Bali & Rinjani Trek

You reserve your spot for free and pay nothing to join. Once enough travellers have signed on, usually around 10, we confirm the departure and email you a confirmation with an invoice for the full trip price. You pay it by card or bank transfer within 7 days, in US dollars, pounds, euros, Australian dollars, Canadian dollars, New Zealand dollars or Indian rupees, whichever you choose. The price shown for each date is what you pay.

No. The 2-day, 1-night crater rim trek is in the price: the licensed guide, porters, camping gear, park fees and eRinjani booking. The summit push beyond the rim isn't included, since it's a much longer and harder add-on that not everyone wants; talk to your guide about it before the trek starts.

Solo travellers aged 18 to 40. Most people come on their own, and some come with a friend. The maximum for each departure is shown with its dates, and it's never more than 16.

The Trip Host treks with the group, but the mountain itself is led by a licensed Rinjani guide with porters, as the park requires. Your Trip Host handles everything around the trek: transfers, the boat crossings, bookings and check-ins, and is the person you go to if anything goes wrong.

We run this trip in Rinjani's open season, April to December. May, June and September usually give the best mix of dry weather and fewer crowds on the mountain. July and August are the busiest months on the trail, and from October the chance of a clouded summit rises as the wet season approaches. In a dry year the park can also limit access because of fire risk, as it did from 1 September 2026.

The trails close for the wet season, usually from the turn of the year until about April, and the park sets the exact dates each year. In the dry season it can also limit access because of forest-fire risk. Since 1 September 2026, for example, the park has been open only on a limited basis, a wildfire closed the Senaru trail from 22 September until 3 October, and sources differ on whether new eRinjani online bookings are open. If a closure or restriction stops the trek running on your dates, we move you to the nearest open departure or offer a different Bali or Indonesia trip instead. We can't promise access to the rim or the summit on any given day, because the park and the weather decide that.

Most visitors, including those from the UK, US, EU, Australia and India, need a visa on arrival, which you can buy online in advance as an e-VOA. You also fill in the free All Indonesia arrival card within 72 hours before you land, and pay the Bali tourist levy online. Rules change, so check our Bali visa guide and the official Indonesian immigration site before you book flights.

The crossing from Bali to Gili Air and the short Gili Air to Bangsal crossing both run by fast boat, and we book daytime sailings. In big swell, crossings are delayed or cancelled. If that happens we wait it out and adjust the plan.

Guesthouses in Ubud, Gili Air, Sembalun and Kuta Lombok, where you share a room with travellers of the same gender. On the mountain you spend one night in a two-person tent on the crater rim, with a sleeping mat and a warm sleeping bag, pitched for you by the porters. There's no shower on the mountain, and the toilet is a simple long-drop. Nights on the rim are cold, so the warm layers on the packing list aren't optional.

A warm jacket, a hat and gloves for the rim (it's about 5 to 12 degrees Celsius at night, colder with wind chill), a head torch, trail shoes or boots with grip, and a daypack for the two trekking days. We send a full kit list when you book, and Gili Air is your last chance to buy or hire anything you're missing.

You need a reasonable level of fitness. The climb to the crater rim is a long, steep day, and the descent the day after is hard on the knees. If you can manage a full day of hill walking with a light pack, you'll manage the trek at your own pace, and the guide sets a manageable rhythm for the group.

Rinjani is a serious mountain, and people have died on it, including a tourist who fell in June 2025, after which the park tightened its rules, and further trekkers in 2026. Licensed guides, no more than 4 foreign trekkers per guide and the option to skip the summit and stay at the rim all make the trek safer. Travel insurance that specifically covers trekking at this altitude is a condition of joining, and the park also sells a premium evacuation policy that we strongly recommend on top. If you're struggling on the way up, it's normal to turn back, and the guide expects it.