The Kawah Ijen volcano and crater lake is hands down one of the world’s most spectacular sights. Don’t leave Indonesia without seeing it, especially if you’re already visiting Java or Bali!
Ijen is the biggest acid lake in the world, and it’s also famous for a crazy phenomenon known as the blue fire, where you can see hot blue flame burning like lava in the dark.
The good news is that Mount Ijen is pretty easy to visit from Bali and other parts of Indonesia. Most people either visit Ijen on an overnight tour from Bali, or do it as a road trip combined with Mount Bromo and other epic sights in East Java.
Sunrise colors on the lake at Kawah Ijen
Mount Ijen is an active volcano crater located in East Java, Indonesia.
Java was actually connected to Bali by land in centuries past, and even though the two islands are separated by water nowadays, you can still travel between them pretty easily.
There are three main ways to visit Kawah Ijen:
Drive and take the ferry from Bali, or
Fly to Banyuwangi and do the short drive to Kawah Ijen from there, or
Do a multi-day road trip across several points of interest in Java
Sulfur mining at Kawah Ijen
• Drive To Ijen From Bali
Visiting Mount Ijen from Bali can be a good option because Bali is already so popular and easy to reach.
If you’re staying in the main tourist areas of south Bali, it’s a 4 hour drive to the ferry port at Gilimanuk, and then after crossing you’ll have to drive another 1.5 hours to Ijen.
In total, you can expect about 6-7 hours of transit time in each direction, so it’s not really possible to do this as a day trip from Bali. You’ll need a minimum of 2 days and 1 night.
You can easily arrange this trip with your favorite Bali driver or book a tour online, but I wouldn’t recommend driving a scooter all the way from Bali to Ijen because the road at Gilimanuk is notoriously dangerous for motorbikes.
Drone pic of the Kawah Ijen crater lake
Banyuwangi has its own airport (BWX) and you can fly there from Jakarta or other places.
This can be one of the quickest and easiest ways to get to Ijen, and it’s still pretty economical. One way ticket prices are sometimes as low as 1 million Rupiah (~$70 USD). You can shop for flights to Banyuwangi at Skyscanner.
Once you’re in Banyuwangi, it’s still a 1 hour drive to Mount Ijen from the town, but you can easily arrange this with your hotel or book a shared tour online for as low as 600k Rupiah ($40 USD).
Views of the lake before sunrise
• Road Trip Across Java
Another great way to visit the Kawah Ijen volcano is to take an epic road trip across East Java, stopping at all the best sights like Mount Bromo, the Ijen crater, and some of Java’s famous waterfalls like Tumpak Sewu.
That was how we visited Ijen for the first time, and it was an unforgettable experience. The only downside is that a full road trip like this is more expensive, and it takes more time. Java is a big island and things are a bit spread out.
You’ll need at least 3 days, and even that’ll feel rushed. The nice thing is that you can organize a Java road trip starting or ending in Bali, or you can do it from a city like Yogyakarta in Java.
Take a look at my 1-week Java Travel Itinerary for more ideas!
Mount Bromo is another epic volcano that’s popular to combine with Ijen for a Java road trip. Bromo/Ijen tours require at least 3 days.
Here are some good tour packages for visiting the Kawah Ijen volcano:
We’ve used GetYourGuide for lots of tours and activities around the world, and they’re great. Highly recommended!
Different colors after the sunrise at Kawa Ijen
Kawah Ijen Hike – What To Expect
Quick Facts
• Midnight Hike
The hike to the Kawah Ijen volcano normally starts with a midnight pickup from your hotel in Banyuwangi, a 1 hour drive to the park entrance, and then a crowded (but dull) hike up the mountain in the dark.
The main path is all dirt and fairly steep, but it’s well defined and family friendly. You will definitely work up a sweat because of the incline, so for people who don’t do much hiking I’d rate it as moderate.
The first 2 kilometers of the path is the steepest part, but then it levels out and becomes flatter when you’re getting close to the finish line. The hike to the top of Kawah Ijen has a one way distance of 3 kilometers (1.8 mi) and you gain about 435 meters of elevation (1,430 ft). That’s not including the blue flame section, of course. That comes later.
If you’re really feeling lazy (or in a hurry), you can pay the local sulfur miners to push you up the hill on their trolleys for like 400k Rupiah ($28 USD). Seriously! There are lots of these guys on the trail and they’re very persistent trying to sell rides. We found it annoying, but I suppose they wouldn’t be there unless plenty of tourists are happy to pay it.
