians ended up making it there safely.

The French girl cut her losses and decided to just take a tour offered by Happy Volcano for the next day.

I went and found myself a scooter.

I can’t say whether showing up early vs later to the bus stop is better, it just sort of depends on what the other tourists looking for a ride that day decide to do. Show up early and you might catch the early birds eager to get going as well with a full bus, or you might just end up waiting there longer for people to show up. It’s hard to say.

If cost isn’t that huge a deal to you, you can negotiate to pay for the extra seats and go right away. Perhaps you’re starting to see why I recommend the scooter to avoid this whole mess.

Stay safe while travelling the world. Here are my 21 guidelines to stay safe on the road.

4. Find a Place to Stay Close to the Park Entrance

Okay. Transportation shenanigans out of the way, you need a place to stay for the night – or half-night. When I went, I stayed at Bromo Otix Guesthouse. Similar to my thoughts on Happy Volcano, it was fine. Nothing to write home about but satisfactory for a night.

There seem to be a lot of options in this area and if you arrive at a decent time you can look around a bit and survey your options. I arrived after sunset, so I just went to the first place I saw mentioned online. It was reasonably priced and comfortable.

Pro Tip: It’s going to be cold. Bring warm clothes for the night and for the hike.

5. Wake Up Early and Head Up to the Lookout Spot

I wish I could remember what time I woke up at, but I’m sorry, it’s escaped me. The best I’m remembering is that my plan was to be out the door of my accommodation at 3:15am. You can use your maps apps to figure out how long you think it’ll take to hike up to the lookout.

I found the hike to be pretty difficult. It’s an easy enough path to follow, but it’s a pretty steep climb. Budget this into the time that you set your alarm.

If you have a scooter, you can bypass a decent chunk of the walking and park your scooter part way up the hill. Once you find the start of the trail, just follow it up until you find where the rest of the scooters are parked.

The site of the main lookout is called Seruni Point.

When you’re walking the path you’ll eventually find the main lookout point. It’s impossible to miss and you’ll know you’ve arrived. There’s a huge stone platform that everyone climbs up for the sunrise view.

However, that isn’t the best view you can get. If you want less people and a better view, keep going up – if your legs can handle it, that is. This is where the trail gets a little bit more difficult to follow. You’re going to be going up King Kong Hill. It’s a well-beaten path, but it isn’t nearly as wide and easy to follow as the initial ascent. From the main lookout to the better, higher one, it’s probably another 45 minutes give or take. You’ll know when you’ve made it – there’s another stone platform to view the sunrise from.

6. Get Your Sunrise Pictures of Mount Bromo

I don’t think I need to do too much explaining here. Wait for the sun to come up, munch on some of the snacks you brought, say hello to the other tired and cold hikers, and get that famous picture of Bromo.

I hope you get good weather on the day you do the hike.

P.S. You might not want to hear this, but you can go even further up than this platform. The good news is that it’s only like 5 more minutes. You’ll just have to look for a beaten path that winds up the hill. There’s no official platform here but it’s the flat top of the hill when you continue heading up.

7. Come Back Down and Head Into the Park

Got the photos you wanted? Great. Sun starting to warm you up a bit? Even better.

You can make your way back down the trail. Come all the way back down and now, if you want, you can head into the park to go right up and look inside the smoking crater of Bromo. The park entrance is pretty easy to find, and to get in you’ll have to pay IDR 200,000. That was the price at least in early 2020.

Head down the ramps to the ground floor and make your way across the sea of sand to the crater. There’s no set trail you need to follow here but just head to the mouth of the smoking black volcano.

Side note: There is a way that you can get into the park without paying, but it requires you to take a separate entrance and you might get in crap if someone catches you. I’ll tell you where it is, but the rest is all on you.

There’s a little office-looking outpost to the right of the main entrance, maybe a couple hundred metres away. It almost looks like a toll booth, but normally there’s nobody sitting there. And there’s a gap in between this booth and the next building that you can just walk through. There’s a hint in Step 3 as to where exactly you should be looking.

This is what I did and had no issues. But, looking back on it, and if I were to go to Bromo again, I’d just pay the entrance. The pictures I got and the experience I had at Bromo was worth way more than $15. But, up to you what you wanna do.

8. Head to the Crater and Climb All the Way Up

Just when you thought your legs would be able to rest, be prepared for another big climb. At least this time you have a staircase guiding your way up. I can’t remember how many steps it is to the top but a couple hundred for sure. Enjoy!

9. Make Your Way Back Out of the Park

This is pretty straightforward – it’s just back the way you came. Oh, and one more thing, the final climb up out of the park was probably the most difficult time I had all day. It might not be the steepest climb you’ve done over the course of the past few hours, but your legs will be tired and that final ascent out of the park can be a b****!

10. Find Your Way Back To Probolinggo

Maybe you want to stay another night at your accommodation near the park entrance – no worries there, enjoy. Otherwise, head back to Probolinggo and return your scooter. Stop to get lunch somewhere along the way as well, you’ll need it after all the hiking.

If you took the bus up, you’ll have to take a bus back down, but this is a lot easier it seems than getting up. There are plenty of vans hanging out near the park waiting to drive people back to Probolinggo. Chat with one of them and you won’t be waiting too long before you are on your way back home.

Final Words

I hope your trip to Bromo is an awesome experience and you don’t have too much trouble with the bus mafia in Step 3. If you found this guide helpful, give me a follow on Instagram to see what sort of shenanigans I’m up to now.

Remember, bring warm clothing, find some snacks and water for the hike, and get up early enough to see the sunrise over Bromo.

Happy hiking!