Kawah Ijen in 24 Hours from Bali, with Dinner and a Room
Hotel pickupGate fee includedFerry included
From $101 per person
Ijen Volcano from Bali or Banyuwangi: Which Trip Is Right for You?
Short answer. Banyuwangi if you are already in Java or want the cheapest night on the mountain: an hour to the gate, fares from $26, and a bed to come back to. Bali if the rest of your holiday is there: a ferry each way, 5 to 24 hours elapsed, and $101 upward. The mountain is identical; the day around it is not.
This is the decision almost everybody is actually making, and it is not about the operator. Both sides put you at the same barrier at Paltuding at the same hour. What differs is how far you travelled to get there and whether you slept first.
The short answer
If you can put a night in Banyuwangi into the itinerary, do. You will pay a quarter as much, sleep an hour from the gate and be back for breakfast. If your whole trip is based in Bali and moving is not realistic, the 24-hour version with dinner and a bed in Java is the one to book, and the five-hour dash is the one to look at hardest before you book.
Side by side
The mountain does not change. Everything either side of it does.
| From Banyuwangi | From Bali | |
|---|---|---|
| Fares | $26 to $69 | $101 to $199 |
| Elapsed time | 8 to 14 hours | 5 to 24 hours, or 2 days |
| Ferry | None | Gilimanuk to Ketapang, both ways |
| Where you sleep | A hotel in town, before and after | In Java on the 24-hour trips; nowhere on the dash |
| Meals | Water, coffee, a snack | Dinner and breakfast on most |
| Time on the mountain | The same 4 to 6 hours | The same 4 to 6 hours |
| Best for | Anyone already in Java | Anyone whose trip is based in Bali |
The case for Banyuwangi
Cost and sleep, in that order. The cheapest departure from town is $26 and includes the car, the driver, the gate fee, a mask and a headlamp; the most expensive is $69 and puts a private vehicle and a professional guide on it. You leave at around midnight, you are back by nine, and your own bed is twenty minutes away.
The catch is getting to Banyuwangi in the first place. It is six to seven hours by road from Surabaya or Malang, an hour on the ferry from Bali, and it has a small airport with domestic connections. The routes page lays them out.
The case for Bali
Convenience, and the fact that most people's East Java trip is a side trip. Seven departures are built for it: the ferry is inside six of them, the driving is handled, and you are collected from your own hotel in Seminyak, Ubud or Kuta.
Within that there are two very different shapes, and the difference matters more than the price does.
The five-hour dash and the 24-hour trip are not the same day. One drives you through the night, walks you up, and drives you back with no sleep at either end. The other feeds you, gives you a room an hour from the gate, and a shower afterwards. The Bali departures page compares them properly.
What each one really costs you
- Banyuwangi, $26 to $69. Plus a hotel night in town and getting yourself there. Cheapest by a wide margin if you were passing through anyway.
- Bali, 24 hours, $101 to $155. Includes the ferry, dinner, a bed and breakfast. The best-reviewed way to do this from Bali by a long way.
- Bali, the dash, $120 to $134. Five to seven hours plus the crossing, no accommodation, and a night's sleep spent in a vehicle.
- Multi-day, $190 to $507. Mount Bromo attached, two to four days, and a one-way finish that can drop you in Bali at the end.
What the ferry actually costs you
An hour afloat, and rather more than an hour in practice. There is the drive across Bali to Gilimanuk, the queue at the terminal, the crossing itself, and the drive from Ketapang on the other side. Six of the seven Bali departures include the ticket both ways, which removes the admin but not the hours.
That is the whole reason the 24-hour trips exist. Rather than absorbing the crossing inside a single sleepless push, they put it before dinner and give you a bed on the Java side. The routes page has the crossing and the roads on both sides.
What the reviews say about each side
The Bali departures have far more feedback, and the recurring themes are the organisation and the driving: ferry queues handled, supermarket stops, guesthouse food that turns up as a table full of dishes. The recurring criticism is the length of the day and, on one review, a driver in too much of a hurry to let anyone sleep.
The Banyuwangi departures score at least as highly on a smaller sample, and the theme there is the guide rather than the logistics, because there are barely any logistics: an hour of road, a gate and a mountain. The full review pool groups them by side.
The hidden cost on each side
From Banyuwangi it is the hotel night you have to add, plus however you got to Banyuwangi in the first place: an hour on the ferry from Bali, six to seven hours of road from Surabaya or Malang, or a domestic flight. The $26 fare is genuinely $26, but it starts from a town you have to reach.
From Bali it is sleep. Even the 24-hour version has you awake at one in the morning after a half-day of driving, and the five-hour dash removes the bed entirely. That is recoverable if the next day is a beach day and expensive if it is not.
If you are combining it with Mount Bromo
Then neither answer applies and the question changes. Eight of the listings here pair the two volcanoes over two to four days, and every one of them starts on the Java side — Surabaya, Malang or Yogyakarta — because the road between the two mountains is six hours on its own.
Several of those finish at Ketapang harbour or drive you into Bali at the end, which makes them a one-way transfer as much as a tour. If you were going to fly between Java and Bali anyway, that is worth pricing against the flight. The Bromo and Ijen page compares the packages.
The one thing that does not change
Whichever side you start from, you are on the same mountain at the same hour with the same gate, the same three kilometres and the same weather. Nobody gets a better crater for paying more. What the money buys is sleep, comfort and a shorter drive, and on a trip that starts at midnight those are worth more than they sound.
So the honest way to decide is to work out where you will be sleeping the night before and the night after, and let that pick the fare. How the night itself runs is identical either way.
Verdict by traveller
- Backpacking through Java: Banyuwangi, the $26 departure, no question.
- Two weeks in Bali, one free night: the 24-hour trip with the bed and the dinner.
- Two weeks in Bali, two free days: a multi-day trip that adds Mount Bromo and finishes back in Bali.
- Travelling with someone who needs the pace controlled: a private departure from Banyuwangi, so the vehicle waits for you.
- Flying into Surabaya: a three-day package, because the road alone is most of a day. The Bromo and Ijen page has those.
Whichever way it lands, book with a 24-hour refund window and check your date against the monthly closure. Every fare is side by side on Ijen crater tour from Bali, and how the night itself works is the same from either side of the strait.
Decide where you are sleeping the night before, and the rest of this choice makes itself. Every departure is on Ijen Volcano Tours.
The two sides of the crossing, compared