In total, the hike to see the lake at Ijen takes about 1.5 hours depending on your pace. If you walk quickly I’m sure you could do it in 1 hour, and even slow hikers won’t take more than 2 hours to reach the lake.
A tour guide is not required for this hike, although it can be helpful to have one if you want to see the blue fire at Kawah Ijen.
For those of you who plan to skip the blue fire (like we usually do), you don’t need to start at midnight, although I’d still recommend you start early and try to reach the crater lake for sunrise if you want the best views and pictures of Kawah Ijen.
The sunrise here is not anything special in itself, and actually it’s blocked by a mountain, but the colors on the lake are nice and it looks downright mystical in the early morning. We started walking at 3 AM, and that was perfect.
• Kawah Ijen Blue Fire
After arriving at the crater lake, most tours will immediately start to hike down into the crater to watch the blue fire at Kawah Ijen. You can only see it in the darkest hours of night, so there’s a limited window of time to see it before the sun comes up.
This electric blue flame is a unique phenomenon caused by sulfur gas burning at temps of up to 600 °C (1,112 °F). The only other place on Earth where you can see ‘blue lava’ like this is in Dallol, Ethiopia.
Still, the blue flame (and the hike down into the crater) is completely optional. The path is crowded, it’s steep and rocky, there’s a nasty cloud of sulfur making it hard to see or breathe, and it’s very hard to get decent photos of the blue fire in the dark.
Unless you’re a pro photographer, you probably won’t get any great pictures of the blue flame (that rules me out). And even if you are, it’s still a big challenge to try to capture it with a camera at night with smoke swirling around.
If you decide to go down to the blue fire, this part of the hike takes about 45 minutes in each direction (plus an elevation change of ~150 meters), since you have to go back up from the same way you came.
The famous Kawah Ijen blue fire (© GYG)
Hikers on their way to go see the blue flame (© GYG)
• Kawah Ijen Crater Lake
The best thing to see at Kawah Ijen is the turquoise crater lake. It’s super photogenic, and I think the best time to take pictures is right before the sunrise or else a few hours after.
This 700-meter wide lake is actually the biggest acid lake in the world, and there are a bunch of different nice viewpoints around the rim of the Kawa Ijen crater.
The best photo spot is a ‘sunrise point’ with some twisted trees (GPS here) that you can reach with an extra 30 minutes of walking. After you reach the main view of the lake, just turn right and keep walking along the crater rim in a semi-circle until you find it.
If you have time, I would really recommend staying here after sunrise and waiting until the sun hits the Kawah Ijen lake itself. Most people leave before then, but the sun really lights up the turquoise color and it looks absolutely unreal.
This popular sunrise point at Kawah Ijen is pretty easy to reach
Smoking lake
Drone views of the Kawah Ijen volcano after sunrise
One of the unique things about the Kawah Ijen volcano is that it’s mined for natural sulfur deposits, which come from an active vent inside the crater.
This is one of the hardest jobs in the world because the workers are carrying 90 kilo (200 lb) loads of sulfur, while constantly being exposed to a smoke cloud with almost no protection. We saw guys using shirts over their mouths and some with no masks at all.
Breathing in sulfur like this 24/7 is terribly unhealthy, and if I had to guess, these guys probably won’t live to see old age.
The sulfur is used in cosmetic products, and the miners only earn about $15 USD per day, which is considered good pay in this part of Java compared to the living costs.
The work at Kawa Ijen is tough and dangerous
Sulfur miners working in the smoke
The other hurdle is that they have to carry the sulfur baskets up out of the steep crater, and then all the way down the mountain, making multiple trips per day.
Usually they’ll ask for a small tip in return for photos. We gave a guy 20k Rupiah (~$1) and he appreciated it. On a busy day, I’m sure they get plenty of tips!
Hauling the loads up the mountain
Sulfur pile
Mount Ijen is generally safe to visit, but if you have asthma or any kind of breathing/health problems, I would definitely skip the blue flame and just enjoy the lake from above.
The sulfur cloud inside the crater is nasty, even with a gas mask, and the wind can blow it in your direction at any time. If you stay out of the crater, sulfur gas is usually not an issue and you won’t need a gas mask, although it still doesn’t hurt to have one.
It’s a good idea to check the current status of Kawah Ijen before you make travel plans, because it is an active volcano after all. The Indonesian government will close the park if they notice tremors or unusual activity.
