🇮🇩 Climbing Rinjani in Lombok

29 Apr – 04 May 2026

Tags: #travel #indonesia #mountain #sotravel #draft

This trip which I had booked on impulse in order to make use of the labour day long weekend turned out to be one of the nicest trips I've had.

Rinjani has always had its place in my bucket list as one of the mountains I'd like to conquer. I'd also been recommended to visit Lombok for its nature, which rivals Bali, its next-door neighbour, but without the same amount of publicity.

Without thinking too much about the details, I decided to just go for it. What I got in return were beautiful sights, lots of ups and downs in the literal and metaphorical sense, and a beautiful group of people with whom to experience all that.

This hike also happened to coincide with the Rinjani 100 mile ultramarathon. It's crazy how they didn't close down the trails for the race, but thankfully most of the racers ran past us while we were asleep in our tents.

Day 0: Senaru Villa

The day we arrived in Lombok, we took a long ride from the airport to Villa Bambu at Senaru, where we'd stay for the first night and leave some of our items when we're on the hike.

I don't go to these places often, and living on a tiny island like Singapore, I tend to underestimate the sheer size of other islands.

In any case, Lombok's roads are nice, I believe they're newly paved, and certainly not as congested as Bali's.

We had a lot of time to chat and get to know each other in the van during the drive.

Aside from the roads though, Lombok itself isn't as tourist-friendly as Bali, for better or for worse. It's much quieter, and they don't sell alcohol just anywhere; I only found them in villas/hotels and certain restaurants.

Before dinner, they brought us on a short walk to a nearby waterfall (was meh), perhaps a good taster for what's to come.

I wasn't a big fan of the villa; there weren't enough power sockets so we couldn't plug in our fan without not charging our devices, and the showers leave much to be desired. Naturally, there was no air conditioning too, but we managed to sleep in the still, humid, mountainous air.

But... it's one of the few spots with beer so I had my last sips before going dry for the next few days. Dinner itself was bomb. I'm always a sucker for Indonesian cuisine.

The night ended with a briefing by the guides about our plan for the next three days. They've been up and down the mountain several times, which is no small feat.

Day 1: Up from Sembalun to Crater Rim

Up and early the next day, we had breakfast (don't drink the coffee, it's more grounds than liquid), and then headed to Sembalun from our villa to register and begin the hike. This was a short ride on the back of a lorry.

After registration, we started the hike at 10am from the Sembalun gate, which is a little late. The guide asked if we'd like to take a Gojek^[1] up to Pos 2 (our lunch checkpoint), but we were sure we'd be able to make it up despite the delay.

Nothing much to say about the trail at this point. Lots of cow dung land mines. We gained about 1.5km elevation during this fairly simple ascent. It got slightly steeper near the rim, but the ascent to the rim (and later, descent) are the easier parts.

The weather was alright, we were on the tail end of the monsoon season so some moisture was expected.

We stopped at Pos 2 for lunch. It was pretty good, though others complained that the meat was too tough, so they gave it to me. Yay!

There was another huge group of Singaporeans whom we spoke to, but I never did get their names or contacts. It was nice seeing them along the trail, anyway.

It started raining for a short while during lunch and it continued as we resumed the trail.

There were a few other Pos stops. The crowd wasn't too bad on the trail.

The final ascent was much steeper but nothing unnegotiable. You'll never get lost with my shirt!

Crater Rim

We finally reached the crater around 5pm on the dot. There are a lot of camping spots on the rim, so we had to walk a little further in to find our tents.

The crater rim would be our rest area for the first night, until 1am where we'd set off for the summit. The porters reached before us, naturally, and had already set everything up.

Temperatures were freezing the first night, especially with the wind and cloud cover. We had a delicious dinner in the dark and rested early for the hike to come.

There are people who only opt to climb to the crater rim without summitting. I don't know how they are okay with themselves for half-assing it...

To some, the "toilets" may take a little getting used to, especially if you can't do a squat. For me, I had to be sure I was aiming correctly. Some decided to just hold their shit in for the entire duration.

We didn't really do much aside from pack, but I managed to take some long exposures of the beautiful starlit sky. It's just a shame that it was so cloudy and it was a full moon! GAH!

Day 2: Summit Push and Down to Lake

This was the longest day, and considering how most people follow the same itinerary, I wonder how the others manage this at all.

Basically, in a single day starting from 1am, we had to summit, go back to camp, and then head down to the lake, which in itself was no simple task.

In the spirit of labour day, we had an immensely laborious day. At the end, there was even a river crossing, which was basically the straw that broke the camel's back.

The group morale was pretty low at the end of ONLY the 2nd day, but that's something I'll get to later!

Summit PUSH

We woke up around 1am for the summit push. After a delayed breakfast, we set off for the summit, going past the rest of the tents and following along the crater rim towards the summit. I believe this would be clockwise along the eastern end of the crater rim.

