Ijen Crater Tour is probably one of the popular destinations in Indonesia. The landscape is out of this world. One of the highlights of visiting Ijen is the blue flames, which you can only see at night.
The flames appear at the base of the Ijen crater and are caused by sulphuric gas catching fire. You can find an article about the flames in National Geographic here. Ijen Volcano is a Stratovolcano mountain which is located on the border between Banyuwangi Regency and Bondowoso Regency, East Java, Indonesia. Ijen Crater (Kawah Ijen) has the highest peak of 2.799 meters above sea level.
Overview
Starting from Denpasar Airport, Kuta, Ubud, Sanur, or any other place in Bali, our English-speaking driver will pick you up at 6 pm, with an AC vehicle to bring you to the most western part of Bali in Gilimanuk (Ferry terminal to Java). The trip takes about 4 hours.
Once in Gilimanuk, the ferry ride takes 1 hour to reach Ketapang (Banyuwangi ferry terminal). Remember that Java is h-1 compared to Bali.
From there, at around 12:00 am we will bring you to the Paltuding rest area (1-1,5 hour). The road offers a number of magic landscapes in the middle of rice fields, small villages and one one the last primary tropical rainforest left on Java island rounded by numerous volcanoes. You will mainly enjoy those sceneries on the way back during the daytime.
From Paltuding Area, at around 1:30 am, you will start hiking to Ijen Crater. It takes about 1:30 -1:45 minutes for the 3km hike following a gentle slope and slightly uphill to reach the summit.
The path is pretty well maintained in good condition and other views of rounding volcanoes and luxurious vegetation will accompany your journey. From the crater rim, providing you gas mask, we will bring you down to see the blue fire right on the edge of the acidic lake (temperature of the lake: +- 40°c; Ph: 0,5; max depth:+-200m).
The laker is also the source for the river Banyupahit, resulting in highly acidic and metal-enriched river water which has a significant detrimental effect on the downstream river ecosystem.
Hike to go down (+- 45mins, rocky).
After enjoying the spectacular Blue Fire, we go back to the crater rim to enjoy the sunrise over the entire volcanic area.
The hike to go down takes about 45mins – 1h. The driver will pick you up in Paltuding to go to have breakfast. After breakfast, we continue our journey to the Ketapang ferry terminal to cross to Bali (ferry +-1h).
Once in Bali, it takes aboAut 4-5 hours to reach Denpasar, Ubud, Kuta or Sanur. (Keep in mind that Bali is H+1 compared to java time). ARRIVAL at your final destination at 3-4 pm