Eruptions at Mount Ijen don’t seem to be very common, but they do happen from time to time. 49 Indonesian sulfur workers were killed in a gas explosion in 1976, and another 25 died in 1989. More recently, 30 local people were hospitalized by toxic gas after a small eruption in 2018, and a sulfur worker drowned in a 3-meter tsunami from the lake in 2020.
I don’t want to scare you, this is just a reminder that safety is never 100 percent with a volcano. But in the case of Ijen, I’d say it’s generally safe. The people most at risk are the locals working in the bottom of the crater 24/7.
If you really want to maximize your safety, you can skip the blue flame and stay outside of the crater. That’s where most of the accidents have happened over the years, and the best pictures of the lake are from above anyway.
With that said, the Kawah Ijen volcano does get hundreds of thousands of visitors every year, and those incidents are the only ones I’m aware of in the last 50 years, so I’d say it has a pretty good safety record overall.
If you visit Kawah Ijen with kids or older folks, I wouldn’t go inside the crater (especially at night), but instead just look at the lake from above. This trek is still very worthwhile even if you only see the lake.
These entrance fees are current as of 2025.
Usually if you book a tour of Kawa Ijen, the entrance fees are already included in the total price of the tour, so that’s something you might want to double check with your tour provider.
Crazy colors
Even though this is Indonesia, Mount Ijen can be pretty chilly before sunrise since it’s well above sea level.
Temperatures in the early morning can drop below 7 Celsius (45 F), and it can get windy too since you’re on an exposed mountain. However, after sunrise it warms up quite a bit.
It’s best to dress in layers, because when you’re hiking up the mountain you’ll warm up pretty quick and may even get hot.
The trail back down the mountain, with Rante peak in the distance.
Mount Merapi is one of the old volcanic peaks you’ll see at Ijen. Don’t worry, you don’t have to climb this one!
Here’s a sample of what your itinerary at Kawa Ijen could look like.
Keep in mind this is assuming you start from Banyuwangi and want to see the blue fire. If that’s not your plan, then you can do whatever you want, and you don’t need to follow this itinerary at all.
However, this seems to be the most common schedule for people visiting Kawa Ijen:
Again, if you’re not planning to see the blue fire at Kawa Ijen, then you don’t need to follow this itinerary at all, although I’d at least try to reach the top of the crater in time for sunrise if possible.
Turquoise lake at Kawah Ijen
The main base for visiting Kawah Ijen is the town of Banyuwangi, and most people stay at least one night there since you do the Ijen trip overnight.
Banyuwangi has lots of decent accommodation now, with a variety of homestays and hotels, and because of the influx of tourists the options are growing every year.
If you want to stay directly at Ijen, check out Avrila Guesthouse. Their rooms are very basic, but the location is super convenient since it’s only a 3 minute walk from the entrance to Ijen!
Since January 6, 2024, there’s a new requirement for all hikers to show a health certificate in order to visit Kawah Ijen.
According to the new rule, tourists must be in good health, have no history of asthma or heart disease, and must show a health certificate from a doctor.
This new rule was prompted by the death of a 64 year old tourist from Jakarta on December 30, 2023, which was suspected to be due to exhaustion and heart disease.
The tourist who passed away was actually using a trolley service, not hiking, but the relatively high altitude and lower oxygen levels at Ijen could still be taxing for someone who’s not in good health.
You can get a health certificate from any clinic or hospital in the Banyuwangi area. It takes 15 minutes and the price should only be around 30k to 100k Rupiah.
This is a fairly new development and things could change at any time. According to Detik (Indonesian news) there’s already been some pushback from people unhappy with the new rule, and I expect it will probably be short lived, like usual.
There are lots of good things to see near Kawah Ijen and Banyuwangi, but two of the top sights are Red Island Beach (Pulau Merah) and Djawatan Forest, an old canopy that looks like Fangorn Forest from the Lord of the Rings movies.
A lot of tour packages for Ijen include a quick stop at Jagir Waterfall, and if you look around there are a bunch of other nice ones like Belawan Waterfall.
The Ijen caldera is absolutely loaded with waterfalls, and so is the rest of the Banyuwangi area. Near the park entrance, there’s even a unique acid waterfall called the Kalipait Waterfall that flows from the sulfur lake at Ijen.
You can check out my 1-Week Java itinerary for more ideas of what to do in East Java and Central Java.
Thanks for looking! I hope you enjoyed this travel guide for Kawah Ijen.
Seeing the blue fire and volcano lake at Mt Ijen was one of the best parts of our visit to East Java, Indonesia.
Don’t forget to check out my other travel guides for more tips, info, and photos!