There was a line of people heading up. The ascent isn't easy, but I wouldn't say the bottlenecks were too bad. About a third of the way in, the terrain starts to get quite slippery, due to gravel and volcanic ash.

The path is also quite narrow, so there were few chances to overtake people. At least it wasn't too crowded. Be very careful! The sides slop off very rapidly so it's almost certain death if you fall off the sides.

It was still before dawn, so I only got a good reckoning of the path on my descent. It's a wholly different experience seeing only the city lights in the far distance and barely anything on either side. We were lit by the full moon (couldn't stargaze because of this also). It's only after the sun comes up that you get the sense of scale of the entire crater and the layout of the land.

The summit is a small plateu that can still fit quite a number of people, who were all taking photographs, of course. It's an amazing view into the crater.

Of our group, only about 5 of us summitted before sunrise, but the rest followed soon enough. We started heading down around the time the sun came up and passed by them.

I don't think I'm all that much of an adrenaline junkie, but I sat quite close to the edge of the summit for my photos. I got a few warnings by concerned hikers before they took from my example and started taking more photos my way.

Back to Camp

With the sun up, I got a good view of the entire crater in its full glory! It's really remarkably huge. In fact, you should be able to see the north coast, right? Enjoy the photos!

Descent into Madness

We had breakfast upon returning to the camp, then a short nap, then lunch, all in the span of a few hours, which was not the best spacing-out for food.

The way down to the lake was rather steep, mostly composed of rocks. It was made all the more dangerous due to the moisture and some drizzle, which made the rocks slippery.

At this point, we were quite tired, or to use a memorable quote by one of them, "I am mi-se-ra-ble. Miserable." The way he said it still sticks in my mind.

Once we reached the lake, our campsite was across a river. The fact that we had to go across a river (not exactly shallow, so we had to take our shoes off) was not well-received.

Some of us went to the hot spring by the waterfalls near the lake.

Day 3: Lake to Senaru Crater Rim, then Exit

I know we decided to cut our hike short a day (and to be honest, it's the right choice), but on the third day, the weather was perfect and the views were incredible. Going down was also a breeze.

On the way up to the Senaru side of the crater, the view of the volcano and lake were gorgeous. It took about 3 hours to get to the crater.

At this point, the Rinjani 100 ultramarathon had already begun, and the runners came from Senaru, so we'd run into runners going the other direction. The trail is quite narrow at times, so this was slightly inconvenient for them, but at that time of day, they probably weren't in the lead anyway.

Descent from Rim

Our final lunch was a delicious pasta dish. It's incredible how the porters bring so much stuff up and still make such varied dishes.

Finally, once the elevation got lower and we crossed the tree line again, the terrain became mostly mud and dirt. The guide at the front decided to lead the faster ones by running, which I believe is the right way to descend terrain like that.

I slipped a few times on muddy roots, but eventually got the hang of it and stayed near the front of the pack as well.

Days 4-5: The Villa!

If there are two things to go to Lombok for, it's Rinjani and the Villas. It's only natural that we go to a villa after such a hike.

Itinerary

There are some itineraries that the operators offer, and they're largely the same.

We got the 4D3N one which, as you have found by now, we negotiated into a 3D2N one with no issue.

There are some that only bring you to the crater rim, and others where you summit in 2D1N and get down the same way you came.

I'd say going down to the lake and coming out of a different exit (of which there are 3) are well worth the extra days. 4 days seems a little excessive, in any case.

Packing Notes

Boy! We came in at the tail end of the monsoon season, which meant the first few days were slightly wet with rain (each time didn't last too long).

As usual, waterproof your gear. Rinjani especially can get misty due to clouds and the presence of the lake. It's high up so get some thermal layers as well.

Much of the hike is exposed to the HOT sun so PLEASE make sure to COVER UP and apply sunblock as a secondary measure.

Bring shoes that can negotiate muddy, rocky, and loose terrain. The gravel near the summit and the muddy trails are sure to make you slip and lose your footing.

Bromo is easier, but there's lots of ash/sand being blown around if you go to the Sea of Sand, so get something to cover the face.

Costs

• Sotravel booking: $600
  • Includes hotel, transport, park entry, equipment rental, and guides.
  • Less $300 for my leadership duties
• Flights: $600 (Expensive)
• Food, purchases, tips: I spent roughly $70

Total: $650, give or take. Prices in SGD.

if you decide to pay for added services:

• Motorcycle rides up to Pos 2 from Sembalun: ~200K IDR

It may be cheaper if you settle the itinerary yourself, probably saving up to $100. I also feel like I could've gotten a better deal with the flights. Nonetheless, it was well worth it for all the people I got to meet.

(Notice how the above paragraph needed no modifications when I copied this post's template over from last year's Bromo/Ijen post)